Created by Garold Sneegas

Explore Garold’s world in a clear, private stream in the Flint Hills with The Fish Wizards Tour on May 30 and 31 - Be sure you are one of the 35 people/day who will enjoy these fish close-up!

Tickets here

Kansas is known for having some of the highest percentages of polluted streams. That can make it difficult to see and know the fish that thrive in our waterways. But Volland is nestled in the Flint Hills of Kansas, where the water runs off hills of native grass and forms streams as clear as gin.

Garold says, “In a few isolated areas of the state, there are still a few clear, pristine streams.” Those areas are mostly on private land. Garold was able to access a few of these places by obtaining permission from the landowners. Respecting the property helps maintain the quality of the streams: “The requests and conditions set by a landowner are not only something to be followed but are also a form of protection for the streams themselves.”

Why does he want to go into the water to look for these fish? Garold wants to photograph the fish underwater in their natural habitat, interacting with each other. “You can capture their peak spawning colors and natural behaviors in a way that cannot be duplicated in an aquarium,” he shares. Only in natural aquatic environments —which have so many varying conditions— can you capture life as it organically happens. “There are random interactions between migrating fish species and other aquatic inhabitants,” Gary shares. “Capturing an image of spawning male darters, displaying at their peak moment of excitement in the wild, requires being in the right place at the right time. You may be lucky and stumble onto this situation in a matter of minutes, or you may have to spend hours submerged in 50-degree water monitoring an area.”

Those hours, whether during the day or at night (some fish are so skittish that it’s only at night that he can capture images of them), Garold seeks to understand the fishes he photographs — to do so, he’s found it necessary to explore their habitats during all the seasons. “In doing so,” Garold posits, "one also becomes aware of the other inhabitants that coexist with the fishes. I have not only enjoyed photographing the common aquatic organisms the general public is familiar with such as crayfish, turtles, and insect larvae, but also some unusual invertebrates like freshwater sponges, bryozoans and hydras.”

GAROLD SNEEGAS

Garold started diving in 1969 in Lawrence. He began snorkeling as a 12- to 13-year-old. Once, he followed a fishing lure led by the line, as he often did, and found a sunken rowboat —and a big catfish emerged from the boat at that moment! He saw a lot of fascinating things and would describe them, but no one believed him, so he started to figure out ways to photograph them.

Garold attended college in Pittsburgh, KS, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology. Pittsburgh is considered part of the Ozark Highlands region. There, he continued diving, exploring Ozark streams and nearby strip mines. His studies of fish and limnology with Dr. Carl Bass enhanced his exploration. Limnology is the study of inland bodies of waters and their ecosystems.

Garold found freshwater sponges and jellyfish —ask him where you can find them!           

After college, Garold became a diving instructor at Beaver Lake and Table Rock Lake, clear, lovely locations for diving.

Garold had an opportunity to travel to South America and explore the Amazon and a large tributary, the Rio Negro. There he saw freshwater varieties of sting rays, puffer fish, and even dolphins!

Photography was not Garold’s main source of income for a while; in fact, he fell away from it from 1978-1986. He worked in construction, eventually owned his own company, and did some diving trips here and there, including saltwater diving on trips to the Caribbean and the Great Barrier Reef.

In 1992 things began to shift. Garold heard that Freshwater Fishes of KS was being revised. He showed them some of his photography, which subsequently was selected for the revision. After that, he began to get a lot of calls for photography, mostly for scientific books.

A Fishes of TX Project (at the University of Texas at Austin) helped cement his career as a full-time underwater fish photographer. Garold was assigned to go to different areas of the state. At Devil’s River, he experienced mesquite, cactus, thorns, and the Edwards Aquifer oasis. He was told he would likely not find the Devil’s River minnow, a threatened species, but he did!  He discovered never-before-seen thriving pockets of the Devil’s River minnow. 

His favorite experiences are two: Discovering the surprising population of the Devil’s River minnow and exploring the Flint Hills streams. The more he learned about the prairie streams, the more fascinated he became.

When asked what his favorite fish is, Garold replied “The last really good picture!” He also favors the spawning sunfish.

These days, it is not as easy to access the hidden, private, off-the-beaten path Flint Hills streams as it was in his earlier years, and Garold has developed a new hobby - photography of birds. “You don’t even have to get out of the car for a good picture,” he laughed.

- From a conversation with Bridget Bryan -