Bigmouth Buffalo on Fly

Since the water was relatively calm upon arrival, I planned to try for bass with a topwater fly. But it was quickly obvious there were some Grass Carp working near shore around me. So, I started trying for them. Its amazing how such large fish can be invisible even in shallow water...and I'm wearing polarized sunglasses! But there were big swirls, and even an occasional fin sticking above the water. I had a grassie give my fly a good look-over, but didn't eat it. I was deep in concentration trying to spot where the grass carp might be as they moved around.

And then...PLOP!  A lure landed practically right in front of me. I looked over my shoulder and saw a guy who had just cast his lure right next to me. I didn't recognize him at first, so I resumed my fishing. He said hello, and then I realized he was an angler I have talked to (along with his friend) a few times out here. We started talking, he made another cast, reeled in, and then 2-3 GIANT Grass Carp just 15' from my rod tip exploded towards deeper water, right from where his lure was dragging through.

"There go my Grass Carp!" I said.

"You were fishing for those?" he asked.

"Yep."

Maybe it was guilt, but he then shared some "hot bite" information about one of the other nearby ponds. And then fished his way on around the pond.

I stayed put. I saw the tail of a fish in the water in front of me. It was moving around as the fish fed, but stayed close to the same spot. It was a smaller tail than I would have expected to see from a Grass Carp of the size that are in this pond, and darker. Since it appeared to be feeding on the bottom, I assumed it was a Smallmouth Buffalo. I put on a fly that has been catching carp and catfish for me lately (basically a cross between a John Montana's Hybrid carp fly and Chris Vargas's Black Ops fly), and I've seen Instagram pics of a guy that catches buffalo on something very similar to this. I made several casts, and finally had the fly placed about where I hoped the head of the fish would be. I let the fly drop to the bottom, waited until the line twitched, then set the hook.

YES! Turned out to be a 28" Bigmouth Buffalo, which is super-cool, considering they are typically filter feeders...but they do occasionally eat nymphs and whatever else they might find. On spinning gear it isn't unusual to snag one, or even have them eat a twister tail jig or other lure (especially in the river). I've caught a couple of these on flies in the past, and a couple other foul-hooked individuals. This one ate the fly, and it was lodged nicely in the corner of its mouth.

Bigmouth Buffalo, 28"

It was a good fight, mostly because of the size of the fish and trying to drag it in...but it did take a few good strong runs.  I got it to shore and tried to land it...had a hand around its tail and one under the belly...and it freaked and flopped out of my hands back into the water, and took off through/under the moss, throwing mud and water all over me and the new long-sleeved sun hoodie I was wearing (which seems to work pretty well, by the way).   In the process, the line was so buried in moss, weeds, and algae, I was afraid the fish would break the line or throw the hook.  I could barely even pull line back in through all that junk, and finally I had to just stop and reach out and start picking it off the line just so I could get the fish in.  Which I eventually did, as you can see.  Definitely glad I was using 2x tippet (11.9 lb test)!

By the time I decided to give up on the Grass Carp, the wind had picked up. And not just a little. It was considerable work to get reasonable distance on the bass popper I put on. I caught one smallish bass and missed several strikes before deciding to just target panfish instead.

I did catch a Pumpkinseed Sunfish on a floating fly before it got windy. Later I just went with unweighted slow-sinking flies.

I caught some Bluegills and 2-3 mid-sized bass (13"-15" range) before giving up for the evening.

Bottom Feeders on the Surface??

My buddy Jay and I fished a local river yesterday evening for a bit.  The section we fished is downstream of a flood-control reservoir, which is still recovering from our early-summer rains. Consequently, the river is still flowing very high and fast.  There is some foam on the water that collects along shoreline eddies.  Water clarity was decent, but there was suspended rod-shaped algae particles in the water.

We went hoping to find White Bass & Wipers, and anticipated long casts would be necessary to reach the fish.  So, I left my fly rods in the car and too my spinning rods.  Big mistake.  Again.

