Carp + Sucker = Carpsucker

[MJL]

A few weeks ago Jet, Frozen Fire and I did a steelheading trip to one trib. Got into some nice steel but I was perhaps more excited in landing my first ever quillback. It looks like a mix between a carp and a sucker. It’s a species of carpsucker native to North America. It took a cobra sized dewy but we also hooked into a few others with Berkley pink worms of all things.

 

Finally got the pics…I gotta admit, it sorta does look a little creepy even by coarse fish standards.LOL

 

 

 

 

 

The reason they call it a quillback

 

 

I’ve always been quite interested in coarse fish like carp, Buffalo, suckers, redhorses and catfish more so than “gamefish” – perhaps this interest developed when I was a kid growing up with a bunch of English guys who raved about Barbel fishing in the UK and Spain. Definitely one of my coolest catches…They fight surprisingly well and bulldog lots. I hear they are a rare catch in Ontario. I’d love to hook into a bigger one. Jet managed a slightly bigger one the week before. Does anyone actually target them?

[l2p]

DUDE! i ive caught few of those.. on the rouge. before when thats all i fished lol. i always thought they were sheepshead. ive caught them as far up as highway 2. but more by the mouth bottom bouncing fat worms.

[solopaddler]

Good for you Mike. That's what we call the Poor Man's Bonefish.

 

That river is teeming with all manner of strange and bizarre coarse fish this time of year.

Fish it enough and the novelty wears off pretty quickly.

 

There's another species of carpsucker down there that's very common and grows ALOT bigger as well.

 

They're disgusting! Yech!

 

[rbaquial]

That FIN makes it look sorta exotic! NICE!!

[Leecher]

Great report and pics Mike

Fisrt time seeing this specie.... pretty cool looking with that long dorsal fin

Congrats

Thanks for sharing and good luck with the brookies

Jacques

[ehg]

The quillback are not that common i guess, pretty cool though.

A Bigmouth Buffalo posted here a few years ago(L.Erie trib) was super unique.

Nice array of fish you catch

[Marko]

Nice fish.

I saw a whole pile of them in shallows just yesterday, couldn't figure out what it was. They were mixed in there with suckers, fins were sticking out of water. It was kind of strange watching them move around, like mini sharks circling me hahah

[limeyangler]

Cool lokking fish...that dorsal fin looks like a tropical fish almost....great pics.

[hammercarp]

That's really cool Mike. Great pictures too they really show all the attributes that show how to identify them. Thanks for posting.