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| First one of the day - 11 lbs. |
My first catch was the biggest of the day. Another great fighting carp. It, along with the two others I landed, looked tired and sore. The heat is getting to all of us.
The clouds rolled out before I landed my next fish. The sun, in addition to the worst humidity in a while, beat me almost to submission. Good thing I went before the real heat of midday arrived.
I spent the next hour missing or spooking nearly every carp is saw. A giant sat in front of a downed tree. It quickly became suspicious of the fly presented in front of it. That big missus is at the top of my most wanted list. I think her mouth gaped wider that the girth of fish #2. Maybe next time, milady.
I walked down my usual stretch, then made my way back up. The very last fish I crept upon was a small drum I've met on several occasions. It has marks on its back. It had survived being caught by something before. And after our encounter, it survived again. Not quite ugly enough, but its currently my only chance at placing in the 'Ugliest Fish' category of Fly South's 11th Annual Carp Masters Tournament.
I work tomorrow. I'll be getting out in early afternoon. How will I be spending my 4th of July? Take a wild guess...
Tight lines and fair hooks.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteNice fish! Got a question, that first fish seems to have no barbels and the dorsal fin is very un carp like, might that be a carp sucker? If not you have some unique looking fish. Don't worry about fish that win no photo contests, I catch plenty of those. It seems warm water fish deal with far more survival issues than say trout might.
Gregg
It is a type of carpsucker. I should've clarified that the tournament accepts carpsuckers, drum, redhorse and just about every other bottom feeding, downward facing mouthed fish. I think the elusive grass carp is the only one without a downward facing mouth.
ReplyDeleteNice fish!
ReplyDeleteThe grass carp (white Amur) has more of a forward facing mouth. The fish you are catching look to me to be a species of buffalo, probably smallmouth buffalo. Smallmouth buffalo are a type of sucker and unlike carp they are native to a lot of American waters. They act a lot like carp, feeding on nymphs etc n the bottom. They are related to the bigmouth buffalo which is primarily a filter feeder. Both get huge, I am pretty sure they caught a smallmouth over 60 lbs in tx this year. Great fish.
The carp sucker is a different species. Very cool fish as well, I dig quill backs.
Nice fish!
I've gone back and forth on whether those are carpsuckers or buffalo. They all live side by side here at the river I fish. I just lump them all together as carp or carpsuckers. One of the Buffalo world records was set here a year or two ago, but was recently beat again. I have caught a good amount of the different types of "suckers" here, but the Redhorse still eludes me.
ReplyDelete