Jay caught a small Smallmouth Bass on a Pop-R.  I saw signs of fish feeding in and under the foam along a shoreline eddy.  I foul-hooked a couple Smallmouth Buffalo.  I knew I could get these fish to hit a fly, so I dug in my sling pack and found a likely-looking fly (I had just taken my usual fly boxes out of my sling pack before I left the car, but still had some flies on the foam fly-patch inside the sling pack), and grabbed a larger strike indicator that would be visible even in the foam.  I set the indicator about 7" above the fly (the fly was a glass beadhead woolly bugger in kind of a natural mottled brownish color).  The fish were right under the areas with the thickest foam.  I don't think it would have been possible to get a floating fly to the bottom of the foam for the fish to actually find and eat.  But many of the fish had their mouths right up into the foam...a very unusual position for this species.

It took awhile, and I may have had several light strikes that I didn't bother trying to hook, but then I finally got a serious fish to hit it.    24" Smallmouth Buffalo, a new personal best on the fly rod for me.

Despite the low-slung mouth of a dedicated bottom-feeder, they are actually rather pretty fish.  They are blue-colored on their lower flanks.  This one had so much foam on him because of where I landed it, so I only took a picture of his pouty mug.

Evening Flyfishing, 5-22-2014

Last night sure was calm...sunny, 74 degrees.  Perfect, right?  Fishing pretty much sucked.  Nobody was catching much of anything...IF anything.  There were a LOT of folks fishing when I arrived at the pond, and the trail around the pond was busier than I've ever seen it..people walking dogs, pushing strollers, biking, roller-blading....  This is all cool, but because the pond was so calm, the fish spooked everytime somebody went by.

I started out fishing for crappies, but couldn't really move either way down the shoreline because of other anglers, so I stayed put.  I didn't catch any crappies.  I caught one bluegill, and one bass.  The pond was covered in freshly cut grass clippings from earlier in the day.  I started seeing BIG shapes under the grass.  Common Carp and Grass Carp, as far as I could tell.  I started fishing for them, and ignored the other species.

I cast out near 3 shapes, and let my unweighted fly slowly sink.  I couldn't see the fly, but my line started moving.  I set the hook and...FISH ON!  Turned out to be a 25.5" Bigmouth Buffalo!  I didn't even know there were any of those in there!

As the sun went down, good numbers of Grass Carp were lifting their heads halfway out of the water to suck in the floating grass.  It was pretty cool to see, there were more than I expected in there, and good sizes.  I cast out to them, and my line started moving away, so I set the hook.  Grass Carp on for about 4 seconds...long enough to peel off about 10 yards of line, and spook the rest of the pod of fish, which left an area of the the size of a garage looking like the U.S. Navy had dropped depthcharges for submarines!

Fly Fishing Report - May 9, 2013

My new friend Robert R was in town.  Robert is a GREAT guy, who loves fishing as much as I do...which is saying something!

We went to Ada Hayden Lake in Ames, Iowa.  I hoped the recent cold weather would have the rainbow trout active along the shorelines.  The day started out breezy, cloudy, with just a bit of drizzle.  As soon as we arrived at the lake, we saw thousands and thousands of buffalo constantly streaming along the shorelines...EVERY shoreline.  I put on a nymph and tossed it out in front of some, and immediately had a Buffalo on.  I could see the fish had the fly in its mouth, and was close to shore.  My leader got wedged under a rock, and in the time it took for me to free the line, the fish freed itself.  Darn!  No other Buffalo had any interest in the fly.

I spotted one trout along the shore, and cast near it.  It turned and headed for the fly, but it didn't find it, and disappeared before I got another cast off.

I started casting out away from shore, and soon had a fish hit a Chili Pepper...twice.  It didn't get hooked either time, but I clearly saw the white flash.  It could have been a trout, but I thought it looked more like maybe a crappie.  I switched to a white beadhead Woolly Bugger, and soon had a Wiper on the end of my line!  I landed the fish, it was 15.5" long.  Not big as Wipers go, but definitely a fun fish on a fly rod!

