Exploring Appalachia’s Hidden Aquarium

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Today, we're back out here in East Tennessee on another small stream. I'm back with Calvin yet again. He owns Creek Life Lure Company, a company that's dedicated to small streams here in the Appalachian region. Wish us luck.

[00:00:11]Here we go.

[00:00:12]>> I'm using a small crawdad. Check that out. You can get that at Calvin's store.

[00:00:16]What a cool spot, man. This is awesome.

[00:00:19]>> Oh, fish on. Fish on.

[00:00:20]I got one.

[00:00:22]Oh my gosh.

[00:00:24]Okay.

[00:00:25]We got our first species, guys.

[00:00:27]Looks like a little green sunfish.

[00:00:29]>> The green sunfish is known for beautiful colors like green and blue and is native to the Appalachian region. This was a cool species [music] to start off our trip. As I looked at this beautiful waterway, my mind was full of wonder and excitement with every cast.

[00:00:42]>> Oh, you got one.

[00:00:43]>> I got one.

[00:00:44]>> Oh, man. Calvin caught a fish.

[00:00:47]So, guys, I was shooting some b-roll and I look up and Calvin's got a fish in his hand.

[00:00:53]Let's see what you got. Oh, he's so beautiful.

[00:00:55]>> Another green sunfish.

[00:00:57]>> Many people [music] catch green sunfish for their freshwater aquariums. And looking at the colors of this fish, you can see why. This is one of the more beautiful panfish [music] in the panfish family.

[00:01:07]>> All right, guys. So, we're going back to the crawdad yet again. Let's see if we can get another one. What's happening is we're swinging these crawdads into these little cuts. We're letting the current take them and we're getting popped as we go.

[00:01:18]Fish on.

[00:01:19]Yep.

[00:01:20]Got one.

[00:01:23]Another green sunfish.

[00:01:24]>> You can find green sunfish near boulders, down trees, and vegetation.

[00:01:28][music] They typically spend their time anywhere where there is cover.

[00:01:32]>> What we found so far are hungry green sunfish in this little mountain stream and they're some of the more colorful fish you can find.

[00:01:39]There's even more species out here.

[00:01:40]We're just getting started. Let's see what else we can do.

[00:01:43]>> We were using some of Calvin's [music] Creek Life Lure Company custom rods.

[00:01:47]These were 6-ft ultra lights and the sensitivity helped you feel [music] every single bite. This pool is paying dividends, man.

[00:01:54]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:55]>> Right in there.

[00:01:58]Oh, yeah.

[00:01:59]Nice.

[00:02:01]Yeah.

[00:02:02]>> [laughter] >> That was cool.

[00:02:06]Woah.

[00:02:08]>> Be free.

[00:02:09]>> That's right. This was turning into quite the productive day, but I was starting [music] to wonder if we were going to see anything other than green sunfish.

[00:02:18]That's the spot.

[00:02:19]See him?

[00:02:20]Got him. Got him.

[00:02:22]>> [laughter] >> Woah, what is that?

[00:02:26]That's >> That's a warmouth.

[00:02:27]>> What the heck? Woah, guys, this is a beautiful fish.

[00:02:31]All right. All right, let me hold it over here. We do not want to lose this.

[00:02:34]THAT IS OH!

[00:02:35]>> [laughter] >> NO!

[00:02:38]OH, MY HEART. This was the first [music] time I ever caught a warmouth. Before I could even show it off, it slipped through my fingers and got back into the water. That one hurt. Oh, fish on.

[00:02:49]Big one.

[00:02:51]Come on, redemption.

[00:02:52]Green sunfish. We kept catching [music] more green sunfish, but now I knew there were other species in the creek, and as I was about to find out, there were some big fish as well.

[00:03:03]The first [music] spot we caught some beautiful green sunfish, and then disaster. I I hooked my first warmouth ever. [music] And as I'm trying to get that cool-looking shot, we try to get it in the net, he slips right out of my hand, he goes back into the water. So guys, new goal for the day, catch another warmouth and show it off properly. Um I've also been told by Calvin that in this small creek, as we're heading further down, there's actually a shot of some smallmouth bass as well, which on the ultra-light will be absolutely insane, so Woah, we're just getting started. I'm super pumped. Let's go see what else we can find. As we worked our way down creek, Calvin mentioned there was a bigger pool coming up where he'd had good success in the past.

[00:03:43]So there's a pretty nice pool just past this down tree here that Calvin has mentioned he's pulled out some nice fish in the past from. One warmouth he said the of his hand, [music] which you know, I That is the new goal of the day now. It's like, can I catch another one?

[00:03:58]Well, guys, we're going to switch over to a swimbait. There's quite a few big [music] panfish right here that are Oh, that's a smallmouth.

[00:04:05]Yeah, he's chasing everybody.

[00:04:08]All right, Calvin. I just spotted a smallmouth.

[00:04:12]He's mad, too. He's chasing [music] everything.

[00:04:15]Oh.

[00:04:17]Got him. I got the smallmouth.

[00:04:20]I got him.

[00:04:21]Woah.

[00:04:22]Oh my gosh. Stay on.

[00:04:26]I sight fished him, guys.

[00:04:28]I saw him come running in there like a bulldozer and chase off all the other fish. I dropped my small swimbait right in front of him, turned around like a mad guy and just smashed it. No way.

[00:04:41]Calvin.

[00:04:42]That was incredible. He came in like a dang bulldog. Let's Let's come over here with him.

