9/19/2010 I think the name of the band was Smallmouth Buffalo

Sunday, Sept 19 2010

Armuchee Creek, home to the elusive, if not downright, repugnant, ignorant, and uncatchable smallmouth buffalo, was teeming with fish this morning. Not much was biting but they were surely out there. I saw many shiny, silvery fish jumping in the deeper pools across the creek from me. I caught a few bream and had a larger fish escape me, then decided to get out my spincaster and shoot for those fish further away, as I have not mastered the art of shooting line yet. As I was casting out and up the creek to nail one of these little fish, I noticed right in front of me, 7 or 8 feet out, in three feet of water, a large fish in the 18-24 inch range. Until I got home and researched it, I thought the fish may be a rainbow due to the golden hue on it's back and sides. It turned out to be the smallmouth buffalo, which explains why I wasn't able to bring him in.

According to most of what I read about the smallmouth buffalo, they are very hard to catch. Being mostly bottom, filter feeders, it's hard to find a good bait that they'll strike. I found none. I drug four different spinner baits right under his nose. I sunk mayflies, grubs, and woolly boogers right in front of him while he taunted me for an hour and a half.

Trout season is counting down towards halloween, so I guess we'll start working on John's Creek and Cedar Creek the next few weeks. I scoped out Cedar Creek at Rolater Park tonight and only saw 3 or 4 riding the current. My spincaster is locked up, so there's lots of work to be done before next Sunday.

I must offer an amendment to this section, as, after further review, I believe the fish was a Golden Redhorse rather than the Smallmouth Buffalo. The Redhorse gives a slimmer profile like the fish I saw and is more common to the area, as well as matches the description of other fish I have seen in the creek over the years. I left the story with Smallmouth Buffalo, though, because it sounds cool. Like a Neil Young song.