Although many people will scoff at such a small, unworthy fish, it has become my prime target.
Friday September 9, 2011 was my fourth trip to this stream. After a couple of trial and error trips, I had finally found a spot where there were larger hog suckers holding in a shallow run. The water was so gin clear that you could see bottom easily.
Spotting these hog sucker was another matter. Their shape is broken by three forward slanting dark bars. If these fish don't make a move, they would completely disappear into the river bottom, perfectly camouflaged against aerial attacks.
It took some training to be able to spot these wily fish. But once they are found, the second challenge began. These fish will spook from a splash, a misplaced cast or even just the movement of the rod. After a number of failed attempts, I finally figured how to present a bait to them. It simply requires an downstream drift approach.
During the afternoon, I was fishing stream side casting my slinky rig into likely holding water and waiting for a bite. This kind of approach proved futile as hog suckers do either one of two things - sit and hide or grub on the bottom without any defined pattern or direction.
Soon, I gave up sitting and waiting. I went over to this bridge to see if I can still spot some fish, or was I simply presenting my bait to a run without any hog suckers. Indeed, there were some hog suckers in the run. However, my presence soon spooked them into deeper water.
In the fading light, I found a lone hog sucker sitting in between the crevice of two boulder. This fish appeared to be one of the larger ones I've seen. It sat motionless in order to prevent detection. Slowly, I lowered my slinky rig into the water. My chunk of nightcralwer was put onto a #14 hook that was tied to 18" of 6lb fluorocarbon leader. Lowering the rig without a splash, it was tough maneuvers after tough maneuvers to position the bait upstream of the fish. With the current and the number of pesky shiners and chubs, it took about 15 attempts to finally place my bait in the right place...and by chance it landed literally next to the sucker mouth of the hog sucker.
Placing the bait beside the fish doesn't mean it will take the bait. This hog sucker sat in its spot motionless. It must have been some 10 minutes before I even saw the tail of the sucker twitched. With that single twitch, the hog sucker inched forward right onto my bait. I was still able to see my bait...and soon saw it disappeared into the sucker mouth of the fish. But just as quickly, the hog sucker spat it out. This suck-and-spit went on about 10 times. It seems like the fish either could fit the bait in its mouth, or it was feeling something that was not natural.
After a while, the fish lost interest and swam off. SO CLOSE!!!
When I reeled in my line, I found out the issue. The hook was hanging outside of the piece of nightcrawler and the worm was threaded up onto the leader. The hook must have been what the sucker determined as unnatural.
The night was not lost though. As a few last casts, I aimlessly put my rig into a deeper pool. Out of nowhere, this orange fish came and swam around in the pool. I got a few taps and thought not much of it, since I believed they were just chubs and shiners trying to steal my bait. It wasn't until this orange fish started swimming off did I see my line moving off with the fish. I set the hook and WOW! Goldfish?
Goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus)
Previously, I have caught my first goldfish...one which I believed it was a hybrid between a goldfish and a carp (based on lateral line scale count). This fish absolutely confirmed my goldfish count. For some time, my fishing mentor Kazu was teasing me that I had only caught 199.5 species because my "goldfish" was only a hybrid
Finally, I can say for sure this is a goldfish based on all characteristics including lateral line scale count (I counted 28 ).
It was getting darker...and I had this sky to conclude the evening.
Fast forward to today, September 10, 2011. I woke up at 6:30am and left the house by 7:30am. Today, I have a game plan...one that was refined based on yesterday's experience. I re-rigged my presentation with a #16 hook and 4lb fluorocarbon. I have a feeling that the hog sucker were aware of both my hook and my leader.
As soon as I arrived at the bridge, the sun was just peaking over the tree tops and the low light generated long shadows from the large bridge upstream. I didn't spot any hog suckers in the run (or simply the lack of light made them even harder to see). I tried to fish blindly with my slinky rig which again was a futile attempt.
Finally, with a little sun, I spotted two larger hog sucker sitting beside a huge boulder that was just 10 feet upstream of the bridge. You have to realize that this bridge where I fished on had trestles that were my height. I had to thread my rod in between a 3 feet wide opening in the trestles to fish properly. I was using a 12'6" float rod with the thought that the extra length gave me an advantage to position my rig precisely. However, it was not easy positioning the rig if I need to place the slinky rig close to the bridge.
