Caney Creek Camping - Bankhead National Forest

“I took most of the family (we left our 2 year old with his grandmother) camping at Caney Creek Falls in the Bankhead National Forest (Alabama) this past weekend. We had a blast.

A storm had rolled through just before we arrived at the trailhead and the wood was WET for a fire but we got it going. Finally...

As we were breaking camp on Saturday around 10:00 AM some locals came to the falls to swim for about an hour. We saw no one else there during the trip until we met a group near the trailhead on our way out. Nice and peaceful.

Enjoy the pics.

Oh yeah, someone ID my fish. :-)

http://community.webshots.com/user/hikermike
last edited: 7/05/05 11:31:02 PM”

“That fish is definitely one of the sunfish family, but that is a hugh family as it includes bass, bream, bluegill, etc. With its blue gill, and orange around the fins, I would say it is a blue gill, since it doesn't have the orange markings of a pumpkin-seed sunfish on its belly. Did it have red eyes? It was hard to tell in the pic. If so then it is would be a red-eye or shell cracker as they are sometimes called after their ability to break small crustaseans. It is probably still growing tho and will be easier to identify at maturity.
last edited: 7/06/05 12:57:41 AM”

“Nice pics. I've always heard of that falls, but haven't a clue where it is. Where is it?

Welcome to the board. Lots of Bama folks around here.”

“That is an odd-looking fish. It has an ear like most bream do, but the body is longer than most bream and the fins are different too. I wonder if it's some kind of hybrid.”

“@dayhiker: It's off Winston Co 2 maybe 3 miles from Winston Co 33. Look for the old FSR gate on the left. There is another smaller falls further down the creek. It's really beautiful and has an odd rock formation next to the falls that acts like a huge cement sunning area. The bottom of the large pool is made up of larger rocks and makes swimming a little difficult. There is no real trail to the lower falls and there are a LOT of blowdowns and creek crossings along the way. It's not a fun hike.


@bitpusher & Karo: I've scoured the web for a picture of this fish anywhere else but can not find one. The closest description I could find was for a red eye bass but I'm not so sure. The fins are bream-like yet the body is bass-like.”

“Rock bass maybe?



Another, better pic:


last edited: 7/06/05 10:00:16 AM”

“Possibly but mine had those bright blue stripes below it's mouth and also running in a broken pattern down it's sides. It also had red fin eddges.”

“@dayhiker:I made a mistake in my directions. It's off of county rd 2 which is off of 195, not 33. Co rd 2 is just past co rd 33 on 195.”

“HikerMike, it looks very close to a rock bass but not quite. I think there's another close relative called a warmouth (might be a local name) which could be it. I'll see if I can find something on the web.

Here, check this out:

http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=65
last edited: 7/06/05 7:16:48 PM”