Finding fun in pursuing alternative species..

[DitchPanda]

 Like most of you bass are my primary target. I also spend a fair amount of time targeting bluegill, crappie and walleye\sauger. This fall I got back into cat fishing which I did all the time years ago and I've kind of fallen in love with it.

 That said I'm also getting into targeting some "other" species. I've been  spending some time targeting gold eye which are basically skipjack. Its been a blast catching them on a crappie rod on a kastmaster. Thinking next year I may start doing some carp fishing. Guess I kinda just realized that I'm a fisherman not just a bass angler.

 Anybody out there enjoy targeting some of these so called less desirable species? If so which ones do you target!

[AlabamaSpothunter]

I love to catch any kind of fish, however I don't get that floaty euphoric feeling from anything besides Bass in freshwater.     Big fish of all types will thrill me, but a 5lb+ Bass gives me a euphoria nothing else in freshwater can match.    

 

Gar and Carp are a blast to catch because of their size, and strength.   Gar are easy, certain types of Carp I've tried to catch were like Bonefish, others were like Bream.     The silver torpedo looking grass Carp will pull a jon boat across a lake for half an hour.   

 

I find I get bored after X many number of other species, it only took 100-150 Crappie over the last two weeks for me to finally scratch that itch.     On the other hand, I feel the same way about landing a Bass today as I did when I caught my first one......HOW CAN I CATCH MORE OF THESE THINGS ?

[PressuredFishing]

Trout, panfish and crappie and catfish they are no less desirable than bass, I don't know why the fishing industry is skewed so favorably towards bass, quite frustrating imo, lots of other great game fish that go untapped, it's truly a shame there is such a lack in the U.S market for light+UL game multispecies tackle for salt and freshwater, but that's okay because us Americans like "WiN GrIP POwEr KNobS and 50+1 BaLl bEaRiNgS"

 

 

[bulldog1935]

@PressuredFishing you might like the way the rod page is divided up in the Plat.jp online catalog

https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/default/language/en/cPath/38/rod.html

Bass fishing is one of 15 niche categories (and a few more categories thrown in for packaged combos, travel rods, rod building).  Here's a crop from that page.   (You also won't find all these rods in stock, but it's a good way to compare length, style, action, specs)

Of course, they're an island nation, surrounded by the sea, and a thousand-year tradition of taking their food from the sea. 

The trick is look at their back yard, what they offer their market, then look at your back yard, whether any of it can help you. 

Plus, you'll never have a 20-something Expert at BPS telling you what you need. 

Alex trying my light game rod for threadline fishing - his Daiwa reel

Back to that Plat catalog, the biggest advantage you'll likely find in JDM rods is bank fishing, where all their fishing traditions began.  Also, their thousand years of shore fishing began with finesse fishing.  USM is aimed at major US niches, and even the Japanese export to USM in those same niches - Bass, panfish, trout, salmon/steelhead, inshore, surf, offshore.

 

While I grew up bass fishing reservoirs, inshore sloughs and jetties with my dad, my 50 years of fishing Texas hill country limestone creeks has mostly been with a fly rod (ok, rods), and river bass are only a slice.  Pretty easy to argue fly fishing is our national finesse-fishing tradition. 

native cichlid above, native redhorse sucker below - we call these Guadalupe redfish

There's one spot in particular on the "middle" Guadalupe where we sight-fish longnose gar - takes a sharp hook, and they make astounding aerials. Even if you don't hook one, their 10' surface lunge to attack your fly is a rush. 

I could go on and on - when we did the math on FFR forum a decade ago, I could list over 100 species caught on fly rod. 

 

Adding a ps - I have several friends on FFR finesse-fishing Sierra Nevada lakes using Japanese Light Game rods - they sourced them from US vendor Bait Finesse Empire, who stocks both USM and JDM tackle. 

https://baitfinesseempire.com/product-category/rods/

[TnRiver46]

I’ll fish for anything that’s not a stocker trout……….

[A-Jay]

I'm fortune in that most all of the deep cool water lakes I frequent

are home to a variety of game fish. 

And while I 'target' the big brown bass the majority of the time, 

I have been know to veer off track for a solid walleye or northern pike bite.