Luckily, the fish were upstream and I would slowly drift my slinky rig into position. However, the ever present and ravenous chubs and shiners prevented me from dropping the bait to the hog suckers. In fact, after a few chubs struggling on the line, the hog suckers were spooked off.
Hm...
As the sun got higher, I can finally see into the deep run downstream. With some looking I found a lone hog sucker sitting in smooth water. This was possibly the best shot I had! It took about 10 tries to position my bait about 1" from the hog sucker's mouth, directly upstream of the holding fish. Once the bait was in place, it was a long wait. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say it was at least 15 minutes if not more. Finally, the hog sucker made a move forward to grub on bottom and it found my bait! However, this fish also did the suck and spit motion and my bait simply did not sit inside the mouth long enough for me to set the hook.
The fish moved upstream for about 6" and I had to reposition my bait. I had the bait positioned about 1" to the right of the fish this time. It was another 10 minutes when the fish suddenly decided to take it. I saw my bait disappeared and I decided to wait. If the fish really had the bait, I will just wait until it swallowed the bait down its gut. Seriously, I was that desperate!
A minute later, I decided to set the hook. My rod felt some weight that was followed by weightlessness. I found out that the fish had simply spat the bait and it was actually just resting on top of it.
Since my baited hook touched the fish on the hookset, the hog sucker was spooked off.
It was now getting close to 11am. I was looking around carefully and thoroughly trying to spot another sucker to target. Finally, directly under the bridge, there was a larger hog sucker! However, the location of this hog sucker made it impossible for me to position my bait. In a careless move, I dropped the slinky rig into the water too quickly and the splash spooked the hog sucker. It swam downstream quickly but soon settled about 10 feet from the bridge. This little move actually now gave me the advantage!
Even though I was now able to present my bait to this hog sucker, I was unable to do so with my rod. Instead, I climbed onto the trestle of the bridge and dropped the slinky rig by hand. Really, it got to this move of desperation. Although you would think hand dropping your rig will be easy, the current made positioning the small chunk of nightcrawler really difficult. It took me over 15 tries before I had the bait 1" from the fish's mouth.
As I waited with the line in hand, ready to pull up to set the hook, the fish just sat there. It must have been 20 minutes before the fish decided to take the bait. It suck and spat the bait a few times and soon decided to just leave the bait.
I repositioned the bait again. This time, I decided to hold the rod in hand instead and try to set the hook at the first sign of a "suck". About 5 minutes later, the fish sucked the bait in and I went for the hookset. Unfortunately, silly me forgot to tighten the drag
I had the drag loose while I pulled out line to position the bait. Darn!
Luckily, the fish was not spooked enough to swim off, it merely moved back to its "hiding" spot. I positioned the bait a third time. As soon as I positioned the bait, I put the rod in hand, tightened the drag and took out all the slack in the line. Another 10 minutes passed until the fish started grubbing. The fish actually ignored my bait in the first 10 second while it grubbed in some loose rock chips. Finally, it returned to my bait and took it. This time, I just decided to "go for it" and set the hook. When I saw the hog sucker flashed off the bottom, I felt its weight on the rod and realized I had actually hooked it!!!
I had estimated this fish being at least 12" long...but once brought to hand, it was only 9" long. Water can be deceiving sometimes!
Finally, 5 trips later, probably a total of 20+ hours spent watching, studying, and understanding these fish, victory is MINE!!!
Black ring around the sucker mouth...
Concaved forehead...
All positive identification characteristics of the Northern Hog Sucker (Hypentelium nigricans)
Some people targets and get excited about a giant bass...for me, it is targeting these new species and working though the trials and tribulations. There really is no word to describe the joy I had at that moment of success.
After a few quick pictures, I released my pride and joy. It went right back to the bottom and now it tried to hide among the algae. Can you spot the fish?
A little later, the hog sucker sat facing upstream again.
This was a picture I took before I caught the fish. Can you spot it in this picture?
It was a great journey to catch my #201. Now that I've accomplish this target, I'll laid my species hunt on hiatus until my trip to Boston. In the meantime, I'll be playing guide on 3 future trips...and there are a lot of work to be done before my Boston trip. For the moment, I feel completely satisfied.
Illegitimus Non Carborundum