Heard some talk of a few of you thinking about making it out this way the past week. I'm up here again and will be after my 3 day work week again for my good swtich.

11 species today. I have 3 pics I think but I'll post them later. Nothing fancy, the sheer species involved was fun enough! Strangely, I didn't get pounded by Drum like you should on the RC and most of the Drum bites I caught the fish that was biting, I only missed a few of them without circle hooks. But I did catch nearly 10 of them either way.

Here's the rundown:
Bluegill
Walleye
Mooneye
Smallmouth Bass
Freshwater Drum
Channel Catfish(prbably 3-4lbs, beefy for it's ~20" size)
Stonecat
Northern Hogsucker
Silver Redhorse
White Sucker
Bullhead

Interesting notes about today's outting... The Silver Redhorse and Northern Hogsucker were inbetween 10:10 and 10:30pm! The Smallmouth Bass were all small, non-legal sizes, but fought so hard even on my 20lb line(sturgeon nut). The Drum would go airborne.

And 2 kids were fishing and came over to ask if they could borrow some night crawlers. So I said, sure, I could spare one or two -- I'm running low myself but if you want some half dead ones you can have all those you want! I got a shocking response -- "Oh if you don't want those, they'll be great for me. They'll work on suckers!" He said he caught 17 of them yesterday and loves when his grandpa smokes them. So, hey no one brags about suckers! So I ended up picking their brains, giving them some sinkers and hooks and giving them tips on setting the hook both on fiddlers, tuggers and "is that a fish?" bites. All in all, I ended up helping the one who's more into fishing land a small Lake Sturgeon. He was sooooo geeked over it.

Saw a Blue Heron, pulled a huge log off the bottom, found some of my lures I lost 2 weeks ago and probed everyone at the dam for their Sturgeon sightings.

Good day, pictures soon!

Awesome man. Helping youngsters catch fish is part of being a Roughfisher, and I commend you for sparing a few nightcrawlers and weights. Funny, I have never been bothered much by Drum in the RC. A few here and there, yeah, but never a huge annoyance like elsewhere(Chippewa River). Usually the constant annoying fish are walleyes and mooneyes for me in the Red Cedar. And jumping Drum? Wow, I have never seen one clear water. Are you sure you just weren't skipping the little bastards across the water with your big tackle? Or maybe someone needs to paint a scene with a 4-pound Sheepie clearing water, tail-walking and shaking his gillrakers? ~andy

Not horsing them in. The only reason I think it might've happened it cause I pump everything in with my pole. I reel up the slack line with my pole aimed down, let them struggle around on the bottom for a second or two then pull my pole up with a confident but smooth sweeping motion. I use the pole to pull them in instead of the reel's gears or line. I DO NOT continously reel any fish, even if it is small, with my pole tip up. I play everything a little just to see how they'll struggle in the deep, then how they'll struggle when they get pumped(good tactic to make sturgeon jump). I've made catfish and redhorse jump oodles of times doing this(nothing big though). The drum were also small, just fiesty.

Here's a good note to explain this better:

I have my drag loosened a little. 20lb line, sure, but 4lb cats and Silver Redhorse will pull drag off when they're running circles in the shallows. I just have the line...just in case...

I think that is great about talking to and helping the kids out. I love that part of being a roughfisher. It is about the experience for me that makes it so great, and most of the time it IS great. So, the scenery, the weather, the people you run into AND the fish...................all of it.....it is the best thing ever.

andy wrote:

QUOTE:
Funny, I have never been bothered much by Drum in the RC. A few here and there, yeah, but never a huge annoyance like elsewhere(Chippewa River). Usually the constant annoying fish are walleyes and mooneyes for me in the Red Cedar. ~andy

Man, two weeks ago I couldn't even get a third line in the water because I was constantly going back and forth between my other two, mostly with drum. Probably 10 drum for every 1 other species. Fun action though. And I'd be happy to take an annoying mooneye, and I could name one other guy that would too...

I will have to agree that while I've seen a lot of drum on the RC, I have also seen a lot of Walleye and Smallmouth, and a handful of Mooneye, LARGE Mooneye too.

Here are the pics. Might I say, the RC is quite a fishery. The game fish aren't large on average, but the roughfishing qualities are amazing!

nice hogsucker! ~andy

Went back last night before I have to go home. Seen 2-3 more Hogsuckers on my pole, a couple in the shallows. One came close enough I could see him moving around with my glass on and he sat on the bottom facing the current. So I wasn't getting any bites at the time, sight fished the bastard to see how they react and feed when a crawler chunk is slowly bobbed down stream, from upstream, towards their head. Once it got about 3-4 inches away, he wiggled into place using his pectoral fins and started nibbling on it. I set the hook, caught him and put him back. Most of the Hogsuckers were 15 in. but massive for their size. Their heads were heavy.

Mooneye and Sheephead were frusterating fish of the day. A shorthead redhorse and small Lake Sturgeon perked our interest some. And a light-bitting hard constant tugging fight had jess interested after it freed itself by bending her hook(she had the drag pretty much locked). There is a hole of sorts near the bridge. Obviously there's a deep channel run right at that particular ...I've heard 10-18 feet, but near the bridge there's a spot where the sinker goes to the bottom fast and I get slack line. We've seemed to pull beefier suckers and some of the decent sturgeon out of that when they're around.

Talked with some guys and watched them fish in their boat from the bank. He got 4 channels near a tree on the other side(you could get there by foot no problem) with cut sucker bait. 3 of them were around 7lbs.

I met Cast and Blast, thanks for stoppin by. Nice guy! One hell of a hard copy lifelist, holy fricken smokes!

Finally took a picture of a yellow perch for the lifelist. Now I just have to add all my other RC lifelisters to the lifelist. I marathoned that day. 4am - 11pm, same spot pretty much. About 20 different canoe, raft and tube groups.

As far as an easy-access river with big Sturgeon. I have hope, but it's getting really aggrivating! Maybe I should just set low standards until Fall and then Spring again.

Here's a new lifelister and one hell of a chunky 15 inch hogsucker.