Fall Fish, one of PA’s original native predators: Thread for techniques, reports, and Fisheries.

Fish Sticks

Fish Sticks

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Fall Fish Thread


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Before introduction of non-native smallmouth bass, channel catfish, walleye, largemouth bass, rainbow trout, brown trout, and muskellunge, fallfish were thought by many to be one of the major native apex predators of eastern flowing streams in the mid-Atlantic. Does not seem to be a lot of info on the size and abundance of these fish before non native introductions.

They are a large, hard fighting, and predatory game fish but often ignored because of being arbitrarily branded as “undesirable” or misidentified as “chubs”. While anglers complain about the usual non native trout fisheries being packed these days, these fish exist in large abundance in most if not all PA fly anglers areas and take streamers, dries, wets, and nymphs.

Those who chose to pursue them have some amazing fisheries all to themselves quite frequently. Who out there besides me is targeting Fall Fish?
 
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They are interesting fish but certainly do not have the fight of a Smallmouth or Trout or even a Walleye.
 
Don’t directly target them but they are fun to catch accidentally, some creeks around me have fallfish that approach 18 or so inches
 
falcon said:
I dont target them but I did catch two several days ago on a dry fly. One of them was quite strong and about 15 in.
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Yea I got some great ones on the surface sulphur hatch this year around 12” that leaped like 2-3 times each and fought very hard.
 
Mikey2006 said:
Don’t directly target them but they are fun to catch accidentally, some creeks around me have fallfish that approach 18 or so inches
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Yea most transitional or warm water streams have good populations and so do most cold water streams that support trout. Thats what makes em so great. I have friends in east PA that love fly fishing but only go when they can drive an hour plus to an unstocked trout stream and I tell them they don’t have to go long periods without chasing hatches, nymphing, swinging wets or streamers because they don’t have trout.
 
Now this is a thread I can get behind!

Some of my most memorable fishing adventures were purely days of catching fall fish. I stopped counting at around 25 and just enjoyed the ride. They really love wooly buggers.
 
I have a love hate relationship with fallfish. In the one hand, I can find them in creeks closer to me in great abundances and sizes and I can have a really fun day. On the other hand, I catch a lot of fallfish and creek chubs when trout fishing in the piedmont region of Maryland, and i some what feel that they are replacing the trout. This isn’t their fault though, they’re just filling up an ecological niche that was previously occupied by trout.
 
littlelimbs said:
Now this is a thread I can get behind!

Some of my most memorable fishing adventures were purely days of catching fall fish. I stopped counting at around 25 and just enjoyed the ride. They really love wooly buggers.
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Yea apparently one of their big prey items is crayfish so that makes sense and I have noticed this as well! Some of my most memorable days have been catching them as well and having banner days and then looking around and seeing no people no anglers, great times.
 
Fall fish were partially one of the reasons I got interested in fly fishing in the first place. I had a few really great days throwing buggers on a ultra light spinning rod to em, but the only way I was able to really cast the distances I desired was with a conehead bugger + split shot. It was a little heavy handed and the flies didn't always quite drift in the current the way I wanted with all that weight. Turns out, a fly rod solves all those problems + more!
Fish Sticks said:
Yea apparently one of their big prey items is crayfish so that makes sense and I have noticed this as well! Some of my most memorable days have been catching them as well and having banner days and then looking around and seeing no people no anglers, great times.
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That's the other thing, not a lot of people are out of the streams I'm fishing for them in. It's usually much more likely I'll run into someone floating in a tube, kayak, or canoe than run into other anglers in large stretches of the water I've fished. This probably helps tremendously with why they are so easy and ready to bite: very little fishing pressure.
 
TheBluegillMaster said:
I have a love hate relationship with fallfish. In the one hand, I can find them in creeks closer to me in great abundances and sizes and I can have a really fun day. On the other hand, I catch a lot of fallfish and creek chubs when trout fishing in the piedmont region of Maryland, and i some what feel that they are replacing the trout. This isn’t their fault though, they’re just filling up an ecological niche that was previously occupied by trout.
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yea there probably is a lot of mesh between fall fish and trout. With brown trout its probably a net ecological benefit for the stream when fall fish take over(other native minow species brown trout eat use fall fish constructed nests to spawn). Not sure what happens when they mesh with brook trout because. Theres not too much research on this because fallfish are a species of least concern as far as conservation status.
 
littlelimbs said:
Fall fish were partially one of the reasons I got interested in fly fishing in the first place. I had a few really great days throwing buggers on a ultra light spinning rod to em, but the only way I was able to really cast the distances I desired was with a conehead bugger + split shot. It was a little heavy handed and the flies didn't always quite drift in the current the way I wanted with all that weight. Turns out, a fly rod solves all those problems + more!

That's the other thing, not a lot of people are out of the streams I'm fishing for them in. It's usually much more likely I'll run into someone floating in a tube, kayak, or canoe than run into other anglers in large stretches of the water I've fished. This probably helps tremendously with why they are so easy and ready to bite: very little fishing pressure.
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Yea same 10x more likely to see a kayak than a fisherman in my local stream in the place i go
 
They don’t really fight worth a damn. That’s my biggest beef with them.
 
Fish Sticks said:
yea there probably is a lot of mesh between fall fish and trout. With brown trout its probably a net ecological benefit for the stream when fall fish take over(other native minow species brown trout eat use fall fish constructed nests to spawn). Not sure what happens when they mesh with brook trout because. Theres not too much research on this because fallfish are a species of least concern as far as conservation status.
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I've seen places where there are good numbers of fallfish and wild browns in the same stretch of stream. I haven't seen any places where fallfish and native brookies are in the same stretch of stream.
 
March is prime time on the stream i fish i get them to 20 in sometimes.
 
rustbeltwilds said:
March is prime time on the stream i fish i get them to 20 in sometimes.
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Yea i have not crossed 20” yet but the one in the original post took me into my drag. Everyone thinks they have a huge brown at first when they get to that size. VA has a trophy classification for fall fish as part of their master angler program. Pa doesn’t seem to acknowledge a “ record “ size fall fish at all
 
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