Delirium in the Tionesta

Delirium in the Tionesta
 
Now thinking about it, it had to be delirium on July 5th that got me fishing for suckers. After closing down Rays Hot Spot I figured I got to sleep around 2:00am., in my van, parked in the parking lot. I was up at 5:00am when the crack of dawn presented itself thru my van windows. I was fishing in the Tionesta Creek by 6:00am. with the fog rising around me. I was catching rising trout on dry flies and when things slowed down I swung a wooly bugger and hooked into 2 ‘bows’ within minutes of each other. I went back to dries as more fish started to rise. The browns and ‘bows’ I caught were anywhere from 10” to 14”. These were the ones that eluded the onslaught of fishermen in the first 2 months of trout season.

 
 
 By 1:30 pm. the hot sun escaped from some cloud cover and was beating down its scorching rays upon me. With that and only getting 3 hours sleep I think this is when the delirium set in. I could feel the alcohol seeping thru the pores of my skin dampening my Columbia Bonehead fishing shirt. With each passing motorcycle on rte. 666 I tried to imagine, in my head, the cool breeze across my body but opening my eyes to reality I only came to realize a slight burst of warm air blowing upstream.
 
I decided to wade downstream a bit longer and try for some smallies against the rocky shoreline or under the shade trees along the bank. To make a long story short and get right to the point I came across a school of suspended suckers in about 5 feet of water. Remembering a discussion on how hard it is to catch carp on a fly, I decided to try my expertise on these suckers. Let’s face it carp and suckers all got to be in the same bottom feeding genetic family somehow.
I stood thigh deep in the middle of the Tionesta Creek looking at a school of about 20 or so suckers basking in the sun. What can be so hard about catching one?
 
I started with a brown woolly bugger figuring it looks like a night crawler, but they didn’t even come over to examine it. The white sucker spawn that I thought would look like bread dough didn’t even faze them. I slowly drifted and let a thunder creek shiner lay upon the bottom like a dead minnow, evidently there were no fish eaters. I turned to a selection of stonefly and mayfly nymphs but they just turned away. I even found a red bead-head San Juan worm cluster tied on a curved hook, surely this should have enticed ones appetite? Nope!! So after 45 minutes a heated discussion with myself came to a conclusion that I would show them only 2 more flies before I acknowledge defeat.
 Through my exhausted brain, I thought the only thing I didn’t show them was something flashy. I dug in my bugger box and pulled out a flashy looking woolly bugger I received in a fly swap on a fisherie.com forum. The body looked to be made of Estaz with a few strands of white Krystal Flash on the top and bottom of the buggy looking body. The real eye catcher was the red sparkling Krystal Flash tail. After tying this on my 5x tippet I roll casted into a small stream of current and let the bugger drift within sight of the suspended suckers. Moving the rod tip up and down occasionally, I kept the bugger suspended for an easy meal. I watched as a fair size, fat lipped, sucker cruise up from the back row. I swear he was keying on my suspended bugger. He swam right for it and lifted his blunt nose and sucked it in.
“He took it” I said out loud as I reared back on the rod and set the hook
I walked the sucker to the bank like dragging a piece of drift wood, at an angle, through the water. On the wet pebbled shoreline the sucker put up more of a fight than in the water, slashing around. I took a couple of pictures just to prove I caught a sucker, with an imitation, fair and square with my fly rod.

 

After he broke the 5x tippet while I was trying to unhook the fly from his lips, he almost made it back into swimmable water before I nabbed him. I made sure I retrieved the bugger before letting him go.
 
It only took 15 more minutes to convince myself that another sucker wasn’t going to be fool enough to suck in another one of my imitations.
 
I headed to the van for a quenching drink and to smoke a victory cigar before going to the Kelly for wings and a beer.
And that, my friends, is how delirium caused me to sucker fish in a trout stream with my fly rod…. ~doubletaper

I think that "sucker" is a fall fish. Did it make an odd sound as you handled it ?

