An ambitious redfin shiner
I stopped by Mianus Pond on the way to the the river which feeds it. There are largemouth bass in there. I saw one person on a fishing kayak, but it was windy, and blowing in toward the bank I was standing on. Because of this, all of my casts were short, and I was reeling in tons of dead vegetation, which was not promising. In an attempt to get my spinnerbait farther out there, I casted too hard and launched it into the lake, no strings attached. After that I jerked a jerkbait around some fallen wood. I considered flipping it with a senko but I was really not expecting anything to be living in all of that dead vegatation. Maybe I can return when the wind has settled, and with some heavier line to launch a 1/2 oz spoon or spinnerbait out there.
Even before that, I pulled onto the side of the road where I saw a trout regulation sign and a small creek. It turned out to be the Mianus River, but quite a bit further down. The water was very shallow and there were lots of breaks in the pools from fallen logs, so I didn't expect the stocked trout to have made it down there, but I gave it a few casts and explored a bit anyway. After that, I went to Mianus and threw around my Megabass X-70 for 5 hours. It took some focus and a few miracles, but I didn't lose the lure all day. It helped to be throwing the same weight all day long, and I do really like my new Shimano Nasci reel.
After hours of no bite, I finally caught a tiny redfin shiner, which was very exciting for me. I had never seen or even heard of a redfin shiner before, so I wasn't sure what it was until I got home. This species seems only to be reported as far east as Western New York state, and they seem to cohabitat with sunfish. The scent of sunfish spawning causes redfin shiners to spawn, and they breed right on the same bed. The lure — a Megabass X-70 — was almost as big as the fish, and it got hooked right through the upper and lower lips as if I had hooked it for livebait bass fishing. I would love to have these fish in a native aquarium some day.
There where quite a lot of people at the river, since it was Saturday. Every other angler had a fly rod, and I spoke to a young man with the fishpond net that I want for myself. He let me check it out and suggested I look for a Black Friday deal, since they are so expensive. The two of them hadn't caught anything — at that point I had only caught the redfin shiner.
Finally, toward the end of sunlight, I caught a particularly orange-bellied tiger trout. My phone was dead, and I took an out of focus photo with my camera, but it will have to do. I went farther up on the river than I've ever gone before. There were quite a few very nice properties with little houses and a small dock on the river. One house had a family of deer grazing in the yard, and I fished with them for a few minutes. I fished until it was practically dark, 30 minutes after so called sundown. Tomorrow I'm thinking of going to Kensico with my brother to try and catch a keeper Lake Trout—over 18 inches. Wish me luck.
