Combat fishing adventures...

***DISCLAIMER*** If you know any of these spots, keep in mind that I didn't name them for a reason. Please be respectful and keep these location names off of the interwebs for all to see.


The last six months have been a little hectic. I got the bright idea at age 34 (with a wife and baby) to quit my job and go back to school. After writing my book it changed my whole outlook on conservation and endemic populations of fish and decided if I really cared I would take my own advice and do something about it. Luckily my wife was on board and it has been a good move, but that doesn’t mean it’s always been easy. It’s been a while since I finished graduate school around eight years ago, so getting back into the swing of tests, classes, etc. have been fun, but challenging.

I have been anxiously awaiting spring so that I could go after my favorite fish. The redeye bass is one of many endemic black bass species. Most people think that there are only smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and spotted bass. There are actually around 19 recognized or proposed black bass species. Advances in genetics have been the main catalyst in this explosion of species descriptions, and I suppose I am contributing to that in some ways. Redeye bass alone have been split into around seven different species, and my main project will revolve around learning more about them.

Once the water warmed up a little, it was time to begin fishing, I mean sampling. Sampling is done via hook and line for the first part of my overall project, and although fun, it has its own challenges. My first stop was back in March, when the waters were just starting to wake up. This trip was just a quickie on a lunch break to scratch the itch.




About a month later I moved on to one of my favorite small streams with high hopes. Although the fishing can be extremely technical, the beauty of the water is usually worth the price of admission.



Hard to believe that this is bass water, it resembles a trout stream more than anything else and appears to be transplanted from a high mountain anywhere other than Alabama. However, one quick drift across its surface with a popper and you’ll quickly realize there are no finicky trout here. It’s full of the pretty boy of the bass world, the redeye bass.



The stream was full of mountain laurel beginning to bloom.

I fished on, plucking a few more of these native fish from the waters where they’ve lived for quite some time.








About a week later, now into late-April, I went to a new creek to explore. It has been on my list to try for a while, but lack of access has kept it behind more obvious choices. I decided that it was time to try it, and upon arriving, I learned why it would be so difficult. Access is indeed pretty sketchy to get to these waters. There is a creek somewhere down there…

It took a while, and a lot of wrong ways before I was able to finally make it down above a very large waterfall.





Once seeing the pool as the base of the falls, I knew I had to get down there to fish it. This turned out to be one of the most difficult climbs of my life and was hoping if I was able to get down, I would be able to get back up. I eventually made my way down and fished it with a large wooly bugger. Nothing. The pool was so deep that I thought I needed to get down to the fish. I didn’t see any cruising the shallows, but to change it up I tied on the ‘ol faithful Boogle Bug popper in yellow. On the first cast I see a wake speed over to the popper and the water just explodes! Fishing a 2wt this fish felt massive and I knew immediately it was a nice fish. After a few runs, jumps, and several gasps of despair, I brought it to hand.






This fish was absolutely gorgeous. Hues of blue were all over the head, neck, and side. The tips of its fins glowing with brick red. A picture-perfect specimen of a Coosa Bass. A redeye bass this size caught from below a beautiful waterfall with mountain laurel blooming all around is about as good as this kind of combat fishing gets. I may never top that fish and this experience again, so I sat on a big bedrock boulder and just soak in the surroundings. I don’t sit too long, because there is plenty more water to explore.




The mountain laurel this time of year provides the perfect frame for what is some of the most wild and scenic areas of Alabama.

There were plenty more hungry redeye bass with most averaging 8-9 inches, but every one of them are wild and colorful.




A day later I was back on some familiar water, continuing my sampling. This water was a tad higher than I prefer, which made conditions less than ideal, but I was able to at least squeak out one fish. Most times I don’t have long on the streams because of the time I spend driving and hiking to the spots. Dad duties make being home every night important, so the days are shorter than they need to be. That’s a sacrifice worth making though.






Like most places where these fish live, just being out there amongst the wild and untamed landscapes makes it all worthwhile.

A couple of days later it was on to catch a different species of redeye bass. This species is probably one of the rarest of all the redeye bass species, primarily due to the limited number of streams it can live in within this drainage. There are a handful of really good streams, and this one might be the best. This day reminded me that it is definitely the best.






Most fish were bigger than normal, and since redeye bass max out around 12” or less, and most fish rarely reach 10”, these fish were solid specimens.






Same species, but a lot smaller water.

These streams transport you somewhere else. Somewhere that is free of worry about that test, or that deadline, or that fussy toddler. They allow you to get centered and recalibrate to be the best version of you for all the other stuff. Maybe that’s why I enjoy it so much, because it’s a need to more than it is a want to.







I hope you enjoyed tagging along. I’ll be out there again real soon.

One of the largest smallies my Dad ever had on a line in WV was a way back trout stream with a huge rock and a deep hole.

Awesome read and some incredible pictures. Thanks for taking me on your journey.

Amazing pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Pretty pretty fish

Absolutely!

Pretty fish and water.....thanks for sharing!

