Alewife fishing

[Ron Eagle Elk]

We finally had a day to ourselves, no homeschooling. We decided to hit a local stream, the Souadabscook, in a nice little park, Papermill Park. When we arrived, the parking lot was empty so we had the place to ourselves.

There is a small dam where the mill used to be many years ago, with a small raceway where the old waterwheel used to be. There's a nice pool behind the dam that still has some current, thanks to the raceway, but a lot of flat, calm water.

The mosquitoes were out in force on the shaded walk to the river, maybe 75 yards. Once we got to the water I started looking for likely places to fish and Vickie, my lovely wife and fishing partner, chose the spot I was hoping for. I took a spot further downstream in the midst of the slack water.

As I was tying on a size 14 egg laying caddis with a small bead head, fish started taking something off the surface with savage, noisy strikes. Since I had the fly tied on I decided to get a fly, any fly, into the mix. Just then I heard Vickie holler "Fish On!". Yeah, she got the good spot. In the mean time I was doing a slow retrieve with the bead head fly and my rod tried to leap from my grasp. Double! Life is good. No trout, but we both had on alewives, about 14 inches long. For three hours we hammered them, caught so many we lost count.

What they call an Alewife here is like a mini bonefish in appearance and action. Fast, slashing attacks, preferring a moving target. Strong fight, start to finish with a lot of leaps well out of the water. A twelve inch fish will put a healthy bend in a 5 weight rod, anything over that and your in serious trouble.

After two fish on the bead head caddis, I switched to the Cree Spider in size 14 and caught so many fish I lost count, then one stole the fly. Broke off a 4X tippet. Switched to a Genessee Jewel, in Mark's honor, and it was the magic fly. If the fly hit the water, I had a fish on. In one instance I had just landed and released a fish, flipped the fly into the water to start casting and had a fish on, ten feet in front of me.

We have our Grandson the rest of the week. We're digging worms in the morning, grabbing his Zebco, and my fly rod, and heading back to the river. The boy needs to catch a fish to light the fires in him.

Sorry, no pics. Maybe in the morning.

[DUBBN]

Great account of the day. Thank you for taking me along!!!

[hankaye]

Ree, Howdy;

Good to have a fun day like that especially at the front of a season.
Good luck with the fire makin'

hank

[letumgo]

I’ve never caught an Alewife, so I had to do a quick web search to see what they look like. As I was looking, I came across an interesting NPR podcast about Alewife and river herring.

https://www.wnpr.org/post/millions-doze ... icut-river

Your day on the river is a very hopeful sign. It also sounds like you were catching fish that are surreal years old, based on the size. Also encouraging.

Have fun. Nothing stokes the fires, like multiple fish days. No mater the species.

[zen leecher]

Back when I was in the Navy stationed at the head of the Chesapeake bay we hit a stream/river/creek that was loaded with river herring. I wish I had known how to can or smoke fish back then. They were the size of the hickory shad I caught in other nearby waters.

Also back there I did catch a couple of odd, big eyed fish that we thought were alewife.

[hankaye]

Howdy all;

Remember back when I was a sub-teen, would go to the jersey shore
for a day trip with Mom and sometime Pop as well, there would be some
trawlers off shore maybe 1/2 mile or more. Just runnin' North and South
back-n-forth all day long. I must have asked what they were because I
remember the answer was menhaden boats. Later, when I worked at Pax
River NAS I heard about the Alewives, a lot of the locals would call both
Alewives or alewyes as they pronounced it. All good and interesting.

hank

[ginkylady]

Ron,
You inspired me to go specifically target alewives and my god you were right! One actually bent my rod tip into the water after his 5th big jump! I had only accidentally snagged them before when brookie fishing but your tip about stripping small soft hackles or nymphs like a streamer was just the ticket! They fight like a bass 5 times their size and whoa are they fast!

Here is a picture of one where you can see it has that spot behind its operculum, that's how you can identify it as an alewife compared to the blueback herring which is also in our rivers. Both species have beautiful iridescent blue and indigo on their back.



And an example of the type of water where you can find them.




Just for good measure I uploaded a short video of playing one in so you can see just how fast these fish are. OF COURSE I didn't start the video until after his 6th jump!

[DUBBN]

I just watched the video. Great clip and great job.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

See, Gretchen, we told you they're fun fish. You should have been there the first day. There were pods of over a hundred fish and multiple pods in that pool. Nice pics and video. I have got to start carrying a camera or phone with me when I go fishing.

Ginkylady, aka Gretchen, is a tying buddy of Vickie's and mine. Before the pandemic she was coming to our place about once a week for a tying session and dinner. She is an excellent fly dresser.

She is also a fish biologist and really knows her stuff.

[letumgo]

Outstanding!

Those are really pretty fish, and looks like a blast to catch. Could spend all day, being happy catching those. I swear, I’m still a little kid when it comes to fishing. Pure joy...

Have fun!