Well caught my first buff last night so i thought i would share. I know its nothing to brag about but fun none the less, the fight is a bit different from a carp and im liking it. The little scrapper fell for my homemade orange/strawberry combo maize, the odd thing though instead of being hooked in the mouth, the fish inhaled the hook and passed it completely though its gills. So the hook was hooked on the outside of the gill plate with the line coming out of its mouth, anyone know what causes this?

I need a camera bad


Gotta get in the Zach pose




Another weird thing and a first for me....

Keeper crappie on maize?!?! WTF

I have seen some of the videos that show carp and buffalo feeding. The buffs will sometimes pull material into their mouths and blow uneaten leftovers out of their gills. They feed slowly and deliberately unlike carp that seem to move a lot.

I have caught a lot of buffs from barges and such and had never seen a gill blown buff caught. Earlier this week at Lake Worth I caught two that had done that. Strange

It's a common thing for me to have buffs with the hook out side the gills. Kinda sucks cuz you then have to cut the hook link.

congrats on the buff and the hungry crappie, lol

Awesome man!!!

Yeah, the hook exhausted out of the gill plate happens a lot. This is one reason I prefer shorter hook links when targeting buffalo.

Curt nailed it, buffalo tend to hover rather than cruise like carp. That combined with an almost vertical mouth can make them trickier to hook with a bolt rig.

Sometimes buffalo will be feeding really aggressively and you will hook several in a short period of time. Don't let that fool you though because they don't always feed this way. When they are being lazy you need a short hook link and a good rig with super fast turnover.

Grats on the first buff!

The one I caught last week at the Cliffs did that too. I had seen these guys talk about buffs blowing the bait out the gills but until then I hadn't had it happen.

Also, what Jason said I've found very true. I have buff just giving my rod tip the slow constant twitches all the time even though I'm using a bolt rig. Early in the year when the water was cooler I got lots of bonafide runs from buffs but once the water warmed up they became much more skittish in their bite. The last several I've caught have been caught by actually holding the rod and setting the hook in time with the little twitches.

did anyone else notice the iris of that buffs eye? never seen that before there eyes always look totally back....

Yeah, thats why I have always thought that buffs have such human like eyes.

I think, if you are using a bolt rig and getting your rod tip bounced, that these must be 'line bites', the buffs brushing against your line. I don't think the buff would be picking up and moving your 3oz weight around without getting hooked up.
I may be wrong here, but it doesn't make sense to me.

Brian,

There is a lot of mystery about buffalo and a lot that doesn't make sense. I'll give you a true example.

One night 3 of us were fishing on Lake Fork. Dave, from Big Carp Tackle, Zach, and myself. We had rods out but I put out a couple of exra rods. These were just catfish rods with baitclickers, no electronic alarms. At midnight Zach was setting up his bivvy on the bank and Dave and I were talking on the deck standing next to my rod in the rod holder. The tip started to bounce, so very slightly, and Dave said"I think you have a fish." I said "It's probably just a fish playing with the bait. I'll wait until it goes for a run and sounds the clicker. Five minutes goes by and Dave says again "I think you have a fish." Then I pull line from the reel just to make sure that the clicker is working. It was. I got mad and said to Dave "Let me reel in the stupid sissy fish." No kidding, thats really what I said. Here is what I reeled in;



I was using a bolt rig with a 4 oz lead. Tiger nut on the hair. It never made my clicker sound a single click, but it kept making the rod tip bounce as if a butterfly was landing on it.

quite a few Buffs were gill blown at Lake Worth a few days ago as well, and just like Jason explains it, alot of the bites were just twitches in the rod tip and not runs. But to me, bc we were catching alot of buffalo that day, the bigger ones(my 18lbs and Kevins 24lb) seems to feed alot slower and move less, several of the smaller ones did make a run and get hooked as discribed by the hair/bolt rig.

Way to go Josh by the way!

Buffs to me are kinda special bc usually you just catch more Carp

Thanks Jeff, the buff was exciting for sure and the fight is different but in a good way i cant wait to catch some big-uns!

oh yeah man the big ones are really fun when they get close in

Zach, i wish i would have gotten closer pictures of the buffs from LW bc i saw this same type of thing on the buffs out there, some of the eyes had color and such, if we catch some Saturday ill take pics, it was really cool

Carp are high revving Ferraris with quick handling. Buffs are high torque Mack truck that turn very slowly.

It's like comparing a thoroughbred to a clydesdale.

I've only caught 20 or so buffs this year (and hence in my life) so I'm no expert, but in my experience, buffs can either give you a great, carp-like-though-slower fight, or no fight at all. Well, as Jeff said, no fight at all until it's in nettin range.

I've never caught a grasser but I know their reputation as far as being panicky, at the net fighters and out of the water floppers. Buff seem very similar to me. I was bloodied, bruised and well and truly slimed by my Dad's 21lb. buff while unhooking it and holding it for the pics. I've also had more than one leap clean out of my big Euro net while trying to net it.

Edit: That's a good way to put it Jason. I said something very similar to someone while trying to explain the fight of my 28 flathead compared to carp: The flathead was like a tiger tank while carp are more like drag racers.

good analogy for sure

yep i can tell you that when i got my 54, it was a beast, just cruised back and forth, i couldnt move it, it was moving me thou, after a battle of give and take, it finally came in. and i think the hook was behind the gills.

yea the one i cought out at gv last weekend blew the bait out his gill plate on me

Jason,

Good story! You're right; its a mystery! (my favorite line from 'Shine').

Nice quasimodo sissyfish, by the way!

p.s. Josh, sorry to hijack your thread!