The Fighting Fallfish

Some time ago I was leafing through the pages of a magazine targeting Pennsylvania anglers when I came upon an intriguing story. A “new” species of game fish was being introduced to Pennsylvania’s anglers.

Well, not exactly.

The “new” species had actually found a home in the Keystone State’s waters more than a decade earlier. The only thing “new” was the idea that this species, heretofore widely regarded as a trash fish, was suddenly being elevated to game fish status. The bottom-dwelling, mud-sucking carp with a face only a momma carp could love is now a game fish?

With a sprinkling of pixie dust and a wave of the magic bamboo fly rod a PR genius from our state government was telling us that we should stop equating carp with suckers and begin thinking of them as fish royalty, a trout without spots perhaps, or a smallmouth bass with gargantuan scales.

One of the virtues of the newly beloved carp, we were told, was that the state would incur no expense in raising or stocking them. Indeed, they have done a fine job of stocking themselves in Pennsylvania’s waterways. All we need to do is adjust our mental image of the carp, and we have an instant game fish.

With all due respect to our state government, I would like to nominate what I believe is a better candidate for instant game fish. The fallfish (semotilus corporalis) is an underappreciated and largely unknown member of the minnow family. All right, now that you’ve stopped laughing, hear me out.

A fallfish has silvery sides that reflect the sunlight when it makes a sudden turn in the water. It has a forked tail, a rounded snout, and a body shape more like that of a trout than a bass. It inhabits virtually every part of a stream, but I believe it prefers the faster parts. It can often be found in the same water as the horned chub, a relative that has tiny protrusions on its snout and lacks the silvery sides.

Most minnows are small. Fallfish and chubs (and carp) are among the few exceptions. How large does a fallfish get? Typically between 12” to 18”. I have personally seen them as large as 14-1/2” in Dunnings Creek near Bedford, but 7” to 10” is the norm, at least in that waterway.

Okay, so the fallfish is a giant among minnows. So what? “They don’t hit either live bait or any artificials, do they?” This is a quote from an expert fly fisherman who regularly takes large trout from the Loyalhanna and Four Mile Run in Westmoreland County. A man who sells fishing tackle in Ligonier, Pennsylvania told me he didn’t know much about fallfish. Another angler who ties and sells flies near the world-famous Madison River in Montana told me he had no idea what a fallfish is. When my wife told some friends in Florida about fallfish they thought it was a joke – a made-up name.

Perhaps the reason fallfish aren’t well-known is that their habitat is considered to be northern New York to Virginia, but east of the Alleghenies. They are plentiful in Dunnings Creek and the Juniata River in Bedford County, but apparently uncommon in Westmoreland County and the westernmost parts of the state. Has anyone seen fallfish west of the so-called Eastern Continental Divide?

In the tradition of saving the best for last, I am happy to report that the answer to the question raised by the trout fisherman from Westmoreland County is “Yes, they do.”

I have seen fallfish take rubber bugs, spinners, copper-colored nymphs, and flies. Based on my experience in Dunnings Creek and the Raystown Branch of the Juniata, I believe they have a marked preference for fast or at least moderately fast water.

I have had good luck with Joe’s Flies (made in a small West Virginia town but available in many outlets). Joe’s Flies are actually spinner-fly combinations that are sold in a variety of colors, shapes, and hook sizes, designed to mimic the “bugs” that trout and bass feed on. I prefer a size eight hook with a large spinner like a Colorado because I like to feel the tension on the line as it is reeled in.

I have taken fallfish on several different styles of Joe’s Flies, and I am not certain that one style is consistently better than any other. If the fallfish are hitting you might do well with almost any kind of spinner that has hair or feathers attached to the hook.

On “slow” days I have tried attaching a small worm to the hook and allowing it to trail behind.

One source claims that “fallfish may readily take a fly or worm and are fun to catch.” How much fun?

Steve Statewicz, a veteran of Bedford County’s streams told me that “Fallfish are exciting. They will give you a real battle for their size.”

I have witnessed fallfish jump clear out of the water when hooked, and give such a good account of themselves that I would have sworn I had a smallmouth until I got it close enough to see otherwise.

Realistically, the fallfish may never reach real game fish in Pennsylvania. Yet, I would rather pursue this fish that takes a royal coachman off the top of the water as I’ve had happen and battles his butt off, than some of the other species that won’t hit artificials and have no fighting spirit.

Long live the fallfish.