April 25, 2011

ol' whitey

No not that Whitey, but the white sucker.

whitey
I got into a large group of whiteys holding in a deep pool a few weeks ago. This spot warms up long before other spring sucker spots turn hot, largely due to the wide shallow channel common in this reach. The shallow muddy shoreline is lined with cattails and red osier dogwood, the dark bottom warming up much quicker than other parts of the sandy, rocky stream substrate. This warmer bottom helps heat up the water sooner in these shallow reaches, drawing in eager fish staging to spawn.

the pool
whitey
The 7 weight Level Series from Rise that I used to subdue these beasts may have been a bit overkill, but it still performed flawlessly. The tip was nimble enough to effectively tightline nymph my tungsten bombs through the current seams. One fish actually got down into the heavy current near a fast run and nearly had me into my backing. The rod doubled over. Half in surprise, I enjoyed fighting the fish in the rough stuff and the rod handled the rough stuff like a porn star. The first true test of fighting roughfish and the Rise rod rose to the challenge. Well done.

6 comments:

  1. So, no Mox anisurum staged in there with those witeys? They go pretty early too where I'm from.

    M

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  2. No silvers in this portion of the watershed. There are some shortheads, but they typically don't show up until the very tail end of the run.

    Like I said before, this was very early in the run, the walleyes weren't even in it. Only a few hammer handle northern pike mixed in among those white suckers, and the suckers weren't spawning, nor were they in spawning color phase yet.

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  3. You are in the Red River of the North (Hudson Bay Drainage) right? I've studied specimens of silver, shorthead, and golden from up that way, but never been there. Some of the drainages I've worked in have 4-6 spp of redhorse. Have you ever tangled with M. carinatum?

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  4. Yes, I'm in the RRN drainage. As far as I'm aware, there aren't any specimens of river redhorse in this drainage, at least according to all the literature and species assemblages/stream surveys that I've come across. I have yet to catch one myself.

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  5. Sorry, I meant M. carinatum somewhere other than the RRN. I thought you might have gotten over to another system that might be connected to the Miss R.

    I've spent the last ~10 years studying and, the rest of my life, catching redhorses (and other suckers), its nice to meet another angler who appreciates them.

    I've got a great story about catching carinatum in TN on a flyrod. They are super powerful, fast, and they can jump!

    Keep up the good work!

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  6. I figured on what you meant. I have fished outside of the basin, but haven't targeted river redhorse exclusively. It's still one I need to add to the lifelist!

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