Huge Fly Fisherman: Trash Fish???- Video

[Fish Sticks]

 

[jifigz]

I never would have expected a video like this from you Fish Sticks. I'm very caught off guard.

 

[krayfish2]

Brook trout = trash fish

 

[tomgamber]

Brook trout = trash fish

over populated and stunted. This is how they were considered in Idaho. I do know a high elevation lake with consistent wild 12-14 inchers, however, only 3 flat miles from the road. Just as dumb as cutties. In bigger lakes brookies spawn in the gravel shallows, over populate and stunt.

 

[Fish Sticks]

over populated and stunted. This is how they were considered in Idaho. I do know a high elevation lake with consistent wild 12-14 inchers, however, only 3 flat miles from the road. Just as dumb as cutties. In bigger lakes brookies spawn in the gravel shallows, over populate and stunt.

Actually your right but there is an interesting angle to that. Most invasive predators over populate and stunt. Brookies are invasive there. The same thing is happening with invasive blue catfish in the james river, same thing with invasive lake trout in flathead and yellowstone lakes, and look at spring creek in state college we are talking about a slot limit there because invasive brown trout have taken over and stunted. Spot on observation.

 

[silverfox]

Ben's gonna upset the sensitive butter bros with that one. Of course, I don't think Ben cares.

I caught a channel cat on a wooley bugger last year while smallmouth fishing. I thought I had a world record smallie on. Took me forever to get it up high enough to see what it was. I just started laughing when I discovered it was a 16 inch catfish. Smallies fight hard but man that was one of the strongest fish lb for lb I think I've ever caught.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Brook trout = trash fish

Ive been ‘fraid of changes

 

[wildtrout2]

Brook trout = trash fish

Brook Trout = state fish

 

[Fish Sticks]

Ben's gonna upset the sensitive butter bros with that one. Of course, I don't think Ben cares.

I caught a channel cat on a wooley bugger last year while smallmouth fishing. I thought I had a world record smallie on. Took me forever to get it up high enough to see what it was. I just started laughing when I discovered it was a 16 inch catfish. Smallies fight hard but man that was one of the strongest fish lb for lb I think I've ever caught.

Fished the kish creek 2 days ago and best fight by far was a huge white sucker whos head was 3.5” wide and 18” long. It was like hooking a run away dump truck on a 3 weight

 

[silverfox]

Fished the kish creek 2 days ago and best fight by far was a huge white sucker whos head was 3.5” wide and 18” long. It was like hooking a run away dump truck on a 3 weight

It's funny Ben mentioned northern hogsuckers. I've always wanted to catch one too. I see them all the time but never hooked one.

 

[Fish Sticks]

It's funny Ben mentioned northern hogsuckers. I've always wanted to catch one too. I see them all the time but never hooked one.

Yea me 2 clarks creek is LOADED with them lower down

 

[silverfox]

Actually your right but there is an interesting angle to that. Most invasive predators over populate and stunt. Brookies are invasive there. The same thing is happening with invasive blue catfish in the james river, same thing with invasive lake trout in flathead and yellowstone lakes, and look at spring creek in state college we are talking about a slot limit there because invasive brown trout have taken over and stunted. Spot on observation.

Right, if it was a species thing all the brook trout in Moosehead lake would be dinks. Let's ignore the possibility that competition from other species might be a contributing factor too.

Exhibit A: https://www.sportingjournal.com/whats-the-story-on-moosehead-lake-brookies/

 

[Schaefer406]

Fished the kish creek 2 days ago and best fight by far was a huge white sucker whos head was 3.5” wide and 18” long. It was like hooking a run away dump truck on a 3 weight

I hooked a sucker on Penns and I thought I was about to catch an absolute stud brown. It fought like a bull and stayed so deep that I couldn’t bring it up at all for a few minutes. Then when my buddy finally got a glimpse of the fish we laughed at our excitement. It was maybe the most fun I’ve had fighting a fish though, would love to catch a 19” sucker again

 

[Fish Sticks]

I hooked a sucker on Penns and I thought I was about to catch an absolute stud brown. It fought like a bull and stayed so deep that I couldn’t bring it up at all for a few minutes. Then when my buddy finally got a glimpse of the fish we laughed at our excitement. It was maybe the most fun I’ve had fighting a fish though, would love to catch a 19” sucker again

I have noticed that dropshoting with spaced out shot tail like 6-8” below the first dropper increases sucker odds a bit when your rolling the bottom hard like that. They way that mouth is facing might have something to do with that. I see huge 20” ones all over the tailouts in spring creek from like 10p to 3-4am with my flashlight. If love to catch one at night. The fact that they are often in shallow tailout right next to brown trout at night exerting energy makes me think its got to be getting a return on that expenditure(foraging/hunting). I guess if i wanted a shot a wet fly swing weighted to all H*** would be best bet. I doubt its going to happen for me at night though on a white sucker. Fallfish different story, they are aggressive and catch them regularly at night.

 

[Tigereye]

If you fish for trash fish are you considered a trash fisherman?

Guilty as charged.

 

[Fish Sticks]

If you fish for trash fish are you considered a trash fisherman?

Guilty as charged.

Yea I’m a trash fisherman through and through then as well. My fiberglass dry dropper spot is a 30 to 40” wide trickle next to pennstate hershey medical center.

