A Full Day Chasing the Mighty Redhorse

Gorgeous weather moved in for the weekend, and after spending a day installing a tombstone for our late roughfishing uncle Wally, Andy and I heard the call of the Root.

Or maybe it was Uncle Wally, telling us to get out there and fish...

We started out catching shiners by the dozen. These big-mouthed little nuisances quickly put a dent in our limited crawler supplies. Fortunately, we found that we could eliminate almost all of the shiner bites by casting about 30 yards upstream.

Finally, I got the redhorse ball rolling with my first redhorse of the year - a fine golden. This was the first fish on my new 11-foot float rod.

Soon after, my tackle was put to test for the first time, with a big, tuberculate, milt-dripping silver!

Next up was Andy, who also had a new redhorsing stick to try out. His fish was a bit more impressive.

Andy had his hands full with this beast of a Greater! This fish was a brawler, and in immaculate condition. We could've stopped fishing right here, and called it a stellar day. Landing a big Greater is an honor, and this one had it all. Notice the tubercules - spawning is close.

After that, something slammed my crawler and raced toward the snaggy cliff downstream. I barely managed to turn it.

This was another lengthy light-tackle brawl. Glimpsing the fish's reddish-orange tail, I thought I had a greater of my own. But the fish was short, thick, and powerful. And it had barbels.

This common carp was a true terror. Something about that Root River water makes the carp that are born there hell on wheels when hooked.

Then a spunky shorthead came to hand - and just like that, I had a Redhorse Slam - three species, in the same day from the same water. But the Root was not finished granting her gifts to me.

This Greater Redhorse cliffed me up on a powerful, line-stripping run, and got hopelessly tangled in some underwater branches. It was a miracle I got it out of there without breaking my line. And with that, I had completed the rarely-seen Redhorse Grand Slam - 4 species from the same water in the same day! It has been decades since I last accomplished that feat. And now - the Super Slam was in play. I only know of one person who has completed a Super Slam of five redhorse species. But we knew that the elusive Black Redhorse swims in these waters, and before long a thinnish, dark-looking sucker was in the net.

But it turned out to be a nice white sucker. The Super-Slam eluded me.

Andy finished out the day with this beefy Silver.

What a day. Seven boats put in to float this section while we were there, which really makes me want to try floating this wonderful stretch of river in the summertime. Redhorse were tubed-up and dripping milt, so the Root is about to get into high gear, with spawners dropping back onto the riffles and feeding heavily.

It's a great time to be a roughfisher!

Corey