The Estill Fork Trip Was A Scrubout

We finally left for Estill Fork on Wednesday late, since James was stuck in a dentist appointment, and proceeded to find almost nothing at Estill Fork. Nothing that we wanted, anyway; we caught lots of striped shiners and stonerollers, along with many juvenile darters, but only two scarlet shiners and no telescope shiners. I knew we had to wrap it up when Alexandra took a major spill and soaking, after James' friend Katherine had slid down the bank into the water with no waders on. Gack. It's obvious that our target shiners go through a major habitat shift when the water gets cold, as it was on Wednesday at 8 deg. C. There's a deep hole at this site that we couldn't possibly seine without going into neck-deep water, so for all I know that hole was loaded with shiners.

I hope to get back there on either Friday, Dec. 5 or Friday, Dec. 12. My big plan is to work some sites downstream from where we've been going, accessible from the county road along the west edge of the stream. I hope I'm right!