No Respect

[JSzymczyk 0]

Fallfish get no love.   If this was the UK, there would be clubs of fishermen devoted to them.    They hit flies of all kinds aggressively, and the truth is they fight as well as trout of equal size.   They do it in 75-80 degree water too, and in the middle of the day.   There are a few creeks near me that are good smallmouth streams and trout streams in the spring, and sometimes fall,  but this time of the year it's nice to wet wade a mile of stream and catch fish the whole way.   When they get big they fight surprisingly well on a 5 wt.   I fished from about 7:30 to 12:30 this morning and lost count.   Also caught loads of small smallmouths to about 10 inches, one LMB,  and several redbreast sunfish and green sunfish.    Biggest fallfish was 15 inches.  Saw deer, turkeys,  a bald eagle, an osprey,  egrets, herons, ducks of many kinds,  and was off the creek before the sunday aluminum and plastic hatch started.   There's something to be said for taking one fly box and not having an hour's worth of work putting gear away when I get home. 

[redietz 0]

I agree, they can be a lot of fun.  I went to fish especially for them last week with just a Tenkara rod and a Green Weenie.  Two were over 14 inches, and I broke off a possibly larger one.

[skeet3t 0]

Nice article. Once I got into a school of warpaint shiners while trout fishing. Lost count and moved on when it got to be boring.

Regarding the aluminum and plastic hatch, I refer to it locally as the Michelin hatch on the Hiwassee River. TVA regulates flows for the outfitters and gets a small fee for each rafter. September weekdays are minimal flow without any interference.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Some chunky guys there.

 

[niveker 0]

Those are some good sized fallfish, JS. 

When the water warms up in the middle of the summer, I love to wet wade and catch these guys too.  Unfortunately, I have not done so this year, yet.  As kids we used to call them 'grunts'.  

[DFoster 0]

14 hours ago, JSzymczyk said:

Fallfish get no love.   If this was the UK, there would be clubs of fishermen devoted to them.    They hit flies of all kinds aggressively, and the truth is they fight as well as trout of equal size.  

 

 

 

 

No  respect, I completely agree- I've never understood why more people don't fish them for sport. Maybe they taste bad? (I'm a catch and release guy)  I admit they are not as pretty as a trout IMO but they're fun on a fly rod.  I've been fooled many times thinking I was fighting a trout to find a Fall fish on the line.  Because they can handle the warmer water they are pretty much everywhere which makes them far more accessible to most of us.  My closest wild trout water is a half hour drive but I have some beautiful Fall Fish water right behind my house.  They're a great way of keeping my skills honed.

[JSzymczyk 0]

The largest one for sure I thought I had a decent bass at first, from the way it hit and the initial several seconds.     There is no question, at all, that a smallmouth fights many times harder than any fallfish, but in this creek, in this time of year, the smallmouths don't come out to play very much.   They are there, but not as prevalent.    I get to do just about the opposite on this creek from tenkara-   It is wide enough and generally shallow and clear enough that I can go to my limits with casting which is fun-   finding deep spots, rocks, riffles, trees,  far away and trying to make long shots at them.  

 

[redietz 0]

I'll do that sometimes, too, when fishing for fallfish -- make ridiculously long cast just for the sake of seeing how far I can without worrying too much about spooking fish if the cast falls apart.  At either extreme, it's a good way to practice technique without any pressure about whether you're going to catch or not.

[atxdiscgolfer 0]

Sounds like a good day

[DFoster 0]

17 hours ago, JSzymczyk said:

The largest one for sure I thought I had a decent bass at first, from the way it hit and the initial several seconds.     There is no question, at all, that a smallmouth fights many times harder than any fallfish, but in this creek, in this time of year, the smallmouths don't come out to play very much.   They are there, but not as prevalent.    I get to do just about the opposite on this creek from tenkara-   It is wide enough and generally shallow and clear enough that I can go to my limits with casting which is fun-   finding deep spots, rocks, riffles, trees,  far away and trying to make long shots at them.  

 

In my area I've noticed that the Fall Fish fight hardest when the water is on the cold side (April and May, October and November).