Russian River Smallies, 9/13

Headed back to give the Russian River another try for the smallies today with my Drew.  Up from the south bay, Lawrence (flyaker) and his boy Oliver came to give it a go as well.  We hit the river about 8:30 or so and found that the summer dam had been removed at Veterans Beach in Healdsburg, so the water we had been fishing was down by about 4 feet and it was now moving a bit more.  The change in water level and the change in weather to much cooler nights and cloudy mornings were not enough to keep the scrappy smallies from biting though.

Drew and Oliver both managed to hook and land some fish on their own, dropshotting worms, and we ended the day well over the 20 fish mark.  Biggest were only in the 1 1/2 pound range, but still great fun on light tackle.

At the end of the pics there is a somewhat blurry picture of an approximately 3 1/2 inch fish, silver sides with golden splotches on the side, demarcated by a grayish/blackish bands around them.  Profile is crappie like, but the mouth is about the normal size of a bluegill of that size, pretty small.  The tail had been bitten and the fish was netted while it splashed on the surface.  Dorsal fin was bluegill like.  The only perch like fish I have seen in California fresh water with gold/yellow on the sides anything like that were Sacramento Perch over in the Owens Valley.  But then i suppose the gold splotches could also be juvenile marks that fade with maturity.  In that case maybe a juvenile American Shad?  Brian or any other "ichthy" folks able to shed some light on it?
 
All in all, a great day with some new friends and lots of smiles.

Norm

nice going! i might hit the river tomorrow a little further up. i find that the smallies really go on the chew about a week or so after the dam comes out and the temperature drops a little, bulking up for winter. your mystery fish is a russian river tule perch  (Hysterocarpus traskii). theyre a freshwater perch in the same family as redtails, barred surfperch, shiners etc. theyre pretty neat, they only get about 8" maybe. theyre only native to a few rivers in northern cal (i think the russian, sacramento and san jouquin, maybe a couple others). heres a wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_perch

Hey, Norm-  great report, great pics, great fishing, and great times!    We had a blast fishing with you and Drew.    I have been wanting to fish the Russian like that for so many years and finally got to do it today.    What an enjoyable place to fish.   Oliver had a great time too -  got to paddle, catch a few exciting fish.    Made the day perfect for me.  Thanks!

Also, thanks for the margarita mutilator and showing me how to rig the setup.    It's the ticket.   

And Mickfish -  thanks for your prior posts and communications that introduced the Russian to me.    I'll definitely be back for more.

Great reporting and responses.   

At the end of the pics there is a somewhat blurry picture of an approximately 3 1/2 inch fish, silver sides with golden splotches on the side, demarcated by a grayish/blackish bands around them.

Russian River Tule perch...its only found in the Russian, its endemic.  One of my favorite fishes.

wonderful to see the next generation out there, rods bendo, having a blast! the future looks bright!

Nawm, great moment there having a picture of your son catching fish in action.
WTG!

Narwm cool shot of the Perch used to catch those in my grandpa's crawdad traps it's been awhile. Did you make it upstream or stick at the PG&E hole.

Thanks Sean and otolith for the ID, first I have seen of that specie.

Mike, we only made it up to the next hole upstream, which was much harder to fish now with the lower water and more current, especially with Drew's boat attached to mine with a tow rope.... :srmt003  He got a bit tired heading up there...
The PG&E hole held plenty of fish to keep the boys busy and I pulled a few nice fish out as soon as the sun hit the water.

Thanks to everyone for the great replies!!

Norm

Nice report and BENDO pictures.  Also, that's a cool looking fish (A Russian River Tule Perch...remember that one next time you are a contestant on Jeopardy, and the category is Cool Fish).

HobieBlue