# Surprise biggest fish this year so far...



## E_Lin (Jun 30, 2011)

Went fishing with my wife and kid at Heritage Park this morning. Although my son was more interested in hunting down and catching little toads and frogs... I have been getting my wife more into fishing with lures and today I think she is finally "hooked". We were fishing with squarebill crankbaits (nothing else was getting bites) and she had hooked something nice with a KVD sexy shad. At first I thought it was a carp, but it broke her line before landing it. A little later on, I hooked into one myself using a chartruesse shad Norman Fatboy. I tired it out, which made landing it easier since I didn't think to bring a net (I was using 10 lb. braid with 6 lb. mono leader). When I got it on shore I got a closer look at it and decided it wasn't a carp but a buffalo (no barbels under the mouth - correct me if I am wrong?).
 

It may not have been what we were targeting, but I am not going to argue with anything I manage to land. I estimate the fish was at least 5 to 6 pounds, maybe more. The one she lost was around the same size. The other good thing is now she can't wait to go out fishing again. That gives me more excuses to go fishing, so it was a win-win day overall!


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## nitsud (May 22, 2010)

Yep, that's the other kind of smallmouth, a smallmouth buffalo. They are surprisingly aggressive at times, and reasonably good fighters. I've caught a number of them on xraps.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

WTG man, those are great fighters! Be sure to check the wifes drag so its not to hard for a fish like that to pull line out without breaking. She will get the next one!!

Salmonid


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## Liquidsmoke (Aug 4, 2012)

Nice catch!

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## CO_Trout (May 10, 2008)

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Yes they are great fighters. Caught it on my 5wt fly rod. Took about 15 minutes to land it. I pulled this one out of the LMR on Wednesday. 

I had to look up what it was.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

Congratulations all the way around! Those buffalo definitely have some muscles.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Those are some beautiful buffalo guys. I still have yet to catch one.


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## E_Lin (Jun 30, 2011)

Salmonid said:


> WTG man, those are great fighters! Be sure to check the wifes drag so its not to hard for a fish like that to pull line out without breaking. She will get the next one!!
> 
> Salmonid


Her drag was OK, but I forgot that I still need to re-spool her line as it is pretty old (same 8 lb test she has used all year so far, it came with the reel I got her for Christmas). That and she has never fought a fish like that before, having always gone after bluegills previously. She got it too close to shore without tiring it enough and it snapped her line right at the shore before I could grab it. Also my fault for not having a net with me. But at least she was excited about the fight and she can't wait to go out and do it again.


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Nice catch man! Way to go on getting the family hooked on fishing!


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## E_Lin (Jun 30, 2011)

Well, after spending some time at Sharon Woods park walking around (we are on vacation), we went to the BPS to replace some of the lures lost recently. Bought some cheap $2.99 XTS shallow diving crankbaits and decided to head back to fish at Heritage for about an hour.

Our son once again took more of an interest in the local fauna than in fishing, but managed to find a baby softshell turtle in the river at the edge. Cute little guy.









Both my wife and I did get a few bites, but I was the only one to catch something when I landed my first smallmouth bass. Not a big one, but he was rather opposed to being caught, jumping quite a few times before getting to shore. Fun day overall, and we will be going back there to fish again.


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## nitsud (May 22, 2010)

Now that's the other other kind of smallmouth! Even at that size, they are bruisers. Nice work!


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

The big black eye is a good indicator of it being a buff. I've actually targeted them on Flitterbaits below East Fork dam. Very fun on lite tackle.

E Lin, nothing wrong with that smallmouth. Thats a dandy around here.


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## zooks (Feb 4, 2011)

Nice fish (x2). Noticed all the toads - no wonder your son wasn't interested in fishing.

Read your post and decided to check out Heritage - never been there before and was looking for a good river bank spot. Couldn't stay very long so went home luckless.

I am assuming you were at the canoe/kayak input area - on the bank out by the river, not by that inside section at the end of the path. Or is there another good area?

Thanks.


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## E_Lin (Jun 30, 2011)

zooks said:


> I am assuming you were at the canoe/kayak input area - on the bank out by the river, not by that inside section at the end of the path. Or is there another good area?


You assume correctly. There may be plenty of decent spots around there, but we have fished in that one area exclusively the past few days. We went back again tonight and I caught anther smallie a little bigger than the last one. Plus I also caught my first white bass as well. My wife caught her first saugeye and my son his first sauger (dorsal fin was spotted). Nothing has been too big, but it has been nice to just catch stuff right now, and they are all being caught on the same particular lure. A lure which, by the way, is now sold out at the BPS. Sorry to all but I went there this morning and picked up the last couple there. 

It is funny how I have always seen people talking about how great the Rebel Craw is and some lures like it that catch so many fish. I have never caught anything with a Rebel Craw. But this particular shallow diving XTS crankbait with a certain color is getting bites from every kind of fish right now for us. I can't wait to try it out in a few more places to see how it does elsewhere. In the past 3 days we have landed smallmouth buffalo, smallmouth bass, white bass, saugeye, sauger and shovelhead catfish with them. We haven't had much action with anything else. It has been really unusual, or at least to me it is, as this kind of thing has never happened to me before with one kind of lure. I kind of like it.


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## zooks (Feb 4, 2011)

E LIN.............

Thanks. I never have much luck around here - gimme a pier on Lake Erie or a spot around Clearwater/Dunedin/St. Pete in Fla. So, as I didn't really say, I just retired and have been trying to find good banks & water around here. Your success at Heritage gives me hope. Now if I can just stumble across that rock bed (at least they're mostly flat, unlike below the dam in Hamilton). 

I also found a few other accessible points below Heritage with decent close-by parking. Again, thanks. The Miami might become a new spot for this geezer.


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