I switched to a gray-over-white Clouser Deep Minnow.  Over the next 90 minutes or so, I landed a total of 9 Wipers.  They ranged from maybe 13" up to 16.5".

Very fun!  They seemed to be scattered around, rather than schooling together.  I had to keep moving to pick up a fish here and there.

Robert's fishing was interrupted by some long business-related conference calls, but he managed to catch a couple good crappies.

After a quick lunch we visited Peterson Pit East.  It is connected to the Skunk River, and the river was high and muddy.  The water in the pit was up into the brush and trees all around the lake.  There was no way to access the water and fish it from shore, so we headed back to Ada Hayden.  The wind had died some before lunch, and the Wipers bite had slowed.  So we decided to try some other areas of the lake for panfish.  We didn't find any.  I stopped at a culvert that had a bit of water flowing into the lake.  There were some Buffalo and a few small carp near it.  I thought maybe I could get the carp to strike, but could not.  One Buffalo swam towards shore near where I was standing. It was mouthing some flooded grass, looking like it was feeding.  Hey, if it was eating, why not try to feed it?  I dropped a nymph in front of its mouth, and it sucked it in.  I set the hook, and the hook lodged in the lip.  HOORAY!  My first Bigmouth Buffalo on a fly!  It barely fought, but it did slowly head away from shore, where it was instantly bombarded by 3 or 4 male Buffalo who were trying to mate with it.  They were pushing the fish away from me!  I thought they would knock my line loose from the fish's mouth, but everything held as intended.  I landed the fish, and she measured 28"!

Later in the afternoon, Robert and I flyfished a pond not far from my house.  We each caught Crappies, Bluegills, Hybrid Sunfish, and Pumpkinseeds.  Here's Robert with one of the beautiful Pumkinseeds:

I also managed to land a couple bass:

Fishing had been slow all day, but we caught fish and really had fun!

Flyfishing for Buffalo?

Earlier this Summer I had posted a report on this blog of catching a couple Smallmouth Buffalo out of the river on flies.  I LOVE catching new species on fly gear!

I had spotted a few Bigmouth Buffalo in a local public pond this Spring.  I hadn't visited the pond for most of the Summer.  I went there yesterday during lunch.  It had rained the previous evening, and there was some current and clearer water flowing into the pond through a culvert.

I was absolutely astonished by the HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of Bigmouth Buffalo in this pond!  Many were near the surface, lined up near the clear water current line.  Many were in smaller pods of fish, moving around.  They'd mouth near the surface, then turn and dive head-down for the bottom...and eventually come up again.  Strange behavior.

I tried to take a picture of these fish.  Hard to see in the picture, but very obvious in person.

Bigmouth Buffalo are filter-feeders.  They gulp water and strain out the plankton with their gill rakers.  I've caught them on bait and on lures in the past.  I've not caught any on flies yet, obviously.

I tried egg patterns, I tried small Woolly Buggers, I tried midge patterns...I may have gotten one strike, but it was subtle.  Another time I suspected a strike, set the hook, and caught one!  Turns out it was hooked in the forehead...but it was a good fight all the same.  Technically...it counts as a fish since snagging these IS legal...but it doesn't count on my "Species caught on Fly" list.  Took some pics anyway.  I'd estimate it was about 24" long.

There was so MANY...I figure if I can discover a pattern / presentation they will hit, I could really have a great time Flyfishing for Buffalo on this pond!

Anybody have any tips or suggestions?

New Fly Rod "First":...the Smallmouth Buffalo!

I decided to head back to the little backwater area along the Des Moines River below Saylorville Lake...just downstream of the Cottonwood fishing pier.  The river is so low, there is a huge sandbar that separates a narrow water-filled channel near shore from the main river channel that is flowing near the opposite shoreline.    This narrow channel is pretty much "cut off" from the rest of the river right now.

