Another two...

Took my grandkids fishing to the La Salle River today and normally don't even bring a rod along because they keep me pretty busy untangling lines, removing and baiting hooks and trying to free snags. Since they are no longer rookies, I threw the flyrod and a few flies into the back of the car and as it turns out, I'm pretty glad I did. The kids fished till about 4:00, catching a number of bullheads, suckers and even a nice channel cat before heading home for supper. Out came the fly rod...I hadn't a clue what species those suckers were and I needed a specimen to pose for some pictures. It wasn't long before I caught one, as a matter of fact before the day ended I managed about a dozen, the first few on a flashy, #10 bead-headed nymph and the rest on a brown #8 leech pattern. A check with my fish keys at home revealed all the suckers caught were the common white sucker.

White sucker

I even managed a brown bullhead, another species I hadn't caught yet.There were loads of both species of bullhead in the pool but they seldom go after a fly, in my experience anyway. The way I usually catch them is to hang a small nymph under an indicator and plop it right into their midst. Eventually one of them seems to grab the nymph. This time I caught it using a leech pattern while trying for the suckers.

This river has an unusual high number of species on any given part and today I also caught some crappies, rock bass, walleye, sauger and pike. I even watched the resident mink drag in a sucker that was 1 1/2 time as long as itself.