Brown trout & the occasional Muskie often make early and late season appearances. 

Although I love catching them, I do not usually target those guys. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

[bulldog1935]

@TnRiver46

oh, I don't know - Guadalupe tailwater rainbow

We're in John Ross's America's 100 Best Trout Streams (I fished with John when he was here), and listed first in southern tailwaters in 50 Best Tailwaters to Fly Fish. 

Even @A-Jay's big rainbows are stockers - rainbows are native only to Pacific coast drainage. 

After two weeks in a TX tailwater, a MO hatchery rainbow is as wild and technical as any.  It's the tailwater biomass that makes them difficult, technical (and large - they grown 1"/mo).

Native Alaska rainbows are seriously dumb - kicking salmon carcases aside and the black slate bottom pink with salmon eggs, what could prompt them to take my plastic bead every 3rd cast.   These fish grow slowly, and beef up on flesh and eggs by September. 

[Deleted account]

9 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

  Anybody out there enjoy targeting some of these so called less desirable species? If so which ones do you target!

If it's got gills, and fins, it better beware, lake, stream, ocean, river, estuary, puddle, bay, Japanese embassy koi pond,  I don't discriminate, (that last one's ground keeper sure surprised me with how fast he could move for an older out of shape guy, you'd think a 10 year old could outrun him easy)...

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

@TnRiver46

oh, I don't know - Guadalupe tailwater rainbow

We're in John Ross's America's 100 Best Trout Streams (I fished with John when he was here), and listed first in southern tailwaters in 50 Best Tailwaters to Fly Fish. 

Even @A-Jay's big rainbows are stockers - rainbows are native only to Pacific coast drainage. 

After two weeks in a TX tailwater, a MO hatchery rainbow is as wild and technical as any.  Native Alaska rainbows are seriously dumb - kicking salmon carcases aside and the black slate bottom pink with salmon eggs, what could prompt them to take my plastic bead every 3rd cast. 

The river my lake house is on was also listed in that top 100 trout streams, the little Tennessee. It ain’t a river no more…….

 

im familiar with trout lineage, doesn’t mean I have to like them! Smoked trout dip is the only redeeming quality of a stocker, and even that is a PITA

[Seaworthy81]

Living in south Florida bass have become bycatch and the exotic species really shine. Peacocks, Snakehead, Cichlids etc are such a blast. 

[PressuredFishing]

6 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

@PressuredFishing you might like the way the rod page is divided up in the Plat.jp online catalog

https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/default/language/en/cPath/38/rod.html

Bass fishing is one of 15 niche categories (and a few more categories thrown in for packaged combos, travel rods, rod building).  Here's a crop from that page.   (You also won't find all these rods in stock, but it's a good way to compare length, style, action, specs)

Of course, they're an island nation, surrounded by the sea, and a thousand-year tradition of taking their food from the sea. 

The trick is look at their back yard, what they offer their market, then look at your back yard, whether any of it can help you. 

Plus, you'll never have a 20-something Expert at BPS telling you what you need. 

Alex trying my light game rod for threadline fishing - his Daiwa reel

Back to that Plat catalog, the biggest advantage you'll likely find in JDM rods is shore fishing, where all their fishing traditions began.  Also, their thousand years of shore fishing began with finesse fishing.  USM is aimed at major US niches, and even the Japanese export to USM in those same niches - Bass, panfish, trout, salmon/steelhead, inshore, surf, offshore.

 

While I grew up bass fishing reservoirs, inshore sloughs and jetties with my dad, my 50 years of fishing Texas hill country limestone creeks has mostly been with a fly rod (ok, rods), and river bass are only a slice.  Pretty easy to argue fly fishing is our national finesse-fishing tradition. 

native cichlid above, native redhorse sucker below - we call these Guadalupe redfish

There's one spot in particular on the "middle" Guadalupe where we sight-fish longnose gar - takes a sharp hook, and they make astounding aerials. Even if you don't hook one, their 10' surface lunge to attack your fly is a rush. 

I could go on and on - when we did the math on FFR forum a decade ago, I could list over 100 species caught on fly rod. 

