T.F.M. Spotting - Redhorse House Party

When Mike Fitzgerald isn't tangling with steelhead or carp, he's looking for new species for him on the fly.  Looks like he can check redhorse sucker off the list and puts himself in running for the T.F.M. Spotting Photo Contest in the process...

Fly fishing the first dam aptly named "The Number One Dam" of Ontario's Trent River today, and hooked into something that completely blew me away.  Originally we were looking for gar, muskie, and walleye but due to recent rainfall they had opened up the dam and began releasing the water which made our usual fishing areas unfishable and down right unsafe. Walking across the dam we noticed a school of redhorse suckers in very shallow water, tails sticking out as they fed on insects and crayfish. Always having a rod rigged and ready for a chance at a carp, I dropped everything and got into position to intercept the school. Out goes the fly, in come the fish, and finally I got my first redhorse sucker on the fly.

People underestimate these fish a lot.  This thing (while using my nine weight) took well over 100 foot of line out and put me into the backing more than three times.  It jumped, ran, rolled, and fought right to my feet.  You gotta use pretty small heavy weight nymphs it seems, but if you get that fly in the zone at the right time, magic happens.  I think if more people just gave them a chance, did a little homework about it, and understand that "Yeah man...we're out here fishing suckers on the fly and proud of it!"  It would open up a world of new opportunities for many fly fishermen all over the place!

Anyways, I've got redhorse fever now and there's not much else to say.  I was just looking back on the photos of the trip and realized what shirt I was wearing.  I thought I'd fire along some photos of what it looks like downstream from the dam as well.  It's actually one hell of a river.  In spring, you've got walleye, freshwater drum, carp, redhorse sucker, white sucker, muskie, northern pike, steelhead, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, giant channel catfish, and long-nosed gar which run the river in the thousands!
 
Summer rolls around and the bass, carp, redhorse, and muskie hang around as well as a few long-nosed gar.  Then like a dream come true, fall comes walking in, and once again the walleye and muskie action picks up, but mixed in with them are whitefish, chinook salmon, migratory brown trout and steelhead!  What more could a guy ask for?  Tarpon and stripers?