Thread: Fallfish??

Caught 100s of them in the Rapidan and Robinson rivers when I lived in Orange. Biggest I saw was probably 18 inches. Poor eating full of bones. They grunt when you grab them one of my sons called them the barking fish. We always called them knot heads or knotty heads. My buddy got one this spring from the James near Lynchburg, first one he ever caught.

I call them chubs. I fish a small river near me and sometimes Fallfish are all I can catch in. Which is OK with me as they fight hard and I freeze them for catfish bait since its impossible to catch any shad near me. I've even caught a couple citations.

It is odd to me how many I catch in that river. The upper stretch I fish is dammed up so no replenishment of breeding stock ever occurs by fish swimming up river, and the upper stretch quickly gets shallow and is fed only by small streams. I rarely can catch a bass or bluegill in it despite adequate deep water to sustain them. I wonder if the Fallfish are eating all the eggs. Or if it are otters eating all the fish, except there seems no decline in the Fallfish population so maybe otters dont like them.