non-native fish on the yampa river to be euthanized

sport fish are being removed from the yampa river to help create a better enviroment for the native endangered species such as the bonytail chub, colorado pikeminnow and razorback suckers. hopefully this is a successful operation and can remove some of the competition the native fish are facing. seems like theres a large amount of idiots with a sport fish mentality who are apposed to this. the words "useless trash fish" are being thrown around alot by the local fishermen. its upsetting to see that there seems to be almost no regard for the fish that are meant to be in the river in the fist place. as a species angler i hope to see the bass, catfish and esox species completely eradicated from these rivers so someday if i venture out this way i can have a shot at the many glorious native fish.

news article about the story
http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=195199

forum responses
http://www.fishexplorer.com/co/fxrforum.asp?action=det&pid=202010

river monsters

buffs are running good right now. its unfortunate but this one was fowl hooked on the cannon river and kept by a meat hunter.

facepalm.jpg

not quite sure what to say about this one..

state record blue sucker caught on the iowa river

"A 33-1/4-inch, blue sucker was caught in the Iowa River in Johnson County on April 11. The fish weighed in at 15 pounds, 6 ounces on a certified scale.
Steven Jones was fishing for walleyes with a jig when the caught the fish.
This is the first state record for blue sucker, which is one of nine species of fish added to the list available for new master angler program and state record registry. "

the fact that the fish was caught on a jig tells me there is a chance that it was fowl hooked. i hear of alot of walleye guys catching one of these from time to time and its always while jigging. i have caught shorthead redhorse before on the st. croix back in my walleye days so a fair hook in this fish isnt out of the question. then again i have also heard from many walleye guys that they will count a fish hooked above the gills as fair and one behind the gills as snagged even if they hook is in the side of the fishes head its "fair" in their opinion. either way its really awesome to see such a fine specimen of one of our rarest fish even if the picture is somewhat humorous. if i were to catch a state record fish and have my picture taken for the news i highly doubt id hold it like a pump shotgun. so congrats steven jones for catching such a beautiful fish. 

giant hogsucker

today i fished the cannon over at a little spot back in the woods where a friend of mine caught a greater redhorse today. with that in mind i set up for suckers. right away i got into a good sized golden. i was pretty content with it becuase it was my first redhorse that wasnt caught in a warmwater discharge this year. a few minutes later i nailed a shorthead. action was fast i kept catching redhorse after redhorse just having tons of fun with it. it was getting dark so i was about to leave and i got a bite. it felt different than the rest of the redhorse i caught today i brought it up and felt no headshakes just dead weight and it felt pretty heavy. i got it up and thought i had a white sucker on. i pulled it up and saw how wide the head was and couldnt believe it. i had just caught the biggest hogsucker i have ever seen. i measured it at a little over 16". for sure a new personal best. also the current state record hogsucker measured 14.25 inches and weighed 1.15 lbs i did not get the weight for my fish unfortunately but it was around 2 inches longer making it possibly larger than the current record.

first buffalo of the year

went to my all time favorite spot for multispecies fishing. the water looked high and kinda muddy so i didnt expect much, i threw on a heavy jig with a white twister tail and right off the bat i nailed a decent pike. that gave me hope that other species would be around. i tried crawler fishing for a while and caught one small carp after about an hour of trying so i switched back to the twister tail. after a few more casts a nice 17" smallmouth bass came to the net. the first of the year. i was pretty happy with that and kept casting the twister around. i missed something that felt much different. i only felt the weight of the fish for about 2 seconds before it took one big run and snapped the line. i figured it was a large pike at first and tied on a fresh twister tail. in a few more casts another big smallmouth was on the line. still curious as to what snapped me off i kept fishing the deep slack pool i missed the fish in. after a while i had another fairly similar fish on the line. it ran hard and i though i had snagged a carp. i raised it up a few times but didnt get a look. the whole time i was thinking carp till i got it a bit closer and saw a familiar gray color in the water. could it be? yes a buffalo and my jig was all the way in its mouth. not a giant by any means but i was pretty happy with it. i got it in and to the net. a few other guys down there had no idea what kind of fish it was and i explained to them what it was. impressed with the way it fought they decided to try throwing small plastics around. within 30 minutes one of them got the biggest buffalo ive seen in person 37 inches long and again it had the lure crammed deep in its mouth. an absolute tank. my phone had died so i had no camera to capture a picture of their behemoth buff. i kept fishing but did not get into any more buffalo. i did catch one really ugly trash fish though. 26 inches long gold in color with teeth and a white tip to its tail. one big disgusting fish. all in all it was a great day and i am more than content with only getting one of these awesome fish. i plan to try again tomorow and hopefully encounter a buffalo again. just this time i really hope i dont accidentally wipe my nose with my sleeve after handling one...