Wow really cool stuff

I don't know for sure where any of those places are but I think I might know where one of them is.

I caught a decent red eye bass about a month ago, fishing right below the last set of rapids in one of the creeks that feeds into Lake Guntersville.

If you come up this way to "sample" them, I can probably put you on a couple of places to try.

Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

great pics of some beautiful waters and a wonderful fish. I grew up on redeye bass with a smattering of spots and largemouth thrown in. Redeyes are the prettiest of them all by far. I have a 3lb1/2oz redeye on my wall from many years ago.

Great read and pics.

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing

excellent as always

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
― Norman Maclean

I must say, I'm a bit of a Redeye freak myself. My favorite Bass, at the very least.

Very cool....Great pics!

Interesting. I am interested and probably know where you're talking about. They are definitely not native to the TN River drainage, but I do know that they are there unfortunately. One of these days fisherman will hopefully understand the impacts of moving fish to places where they don't belong.

I'd love to see a pic of it. Just out of curiosity. I suspect many fish that were over 1.5lbs are hybrids with Alabama bass. The state record redeye is almost certainly a hybrid. Not saying yours is, but I'd love to be proven otherwise. I fin clip and test a lot of the fish I catch, which has lead to the research I am now doing which is the first substantial research we have done on this fish in this state. I am very curious to see what we find!

Creek fishing has been on my brain pretty hard lately, this post is probably going to tip me over the edge and I'm gonna have to try to go this weekend. Haven't done it in a while but man I sure do love it. I just wish I could use a fly rod without making a mess.

Same here brother. 'Cept for me it'll be on a 'yak and tossing a little beetlespin on an UL.

It's about time for the wife and I to start canoeing the Cahaba.

I fish out of my kayak a lot as well, but there's just something special about wading small creeks to see what you can pull out of them.

Don't worry, what you don't see in this posts is all the trees I caught. All the line wrapped around my paddle and my kayak in knots that know champion knot-tier could tie. All the fits I threw because of the two pervious things that almost saw me Bo Jackson my fly rod over my knee.

It can be extremely frustrating fly fishing, and reach nuclear levels trying to do it out of a kayak. For me, the reward outweighs the annoying parts, so I keep on trucking and occasionally it all works out!

x2

Yep and I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for taking the time to share all of this. I enjoyed your book and those pictures were great. I look forward to hearing about your research.

I've never caught a red-eye that would weigh over a pound, and can't imagine a 3 pounder, but I have fished the smaller waters that would not produce the biggest fish. Most of the creeks I have fished also have spotted bass, so I was surprised to read that hybridization is such a threat to the red-eye. I have caught red-eye, spots, and largemouth on the same trip many times, but I've never seen evidence of them crossing. I guess it has something to do with moving them out of their natural habitat?

Those pictures make me wanna go wade fishing.

That's a really interesting question and nobody knows right now. In cases where Alabama Bass have been introduced outside of their native range (ie. - Savannah R/Chattahoochee R) into native Redeye Bass waters, that is often the case. Widespread hybridization has resulted in extirpation everywhere except the really high tributary streams in those rivers. The interesting thing is that we have "a lot" of hybrids between Alabama Bass and Redeye Bass in the Mobile Basin streams/rivers. They are both native there, and unfortunately it has never before been investigated, so there are no historical data which is why I put "a lot" in quotes because we don't have a comparison. I will be establishing a baseline or where we are currently with my work, but until then we really can only look at anecdotal evidence of lots of hybrids documented between the two, confirmed both morphologically and genetically.

We do need to go wade fishing so we can talk turkey.

Wow! Gorgeous scenery Troutbum. I really loved your whole post. It took me back to a simpler time.

Great post

You got a link to the book you wrote? Really cool that you are folowing your passion. JUST AWESOME!

https://www.amazon.com/Fly-Fishing-Redeye-Bass-Adventure/dp/1546666443

Great read! When I was growing up in Vestavia, we'd just go fish any body of water we could get to. We used to frequent the creeks around Rocky Ridge Road and caught a ton of redeye's Nothing was more fun that hooking those on ultralight gear, usually watching them eat, little beetle spins and rooster tails. Not sure we really knew what they were called officially, but obviously we referred to them as Redeyes, also Creek Bass, Rock Bass...don't even know if those are legit or if we just made those up.

Great read and beautiful pics! I grew up wade fishing the Cahaba River and caught a bunch of red eye bass. Definitely makes me want to go creek fishing.

Great post!

could be. When I caught it in 1974 I took it to Auburn to one of the Fisheries professors and he counted scales and such and said it was a redeye. I had Mimms in Selma mount it and paint it from a fresh pic of it I had.

I thought about this thread when I read the article on redeye fishing on the Tallapoosa. That's a unique boat the guy is using, and I can see why it works well. Just thought some of you might be interested.

There was great fishing on the Tallapoosa before they built Harris dam. I really hated that they built that lake and killed the river, but you can't stop progress.

https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/spo...0e02768-816e-11e9-b294-53888aedb8a7.html

I have caught redeyes in the Cahaba years ago. Caught some huge spots out of there too.

