Sunday, April 23, 2017

My Biggest Fallfish

Mark and I both had a few hours to work with this morning so I rigged the spey rod and packed some flies for swinging and we went to some good multi-species water.


We found our way to a good looking spot that had some surface activity (I was hoping shad or herring) and started fishing. After missing two or three takes I hooked the first fish of the morning. It turned out to be a smallish fallfish. The next cast produced another the same size.








Maybe ten casts later with no bumps my little bright colored fly got smacked by something far bigger than those little fall fish. The 11'6" rod bent double. After some significant fighting the fish was getting closer. I was fully expecting it to be a shad or large bass. Nope! It turned out to be the largest fallfish I have ever caught. The thing was nearly as long as my forearm and heavy. What a cool catch on the swing!




After that the action slowed down significantly so we went to beat up some small carp for a little while. As it turned out they beat us up. I caught two and lost four and missed tons and Mark was in the same boat. I usually don't loose carp if I'm using barbed hooks, and I usually do when carpin'. But these ones just kept getting off. It was weird. The two I did land were beautiful little fish, but loosing so many was a pain!






6 comments:

  1. Sounds like a really fun trip... As for the Fallfish - WOW! What a beast!

    Will

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  2. WOW, I never realized Fallfish could get that big. It must be ten years old. They obviously have a good environment.
    Tie, fish, write and photo on...

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    1. They get bigger, and that is probably only a 4 year old fish. Rarely would a fallfish live more than 7 years.

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  3. Wow! Swinging for fallfish. I never could have imagined it.

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    1. Swinging wets and streamers for fallfish is very productive. I swing flies for them very frequently on small rivers, and when I've swung flies on the Shetucket it is nearly impossible to go a whole day without a bump or tap from a fallie.

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