 

Adding a ps - I have several friends on FFR finesse-fishing Sierra Nevada lakes using Japanese Light Game rods - they sourced them from US vendor Bait Finesse Empire, who stocks both USM and JDM tackle. 

https://baitfinesseempire.com/product-category/rods/

Thankyou so much for this info! My grandfather helped build the trails in john muir wilderness in the conservation core up there alot as well other parts of the sierras, it's quite nice! Pretty much been solely buying tackle from Japan right now with prices being so favorable and they make products I actually want! I picked up a diawa gekkabijin ajing rod  and really like it, I have really gotten into ajing fishing because on the pacific coast we have almost the exact same fish species as the Japanese, we have the horse mackerel which are great fun even in the colder months. And the bigger pacific mackerel, jacksmelt, and occasionally a Bonito or Spanish mackerel fight tremendously hard, expecially on jdm line! It also seems to do well as a trout and panfish rod, but the ajing rods are a hair bit stiffer! I've also been playing around with a lot of Japanese lines and all the different types, I even have been exploring xul fishing with 1.2lb line. Not to mention trout area lures. 

5 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

Even @A-Jay's big rainbows are stockers - rainbows are native only to Pacific coast drainage. 

Yeah! Went up to normal this summer and got to visit a sanctuary (no fishing) but had some native rainbows in it that where very pure geneticially, some of them almost look like yammamae from Japan.

[Jar11591]

I love to catch any kind of fish, but I’m like @AlabamaSpothunter, no other species gives me the rush that bass do. Catching more bass and bigger bass is what I go to bed thinking about, and I have 5 lifetimes worth of bass specific gear and tackle. 
 

I get plenty of northern pike without having to target them, they are everywhere that I fish for bass. They’re always fun, as long as they don’t bite me off. 
 

A few times of year I’ll target another species, and it’s usually trout or panfish. Stream trout are often the last fish I have access to before complete freeze and snow cover. I have miles of streams around me that have brook, brown and rainbow trout. I take trout charters on Lake Ontario with my father occasionally as well. That’s his kind of fishing. I like to occasionally go after pumpkinseeds, crappie, bluegills and perch to have a fish fry. They’re always fun on light tackle. Ever more rarely, I’ll fish for carp. I can’t stand waiting but they’re a blast once you get one on. 
 

I have roughly 10 rigs dedicated to species other than bass. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

I have a 110 different fish species. I will chase anything from sunfish to tuna. I’m a fishermen  not a bass angler. 
 

[Further North]

Lots of people find the pike I chase undesirable. 

 

I prefer them to bass...

[Vilas15]

I'll specifically target brook trout, brown trout, crappie, walleye, smallmouth, muskies. I also don't mind the occasional bluegill, perch, pike, largemouth but rarely go looking for them, they find me sometimes.

[Mr. Aquarium]

51 minutes ago, Further North said:

Lots of people find the pike I chase undesirable. 

 

I prefer them to bass...

Pike are fun. I don’t catch them often. I have to drive far but I love them

42 minutes ago, Vilas15 said:

I'll specifically target brook trout, brown trout, crappie, walleye, smallmouth, muskies. I also don't mind the occasional bluegill, perch, pike, largemouth but rarely go looking for them, they find me sometimes.

I’m dying to catch a musky. Bucketlist fish 

[Further North]

11 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

I’m dying to catch a musky. Bucketlist fish 

Musky are fun, but they are a commitment.

If you have to travel to fish for them, and want a reasonable shot on a short trip, hire a guide.

[Vilas15]

7 hours ago, Further North said:

Musky are fun, but they are a commitment.

If you have to travel to fish for them, and want a reasonable shot on a short trip, hire a guide.

Yup. Average catch rate is 25-40 hrs per fish in Northern WI. And thats the average muskie fisherman who has some idea what he's doing taking a entire work week for a single fish. It tracks with my own data for the last few I've caught.

[Further North]

40 minutes ago, Vilas15 said:

Yup. Average catch rate is 25-40 hrs per fish in Northern WI. And thats the average muskie fisherman who has some idea what he's doing taking a entire work week for a single fish. It tracks with my own data for the last few I've caught.

About right from where I sit too.  Fishing low pressure rivers ups the average a bit (last time out we moved 6, had 3 on).

I fish with a guide a couple times a year to learn new things.  In all the years I've done it, we've only had one day with zero fish.

