What did I catch?

Went fly fishing on the Red River below Denison Dam and caught something I can't identify. It was caught on a clouser minnow fished just under the surface and he came up and smacked it, coming partway out of the water in the process. It didn't make any long runs, just kind of stayed in place in the current and it was like fighting dead weight. My first thought was it was a carp since it had the carp-like mouth, but it seems a bit too dark, and plus, it didn't have any barbels. From looking at the old Fishing Texas book by Russell Tinsley (an amazing book that is out of print but can be found at Half Price Books fairly often) it appears it may be a black buffalo. Google confirms that it is definitely a possibility that that is the ID, but I figured I would go to the experts. If another angle is needed, I may be able to grab another still from the video, which will be posted online later tonight or tomorrow. The fish weighed in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce. Thanks.

Just guessing I would say Carp.

Smallmouth buffalo.

Thanks. So I can help learn some tricks to ID them, what makes you say smallmouth buffalo vs black buffalo?

Black buffalo are uncommon in this area. Here is a description of black buffalo.

The black buffalo is black on the back, dark green or bronze on the sides, and dull yellow or off-white below. It has a heavy, rounded body, long dorsal fin, conical head, and blunt snout. It has a small, ventral mouth with thicker lips than the similar bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus), and a slightly more slender body than the smallmouth buffalo (I. bubalus) (Hatch et al. in preparation). While the average total length of the black buffalo is 503 mm (19 in.)

Sounds good. I read black buffalo were more common in eastern Texas, but I wasn't sure exactly sure how far east that meant. The reason I was thinking black buffalo was because almost all the pictures I saw of smallmouth had them with a much paler coloration, as well as being more humpbacked (if that makes sense). Since this guy was more slender I thought it may be a black.

Here is the video

Here is a picture of a smallmouth buffalo caught in fairly clear water. In my experience those caught in clear water tend to be a little darker than usual.

I can't tell from the video, but was it fair hooked?

I've foul hooked one of those on clousers the last two times I've been up there -- both times right near the mouth like they missed the fly, or pulled off at the last second. But, given their normal feeding habits (grubbing on the bottom), that would be strange.

On the other hand, you saw it come up and hit so clearly they do. Maybe the Denison buffalo have started eating shad.

I mouth hooked one about 30-40 lbs on lake Palestine one time fishing a chartreuse 4inch shad jig in deep water. Hit just like a bass. Thought I had a monster hybrid....lol.

Learning something new. Love these type of threads.



Side Note: Nice fish.

But it's a damn ugly fish lol.

Yep, he was mouth hooked. There are tons of shad in the river, including lots in the 10-12 inch range, so maybe buffalo are eating them.

Bet the fight was awesome on your fly rod. Good job landing it!

Thanks. I was lucky I was using my heavy rod, an 8 wt with 0x tippet. Fighting him was like fighting a desd weight. He didn't really make any runs but it took some serious pressure to move him. Not sure he would have been landed if I was using too much lighter gear.

... Buffalo eat alot of shad like game fish , that is their main diet in most lakes .that is why you will get bit using bass lures etc . buffs will take shad quicker than carp will
.

Interesting, thanks for sharing that. There are plenty of shad in the Red River so the buffalo should not go hungry. I am not sure if they were buffalo, carp or a mixture of both, but as I was wading out among the rocks I was constantly spooking fish, which didn't bother me too much since I was fishing for stripers and didn't think I had anything in my bag they would eat. If I would have known they might take a streamer I would have been more stealthy.

I agree about buffalo hitting your lure. I had a huge buffalo eat my crappie jig last winter. Sucker fought super hard and was probably upwards of 20lbs and some how with my drag set good I eventually landed it with my net and as soon as it went in my net it broke my 6lb mono lol. By far the biggest fish I had ever caught.

Exact thing just happened to me two weeks ago. 6lb test 5.5 foot BM sharpshooter rod. Epic fight.

I believe that is a bigmouth buffalo.

great fish ill try to find a post that determines black buffalo to smb and bigmouth

Looks like small mouth to me

I don't know if it is a small, big or black but it is certainly a buffalo. When I was a kid you could buy them at the fish market. They taste very good but they have alot of small bones and it takes some work to eat one without getting a bone down your throat. I don't think I could eat one know having seen a whole fish in person. YUK!

Nice

Buff

Thanks for all the responses. Went fishing below the dam right after Christmas and my brother caught one on a white chatterbait that weighed a bit over 4.5 pounds. Definitely a fun fish to catch that puts a good bend in the rod.