For all you fallfish folks

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Are these fallfish good or bad news for the NB Water quaity? I have always heard that big fallfish are only in very marginal trout water (yet good forage for the browns...)...

(Based only on anecdotal information and with no research)
Fallfish (and chubs?) tend to serve as an indicator species, as do the whitefish out west. They share with trout, an affinity for moving, cold, food-conveying, and well-oxygenated water. Personal experience has big fallfish taking flies right among the trout. We typically find the smaller ones in the less optimal water (slow-moving, silt-bottom, etc.) within the banks of a good trout stream, but we don't actually consider that water as marginal. We consider that finding smaller chubs in slack water means that they couldn't compete with trout in the better/best sections or are simply avoiding being preyed upon by trout or smallmouth bass. Our small circle of fishermen doesn't typically target fallfish, but we're usually glad to know they're there.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Our small circle of fishermen doesn't typically target fallfish

Speak for yourself. I have a lot of fun targeting them to the point of even fishing a local creek near me for the express purpose of trying to break my personal record for largest fallfish. The creek I go to seems to have nothing but fallfish with a lot being in the 16+ inch "tanker class" as I call them, although I haven't been to this creek since 2021. During trout season I actually enjoy catching fallfish instead of stocked trout. These fallfish are fat and eating well, easily out-competing PFBC's Frankenstein fish.

Broadening my horizons on what I like to catch has greatly improved my pleasure in the sport. I'm not obsessed with only catching trout, even though I enjoy catching them and spend the majority of my spring time fishing going after them. I don't feel the need to be a wild/native trout only guy. Lately with temps soaring close to 100 degrees and maybe exceeding it I have taken to the ponds on a quest for warmwater species, mainly bluegill. I just found a reservoir somewhat local to me that contains bluegill close to ten inches. I picked off two of them on my first outing there, having one break me off because it ran into some sub-surface vegetation. I have found bluegill to be the most fun pond/lake fish for me. I have had some of my most memorable experiences in fishing banging out 60+ casts to these little buggers. They're good fighters that can put a fair bit of a fight when they turn and use their bodies as mini underwater dams to really make them hard to pull on. I don't restrict myself to a singular fish species that is reliant on conditions to be ethically fished for. If a fly fisher turns his nose up to what I do, so be it, more fish for me. If I need to boost my self esteem I break out a combo that equals the cost of two weeks pay for most.

I will probably head up to that reservoir today now that I have my preferred 9ft 4wt with me. My 3wt last time just didn't have the juice for the sniper style casts I like to make on ponds. I may type up a report on my outing.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Speak for yourself.

I was... Well, our small circle is five guys.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Thank you for the clarification. I wasn't sure what you meant with "our" as in who it was referring to.

To quote an exchange from The Hobbit;

Bilbo (to Gandalf): "Good morning."

Gandalf: "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

 

[Bamboozle]

When I lived in the "Stroudsburgs" one of my favorite pastimes when I wasn't trout, bass, shad or fishing ponds for sunnies was targeting big fallfish in the Delaware using bait.

I once invited a bunch of my old fishing buddies from Brooklyn to E. Burg to hang out and fish and they were blown away with the size fish we could catch in the big D with minimum effort.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

with minimum effort.

That's another aspect I like with fallfish, minimum effort. They aren't too picky about what they eat too.

 

[Fish Sticks]

One thing I really like about fallfish is they are very nocturnal and hunt crayfish. So if you like night fishing for browns eating crayfish in the summer fall fish can provide a very similar experience as they are actually very high trophic level predators many streams at the upper end of their size range.

 

[Bamboozle]

They aren't too picky about what they eat too.

I guess I have a lot in common with fallfish... 😉

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Thank you for the clarification. I wasn't sure what you meant with "our" as in who it was referring to.

To quote an exchange from The Hobbit;

Bilbo (to Gandalf): "Good morning."

Gandalf: "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

My grandparents (migrants from England) always said "we" when they actually meant "I." I never figured out to whom they were referring, without my dad explaining it to me.

 

[moodyblues]

Thank you for the clarification. I wasn't sure what you meant with "our" as in who it was referring to.

To quote an exchange from The Hobbit;

Bilbo (to Gandalf): "Good morning."

Gandalf: "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

I've always liked Plumleys response to that in "We Were Soldiers" myself. However, Gandalfs is a close second.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

I've always liked Plumleys response to that in "We Were Soldiers" myself. However, Gandalfs is a close second.

"Now that's a good morning, Sgt. Savage."