Au trout bum might blow a gasket on seeing this; I not only caught red-eyes with spincasting gear instead of a flyrod, but I also carried a stringer and kept enough of them to make us a good meal.



I hadn't had a mess of redeye for several years, and I really enjoyed catching and eating these. They all.fell.into the 8-10" range, which is just right to scrape and then fry whole. They have a flavor that is certainly unique. I sure wish I had access to more redeye streams.

Wow, great post!!

Now that’s what you suppose to do! Nice!

Nice job PCP

Enjoyed this thread. I’ve caught a truckload of red eye bass on the Bodka creek in Sumter county and on the cahawba in my younger days. That’s Hard fishing

I've enjoyed AU Trout Bum's posts here, and also very much enjoyed his book. Anyone interested in the redeye should buy a copy and read it. I'm glad to see that research is going on for them.

And I'm sure his book covers it, but I'm surprised that Sumter Co has redeye water in it. I guess I've gotten the wrong impression of it.

I mean, it's legal and I know you enough to know you're not out there raping streams of all the redeye. I don't do it personally, but to each his own. Interesting fact, very few people know based on some recent age/size data: An 8" redeye bass is likely 8 years old. They grow slow. It takes spots and largemouths like a year or less to reach that size. I foresee stricter restrictions on redeye in the coming years.

>>>I mean, it's legal and I know you enough to know you're not out there raping streams of all the redeye. I don't do it personally, but to each his own. Interesting fact, very few people know based on some recent age/size data: An 8" redeye bass is likely 8 years old. They grow slow. It takes spots and largemouths like a year or less to reach that size. I foresee stricter restrictions on redeye in the coming years.<<<<

I knew that they grew slowly, but I didn't realize it was that slow. Makes me feel bad about eating one.

In my defense, I have always limited myself to one trip per year on any particular stretch of redeye water, and most times it has appeared that nobody else was even fishing for them. People watch Bass TV and then laugh at someone trying to catch a 10" bass, so there just isn't much interest. I caught several on my trip in the 5-6" range, and got glimpses of a lot more, so that stream looks to have a good population and I do see them as a renewable resource.

Another thing that has amazed me about the redeye is how quickly they rebound after a drought. I've seen redeye streams dry up so completely during a dry fall that there couldn't possibly be a survivor for many miles of creek, and yet the next year there would seem to be a normal population of them right back in those same places. I always assumed that they swam all the way to the backwater, but its just a guess. Any research on how they survive the droughts that we have?

If they change the regs, I hope they go to a size restriction instead of reducing the limit.

The only small mouth I’ve ever caught was in the creek at High Falls in Geraldine. I was a senior in high school and all my friends were jumping off the falls. I had no interest in that, there were fish to catch.

It had a yellow rooster tail on 4 lb line with a 6’ medium rod. I had throw my line over a log and pulled it off to let my lure flutter in the current. Something nailed my lure and started peeling drag against the current. Had no idea what I had. It nearly spooled me before I turned it and started gaining line.

I have a picture of it somewhere, probably lost, but when I held its head at my hip, it’s tail came to my knee.

Is this a redeye or shoal?

I'd say NOT a Redeye. at least not the ones I've caught.
I've never caught a shoal

William, from what watershed did you catch him? I have never caught a shoal bass, but that one has a unique coloration and doesn't look like any redeye I have seen before. But coloration seems to vary a lot, so I could only guess. It isn't hard to tell a red-eye from a spot, and there are 2 spots on my stringer posted above. Sometimes I have caught largemouth on the same trip, but I think the creek I last fished doesn't have any that far up it.

Nice fish!

Nothing shoal bass about that one. It is a redeye, but it is possible that it's a hybrid with an Alabama Bass. Hard to tell for sure.

Don't feel bad. I agree that is interesting about the drought, and it is something we're looking at. More than likely you're correct, they migrate down to areas of more water. in some cases that results in more overlap or contact with species that they are normally "isolated" from, and could in fact increase hybridization rates with other bass.

If the regs are changed, I would bet it would be a size restriction, or slot.

Cahaba River near Leeds, AL. I can't get a straight answer on the ID. We caught two that day that looked exactly like this. I'll be damned if it doesn't look just like a Shoals bass.

Did you not see my response. I literally see hundreds of these fish, and I gave you about as accurate of a response as you'll get anywhere. It is a redeye bass, but possibly a hybrid with an Alabama bass. Hard to tell since the caudal fin is cropped out of the photo, but the vertical blotches are suspicious enough to make me question it being a pure redeye. Again, as I mentioned earlier, there is zero shoal bass in this fish.

Sorry, I didn't mean you, but everyone else I've shown the picture to. We caught two that looked like this in one little spot on the river. The rest of the river they looked like one would expect them to look like. They sure are mean fish and love a buzzbait.

Nice, and beautiful pictures! I sure hope you don't lose that yellow popper Or at least I hope you have a few more.