well since the good hatches have slowed down for now and my gas budget has taken a major hit running to the river a couple times a week i decided to fish a river a few miles from home tonight.this is a river that i grew up fishing 25 years ago as a kid. it used to have a good population of carp but back then flyfishing for carp was unheard of.( atleast as far as i knew) so having been bitten by the carp bug this winter i vowed to go back this summer and see if they were still around.i spent the first half hour just easing around the bank and looking for carp and found none.so this river used to have some smallmouth and since the carp wrent around i decided to tie on a wolly bugger and see what i could do. I fished for a while and caught a few bluegill when bam i got a solid hit and set into a decent fish after a decnt little fight it turned out to be a striped bass.( we call them rock fish locally) not totally unusual since in its lower reaches this is a tidal river. that was cool. so as it gets dark i fish downstream of a little riffle that tapers into a deeper cut bank hoping to catch a couple smallies. I get another solid strike and set inta another good fish this one turns out to be a 14" stocked rainbow. This river does get stocked furhter up but i was surpised as warm as the water was that he was still alive. knowing he didnt have long to live.(this river will easily get over 80 degrees this summer) i thumped him on the head and put him in my wader pocket.( i almost never keep fish) so not the most productive day of fishing but i may be one of a few people ever to catch a rockfish and a rainbow trout in the same river on the same fly in the same day. you just never about fishing.
strange combination catch.
- Thread starter dpreller
- Start date
That's a nice surprise!
I wonder if the combination of the riffled water (adding oxygen to the water) and the depth and shade of a cut bank helped the rainbow survive. If there was any underground water seeping into the stream that could help the trout even more? Who knows, hope you had a nice dinner
I wonder if the combination of the riffled water (adding oxygen to the water) and the depth and shade of a cut bank helped the rainbow survive. If there was any underground water seeping into the stream that could help the trout even more? Who knows, hope you had a nice dinner
theboz
Well-known member
Cool catch!But your not the first or the last! I fish several tidal rivers and have caught Str[pers and Rainbows in the same day on the same river!
One of my strangest mixed bags on one of those tidal rivers was a Striper,Sea Run Brown Trout,Steelhead,White Perch,Monster Bluegill and a Fluke(Summer Flounder)!
On the Delaware in a non tidal section I have caught Stripers,Smallmouths,Walleyes,Jumbo Bluegills, Shad (Hickory and American)and Brook Trout all from the same hole!
Thats one of the great things about rivers the varied fishery they can support!
One of my strangest mixed bags on one of those tidal rivers was a Striper,Sea Run Brown Trout,Steelhead,White Perch,Monster Bluegill and a Fluke(Summer Flounder)!
On the Delaware in a non tidal section I have caught Stripers,Smallmouths,Walleyes,Jumbo Bluegills, Shad (Hickory and American)and Brook Trout all from the same hole!
Thats one of the great things about rivers the varied fishery they can support!
argail
Well-known member
they held a conference and then you came