So I've caught a grand total of three Smallmouth Buffalo so far, which is hardly a representative sample, but two of those have been caught in or around the gill plate. The first one was hooked on the outside of the gill plate towards the mouth, and the second one had blown my rig through his gills and thankfully the hook point caught on the inside of the gill plate rather than the gills themselves. My question to you guys is - how do you prevent this and hook them in the mouth? I'd much rather be able to release the fish back into the water healthy and with the best chance possible to live than cause unnecessary damage to the fish. Any tips would be appreciated!

Great question! You never want to release damaged fish!
I don't know the answer (because my buffalo count is 0), but I have another question, of the same sort.
Last time I hooked one carp exactly as I wanted - by the lower lip. But for some reason it was extremely hard to release the hook even with good pliers! Resulting in hook being so bended I was need to immediately replace my leader. The thing is: I have a lot of hooks, can afford another one. But fish clearly suffered more than reasonable.
Now I'd like to ask: is it a good idea to switch to barbless?

The only difference as far as I know is that you need to keep constant pressure on the fish (a bend in your rod), but you should be doing that anyways.

Try using a smaller treble hook

Thanks, but I'm almost positive that would actually cause them to swallow the hook. Carp and buffalo have teeth in their throats, and if you hook a bait directly (as on a treble), you'll hook them deep. The hair rig is one of the ways to prevent this.

buff can bite like a carp (take off like a torpedo) or the bite can be so suble its hard to tell if you have one .i will give you my advice ... set your rods parallel and off the ground ,tighten line with a slighty lose drag add a wooden clothes line hanger ,chip bag clip etc half way between reel and last eyelet .if its starts falling and stops then starts falling and rising again more than likey the fish is on . its called a drop back . go ahead and set hook to prevent it from taking it into the gill plate area

I catch buffalo very frequently. They bite way too different than a Carp fish.

Carp bite is very strong compare to Buffalo, they have a very soft bite. Very hard to tell if they are biting or not unless you go with this setup that I have learned from some Asian guys.

I fish buffalo with a Pole 16 foot or 20 feet long. Picture is below.

I use some Asian floats. They are highly sensitive. They are about 13 inches long. Picture is below.

Hook number # 4.

With this setup I can tell by looking at my float if its a hard bite or if its going to be right inside the mouth.

Here is the technique that I use:

https://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/advice/ri...tench-and-bream

Now where do you fish buffalo? I fished at this park on 635 & Valley view Lane �T.W. Richardson Grove�.

Lately the water is very high at Richardson Grove with all recent rain and the water current is very fast so I am to fish there.

I was there yesterday and the water was still very high.

Would you recommend any good spots that I can try this weekend? Or maybe we can meet and fish together for buffalo this weekend.

The very nice thing about Buffalo is that if you do damage one you can take it home and eat it. I have caught more Buffalo in deep water under boat slips than anywhere else. Some big ones too, I did toss them back though as unlike the lowly carp Buffalo are a worthwhile fish.

I have a friend who swears �buffalo ribs� are excellent tasting.

You could either pinch the barb down or cut the barbed end off entirely before before removing the the hook. Lost hook, but saved fish.

Carp have some cartridge in that bottom lip, if you hook that it can be hard to get the hook out because it is tough but very flexible.

Buffalo do a lot of sifting when they feed, blowing it out the gill plates is a way of dumping unwanted items from their mouth, hook just happens to hang when they do it.

Do like Jessy said and keep a really close on eye on your lines. Buffalo will bite on them and you won't know it if you don't pay attention. They will sometimes Jack with your bait for hours and never get hooked.

If I am serious...serious..targeting Buffalo only...I watch my line very carefully and once I see a repeated pattern of line going in/out a few times (or better...my swinger going up and down) I know that's more than likely a buffalo and I set the hook. Well...not really set since I always use hair rigs, I just pick up the rod, tighten the slack, give it a gentle set, and from my experience it's a 50/50 chance of hooking the Buffalo or not. lol.. I've never hooked them anywhere but in the mouth. But again..I've learned to recognize the finesse of a Buffalo bite. You would think such a potentially big fish would be more aggressive, but it seems the larger the Buffalo the softer/gentle the take. And for sure....if you happen to catch a smaller under 10lb Buffalo and you enjoy fish, take one home for the grill! man...they are so good! And don't just eat the boneless ribs..use the entire fish.

Do you have a preferred recipe?

Great tips dmunsie! I've heard this from several people, and recently applied these techniques to land my PB buff @28lb 12oz!

You can catch them on anything you catch Carp on, but I personally use big "boilies" when targeting Buffalo. Close to golf ball size. For carp I use sweeter flavors, but for Buffalo I like to use more fishy, oily flavors.


Awesome, way to go. That's a good fish! Crazy to think there are Buffalo 2-3 times that big in our Texas waters. I've caught some nice ones at Lake Fork, Tawakoni, Brazos River, Grapevine, Trinity River. There are also huge fish at Richland Chambers and the Trinity behind the dam.