It's no fluke - Tony catches two more Round Whitefish!

No longnose suckers were found anywhere on the river Wednesday, but 4 Round Whitefish were hooked and two were landed.  Webmaster Corey lost his lifelister Round Whitefish just a few feet from shore.  These fiesty fish fight hard and come unhooked easily! 

 

Finally, a light tap turned into a solid fish, and a sucker was landed.  This Shorthead Redhorse was about the last species of fish I expected to catch when fishing this river.

 

Comments

Jknuth's picture

Jknuth

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 21:20

AWESOME!!!!
Way to crack the round whitefish code!

when you headed back Corey? sucks you lost yours though.

What are your thoughts? Spawning, or there for the sucker and steelhead eggs?

 

Corey's picture

Corey

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 21:23

I might go back this weekend.  They're not spawning, and there weren't any eggs to eat.  I think maybe they just come up in the river to feed on insects.  Hard to say, but I think it's definitely a significant population.

Jknuth's picture

Jknuth

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 21:24

How long of a drive for me? lol

Too damn cool!

Corey's picture

Corey

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 21:37

It's a 5 hour drive from Oshkosh

Jknuth's picture

Jknuth

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 21:39

You have NO idea how tempted I am....No idea at all.

 

Corey's picture

Corey

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 21:55

How much I want to go back.

 

A very cool lifelister was ALMOST ... IN ... MY ... GRASP!!!

 

 

the pyromaniac's picture

the pyromaniac

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 22:18

@JKnuth, do it!

 

 

 

Let there be fire!

TonyS's picture

TonyS

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 22:19

how much you should come up soon...

 

I cleaned that one whitey (taped to 15") - the guts were crammed with scuds and misc bugs (looked like mayfly and caddisfly nymphs to me)  all bugs were small - for the fly tyers out there I'd say size 14-18.  The one that bounced off the bank after landing (my third one) was a good 4" longer, so pushing on 20" and fat...

 

A #6 hook barely fits in the mouth of a 15"er - like amazing they get it in... food for thought....

Corey's picture

Corey

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 22:27

For the stomach analysis.  I hadn't thought of that.  Several ideas confirmed! 

Corey's picture

Corey

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 23:01

 

This is why I think these fish are more common than previously believed.  The eye of the fish is the size of my pinky nail.  The mouth is smaller than the eye.  And they are adapted to pluck small critters from the bottom.  This is, in essence, a large fish that lives in nearshore coldwater einvironments and feeds on little tiny critters.  Their mouth is too small to inhale a spawn bag or an egg fly, and they come into the lower portions of Great Lakes streams to feed on tiny bugs while the salmon and steelhead fishermen are casting spawn bags and egg flies along with other stuff too large to catch them with.

Hengelaar's picture

Hengelaar

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 05:13

Awesome stuff, though!

More than a little awesome.

Just so cool. Cutting edge stuff.

 

How long of a drive for me?

Could you convince them to stay around till July, Tony..?

Fishn sure is neat

Corey's picture

Corey

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 10:27

I can't see them, either, now.  Something strange is afoot.

AvidFly's picture

AvidFly

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:57

Nice work to prove your skills!  Very jealous!

 
There has to be something to do with what Corey said about steelhead tactics not being effective for round whities.  If those fish are in the river during the spring every year, I know I have probably drifted a yarn fly in that very spot 1000s of times.  Although, I do use a pretty small chunk of yarn, something just bigger than pencil eraser size.  Maybe even that isn't small enough, I know sucker eggs are tiny.  Are they more of a bottom feeding fish? Meaning they would pick stuff off the bottom that is somewhat stationary, rather than feeding on moving/drifting food items?  That might help me to understand why I've never run into them.  That stretch is one of my favorites to fish.  
 
Did you guys catch any white suckers? I've only bottom fished that area once and we had constant action with the white suckers, along with some resident trout and even skip jacks.  I just talked to my buddy that lives up there and he said last week he talked to a guy that caught "like 50 suckers" from that stretch.  Mostly whites I gather, but if the suckers were there last week, maybe they did leave some eggs.  
 
Also, Corey...does this thread show up under the forums at all, or can you get it only through the front page picture link?  Maybe I'm not seeing it...
 
Corey's picture

Corey

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 12:38

No, this is just a comment thread attached to the post.

 

I drifted a float a bit and didn't get any takes; all of the whitefish hit it stationary on the bottom.

 

We didn't see any suckers at all except for the shorthead redhorse.

roughfish29's picture

roughfish29

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 15:47

good job guys! cool critters they are

 

and roughfish.com uncovers yet another secret.....

 

TonyS's picture

TonyS

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 19:06

wierd that the other pics aren't showing now?  Also interesting is that whitefish pictured is much lighter and more silvery colored rather bronze colored like my first one.  Maybe this one entered the river more recently?  The "chrome" color of a whitefish just in from the lake?

Mike B's picture

Mike B

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 23:48

That's some very amazing stuff Tony, revolutonary in fact. What Corey says makes sense except I'll add the solitary round whitefish I caught had bit my pixie spoon. It wasn't a very big lure but presumably larger than any of the food on which it typically feeds. I found the attached URL below a few days ago while researching the trip I'm taking to the high Arctic this summer. Scroll down until you you see the whitefish picture on the cutting board:

http://dearkugluktuk.blogspot.ca/

I don't know this person but that's quite clearly a round whitefish ,,, caught through the ice ... In the ocean. And I'll be there this summer. I don't know what this lady was "jiggling" with but I should ask. I doubt it was a tiny bug or piece of worm though. Most people ice fish up there with strips of fish meat.

 

 

mike b

TonyS's picture

TonyS

Sun, 04/15/2012 - 13:51

Fish might agree with the Sylar reference... though I haven't gotten the powers of the Blue Sucker or even the fricken Bigmouth Buff yet...