They're not just minnows

Judging from what I saw while uncovering the boat on return to Birch Lake yesterday, some fish have pulled off a highly successful spawn. A large school of fry skittered off as I waded into the water to untie the boat canvas. They were about an inch long and, individually, looked like little more than slender shadows cast against the sandy bottom.

We're tempted to label any small fish we see, especially in schools, as minnows. In reality, minnows are a family of fishes defined not by size but by body characteristics. For example, carp that can grow to 50 pounds belong to the minnow family, as do the shiners, only a few inches long, that we use for bait. Members of the minnow family have one brief dorsal fin with nine or fewer soft rays. They have smooth-feeling, scales that may come off when the fish is handled. They do not have true spines in their fins. They have no teeth in the jaw but have rows of toothlike structures on the bony frame that supports the gill tissues: The teeth are actually in the throat and help grind the fishes' food. Most minnows are in fact small -- they reach a few inches to perhaps a foot long. 

So, what did I see in the shallows near my pier yesterday? My guess is that they were smallmouth bass, since those fish were on the spawning beds just two or three weeks ago. I am not aware that any other fish species have spawned since then. I wished I'd had a little dip net with which to scoop a few up and examine them. When I have done this, it amazes me how much even tiny fish fry resemble the adults they will become. There is no mistaking them. Smallmouth fry, for example, have the signature black-edged tails and red eyes. Largemouth bass have the black stripe down the side, perch the vertical black bars, northern pike the oval spots. And so it goes.

Have you seen fish fry (not minnows) in your lake? Try netting a few and taking a close (brief) look. It will allow you to see what's breeding successfully. Of course, success is a relative term -- hatched fry do not a large or stable population make. The odds of fry survival are long indeed -- a topic for another time.