 

[silverfox]

I hooked a sucker on Penns and I thought I was about to catch an absolute stud brown. It fought like a bull and stayed so deep that I couldn’t bring it up at all for a few minutes. Then when my buddy finally got a glimpse of the fish we laughed at our excitement. It was maybe the most fun I’ve had fighting a fish though, would love to catch a 19” sucker again

I had the same thing happen on Spring creek. I thought I had a granddaddy brown trout on for a while. It turned out to be a 17 or 18 inch sucker, but it was thick. I always thought it was funny how people wax poetic about the fighting ability of certain sportfish when smaller versions of "trash fish" tend to fight better.

 

[jifigz]

look at spring creek in state college we are talking about a slot limit there because invasive brown trout have taken over and stunted. Spot on observation.

I would disagree with this point and this has been debated here ad nauseam. If the reason that Spring is filled with stunted fish is because it has been overrun with the invasive brown trout then why would Penns, Kish, and Little J, and Bald Eagle have far, far larger wild browns on average than Spring? All of those streams are also colonized by the invasive brown trout and yet churn out impressive fish far more consistently than Spring Creek. Plus, the invasive browns have to put up with stocked rainbows in all of those streams, a pressure that the Spring Creek fish don't have to do. Spring Creek doesn't churn out big fish because there is relatively few areas of excellent cover for big fish, period. Yes, big fish exist here, but not like in the other mentioned streams.

Also, enjoying catching all fish, trash fish or not, is nothing new. I enjoy catching any and all fish and so do many anglers. But good lord, do we have to beat this horse any deader than it already is around here? People understand your point. I think, nationwide, there is a reckoning and an understanding of where management has gone wrong in the past decades and there is a lot of effort to change management practices. That whole "hind-sight is 20-20" thing. It will be a long, slow, and tedious process and will in some cases be all but impossible, but it is what it is.

 

[silverfox]

I would disagree with this point and this has been debated here ad nauseam. If the reason that Spring is filled with stunted fish is because it has been overrun with the invasive brown trout then why would Penns, Kish, and Little J, and Bald Eagle have far, far larger wild browns on average than Spring? All of those streams are also colonized by the invasive brown trout and yet churn out impressive fish far more consistently than Spring Creek. Plus, the invasive browns have to put up with stocked rainbows in all of those streams, a pressure that the Spring Creek fish don't have to do. Spring Creek doesn't churn out big fish because there is relatively few areas of excellent cover for big fish, period. Yes, big fish exist here, but not like in the other mentioned streams.

Also, enjoying catching all fish, trash fish or not, is nothing new. I enjoy catching any and all fish and so do many anglers. But good lord, do we have to beat this horse any deader than it already is around here? People understand your point. I think, nationwide, there is a reckoning and an understanding of where management has gone wrong in the past decades and there is a lot of effort to change management practices. That whole "hind-sight is 20-20" thing. It will be a long, slow, and tedious process and will in some cases be all but impossible, but it is what it is.

I think the point is that stunting isn't specific to one species. Stunting is a real thing, and brown trout aren't immune to it. It tends to be prevalent in introduced species and the boom/bust that tends to occur when you introduce a species somewhere where it wasn't present for hundreds of thousands of years, which is what FS was getting at (I believe).

 

[FarmerDave]

Ben's gonna upset the sensitive butter bros with that one. Of course, I don't think Ben cares.

I caught a channel cat on a wooley bugger last year while smallmouth fishing. I thought I had a world record smallie on. Took me forever to get it up high enough to see what it was. I just started laughing when I discovered it was a 16 inch catfish. Smallies fight hard but man that was one of the strongest fish lb for lb I think I've ever caught.

Something similar happened to me, only it wasn.t a dink. Sure, channel cats fight well, but world record smallmouth is just shy 12 lbs.

I used to live in a lake community with a large shallow lake, perfect for bass. One day I was fishing a secluded part for largemouth bass using an antique Shakespear bamboo rod and automatic real. Was using modern line, so there was no room for backing. Oh well, no need for backing on a bass rod, right? The rod was a heavy 9 foot bass taper, or if you prefer, about an 8 wt with moderate taper. Cicada were everywhere that year, so for the fly, I was using an antique molded cicada pattern that I found in an old tackle box that I purchased at an auction. One more thing. I was using tapered leader, tapered down to 4X. In hind sight, it was a little light.

I was wading quite a ways from shore and casting under overhanging willows when something came up and sort of sucked the fly down. I set the hook and it was off to the races. At first, I thought it had to be at least a 5 lb bass. I had caught a few of those in there before. As time went on, it kept growing in my mind. Muddy lake, and it hadn't showed itself. Because of no backing, I had to start following it. After what seemed like 10 minutes, I was thinking possible state (OH) record largemouth. Then I got a glimpse of it and saw the scales. Making a long story short less long, I eventually landed the fish 100 feet from shore on the side of an old stump. What can I say, I really wanted that fly back. The fish likely was some kind of record, but I didn't care and think they kept records for grass carp. But apparently they do. IGFA WORLD RECORD all tackle fly is 82 cm (about 32.25") I measured mine against the fly rod. Butt section measures 37 inches and this fish was about 5 inches longer than the butt section. It was so big that I tried to tail it and the tail was too fat to get a grip on it. Anyway, I had no camera with me, and looked around to see if any other anglers were around. No dice, so I simply let it go.