My first fish on a fly!

[AllenOK]

Yesterday, I was out wade-fishing in a river. I met up with the buddy that loaned me the 5wt fly rod, and we started fishing. I was using a spinning rig, throwing a lipless crankbait for "whatever" would hit it. I was catching Saugers, White Bass, and even a White Crappie on that one.

Several hours later, after my buddy had to go to work, I had wandered down to a "chute" that is knew to harbor some bigger fish. I decided to pull out the fly rod, and tied on a small streamer in a Red Fin minnow pattern that my buddy tied up. After several drifts, and a few missed strikes, I got this:



What a first fish! A Skipjack Herring. It sure did fight, and jumped several times. I released it, and went back to drifting and stripping the small streamer. About 10 minutes later, I caught a second, even bigger Skipjack. Dadgum suckers have TEETH! He cut my leader while I was fumbling with my camera, dropped back into the water, and got away with that streamer! Luckily, I had a second one. I ended up leaving shortly thereafter.

[Panman]

Comgratulations on your fish and the nice picture. I hope you continue to chase fish with the fly.

I had no idea what a skipjack herring is so I looked in one of my text books which stated the skipjack is a fine sports fish but usually not eaten due to it being boney.

Tim

[NewTyer 1]

They are really boney. Not good to eat but, if you have cats they love it. It is really fishy when cooked and really oily. Herring are a blast to catch. I remember as a kid my dad would take me to the river during spawn runs with a spinning rod and a treble hook and snagging them. Try for shad sometime. They are a blast and refered to as the poor mans salmon. Nice job again. You must be getting more confident with your casting abilities.

[WarrenP]

Around here we call them "Tennessee Tarpon" due to the fight and jumping out of the water. They are a blast to catch!

[quivira kid]

Can't say I have ever seen one of those dudes.... pretty cool!

[AllenOK]

I've heard of Skippies being called "Poorman's Tarpon". They look like a Tarpon, and this one certainly acted like a Tarpon, running and jumping.

I've considered myself to be a "catfish angler" for years; just this year changing to "multi-species". If I would have had a cooler with me, those Skippies would have become catfish bait very quickly.

This general location of the river has a WIDE VARIETY of different fish. As long as you're using minnows, shad, or anything that looks like them, you can and will catch all sorts of things. A buddy of mine was with me earlier that morning, and he completed a goal he set for this year; he caught a Sauger on a streamer.