The Flint River At Winchester, Now THAT'S A Riffle

Five of us made it out to the Flint today to do our habitat survey and darter catch & release. The weather was almost mild at 50 deg. F, but with a steady north wind. The river was down from our last visit but water was still flowing fast. We caught a good number of fishes, especially banded, black and redline darters with a few rainbows and a single greenside. There was a very sharp distinction between where the bandeds and the blacks were found; if deeper, fast water over rock there were bandeds and some redlines, along the shore in less turbulent water were blacks and some redlines.

Here's our first transect line today, Jeremy and Robert on the left, Brian paying attention to the flow meter rod and Alex on the far distant shore. The river was about 38 m wide here.

Here are Robert, Jeremy and Brian carefully crossing the river at our fourth transect point, where the water is fast as it narrows down at the top of this riffle system. This was the most well-defined niche of all, with only bandeds and redlines in the area where everyone's walking, and blacks in the flooded grassy bank about 10 m behind them.
Another shot of the fourth transect, with the depth and flow measurements being made.
And, here's a view upstream from the first transect line to the bridge, with the fourth transect just this side of the bridge. If you look closely you can see whitecaps on the water surface showing breaking water in this riffle.