Evan picked me up at 7:30am. As soon as I got in the car, I asked Evan if he cared what we'll catch today. He was just happy to bend a rod...so was I...and the day was still young, so I suggest that we fish this river for a bit. We were going to fish a lake for crappies (and I was going to hunt for a legit white crappie), but after the rain and cold front yesterday, we thought it is best to give them a little time to warm up first...and we slotted it for the afternoon session.
After picking up breakfast and coffee, and grabbing a dozen of worms, we were at the river's edge. This river is fun to fish since there are a number of species available at any time. At the moment, trout, walleye, pike and bass are closed to fishing, so we were going to see if we can find some freshwater drum, channel catfish, sucker species (my hidden agenda
) and some mooneye.
At the river, we saw some junk metal at the dam. Hm...that's interesting. I didn't really thought much about fishing for junk metal today...since well...I was hard on the species hunt mission this spring. My mind was on redhorse species...but there were a lot of junk metal jumping.
Put on a a rig with worms...and started drifting. This area is not easy drifting since there is a mix current, with some lines of boulders, troughs, and also some areas with mixed gravel and rocks. It is snaggy water...but if you are patient with retying lines often, you will get rewarded...if the fish are around.
At about 9:30am, I saw this junk metal jumped in front of us. I was at the end of the drift and quickly reel in, cast perfectly directly upstream of where the fish was holding...felt the weight hit bottom a couple of time...line came tight...BAM!
It was a good little tussle whatever this was. I saw a dark shape and thought it was a channel catfish. When we had it closer, we were affirmed it was just some junk metal...”just” a little 2lber.
Evan jumped in for a pic.
Okay...skunk has been chased away. We're here fun fishing anyways, right? That was fun! But secretly, my hidden agenda awaits...I WANT A REDHORSE!!! AND NOT A SHORTHEAD OR A GOLDEN SINCE I CAUGHT THEM ALREADY...I'm screaming just so you're clear on that.
Well, it was quiet for a bit. Lots of drifts, a few more worms, a few more snags...and then on one drift, I thought I snagged bottom when bottom tug back! Here we go again!
Whatever this fish was, it was pulling hard and digging for bottom and ran downstream. I thought it was another piece of junk metal. But when I got it closer to shore, I saw a golden side, grey tail and orange fins. That's a good sign. Shorthead Redhorse has red tail...this is a new redhorse species for me FOR SURE!
Redhorse species are difficult to identify. You have to count number of lateral line scales, number of scales on the caudal peduncle, colour of the tail, shape of the dorsal fin, dorsal fin ray count, anal fin ray count, and also lip shape and grooves…
So…let’s do this together…
1) Grey tail (narrowed down to Black, Golden or Silver Redhorse)
2) Convex dorsal fin with 15 dorsal fin rays (well, we’re done really…Silver Redhorse…but let’s go through the exercise…)
3) 7 anal fin rays (Still consistent)
4) 42 lateral line scale (Silver Redhorse has 40-42
5) 12 caudal peduncle scales (Most redhorse except for Greater has 12…hard to count in the picture, but I counted 12 in the field
6) V-shaped lower lips, thin upper lips, bumpy/dimpled surface on the lips with radiating grooves)
Welcome #208…Silver Redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum)…a 17” fish at that. It was an honour to have you on board on my list.
Freaking awesome! Mission accomplished!!!
Okay…well, let’s see if I can find a Greater Redhorse or a Black Redhorse, which spawn in the same river too.
A little while later, I saw another fish surfaced. I cast to the area and made a few drifts. Then I felt snagged again, popped the rod up…and it pulled back. Here we go again!
It was another piece of junk metal. Evan had been dealing with snags and tired of retying. I handed the rod over to Evan for the fight. It was a piece of chrome metal though. We had that fish beat pretty quick. It was a 4lber.
Unfortunately, we only had a net shot and no “hero shot” since the fish took off as we were lifting it up for a picture. You get the idea though…It’s just more junk metal
At this point, Evan went to fish downstream of me and he said there were a lot of little fishes jumping. He snagged up and had to retie, so I checked it out. On the first drift, I felt a little tick at the end of the drift and set the hook. Up came the Ontario Tarpon…aka Mooneye.
Such pretty little fish.
It was pretty slow, and I think Evan missed a couple of fish. At about 12:40pm, we saw a couple of junk metals surfacing. So I started drifiting their holding spot again…drift after drift after drift. On one drift, my rig stopped dead and I thought it was another snag, popped the rod tip…and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!
After a long fight, we saw a big tail waved and we got a bit nervous. It’s a nice fish. And yeah, it was a nice big piece of scrap metal…about a 7-8lber.
It was happy to see me…
And Evan too…what a player…
Release shot.
Sometime around 11am, there was an older gentleman joined us. He was fishing upstream of Evan and I. He was pulling in a few walleye using a white jig. Evan follow suit and hit this nice eater walleye at about 1:50pm. Of course it was released…it was lucky we weren’t fishing second weekend of May, haha.
About another hour later, I ran out of worms. So I put on a little yummy-yummy pink on the hook and made some drifts. These stupid junk metals kept surfacing and revealing themselves to us. I pegged the holding spot and drifted repeatly…and then…BAM!
This fish started heading downstream. Unfortunately, it ran so fast the angler downstream of me couldn’t get his line in quick enough and we played tango. As we were trying to free the lines, Evan was handlining the fish in. This fish was cooperating and coming in slowly. Evan has some skills in coaxing the fish in. But…as soon as we saw that piece of big scrap metal on the surface, and it saw us…see ya! It went for a run and on the tight, tangled line, the line snapped at the hook. It was about the same size as the other big fish.
After my fish, Evan put on some yummy pink as well. On one retrieve, he had a fish came to the surface to grab the pink! The fish missed though...so close! I’ve never seen them do it.
Another weird thing we saw was this steelhead swimming on the surface. It had its head out of the water and just swimming everywhere like that. First it swam upstream toward the rapids, then it swam downstream for about 80 feet just like that. Weird…those junk metals are stupid
We were getting close to the end of the day. About 30 minutes left, someone was leaving and gave me the rest of his worms. I put on some worms again. This was getting to that last drift moment. Again, one of the junk metal surfaced and I knew where they sit. A few drifts later…FISH ON!!!
This fish was chrome and it fought hard. In fact, it fought so hard that I had to bully it away from a submerged log that we kept snagging on. I managed to drag it away, but when the fish decided to run, I had my drag a little tight and the hook pulled out. It was again the same size as the large fish. We had a pretty good look close to shore.
By now, it was close to 4pm so we called it a day. For a day that we were just fishing for fun, it ended very well. I added a new species (which meant everything to me :lol; ) and we found lots of junk metals! I was really hoping Evan would get a few more fish on, but this spot is tough to learn on your first time…and it is a very trying spot with a very steep learning curve.
Well, I hope the redhorse will still be around…any maybe I can have another go at them later. Oh…and the steelhead were pretty rad I guess…I know I’ve been downplaying them throughout this report…but trust me, I was grinning ear-to-ear today fighting them. Can't be happier going 3/5 today!