Have you ever seen The OZONE RANGERS play there?
Great ZZ Top cover band.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reQsVmJHuo4



OZONE RANGERS 2009 CALENDAR

JULY
FRI. 24TH.WESTERN N.Y.VOLUNTEER FIREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, ALDEN TOWN PARK TIME 9-1
SAT. 25TH, RAY'S HOT SPOT, MARIENVILLE, PA   9:45-1:45
SUN. 26TH, VARYSBURG HOTEL, VARYSBURG, N.Y. BIKE AFTERNOON 1-5

AUGUST
SAT. 1ST, PRIVATE PARTY, SINCLAIRVILLE, N.Y. 5-9
SUN. 2ND, BART'S COVE MARINA, DUNKIRK, N.Y. 5-9
SAT. 8TH, PINE ACRES, GOWANDA, N.Y. PRIVATE FUNCTION 11-3
FRI. 14TH, DOCKSIDE ON THE CANAL, TONAWANDA, N.Y.  10-2
SAT. 15TH, RAY'S HOT SPOT, MARIENVILLE, PA   9:45-1:45
FRI. 21ST, WALLEYE WILLIE'S, DUNKIRK, N.Y.  8:30-12:30 
SAT. 22ND, OUTLAWS, ALLEGANY, N.Y.   8-12
SUN. 23RD, VARYSBURG HOTEL, VARYSBURG, N.Y. BIKE AFTERNOON TIME 1-5 
TUES. 25TH, FAIRGROUNDS GAMING BIKE NIGHT, HAMBURG FAIR, HAMBURG, N.Y. 6-10
FRI. 28TH, RUMBLE ON THE RIVER MIKER EVENT, TIONESTA, PA, 4-7 PM NEW ADD
SAT. 29TH, JONAPALOOZA, PRIVATE


SEPTEMBER
FRI. 4TH, MDA BENEFIT, SHERIDAN PARK, RT.5 SHERIDAN, N.Y. 6-10
SAT. 5TH PRIVATE-WEDDING PITTSBURGH, PA NEW ADD
SUN 6TH, DOCK AT THE BAY, HAMBURG, N.Y. 6-10
SAT. 12TH, VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY OUTDOOR SHOW, SINCLAIRVILLE N.Y. 6-9ISH 
FRI. 18TH, THE OFFICE, SPRINGVILLE, N.Y. 10-2
SAT. 19TH, CAMOUFLAGE INN, STUMP CREEK, PA 10-2

OCTOBER
FRI. 9TH, RAY'S HOT SPOT, MARIENVILLE, PA   9:45-1:45
SAT. 10TH, RAY'S HOT SPOT, MARIENVILLE, PA   9:45-1:45
SAT. 17TH, EAGLES CLUB, FALLS CREEK, PA  9-1 
SAT. 31ST, BALLOON'S, ELLICOTTVILLE, N.Y. 5-9  HALLOWEEN PARTY 

NOVEMBER
SAT. 21ST, RAY'S HOT SPOT, MARIENVILLE, PA   9:45-1:45
WED. 25TH, AMERICAN LEGION, WARREN, PA, NIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING PARTY, 9-12:30

DECEMBER
SAT. 5TH, BALLOON'S, ELLICOTTVILLE, N.Y. 5-9 
FRI. 18TH, THE OFFICE, SPRINGVILLE, N.Y. 10-2
SAT. 26TH, WARREN EAGLES CLUB, WARREN, PA.   9:30-1:30
THURS. 31ST, RAY'S HOT SPOT, MARIENVILLE, PA   9:45-1:45 NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY

i would say my fish is a sucker. the fallfish seems to have a more pointed nose and thinner lips. i'm sure the sucker and carp fishermen would know!
 
  
fallfish
 
 
my sucker fish
 
 

 

 
ya, they look more like creek chubs to me. when we were catching them down south the guide told us they were 'fallfish' we still called them chubs anyhow!!

Definitely a sucker, my guess would be some species of Redhorse sucker, no clue exactly.  Definitely tough to get them to take a fly, or even bait for that matter. There's tons of them in Tionesta. Always a school of them in the summer about 1/2 mile upstream on 666 from the Tall oaks antique store.  You'll see a wide pulloff , park there and walk upstream a short ways until you here a spring trickling in from under the road. There is usually 50 to 300 of them suckers schooled there by the spring, they like cool water. Sometimes you can see them actively feeding, suspending in the water taking some type of small nymphs (at least I always assumed that's what they were sucking in).  That's a decent smallie spot too. Oops, perhaps that's where you were fishing, hope I didn't give away your secret sucker hole
 
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/fishhtms/chap12.htm

ORIGINAL: Mikastorm

Great read! As always.lol
Seen a bunch in the hole by frog rock one year.
Could not get them to hit on anything.
Thought at first they were trout.

 
it's h3ll getting old and needing glasses.