Kishwaukee River suckers

When you're on the road to Wisconsin and your girlfriend tells you she's going to be a few hours late getting back from a trip, you take the nearest exit and go fishing in the Kishwaukee River.  That's what I did last weekend.  Unfortunately the sun had already set, but I wasn't going to stay long, so it worked out just fine.

The Kishwaukee has black redhorse, but I haven't been able to find one yet.  I put out two Carolina rigs, each with a #6 octopus circle hook, 18 inch 8 lb fluorocarbon leader, barrel swivel, plastic bead, 1/2 oz egg sinker, and 20 lb braid main line.  In other words, my redhorse rig.  The egg sinker is the most valuable part of the rig, so if I get hung up on a snag I can break the 8 lb leader.  The leader is strong enough that no redhorse is going to break it.  20 lb braid is a nice diameter to deal with, and if you absolutely have to break it off, you can.

The water was low, fish were splashing in the darkness, but the bite was slow.  I caught two fish before I packed up and hit the road - a golden redhorse and a beefy northern hogsucker.

Golden Redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum)

Northern Hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans)

Two days later I stopped by another spot on the Kishwaukee to put in another hour towards not catching a black redhorse.  The temperature was rapidly dropping as a front moved in, and the bite was a lot better!  I caught a really big golden redhorse, three big silver redhorse, a small channel catfish, and a scrappy little smallmouth bass.

Golden Redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum)

Silver Redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum)

Until next time...