Couple freaks on Halloween

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

Pete great fish. Many redhorse get into double digits. As Ham mentioned lots more photos are needed to get an accurate species id. Here's my big go to in terms of Id for the common midwest species.

There are ways to get those characters in a couple of photos while keeping the fish in a the net and in the water between photos. Regardless call it a redhorse sucker.

After looking at that I think river Redhorse 

[Seth]

Net is covering the tail so I can't really see if it has the red fins. River redhorse have the red fins, but a golden redhorse looks very similar without the red fins. I'd guess it's a river though simply due to it's size. It would be a state record if it were a golden. I gigged a 12 pound river red horse on the Bourbeuse a few years ago. It surprised me when I got it in the boat because I just assumed it was a grass carp when I stuck it.

My 12# river redhorse from the Bourbeuse

Golden Redhorse
 

River Redhorse

[snagged in outlet 3]

7 minutes ago, Seth said:

Net is covering the tail so I can't really see if it has the red fins. River redhorse have the red fins,

Tail was a beautiful red.  It smacked a crankbait.

[Seth]

2 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Tail was a beautiful red.  It smacked a crankbait.

Definitely a river redhorse then. Good eating!

[snagged in outlet 3]

49 minutes ago, Seth said:

Definitely a river redhorse then. Good eating!

I knew it was good to eat since I went to Jigfest years ago and had some.  It was delicious!  But I don't know how to clean it.  Plus, I felt sorry for it.  I thought it might be spawning since it's tail was so red.

[Johnsfolly]

3 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Tail was a beautiful red.

That's a big indicator of the river vs silver redhorse with the silver having a gray tail. I thought it might be red from your photo.

29 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

I thought it might be spawning since it's tail was so red.

Redhorse suckers are spring spawners. A couple of large redhorse suckers that my buddy and I have caught in the spring

[snagged in outlet 3]

4 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Redhorse suckers are spring spawners. A couple of large redhorse suckers that my buddy and I have caught in the spring

I guess we just always CNR so that's what I do.  BTW!!!   He slimed my net and got it on my carpet...😂  The drum I shook off with a pliers.  But I was afraid to lose my crankbait so I netted the sucker.

[Nick Adams]

18 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

That’s all I have.  I don’t like keeping them out of the water too long.  It put up a great fight.  I had turn off the spot lock when it ran down stream.  

You know something?   As I’ve grown older I have a lot of sympathy for the fish I catch.  I keep apologizing to them when I let them go.  Weird right?

 

My 16-yr-old daughter does the same thing. She caught a particularly scrappy trout a RR last Christmas break (an annual tradition to use my new Xmas gifts) and felt guilty. She stopped fishing for the day after that and focused on taking pictures instead.