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.
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.
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.
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.