During my last trip here this past weekend, I saw plenty of Carp, and suspected I was hearing Freshwater Drum.  I wanted to target both species, with special emphasis on the Drum since I haven't yet caught one on fly gear.  I read that black leech patterns, crayfish patterns, and white minnow patterns all catch Freshwater Drum, especially if you can keep them on/near the bottom.

I got on the sandbar near its downstream end, and started walking upstream along this stagnant channel.  I wasn't hearing the "drum" sound I'd heard last time.  Bummer.  I saw some Carp working the shallows.  I tossed an egg pattern to one.  It took the egg, I set the hook, and the line broke.  This was new line!  For some reason, I've been breaking a lot of the egg patterns off on carp during the hookset.

Next, I tied on a Mr. P's Carp Carrot and started working the deeper water of the channel, blind casting for Drum or whatever would hit.  I did get some strikes, but nothing hooked up.

Then I saw a small carp in the shallows working its way towards me, nosing into the bottom.  A dozen bad casts, and a couple good ones...I finally got the strike.  I set the hook, and had a good battle for a few minutes.  I discovered this was not a carp, but a Black (?) Buffalo (edit:  I've since learned that these are SMALLMOUTH BUFFALO)!  This is a new flyrod species for me, which is...AWESOME!  This one, 19.5" long, was caught on the Carp Carrot.

There were some Carp (or maybe Bigmouth Buffalo?) mouthing near the surface, so I switched my fly to a Blind Squirrel.  Eventually spotted another fish in the shallows and numerous casts finally got the fly where I wanted it.  The fish took it.  This was another Black (?) Buffalo (edit: SMALLMOUTH BUFFALO).  22.5" long.

I also caught a Bluegill on the egg pattern, a Hybrid Sunfish on the Carp Carrot, and 6 Green Sunfish on the Blind Squirrel.

Now... I need help figuring this out.  When I caught them, I assumed these two Buffalo were Smallmouth Buffalo.  But they really might be Black Buffalo.  I looked them both up online, studied descriptions and pictures...and I'm still not sure.  Lateral line scale counts and the habitat where these were feeding were slightly more suggestive of Black Buffalo.  But there is overlap on the scale counts between the two species.  Without a side-by-side comparison, I can't definitively tell by the other descriptive characteristics.  The Black Buffalo is typically darker in coloration, often with a bluish color on the sides.  Well, as you can tell from the first two pics, these certainly had some bluish tinting on the sides above their bellies, which was even more noticeable in person. The Smallmouth Buffalo has a larger eye, and is supposed to have lighter coloration (but this can depend on the waters where it is found, and they get darker during the breeding season...but that was several months ago).  There is a difference in mouth placement...and some have suggested the Black Buffalo has thicker lips.

Although I'm truly unsure (which is strange...I'm generally quite good with fish identification), I think for now I will go with Black Buffalo on these.  If there's anyone that has more experience with both of these species and thinks they can accurately tell which species this is based on my pictures, I'd LOVE to know!

------------------------------------------
Addendum:  I changed the title to this post to accurately reflect the new information I received regarding the species identification.  I had posed the question and pictures to my friend Ben, who is a Fisheries Biologist with the IDNR for our area.  Here is his response:
"It’s always tough when you are trying to ID from a photo, rather than having the fish in your hand.  These two species are tough to tell apart, so don’t feel bad! 

However, I believe that you caught 2 smallmouth buffalo.  There are some body measurement ratios that the professionals use to separate these two species.  I analyzed these ratios from your photos and both fish fall out as smallmouth buffs.  In addition, and this is probably the best method, the smallmouth buff will have a keel in front of their dorsal fin.  Unfortunately, I don’t have top-down photos to tell.

Hope that helps Dave and congrats on the catch!"

That is good enough for me!  These shall henceforth be known as Smallmouth Buffalo, and in the future I will check for the presence of the keel in front of the dorsal fin.