Fished a river for a few hours from my kayak today, I tried a number of baits that usually work there, but I don't think I was there during the "feeding window". Usually 2 hours of good fishing this time of year before they quit completely, it's definitely hit-or-miss. Ended up with one dink on a float-n-fly and one pickup on a shakey head that pulled the bait down on the hook when I set it. Abrasions from the teeth went all the way up the bait to right before the hook.

"caught" 4 of these stupid things

what are those fish?  they look almost like shad but it's hard to tell from the pic and they don't hang around in the rivers except during their migratory run.  and since you snagged them i am guessing you found a school in their wintering hole

 

One dink and some shad sure don't smell like
a skunk, does it!  Nice

Looks like a Gizzard Shad

the more i look at it, i think it is a buffalo carp or whatever they are called 

 

Definitely a gizzard shad. I saw the first sign of them today in my tide water river. Its impossible to fish when they make it in  numbers. Thousands of them inundate the water and bump into your line over and over.Fun to snag them slim balls.

I fished 2.5 hrs with 3 small crappie,1 mini bass and 1 pickerel. Ice lined the  shores. No coat needed today. All ponds still froze over.Some will open Wed & by Fri.,its game on.

ETS `s hope you don`t mind me piggy backin your report.

C22

the only reason i think it is a buffalo is because of the barbels on the mouth that you can barely see in the picture and the pictures i saw from gizzard shad have a different dorsal fin.

 

 

The anal fin is what's confusing me, different shape than what I've see around me

It's 100% a gizzard Shad. I tied on a lipless crank after the one on the Shad rap and went to work yo-yoing it in the school haha. There were half eaten ones all over the ice shelves from otters

4 hours ago, flyfisher said:

the only reason i think it is a buffalo is because of the barbels on the mouth that you can barely see in the picture and the pictures i saw from gizzard shad have a different dorsal fin.

 

 

That's a bubble on the water. 

Fry them up & eat those Shad! Let's ask Catt how they taste, they like those crawdaddys down in the deep south. I bet they have a special recipe for Shad too! ( I've had mullet, gross! )

Haha, who's ate these?

Sounds like you did pretty good for this time of year.

He's right lol at least you didn't get skunked. Me and my girlfriend have made a couple trips in the last couple weeks and had no luck at all. Tried using jigs and suspending jerk baits on the river. Looks like a good day to me!