Flint Creek (Alabama)

Last updated

Flint Creek is a major tributary along the Tennessee River that runs in the US state of Alabama for its entire length. Its headwaters are in northern Cullman County, and after running through Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, it ends in the Tennessee River at Decatur. [1]

The water level of the lower course of the creek is greatly affected by the level of Wheeler Lake. According to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, it is "one of Alabama's precious natural resources". Affected by "nonpoint source pollution", the Department claims that pollution has gone down in the decade since it became a pilot project for the EPA's watershed program. [1]

The creek is popular for its fishing, especially of crappie. The water flows slowly, and is overgrown in many places. Fish include redear sunfish, bluegill, and longear sunfish, two kinds of black bass (spotted bass and largemouth bass), and various kinds of catfish (flathead, blue, and channel). Yellow perch were introduced to Wheeler Lake and are found in the creek also. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decatur, Alabama</span> City in and county seat of Morgan County, Alabama

Decatur is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County in the U.S. state of Alabama. Nicknamed "The River City", it is located in northern Alabama on the banks of Wheeler Lake, along the Tennessee River. The population in 2020 was 57,938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chattahoochee River</span> River in Georgia, United States

The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida and Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers and emptying from Florida into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. The Chattahoochee River is about 430 miles (690 km) long. The Chattahoochee, Flint, and Apalachicola rivers together make up the Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint River Basin. The Chattahoochee makes up the largest part of the ACF's drainage basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tennessee River</span> River in the southeastern United States

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles (1,049 km) long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, as the Cherokee people had their homelands along its banks, especially in what are now East Tennessee and northern Alabama. Additionally, its tributary, the Little Tennessee River, flows into it from Western North Carolina and northeastern Georgia, where the river also was bordered by numerous Cherokee towns. Its current name is derived from the Cherokee town, Tanasi, which was located on the Tennessee side of the Appalachian Mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocmulgee River</span> River in Georgia, United States

The Ocmulgee River is a western tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi (410 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the westernmost major tributary of the Altamaha. It was formerly known by its Hitchiti name of Ocheese Creek, from which the Creek (Muscogee) people derived their name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big South Fork of the Cumberland River</span> River in the United States

The Big South Fork of the Cumberland River is a 76-mile-long (122 km) river in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Kentucky. It is a major drainage feature of the Cumberland Plateau, a major tributary of the Cumberland River system, and the major feature of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shadow bass</span> Species of fish

The shadow bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. It is endemic to southeastern United States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Alabama</span> Region in Alabama

North Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Several geographic definitions for the area exist, with all descriptions including the nine counties of Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The North Alabama Industrial Development Association also lists Cherokee, Cullman, Franklin, and Winston counties in the region. The Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association expands the definition further to include Blount, Etowah, and Marion counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Creek (Atlanta)</span>

Nancy Creek is a 16.3-mile-long (26.2 km) stream in northern Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It begins in far northern DeKalb County, just north of Chamblee, and flows southwestward into Fulton County, through the far southeast corner of Sandy Springs, then through the Buckhead area of Atlanta. It empties into Peachtree Creek, which then flows into the Chattahoochee River, south of Vinings and Paces. The Chattahoochee eventually joins with the Flint River to create the Apalachicola River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The North Fork Nancy Creek is a major tributary, while Little Nancy Creek tends to run low or dry. Other tributaries include Bubbling Creek which originates in Chamblee, Perimeter Creek which originates in Dunwoody and Silver Creek which includes the 38-acre Silver Lake and Little Silver Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flint River (Michigan)</span> River in central Michigan, United States

The Flint River is a 78.3-mile-long (126.0 km) river in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan in the United States. The river's headwaters are in Columbiaville in Lapeer County and flows through the counties of Lapeer, Genesee, and Saginaw. The cities of Lapeer, Flint, Flushing, and Montrose are along its course.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decatur metropolitan area, Alabama</span> Statistical Area in Alabama

The Decatur, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area is a moderately urban region of North-Central Alabama. The 2020 Census put the population of the metropolitan area at 152,740, of which one-third resides within the boundaries of its core city, Decatur, Alabama, It is also considered to be part of the North, Northwest, and North-Central regions of Alabama.

