The best way to describe it is in food terms, I think. Sweet and sour, possibly a good Molé sauce or chocolate covered grilled jalapenos. Spawning fish have a strange sweet musty smell like flowers and damp earth, but if you don’t have much of a sense of smell, that probably doesn’t help.
When I was fishing this same location the day before, this smell wasn’t here. Even though there were a few suckers heading up stream there weren’t that many of them. Initially on this second day in the same spot, I wasn’t seeing that many. There were still a few suckers porpoising and jumping, but nothing out of the ordinary.
The fishing was steady for the first hour and a half with smallmouth bass coming out of the usual smallmouth bass fish holding spots. In case you’ve forgotten, nine times out of ten the spot where the fish was caught is in the background of the photo.
The fish sizes ran the gamut between 12 and 18 inches.
Unlike the previous day where the fish were simply picking up the lure and swimming away with it, these fish were hitting hard and their fights were intense.
The bigger ones fought no harder than the smaller ones and after landing 10 smallies, with another four that self released, my wrist was getting a little sore.
The previous day I had snagged a couple of suckers…
River red horse were all over the place, porpoising and jumping. I wound up foul hooking a couple of them and if there was a way to actually fish for them, I would give it a try. It’s like hooking into a car speeding by on the road, they take off like a bullet.
I had switched to a twister that’s called pumpkinseed/chartreuse. From a color standpoint, it perfectly mimics a crayfish.
I guess it also can mimic some kind of worm in the water. Either way, I’ve found what suckers will eat. Probably one of the first times I’ve ever hooked a sucker in the mouth. It lived up to what I said above. This one ran like crazy all over the creek and was much harder to land than any of the smallies. And my wrist hurt just a little bit more.
The colors of the suckers this time of year are beautiful.
Over these two days, eight guys were out bowfishing. I have no problem with them chasing down common and silver carp, but they were shooting at anything that moved that didn’t look like a game fish. It’s my understanding that suckers are an indicator of good stream quality. They’re also not an invasive species. Seems irresponsible to me to shoot them and toss them up on shore. Luckily these guys sucked at what they were doing and for all the shooting going on, I only saw a couple of fish tossed on shore.
Since this record setting warm spelled started, I keep forgetting to mention the frogs. Low lying areas are filled with the sound of tree frogs. Nine creek miles up, I spooked a good hundred or so bullfrog tadpoles out from an undercut bank. Every where I walk frogs are jumping out of the way. I finally got one to sit still for me.
And then the bite died. I had started to notice that smell of spawning fish. I headed for a shore that sits a good six feet above a long shallow stretch of the creek. There were hundreds of suckers heading up stream. I had noticed a long time ago that when the carp, suckers, quillback carpsuckers and others start their migration up the river and creeks, the bite for anything else pretty much dies. These fish have one thing in mind and they don’t let anything get in their way. I’ve seen water look like it’s boiling from the quantity of these fish moving around and thrashing in the shallower water.
Rumor has it that the eggs of these fish have a green tint to them. Years ago I would fall in behind these sex crazed fish and fish behind them with lures that had a slight touch of green. Game fish of every kind would be caught. Not much different than fishing with spawn sacs I guess.
I hung out for another hour aimlessly letting a lure swim around in the water as I watched this massive fish migration head up stream. One final smallie eventually hit.
And then I packed it up and went home.
Today I had to run errands that took me over a bridge over this spot. Suckers were jumping as I drove by. The river level is dropping and the river water that had turned this last two hundred yards of a creek into a pool, is now leaving. The creek was starting to look like a flowing creek again.
Thunderstorms are approaching and I have till 6 PM till they come in full force, I hope. I think it’s time to go dine and dash on this creek. I’ll take note of how things have changed in three straight days of fishing here.
Then I won’t come back again for years.
The Four Season Angler
22 Mar 2012I know that smell. The ponds overrun with carp near me get that smell when water temps hit mid to upper 60s. Thats about the peak of carp activity too, so much so that the fish goo mixed with activity actually creates blobs of foam on the water.
I’d like to know how something light brown and fluorescent yellow looks anything like that dark brown and blue craw you posted?
Ken G
22 Mar 2012Brown and green, the fish aren’t as picky. If you’re seeing yellow, then I think you might be slightly color blind to blue.
I can locate bluegill redds by smell. Used to come in hand in Virginia when one of the lakes was a bit high and stained. The guy I was with couldn’t smell anything.
bob
22 Mar 2012oh please, i wanna go. i wanna’ catch some fish in a stream, take some images, smell things, see things, hear things. Jeez, i’m sitting here living vicariously.
fl. green, plastic salmon eggs – single on a hook – will catch suckers all day. All day.
The writing (words, sentences, phrases, descriptions) has gotten its groove on.
Ken G
22 Mar 2012Bob, they were pretty much gone today. That means they’ve all gone further up stream. Give them a few days and I know just where to go. That’s what you get for being a south side Chicago boy. I moved, you can too.
I’ve been giving myself a time limit on the last few things I jotted down. One hour. I walk around with them in my head for hours, I don’t want to sit and agonize over it when I start hacking away at the keyboard. Not sure that’s an improvement, just something I want to do.
Steve S.
22 Mar 2012Nice job ken. I love the pictures of the carp.
Ken G
22 Mar 2012The reds are pretty intense and you can’t beat the pattern of their scales. Thanks Steve.
Bill Howard
22 Mar 2012I love the redhorse suckers. Down here in N.C. they tend to hit the shad darts pretty good too. And yes, they do pack a wallop!
Ken G
22 Mar 2012Thanks Bill. They’re like rockets. It’s rare that I hook one in the mouth, usually they’re foul hooked. I should have taken the one the guy threw up on shore. I hear they’re not bad eating. Can’t stand to see food wasted. Stopped today to take a look at a road kill deer. Couldn’t tell how long it was there and with the warm weather we’ve been having didn’t want to take any chances.
Besides, my wife would have killed me.
Pam
22 Mar 2012Looks like you’ve had a couple of awesome days on the water. Great pics and I always enjoy your story telling. I have yet to hook a carp on a rod, but I will!
Ken G
22 Mar 2012After today’s 3 fish, they are all pretty much gone and I know where they are going up stream. At least some of them. That’s what I’ve been waiting for and I’ll be looking for them next week.
Carp time is coming Pam. Sight fish for them with a fly rod. Wait for the caddis hatch and when you see those bugle lips sucking down bugs on the surface, toss a caddis fly in there.
walt franklin
23 Mar 2012Ken,
The redhorse has an interesting spawning color, though I’ve never caught them at this time. I’ve watched the sucker spawns plenty of times, however, esp. when the Finger Lake rainbows make their spring runs in early April. Because of the warm weather, I’m afraid those runs will be over by April 1 when the trout season opens this year. One of the prices we pay for loving this so.
Ken G
23 Mar 2012The male creek chubs should all be changing colors soon, plus getting all those knobs on their heads. A good picture of that is going to be my next t-shirt, only I’m sure what it is will be taken all wrong.
I have one section of my yard set aside for cherry tomatoes. Every year I get hundreds of plants from tomatoes that fell on the ground. They’re already coming up. We’ll probably get a heavy frost mid April that will kill everything off.