[N Florida Mike]

I’ve done some  saltwater offshore, and a lot of inshore and surf fishing. Offshore it’s been mostly bottom fishing for various types of snapper, grouper , sea bass, amberjacks.etc

Inshore is mostly targeting Redfish, flounder , sheephead , black drum etc.

Surf fishing is whiting, pompano,, bluefish, sharks…

Freshwater besides bass Ive done a lot of bream and catfishing, and a lesser amount of speck fishing.

If I only had one fish I could fish for though, it would be bass of course.. 

[slonezp]

On 11/10/2022 at 6:57 AM, TnRiver46 said:

I’ll fish for anything that’s not a stocker trout……….

Stocker trout in Lake Michigan can grow over 30lbs 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

3 hours ago, Vilas15 said:

Yup. Average catch rate is 25-40 hrs per fish in Northern WI. And thats the average muskie fisherman who has some idea what he's doing taking a entire work week for a single fish. It tracks with my own data for the last few I've caught.

That's interesting and a great data point because my state has a program called B.A.I.T. where they calculate total hours fished per 5lb Bass on public lakes in Alabama.   Pickwick, Wheeler, Guntersville are all less than 100hrs fished......Pickwick and Wheeler IIrc are in the 50s.

 

So basically catching a Muskie requires the same amount of commitment, luck, or combo of both as a 5lb Bass in as good of Bass fishery as you can have on a public lake.   

 

That's really cool, I always knew Muskie were hard to catch, and now this finally puts it perfectly into perspective when combined with the B.A.I.T. numbers.

[slonezp]

On 11/10/2022 at 7:04 AM, A-Jay said:

I'm fortune in that most all of the deep cool water lakes I frequent

are home to a variety of game fish. 

And while I 'target' the big brown bass the majority of the time, 

I have been know to veer off track for a solid walleye or northern pike bite.

Brown trout & the occasional Muskie often make early and late season appearances. 

Although I love catching them, I do not usually target those guys. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

And these fish are no more or less important than bass. 

[Captain Phil]

13 hours ago, slonezp said:

And these fish are no more or less important than bass. 

 

I agree when it comes to native species.  The problem comes when non native exotics are introduced into the eco system. As mentioned before, South Florida waters contain all kinds of non native fish.   Some, like Peacock bass were stocked by the State.  Some were dumped from discarded fish tanks and others where intentionally brought in by emigrants from other countries.   Snook are natural emigrant fish from Central America.   The problem is you never know what affect these fish are going to have on the environment.   There are canals off Highway 27 that are literally eaten up with Oscars.  Oscars are a popular fish sold in pet stores. I have been told they are good eating and have seen commercial fishermen target them.   It's nearly impossible to throw a Beetle Spin into those waters with catching one.  There is still a lot of good bass fishing in South Florida despite this.  Bass in those particular canals don't have a chance.  I fear this will happen with snakeheads. What worries me about snakeheads is most other South Florida exotics can't tolerate cold water.  This limits their spread.  This is not the case when it comes to snakeheads.  It's too late for South Florida.  Between iguanas, pythons, snakeheads and "who knows what", their fresh water fishery is irreversibly altered.   I pray this won't happen to the rest of the State.

[redmeansdistortion]

13 hours ago, slonezp said:

Stocker trout in Lake Michigan can grow over 30lbs 

Plus many of them reproduce naturally in the systems they are stocked, in the northern Great Lakes anyway.  The spawn of the tank scrubbers have never seen a hatchery and would qualify as wild trout.  As such, many of these tribs that were heavily stocked decades ago are now stocked a lot less and done so as a means to augment the now wild populations.  With the southern Great Lakes, most of those are stockers since there are very few cold water streams due to urban runoff and the underground springs drying up as a result.  As an example, my "home" stream is the Clinton River in Southeast Michigan.  Up until the 1950s, it was classified a cold water stream, but now that it's way overdeveloped, most water comes in the form of urban runoff since most of its tributaries have been filled in.  All of that water running off from roads and parking lots really heats it up.  In the early 20th century, that river seldom exceeded 60 degrees, even in the dead of summer.  Fast forward to now, and it flirts with 80 degrees every year, much too warm for trout.