American fishing holidays

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American Fishing Holidays

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SPECIES INFORMATION, HABITAT PREFERENCES, SPAWNING DETAILS AND THE BEST BAITS TO USE Continued

Muskellunge

Common Name: Musky

Best Fishing: Rivers: James, Clinch, Shenandoah and New. Lakes: Smith Mountain, Claytor, Rural Retreat, Burke, and Flannagan.

Fishing Techniques: Most muskies taken in Smith Mountain are caught by trolling in deep water with large crank baits, spoons and spinner-bucktail combinations. Early in the year, many are caught by trolling across shallow points. River fishermen use small boats with electric motors or small outboards to float larger pools and fish shoreline snags and submerged brush. Heavy bait casting rods and reels with 30 or more pound test line is used. Using large hooks, 4/0 or larger, some anglers simply allow 8 or 12-inch suckers, shad or carp to swim free.

Identification: Largest member of the pike family. Normally olive to dark gray on its back, with greyish to bluish to yellowish sides. Sides may have faint vertical bars, spots or blotches. State Record: 45 pounds from the New River.

Feeding Habits: Muskies eat mainly other fishes, especially soft-rayed species such as suckers, carp and shad, but also frogs, ducklings, muskrats and other mammals.

Habitat: Not believed to be native to Virginia, but introduced into the New, Clinch, James, Shenandoah and Holston Rivers. Muskies prefer cool, clear lakes with abundant vegetation or the quiet reaches of rivers.

Spawning Habits: Muskies spawn in early spring. The eggs are fertilized as they are discharged over muck or marl bottoms with aquatic vegetation in shallow bays and coves. Fry suffer tremendous losses from other fish, carnivorous insect larvae and water beetles as well as other fishes. In Virginia most musky populations are maintained through stocking.

Catfish

Flathead Catfish

Common Names: Mud cat, shovelhead cat, yellow cat.

Best Fishing: Rivers: James, New, Staunton/Roanoke and Occoquan Creek. Lakes: Occoquan, Claytor and, Flannagan, Smith and Buggs Island.

Fishing Techniques: Use live bait since they aren’t easily attracted to the catfish baits normally used for other catfish, although chicken entrails, nightcrawlers and minnows work well. Usually caught on the bottom of deep pools or in the tailraces below dams.

Identification: Broadly flattened head with a lower jaw that projects beyond the upper jaw. Tail only slightly notched and adipose fin is relatively large. Body is yellowish or cream-colored, with black, dark brown or olive-brown mottling on back and sides, fading to dirty white or yellow. Younger fish have darker, bolder markings and the upper tip of the tails have white, triangular patches.

Feeding Habits: More solitary than other catfish. Omnivorous, they feed on almost anything. More than other catfish they feed on other live fish. They feed at night on other fish, crustaceans, molluscs, insect larvae and terrestrial creatures washed into the river. Sometimes they feed near the surface and occupy water shallower than most catfish.

Habitat: Found in large, rivers, inhabiting deep, slow stretches near strong currents. Prefers structure like submerged logs, brush, rip rap, and underwater piles of debris.

Spawning Habits: Summer, when water temperatures reach 72 to 84 degrees F. Eggs are laid in depressions scooped out of the bottom, in hollow logs or in holes along the bank. After hatching, fry gather in compact schools guarded by the male. As they grow older, they become solitary.

Blue Catfish

Common Names: Fork-tailed catfish, humpback, chucklehead.

Best Fishing: Rivers: James, Mattapan, Pamunkey, Rappahannock, Staunton and Appomattox. Lakes: Buggs Island.

Fishing Techniques: March through May are the best months, but they are caught year round. Use heavy tackle with cut bait, live herring, shad, clam snouts, shrimp or peeler crabs.

Identification: Heavy-bodied with a wide head and high spot forward of centre near the head called the dorsal hump. Upper jaw projects well beyond the lower. Bluish-gray body above, fading to white on sides and belly. No spots and a deeply forked tail. Smaller blue cats are often confused with channel catfish. The best way to distinguish between the two is by the 30-35 rays on the blue cat’s anal fin with its straight outer margin verses the channel cat’s 25 to 29 rays.

Feeding Habits: Omnivorous, but feeds naturally on fish, crayfish, and molluscs, and scavenges on dead or dying aquatic and terrestrial animal matter. Sense of taste and smell are more important than sight in obtaining food, and whiskers are used for this purpose.

Habitat : Stocked in the Rappahannock and James Rivers, as well as a few lakes. Also found in the Appomattox River. They frequent places with sandy bottoms and moderate currents and try to avoid silty areas.

Spawning Habits: They spawn in late spring and early summer, when water temperatures reach 70 to 75 degrees F. Eggs are laid in masses into nests formed under logs, in brush or debris, or along undercut river banks. Young school up after hatching.

Channel Catfish

Common Names: Spotted catfish, speckled catfish, silver catfish, fork-tailed catfish.

Best Fishing: Rivers: James, Potomac, Rappahannock, Appomattox, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Pamunkey, New, Shenandoah, and North Landing. Lakes: Buggs Island, South Holston, Claytor, Anna, Chesdin, Briery Creek, Flannagan, Motts Run and most small public lakes.

Fishing Techniques: Rod and reel anglers catch them on clam snouts, peeler crabs, large minnows, nightcrawlers, cut up herring, chicken livers or entrails, shrimp and a variety of stink or dough baits. They take a variety of artificials as well including crankbaits, jigs and spinners.

Identification: Deeply forked tail. Upper jaw is longer than, and overlaps the lower, and its smooth-skinned body is usually spotted. Has a small dorsal fin with stiff spine standing high on its back. It has eight barbels, or feelers, four located under the lower jaw, two on top and one at each end of the upper jaw. Barbels contain taste buds, which help it find food. Varies in colour, although generally dark brownish to slate-gray on top, fading to light brownish-gray on the sides. Has 25 to 29 Rays on its anal fin.

Feeding Habits: A variety of insects, vegetation, crustaceans, molluscs, fish eggs, fish and carrion of many types, constitutes its menu. Wandering nocturnal feeders, they spend daylight hours in deep holes around brush piles or in and along river channels.

Habitat: Lakes and larger rivers with cleaner bottoms of sand, gravel or stones, over mud flats but seldom in dense weedy areas. Also lives in the deeper, slower pools of swift, clear-running streams. In large reservoirs, they are often found below dams where they feed on food swept down to them.

Spawning Habits: From late May through July when water temperatures reach the mid-70s. Rocky ledges, undercut banks, hollow logs and other underwater structures are spots generally chosen to lay their pea-sized eggs. Male guards the nest and the eggs hatch in seven to 10 days. The fry travel in tight-packed schools, often herded and guarded by the male.

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