I caught two Quilback Carpsuckers  on a blade bait in Pymy through the ice this winter. Thought I had on a good Eye until I saw the scales. I had no idea what it was until I described it to a fella and he recognized what I described. One was 20 inches other 22+. I have a picture I could possibly share latter.

treesparrow
I caught two Quilback Carpsuckers  on a blade bait in Pymy through the ice this winter. Thought I had on a good Eye until I saw the scales. I had no idea what it was until I described it to a fella and he recognized what I described. One was 20 inches other 22+. I have a picture I could possibly share latter.

Lucky! I had no luck getting in to any Quillback in Erie last year. They're very picking feeders and seldom even caught using bait. I'd take a Quillback over an 'Eye any day, better fight and cooler fish!

 OHDNR
 
 
 
 

I caught one of those on Pymatuning BTDT. It's a quillback, no?
Snagged him in the back. Thought I had a word record walleye on the line. :)

Well, apparently Pymy is the place to fish for Quills. All of you who've caught them, did you snag them or did they take a bait? Time to break out the number 16 hooks and half a waxworm if they're being caught with bait!

I caught a quillback a couple years ago at the Shenango on a tan caddis pupae imitation, and I believe my brother caught one that same day. Very unexpected. I'll try to dig up a photo. The redhorses are hard enough to target there, the quillbacks are nearly impossible haha.

I foul hook them quite often though. Many around the mouth/head but unfortunately not in. Feel the head shakes then am disappointed to see they didn't eat my offering. I've gotta say they're probably one of the hardest fish to catch in PA, besides the filter feeder paddlefish.

 
 
Just put the picture up so guyz could see what TreeSparrow had caught.  We were chasing these guys around in a shallow bay last spring, caught two on a 1/32 oz jig I was using for crappie.  This picture was provided by the Ohio DNR, couldn't find mine.
 
http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/species-and-habitats/species-guide-index/fish/quillback-carpsucker 
 

troutguy
I caught a quillback a couple years ago at the Shenango on a tan caddis pupae imitation, and I believe my brother caught one that same day. Very unexpected. I'll try to dig up a photo. The redhorses are hard enough to target there, the quillbacks are nearly impossible haha.

I foul hook them quite often though. Many around the mouth/head but unfortunately not in. Feel the head shakes then am disappointed to see they didn't eat my offering. I've gotta say they're probably one of the hardest fish to catch in PA, besides the filter feeder paddlefish.

Is the Redhorse fishing any good in the Shenango? I can't wait for this year's spring runs, especially on the Allegheny!

The photo is BTDT posted shows the fish better, but here's one I have of a Shenango quillback. This fish was one of the few quillbacks that was actually caught.......mixed in with gazillions of foul hooked ones.
 



 
It's hard to say exactly how good the redhorse fishing is there since I very, very, very rarely target them, but yeah it does seem to have a pretty darn good population of them. At least in certain spots. Some days when I'm wading the shallows for carp I see many more suckers than carp, and other days it's about even.....or there's more carp. I wouldn't say there's a spring run or anything(maybe in a few of its small tribs?) but numbers are pretty consistent during the warmer months in areas.
 
I will say that the redhorses there are a heck of a lot pickier than the carp. Not as picky as quillbacks though haha.
 

This was a pretty odd "catch."  Was fishing a creek and got tangled up in a bunch of line while wading. After wrapping up what seemed like an entire spool of line I find this at the end of it!!! 99% sure it's a stonecat madtom. Given the time of year and the location I doubt the person was using it for bait, so they got their line snagged up and lost it for whatever reason and the fish decided to eat the bait. Anyways, I unhooked the fish and it swam off. Had a similar thing happen at a different creek, but the fish on the end of the line seemed to have been dead for a while.
 

 
And my personal best golden shiner