Ohh Fantastic day!!!!

My dad and I went exploring the Beaver Dam river and the Crawfish river for Orangespotted Sunfish and Bigmouth Buffalo.

all out spots proved fruitless until we stopped at our least likely spot.

The Beaver dam river in downtown beaver dam.
According to all dnr reports and papers I have read Buffalo are very rare here.

well We got down there and spotted the usual dead carp on the shore. Grrrrrrr...

But one was odd, we realized it was a buff.
so we walked the river and saw a few dozen pods of (Carp) feeding on the surface.
when we got up there the schools scattered and we saw white cheeks and black fins!! It was ON!

I rigged up my ultralite with a tiny hook and a quarter of a worm.

The plan was a drift through the pods of feeding buffalo.
After all of the storys I have heard I was expecting a Long hard wait for a strike.

On the first drift over a pod, BAM!! A buff raised up and inhaled my worm, He took off and pulled loose.

so I kept at the schools, and after 4 fish that got away I realized I needed to drop the rod as soon as the hook was set. to give them a bit of play.

It worked!

Here is my first Bigmouth Buffalo. Not the prettiest fish, but Beauty in my eyes.




then after a few more missed fish I realized a pattern.
The fish were feeding in a tight school, all facing each other and drifting in a very tight school, along the current rip.
When a fish ate a bug, or fly they stopped pumping their pectoral fins and sank a few inches. (You could see the algae push hard out of the gills as the swallowed)

So watching for this I was able to see the strikes better, before they spit it out.

Here is my next Buffalo, a bit dinged up due to the rocks in the river. but a husky fish, we taped him out at an even 30"



and then abut a half an hour later I was casting to a lone fish who kept rising in the rip. I drifted over and SLURP!

this fish was amazing, it looked like a ghost it was so white!
all I could see was the white fish and black eye.




These are some of the most powerful fish I have fought! Just like bulldozers and the fight is similar to a large greater redhorse and not like a carp at all.

I am still so excited!!
sadly My dad came up short today, but we are heading back in a few days to fish early morning. this time I am going to actually try my flyrod. Its been a while but the potential here is great.

A day that I will not forget for some time!!
Beautiful fish, Beautiful weather, a Lifer off the list, and a Great day fishing with my Dad.

~Josh

Nice Report Josh! Congrats on a tough species! It sounds like you figured out a system that works too. A good show of inginuity. You deserve a golden fish award.

Nice catch. Congrats on a lifer!

Man rough fishing at it's absolute finest. Soak it in, and enjoy!!!

I am.
I wont shut up about it, I think am bugging my wife. :D

I kept the white buffalo to do a replica for my Sucker wall.
I cant wait to start it.

Congrats Josh. not an easy fish to catch. Very cool.

Nice job Knuth, they are one of the toughest species to get.

Congrats. Golden Fish for you too.

Josh, congratulations on fooling one of the toughest freshwater fish. You planned a trip specifically for this species, queried the board for any helpful tactics, then while on the water you observed the fish's behavior and made a great tactical choice to score a new lifelist addition. The best part is that you didn't simply fluke into one, your tactics produced multiple fish and you can now tell another angler your technique. We at Roughfish.com love a success story like yours!

By the way, I would love to see your "sucker wall" some time! I've got my own sucker wall, but it's just one large, lonely golden.........~andy

It really was a Hoot.
and I was surprised at how aggressive they were once I learned how they hit, or shall i say slurped.

We will see. I found a pattern that worked in those exact conditions, but as we all know a river is never the same river twice. If I can repeat it, I will be happy.
but hooking 3 fish that were clearly deep mouth hook sets made me really happy! the first time I thought perhaps I just got lucky and flossed it, but after the next one I felt better, and the last one he rose to hit it. no doubt in my mind at all at that point. Now I need a smallmouth buff ;D

I have a bit of a disturbing thought and my Dad thinks I may be right.

Where I was getting these fish was right below a small Island (rock pile) and on this rock pile were about 10 dead carp and buffalo all piled in the rocks and in the shallow water.
they were of course covered in Maggots and Larvae. I HATE Peaople who kill theses things for the sake of killing and then leave them lay. that said. I am wondering if these buffalo were sitting in the water right downstream of this rock pile eating maggots and larvae that washed in.

yuck, but it seems to fit as far as pattern and location.

I am thinking of trying a waxworm drifted on a tiny tiny float set about 2 inches deep.

I also want to try my flyrod.
BUT I need a few pointers.
How are you attaching the leader to the flyline? I have used the needle trick, where a needle is inserted into the cut end of the line then pulled up about an inch and wound around and tied.

how should I do rig this to hold up to a potential monster Buffalo?? we did see some mouths that looked scary big!

As far as flys I am thinking a lightly weighted nymph or even an inchworm pattern would do here.

any pointers?

Congrats! Wow just off of worms..tight! Thanks for sharing the pictures...I need me some Buffalo Action!

Congrats, very nice buff's man! Those bigmouths can be some of the strangest feeders during the summer. My hat goes off to you for a very tough catch....