Rainbow of Fish

[Stan Wright]

Ken, and his cousin Anita, and I fished for about 2 hours late Wed. afternoon.


We took our fly rods and targeted the red devils. Casting was a little tough with all the wind, but the fish didn't seem to mind. If you could land the fly near the fish, they took it. The water level is the lowest I've seen it in a long time.


Light conditions and low water visibility made spotting the fish a challenge. However, a big orange fish shows up pretty good even when the water is a little cloudy.




I was again surprised at the rainbow of colors of all the red devils Ken caught. I've been told they are different fish, but all in the same general red devil family.




This big bluegill put up a great fight.... I wonder if it wouldn't have topped the current state record?


Any sinking trout fly will catch red devils. A bead head nymph is great.
(One of my most successful flys is just some gold Flash-a-bou tied to a size 10, AH hook..... with bead chain eyes to give it some weight. Just try to bop the fish on the head. Let the fly sink down and slowly twitch it.)


If your not into fly fishing, a light spinning rod and a can of earth worms works really well. We've also caught red devils on small, slow moving, lures. Recently I've used a 1/32 oz. jig with a plastic twister tail in a green crawfish color. Just slowly hop it along the bottom near the fish.

I enjoy spotting the red devil, casting my lure or fly near it, and watching it swim over and pick up my offering.... landing a 3/4 to 1 pound scrappy little fish on ultra-light tackle is a real kick too.

[Modest_Man]

Technically speaking all the red devils in Lake Wilson are most likely a hybrid of Amphilophus citrinellus and Amphilophus labiatus. When they were first introduced to the aquarium hobby in the 70's people didn't know that they were different species.

In the wild 90% of the fish are the barred coloration, the 10% that are colored are found in deeper water (red light doesn't penetrate deep so the fish appear dark).

The fish that were introduced to the lake were obviously the colored variety, so of course the ratio is different in Lake Wilson. Seems to be about 95% colored to 5% barred.

They are very popular aquarium fish, going for a decent amount of money here on the mainland (if they're genetically pure).

Here's my old F1 (First generation from wild offspring) Amphilophus citrinellus female.



I'd love to see more photos of interesting red devil colors.

[Stan Wright]

Great information.... it's so nice to have informed people out there who are willing to share their love of fish and fishing.

Over the years people have dumped a lot of unwanted aquariums into the lake and now we probably have more types fo fish than most pet stors.

Thanks again.... we'll keep posting pictures of the exotic things we catch

[Ken]

Stan, much mahalo for taking my cousin and I fishing . We had a great time out there and my cousin had lots of fun. I'm surprised you actually got a picture from my camera shy cousin

Hm...a potential state record bluegill eh? It's still swimming out there guys!

[roadwarriorsvt]

It was nice seeing you guys out there.