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

White Catfish

Common Name: Grayfish

Best Fishing: The Potomac, Rappahannock, James, and York River drainages in the Coastal Plain and numerous lakes in southeast and central Virginia.

Fishing Techniques: Many of the same methods used for other Catfish. Worms, minnows, scented baits, fished on or near the bottom.

Identification: One of the bullhead catfishes. Average 8 to 18 inches, rarely 20. Has a moderately forked tail, a stocky body with its upper jaw extending slightly beyond lower. Colour is basically blue-gray above, fading to gray on its sides with a white underside. Occasionally mottled light gray on its sides.

Feeding Habits: Adults are omnivorous and eat a variety of aquatic invertebrates, small fishes and vegetation.

Habitat: Warm ponds and lakes, medium to large rivers, sometimes small streams and some brackish and acidic waters. Usually fairly deep in lakes and rivers.

Spawning Habits: Spawning probably takes place beginning in late May into July. Both sexes participate in the preparation of the nest which, is a fairly large depression scoured out over sand or gravel. Eggs are guarded and kept clean by one or both of the parent fish.

Carp

Common Names: German carp, European carp, mud bass, buglemouth bass.

Best Fishing: Lakes: Kerr, Western Branch, Claytor, Prince. Rivers: Rappahannock, Pamunkey, Potomac, Shenandoah and James. Fishing Techniques: These are true wild Carp so forget boilies ! All you will catch is Catfish. Go back to basics and there is excellent sport to be had. These fish will challenge your knowledge of Carp as a species and are not easy to catch. Remember, Carp have acute senses of hearing, smell and taste. They will bite in hot summer when other fish are not very active, but are a challenge to catch on hook and line. If water is clear, they are very skittish. Clouds of mud stirred up by carp means they are feeding or spawning. As they move, you’ll see lines of bubbles arising from the disturbed bottom mud. Carp often go on feeding sprees after a rain. Sometimes it pays to chum an area with kernel corn, oatmeal, cooked vegetables or similar materials. Baits include green corn, ripe corn that is developed and starchy so it holds to the hook better, marshmallows, cheese mixed with cotton to keep it on the hook, worms, bread kneaded into doughy balls, canned corn or peas and even soap. Baits must lie on unobstructed bottom. Tackle is usually a spinning, spin casting or casting rod at least six feet long with plenty of backbone. Reels should be fitted with at least 100 yards of 12 to 30 pound test line. Hooks from 2 down to 10 are favoured, and a sliding sinker should be used because of the carp’s wariness. More specialised info available on request.

Identification: Olive-green on back shading to a yellowish-brown to yellowish on the belly, with yellowish to reddish fins. Small, leathery mouth is supported by tough cartilage and they have pharyngeal teeth in their throats for crushing shells and other foods.

Feeding Habits: Carp dig down into the bottom or amid vegetation, sucking up mouthfuls of silt and debris, somehow straining out food items such as snails, mussels, vegetation, worms, aquatic larvae and organic debris through their gill rakers, then spitting out mud and other non-food particles.

Habitat: Prefers clean water, but capable of tolerating and dominating waters it degrades. Likes quiet waters with sandy or muddy bottoms where it browses and grubs for food which causes siltation.

Spawning Habits: Spawns in shallow bays, tributary headwaters, marshy river sloughs and marshes. Here you’ll see them wallowing around the muddy shallows amid cattails or other emergent vegetation where they lay their eggs. In areas where it runs up small stream they will attempt to jump small dams like salmon. Broadcasts its eggs in late April and early May over and amid aquatic vegetation.

Bowfin

Common Names: Grindle, Grinnel, dogfish, mudfish, blackfish, cypress bass.

Best Fishing: Rivers: Chickahominy, Nottoway, Blackwater. Lakes: Chickahominy Reservoir, Little Creek, Diascund Reservoir.

Fishing Techniques: They are strong, muscular fighters and strike viciously at all manner of live bait and many artificials. Often fools an angler into thinking its whipped, then suddenly explodes back into life. Minnows and a variety of jigs. Use a good stiff rod with at least 15-pound test on the reel. Steel leaders may be necessary and don’t try to lip hold these fish! Food value is poor although spiced up version of the soft flesh have been eaten.

Identification: Supposedly among the most ancient of species as if it had lived from another time and world. Has a long, soft-rayed dorsal which arches in a bow over most of the length of its body. Tail is rounded. Its back and sides are brownish-green or olive-green, with mottled sides fading to yellowish or white. During spawning, its underside turns a bright yellow-green. The male shows a distinctive black spot rimmed with orange. Female has only a black spot. Its body is cylindrical and it has a wide flattened head, almost snake-like, with deep set dark eyes. Snout is rounded with short nasal barbels. Mouth is large and it has conical-shaped teeth.

Feeding Habits: Feed mainly on other fishes and crayfish, sometimes on small water birds or muskrats. Primarily feed at night and often go on a spree after rains have clouded the waters and washed food into rivers and lakes.

Habitat: Usually found in the dark, sluggish waters with muddy bottoms and dense vegetation as well as tannin-stained swamps, rivers and lakes. Slower moving rivers or backwater sloughs of large rivers and some small lakes and ponds. Found only in eastern North America.

Spawning Habits: Spawns in April and May in marshy, weedy bays. Male forms a depression on firm bottom amid weeds, clearing all the weeds away then conceals it with an umbrella of vegetation. Two females may spawn in one nest and will spawn in more than one nest in a spring. Usually spawns at night. The male guards and aerates the eggs. After they hatch, the young attach to rootlets of vegetation by means of an adhesive organ, much like the pikes. The male will guard the young that travel in schools until they are about 3 or 4 inches long.

Longnose Gar

Common Names: Billy gar, billfish, garfish, garpike

Best Fishing: Lakes: Kerr, Western Branch, Prince, Chickahominy, Buggs Island. Rivers: Chickahominy, Pamunkey, James, Rappahannock.

Fishing Techniques: Large minnows are best on medium to heavy casting and spinning tackle. They are adept at stripping bait from hooks and difficult to hook in their bony jaw. Feed at night, especially moonlit nights.

Identification: Can be immediately identified by its long, bony, toothy jaws that resemble a spear. Brownish-olive on its back, fading to yellowish- or olive-green to white on its belly. Some are dark greenish above and silvery on sides and belly. Some lack spots, others may be heavily spotted depending on the water they come from. Ganoid type scales fit against one another like bricks on a wall. They are extremely hard. Has large spots on pike-like dorsal and anal fins, and large rounded caudal or tail fin. Two to three feet in length is not uncommon. State Record: 25 pounds, 2 ounces from Lake Prince.

Feeding Habits: Feeds mainly on small fishes, but take in small amounts of insects and other aquatic creatures. Feeds mostly near the surface.

Habitat: Occurs in slow-moving rivers, streams, overflow ponds or large freshwater bays. Is tolerant of turbid waters and currents and will feed in fast currents or tides. Needs reasonably clear water and aquatic vegetation to reproduce. Is able to breath by using its air bladder as a lung, and are often seen in warm weather with their “beaks” out of water, gulping air.

Spawning Habits: In spring in shallow waters, the eggs are deposited in weedy bays on submergent vegetation. They are dark in colour and said to be poisonous for humans to eat. Young have a special disk on its head to attach to vegetation, much like pike fry.

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