Do you love big bluegill?

Some multi-species fishing

I took off early this morning, intent on wade-fishing in the Arkansas River below the Pedestrian Bridge. I knew that water would be running, since I had checked the website that morning, and that it would be a slow fall on river level all day.

Once I crossed the riverbed to get to where I normally fish, I tried to set up for big stripers. I couldn’t catch any shad, and after a couple throws of an artificial bait, I realized there was too much current right there to fish with the gear I had with me.

I moved upstream a bit, to some shallower water and current strength wasn’t so swift. It took me a bit, but I finally started connecting with some White Bass / Sand Bass. I managed to catch three, then I got this one:

[IMG]http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/111/20120429striper.jpg[/IMG]

All right! Not as big as I had hoped, but a decent size.

Then, I started catching some of these:

[IMG]http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/231/20120429sauger3.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1219/20120429sauger2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/5352/20120429sauger1.jpg[/IMG]

I caught those by slow-rolling spinnerbaits along the bottom. The spinners I was using were Rooster Tails, one in yellow with a silver blade, and another that was chartreuse with a chartreuse blade. I also had to cobble together a big beetle spin with a size 3 blade, a ¼ oz ball jig, and a 3” chartreuse curly tail grub.

I lost both of the Rooster Tails to BIG Unidentified Fishy Objects. The first UFO managed to splash a couple times, but I didn’t see the fish. The second UFO never surfaced, just turned downstream and started pulling drag non-stop. I’m assuming the second was a spoonbill; the first might have been as well, or a big Gar.

I also caught a second Striper, same size as the first, and what I believe was a Smallmouth Buffalo, but they both threw the hook once I beached them and jumped back into the river while I was trying to capture a photo with my camera.

After I came home, my kids talked me into taking them down the local park to try to catch some minnows. Logan managed to catch about 4 dozen Mosquito Fish, some of which were fed to his sunfish in the fish tank. I managed to catch about a dozen different sunnies on worms under a float. Here’s a pic of a little Longear:

[IMG]http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4103/20120429longearsunfish.jpg[/IMG]