A Couple of Crappies

I ended up keeping a buddy company on a trip to Rushing River, Ontario to pick up his new 17’ Prospector Kevlar canoe and we hoped to baptise it on the way back to Winnipeg. The fishing muses seemed to discourage us; he forgot the fish finder, rain splattered the windshield of the Jeep and dark clouds hovered on the horizon. Real fishermen are seldom deterred by the warnings of the muses though and after some careful weighing of choices we settled on Barren Lake.  We hit the water in the early afternoon, me with a 6 wt fly rod and my friend Bill, with his spinning rod. I feel lost this time of year without a fish finder so we trolled half heartedly to a shoreline with some rock rubble and blown down trees and started working the shoreline. I caught an 8” smallmouth and lost 2 larger fish on the strike and then nothing for a few hours. After trying an assortment of flies I went back to my original fly, a yellow rabbit body with deer hair head and shoulders that I had originally tied to catch smallmouth bass. 

Big Buck Bunny

We ended locating a school of crappies and I caught two but missed over a dozen others. I attribute that to the length of the rabbit strip beyond the hook but I was reluctant to shorten the bunny strip...it was the only version of that fly I had. I tried several smaller flies that seemed close in color but with negative results. On that afternoon they wanted only one pattern, the Big Buck Bunny.  The two crappies we caught were nice fish; 1 at 11” and the other a meaty 12 1/2 “.

An 11" and 12 1/2" crappie

I normally release all my fish and despair at taking “stringer” pictures but Bill had never eaten crappie before. And crappies have the misfortune of tasting like candy.

A big surprise...

The La Salle River downstream of the dam is warm, speckled with duckweed, and the rocks are covered with algae. To boot, continued hot weather with little rain has water levels very low. Most decent sized fish have left or have been caught but for the diehard fisherman there is still action to be had. Small fish are abundant and today I was targeting small rock bass and crappies.

I was high sticking a current break between a riffle and a back eddie where I had caught my biggest crappie of the day yesterday.  On my second drift a big maw suddenly appeared and engulfed my #14 hair's ear nymph. the hookup was solid and 15 minutes later I landed a 32 inch channel cat. After posing for his mug shot he seemed pretty weary but after some ichthyological CPR gave a solid flip of the tail and disappeared back into the pool. Who would have guessed...a pretty big channel cat nymphing for size 14 bugs on a current break. Certainly a first for me and my biggest cat on my 4 wt rod.

A new Manitoba species on the fly

Fishing was slow today on the La Salle, at least for me and at the spots I usually fish. So I tied on a small hare's ear nymph and went prospecting for smaller fish. The first spot I tried was near the tail of a riffle and BINGO...a new species on the fly. Problem is I'm not 100% certain of the species but what the heck, this blog is informal and just for fun so I'll add the fish to my list. I will try to get confirmation but for now I'm adding a River Shiner (Notropis blennius).I have since been told this is a Common Shiner and I think that fits the description better...so we have a Common Shiner (Luxilus cornutus).

I managed quite a few of these and many just couldn't get the fly in their mouth.

Also managed quite a few small crappies and goldeye in the fast water.

Just another great day on the fly rod!

Stonecats...continued

I gave it a yeoman's try this morning but the stonecats refused my feathery imitations. The current, split shot and bushes behind me made the effort a challenge and one I'm unlikely to repeat, at least in this exact location. Since I fly fish this river a lot I may just get one  without necessarily targeting the species. When I switched to salted minnows, the action was slow but steady. Half a dozen stonecats in about an hour.

I've had much better luck with channel cats which will take a fly readily. I've also managed the odd bullhead but I've only been able to target them in specific circumstances. Sometimes they seem to gather in large groups and mill around at the bottom (or sometimes at the head) of a pool. At this time they will take a weighted nymph put right into their midst. I suspect it to be be more of a competitive strike than an effort to feed.

Will Stonecats take a fly?

Stonecats are easy to catch out of the river at my place. Unfortunately so far, this has required bait. The type doesn’t seem important and minnows seem to work as well as worms.  Quite close to shore throughout the day seems be the ticket although fish experts tell us the fish are nocturnal feeders and will hide under cover during the day. I suspect the extremely turbid water provides the safety that the night time normally delivers. The literature also states the young are primarily invertivores although when larger they will feed on smaller minnows and crayfish. That suggests I might be able to catch them on a fly.

Until the last few days the river has been very high, actually approaching the same levels encountered during high spring flows. The resulting waters were very dark and muddy and currents ran strong. Just today I noticed the water appearing a bit less turbid and the currents aren’t quite as strong. Still not the best conditions for exercising the long rod but a definite improvement over what we had last week.During the next few days I’ll try to work out a technique for catching at least one of these miniature kitties on a fly.  Wish me luck!