Going to the Creek

The kids and I have enjoyed spending time exploring Cypress Creek the past few weeks. The creek is only about 1/4 mile from our house. We have also kayaked and floated down it on inner tubes a few times.

Creeks are a great place for kids to explore nature. There are all manner of fish (see many of them at my nature web site http://www.natureatcloserange.com/), snakes, frogs, insects, spiders, plants, etc. To help with the catching of the smaller minnows, darters, and shad- we use a cast net. We have found several fascinating fish- like the Warpaint Shiner, Banded Sculpin, Redlined Darter, and the Northern Studfish, and Long-eared Sunfish, just to name a few.

Really Big Fish

Last year I posted an entry of some big catfish that we were catching off the dock at Bay Village on the Tennessee River. I just read an interesting article on the National Geographic website where they are researching the world's "monster" freshwater fish. Here is the link. The pictures are interesting.

Here is a link to a video of a trout that grows up to 200 lbs and lives in Mongolia.