UL Chubs

[AtticaFish]

With the river level and clarity being so off this year, have been frustrated that i have spent so many days at the pizza joint or at my desk playing Hearts for lunch. On Friday, i decided to do some exploring up a small creek that feeds the main river i fish. A portion of it runs through a large public park in town, so probably have a good 1.5 miles or public access to it, but have just never really fished it or even walked the bank. At noon on friday, swapped out my 6lb. spool for 4lb. - box of jigs in my pocket - ready to explore.

Creek is pretty small, walked by a few spots where i could have easily jumped across without getting my shoes wet. Was pretty surprised to find some very deep holes at each bend in the creek though - some up to 5' deep!

Did see a couple of large carp feeding but spooked both quickly never to be seen again. Would make for an interesting close quarters battle in this little creek. Anyway, had on a little 1/32 oz. pig/bou with a #6 aberdeen and started catching fish right away... all common creek chubs but 1 rockbass. The size of these chubs amazed me, many local bait shops sell them as 'crappie minnows' when they are in the 1"-2" range. I do have a friend that uses larger ones for turtle bait though. Had a fun day either way and caught between 8-10 fish at lunch.

 

[Hawnjigs]

I'm thinking prey=predators. Those chubs look like catfish candy.

 

[Jig Man]

Hawn,I was thinking the same thing... Great story

 

[Fatman]

Heck that's a perfect size chub for Northern Pike fishing back home!!!!! Glad you had a great time, on your lunch break. Hope you had some good soap so your office workers didn't complain about the fishy smell LOL

 

[Radtexan]

My kind of lunch....Great looking country Russ !!!

 

[AtticaFish]

Predators in this creek..... not sure, but it is possible since it does dump into the river (that has cats, smallmouth and occasional musky) maybe 4 miles from here. Some really skinny water sections to go through to get to these individual holes. I was actually thinking that as far as the food chain, these guys may be close to the top for this creek other than some possible smallmouth. Plan to see if i can get closer to where it meets the river to see what it looks like, but mostly private property. I have fished the mouth of the creek into the river up-stream maybe 100yds and that is it.

FM - Not many pike waters nearby, but did think about them as possible walleye bait! Water temps cooling and the 'eyes will be moving in on shallow water soon. We do have some Lava style hand soap at work, but the boss pretty much expects the fishy smell (and running late back from lunch) from me by now. The chubs are some oily/slimy fish too! haha

 

[Hawnjigs]

If the creek doesn't freeze solid, who knows what might lurk in 5' deep holes?

In Southerland Res outlet NE I was catching nice channel cats, biggest around 7# on small jigs, but one old gent seriously out-fishing me with his worm ball under a floater system, said he once got a 30# flathead and several baiters and bow-shooters said 10#+ walleyes weren't uncommon. Further down"stream" the 50' wide canal than most would venture there were some huge flushes - apparently predators poweful enuf to navigate the fast mid-stream current flow were snatching floating wash down dead baitfish(looked like 4-5" shad). Point being that one is not likely to interest apex predators with small jigs, unless you have JiggerJohn skills.

 

[papaperch]

Russ- Those look like red-tail Chubs to me. Another common name for them are "horny head ". The horny head name stem from the fact the males grow horns ( actually small spikes) on their heads during spawning season. Those make EXCELLENT bait for the following fish. Walleyes , catfish any of them , northern pike , muskie , smallmouth and largemouth bass. I have seen them go for as high for 1.00 to 1.50 each in a bait shop. Most bait shop will not carry them as they have a tendency to leap out of holding tank. You can imagine opening up your bait shop in the morning and finding your floor littered with this expensive bait.

My grandfather , a trout fisherman, used to eat those for stream side lunches. Said he liked them better than trout. I never summoned up the courage to try one. Might want to stock some of them in your pond.

 

[toadfrog]

Leaping out of a bait tank is a fact I know . When you turn out the lights its best to roll an old seine down and across the tank . Those little devils are active .