Paul M. Grist State Park is a public recreation area located 17 miles (27 km) north of Selma operated by the government of Dallas County, Alabama. The park offers water activities on a 100-acre (40 ha) lake as well as facilities for camping and picnicking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poplar River (Lake Superior)</span> River in Minnesota, United States

The Poplar River is a river in northeastern Minnesota that drains into Lake Superior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mimic shiner</span> Species of fish

The mimic shiner is a species of North American cyprinid freshwater fish in the genus Notropis. The genus Notropis is commonly known as the eastern shiners. It is native to areas of the Hudson Bay drainage, Great Lakes drainage, much of the Mississippi River basin including areas of Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and regions of the Gulf of Mexico extending from Mobile Bay to the drainage of Texas. However, this particular species can be found in other places such as the Atlantic Coast drainage in Connecticut and Housatonic rivers. This genus is usually characterized by almost all having a complete lateral line, 8 dorsal fin rays, a premaxillae protactile, and a silvery or speckled peritoneum. As the common name indicates, this species is difficult to classify in the wild because it looks similar to many other shiners. In fact, some even hypothesize that this species is actually a complexity of many cryptic species. While this is the case, it is important to take more caution to not misidentify this species and to understand its impact on introduced areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dollar sunfish</span> Species of fish

The dollar sunfish is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. It is categorized as a warm water pan-fish. Early settlers said that this species of sunfish resembled a European species they called bream. Historically it has been found along the Southern Atlantic coastal drainages from North Carolina to Florida, and west to Texas. Lepomis marginatus mainly feeds on detritus and filamentous algae as well as a few terrestrial insects. The juvenile and mature fish do not have many predators, but the eggs in the nest are in danger of predation from a few different species of fish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redspotted sunfish</span> Species of fish

The redspotted sunfish, also known as a stumpknocker, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a sunfish from the family Centrarchidae which is native to the United States. The redspotted sunfish was previously considered to be a western subspecies of spotted sunfish but was distinguished as a separate species by Warren in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bantam sunfish</span> Species of fish

The bantam sunfish is a species of freshwater fish in the genus Lepomis common throughout Louisiana, in extreme southeastern Texas, in southern Arkansas, and in a few places in western Kentucky and western Tennessee.

Schumaker Pond is a 35-acre pond created by damming Beaverdam Creek, in Wicomico County, Maryland. The pond is owned by the City of Salisbury and is on the eastern end of the Salisbury City Park. The maximum water depth is 5 feet near the dam, in the old creek channel. In the 1950s-60s Schumaker Pond was popular for swimming, but swimming has since been banned due to the large quantities of E-Coli bacteria in the water. Today, the pond is often used for fishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halloween darter</span> Species of fish

The Halloween darter is a small freshwater fish native to North America. It is found in Georgia and Alabama in the drainage basin of the Apalachicola River, specifically in the Flint River system and the Chattahoochee River system. It prefers shallow, fast-flowing areas with gravel bottoms in small and medium-sized rivers. It was first described in 2008, having not previously been distinguished from the blackbanded darter (P. nigrofasciata), which occurs in the same watershed. The color is somewhat variable, being generally blackish dorsally, with some individuals having indistinct saddle-like barring. Males have orange and dark lateral striping while females have dark stripes and a yellowish-green belly. At a maximum standard length of 101 mm (4 in), males are slightly larger than females, and both sexes develop distinctive orange barring on the edge of the first dorsal fin during the breeding season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring pygmy sunfish</span> Species of fish

The spring pygmy sunfish, Elassoma alabamae, is a species of pygmy sunfish endemic to springs in northern Alabama. It was historically known to occur in springs in North Alabama along the Tennessee River in Limestone and Lauderdale counties. The spring pygmy sunfish was first discovered in Cave Spring in Lauderdale County, Alabama in 1937 but in 1938, this site was flooded by the creation of the Pickwick Reservoir. The spring pygmy sunfish was considered extinct until its rediscovery in the Beaverdam Spring complex in 1973 by researchers from the University of Tennessee.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Flint Creek". Outdoor Alabama . Retrieved July 21, 2021.

Coordinates: 34°35′06″N86°55′32″W / 34.5850924°N 86.9255617°W / 34.5850924; -86.9255617