[00:04:46]>> [laughter] >> Dude, that was so cool, man.

[00:04:51]Calvin had [music] said that there was a big fish potentially in here and for this little creek, that smallmouth is the king. I still can't believe I caught this aggressive smallmouth bass in this small pool. Smallmouth bass are native to the Appalachian region and you can find them in most waterways. These are some of my favorite game fish, but I've never caught one in a pool this small before. Smallmouth bass eat tadpoles, fish, aquatic insects, and [music] crawdads.

[00:05:14]As we worked our way to the next pool, I decided it was time to flip over some rocks and see if I could find some natural bait, you know. Oh, there's one.

[00:05:23]There's a big old juicy nightcrawler.

[00:05:25]Look at that. Big un.

[00:05:27]So, guys, we just got ourselves a big fat juicy nightcrawler.

[00:05:31]That's I mean, that's a awesome find.

[00:05:34]Fish on. Not bad.

[00:05:36]>> Yes.

[00:05:37]>> What do we got here?

[00:05:39]Oh.

[00:05:40]New species. Bluegill.

[00:05:42]>> Bluegill.

[00:05:42]>> Yeah. Okay, first bluegill of the day and of course I catch it on a little nightcrawler. One of the go-tos for any kid growing up is a worm on a bobber, and sure enough this guy held true to the formula, the bluegill. One of North America's most common fish, [music] and personally, the first fish I ever caught as a boy. They're known for that bluish hue right below their gill plate, [music] and live in just about every waterway in North America. Even though this was a very common fish, some of the fish we're about to catch in this video are anything [music] but common.

[00:06:12]Fish.

[00:06:13]What'd you catch?

[00:06:15]Oh my gosh, he caught something, guys.

[00:06:17]>> Warmouth.

[00:06:18]>> No way, he caught the warmouth.

[00:06:20]Guys, he did it.

[00:06:22]Oh my gosh, don't let him go. Yes. So guys, the fish that I dropped earlier that we didn't get to showcase, Calvin [music] just caught one.

[00:06:30]Oh, and he's so cool-looking.

[00:06:32]Oh my gosh, look at that fish. The warmouth is a stocky, aggressive [music] freshwater fish in the sunfish family.

[00:06:40]I'm grateful Calvin caught this fish >> [music] >> so we could truly show off its beauty. I can't get over the colors of each fish as we pulled them out of the creek, and it [music] keeps me wondering what will we catch next? I As soon as you yelled my name, I knew something good happened.

[00:06:53]I thought I thought it was smallmouth, but that was even better than a smallmouth cuz that was the one we were after. Oh, fish on.

[00:06:59]I got something Oh, it's new. It's a new one.

[00:07:01]What is that?

[00:07:02]It's silvery-looking.

[00:07:04]Is that one of those stripe shiners?

[00:07:06]>> I think it is.

[00:07:07]>> Oh wow, what is that? He's He's cool-looking. Okay.

[00:07:10]>> Yeah.

[00:07:11]>> Oh my goodness. Look at that.

[00:07:13]>> Oh no, whitetail shiner.

[00:07:14]>> Whitetail shiner.

[00:07:16]>> Nice.

[00:07:17]>> Dude, he's beautiful-looking.

[00:07:19]No No way.

[00:07:22]Oh my gosh.

[00:07:24]Were we recording? Let me check. Yes, we were. Oh, that's so cool. The whitetail shiner is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish. It inhabits the Tennessee and Cumberland River drainage systems, which spreads all over the Southeast. For Calvin and I, this was [music] a first, and that made this fish very special. This small stream was teeming with life and color, and I found myself getting lost in a world I'd never truly explored. And every cast had its own opportunity for something new and exciting. Oh, man, Calvin's hooked up on something. What is that?

[00:07:57]>> It is a redbreast.

[00:07:58]>> A redbreast sunfish.

[00:08:00]>> [music] >> Oh.

[00:08:01]>> red-breasted as much as them, but >> Yeah.

[00:08:04]>> A lot of people confuse them with green sunfish cuz they look quite similar.

[00:08:07]>> Similar? Yeah.

[00:08:09]>> [music] >> The redbreast sunfish is native to the river systems of eastern Canada and the United States. Its diet consists of insects, snails, [music] and small invertebrate.

[00:08:19]Fish on.

[00:08:21]What is that?

[00:08:24]What is that? That thing's tiny. Little redbreast.

[00:08:27]>> [music] >> Tiny, but pretty. Really pretty. Wow.

[00:08:31]You can find this species [music] in vegetated areas or rocky pools where there's plenty of cover.

[00:08:37]Every bend of an Appalachian creek >> [music] >> feels like stepping into a forgotten piece of the world. You start coming for the fish, but eventually, [music] you realize the peace is what keeps you coming back. All right, guys, that's going to do it for us today. That was so much fun. I hope you guys enjoyed that.

[00:08:52]If you did, um, you know, go and check out Calvin's store. I'm going to leave a link in the description of this video.

[00:08:57]He's got all sorts of cool stuff. That's all the stuff we're using today. Go check it out. Calvin, do you have any more last words for the people today?

[00:09:03]>> Guys, as you can see, there's tons of fish out there that you may never see if you don't get out there and look. And they're absolutely beautiful. They look like aquarium fish.

[00:09:13]Just in secluded little hidden creeks.

[00:09:16]Get out there. Enjoy your local creeks.

[00:09:19]And see what's underneath the surface.

[00:09:21]>> Till next time, tight lines.

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