11 Tips for Catching Smallmouth Buffalo

Where I live, it's fairly rare to catch a smallmouth buffalo. Although Lake Erie does have a population of the fish, we haven't been able to catch them with regularity like we have carp and catfish, so when a smallmouth buffalo shows up in the net it's always a treat.

A recent small-mouth buffalo I caught

In this post I'd like to share some tips that I have learned that I feel help increase the odds of catching them.

How to catch more small-mouth buffalo

• Target bodies of water with confirmed populations of fish.
• Use baits with "hot" characteristics such as chili powder, hot pepper, hot sauce, etc.
• Make some boilies from habernero, jalapeno or serrano peppers.
• Watch your rods closely.
• Let me repeat....watch your rods closely.
• Buffalo bite very, very lightly on the bait, so you have to detect bites when they occur.
• Buffalo very seldom ever take a bait and run with it, so you usually have to "set the hook".
• Buffalo sometimes "mouth" a bait for 10, 15 or even 30 minutes.
• It may seem like a fish is "bumping" the pack bait, but in reality it may be a small-mouth buffalo "mouthing" the bait.
• It's quite possible that the fish is hooked, but still sitting there content to "hold" the bait.
• I feel the longer they hold it without a hook set, the more chances they will "leave" without being caught.

I don't usually grab the rod and set the hook with every little bump, but if I have watched for a while and notice the line tightening and loosening 2 or 3 times in a short period I try to pick up the rod and reel in some line. Most of the time I find a smallmouth buffalo on the hook.

When I first started catching them it was quite accidental. I caught them in spite of myself. I've heard people say it's bad luck to watch the rods while bottom fishing for carp, but I'm someone who likes to watch my rods and I feel it's helped put more small-mouth buffalo in the net as a result.

My niche in carp fishing seems to be catching small-mouth buffalo. Some people catch a lot of mirrors. Some catch a lot of two-tones. I seem to catch a higher number of buffalo. And I'm not complaining. I will continue to experiment and find new ways to swing the odds in my favor while bank fishing.

Small Mouth Buffalo

It looks like I may have forgotten to post this picture. I don't see it when I scroll down the page. Forgive me if it's been posted before, but even if it has, it was such a nice fish I don't mind posting it again one bit.

This fish was from a tough session this past fall of 2017. We tried a spot in the morning that didn't work out and then moved to another spot just before lunch. The wind was gusting to 30 mph at times and the conditions were pretty tough, although luckily it was a sunny day.

After losing a fish around lunch time, it was beginning to look like we'd end without a fish. My fishing partner threw in the towel around 3 p.m. and then about 20 minutes after he left, I caught this absolutely beautiful, flawless small mouth buffalo. This was the most pristine small mouth buffalo I have ever caught in this location. It weighed 16 pounds. Most of the bigger buff's look a little rough when they grow very big at all, but this one made me a happy fisherman.

Lake Erie

Update 12/4/17: After some additional research online, I'm beginning to think the fish in the picture below is not 100% small mouth buffalo. It looks to be a hybrid of some type. Black buffalo / Small-Mouth, Big Mouth / Small-Mouth, or something like that. Either way it's still a cool fish.

My favorite carp fishing spot over the years, which is near my home, easily accessed and a consistent producer did not let me down last weekend. I fished 7 1/2 hours with two bites and nothing landed, but as I started to pack up and head home I heard a few "beeps" on the alarm.

I picked up the rod and reeled gently and soon realized "fish on".

Very careful not to lose the fish, I kept the drag fairly loose. The fish started far right and ended up far left with the loose drag. I loosened it even more as the fish neared the net to be doubly sure there wouldn't be a hook pull once I say it was a very nigh small-mouth buffalo.

It turned out not to be a new personal best for me, but does rank 3rd on my largest small-mouth buffalo catches in the last 3 years.

This rig did not catch anything for me this time out,
but many people catch carp on similar rigs.

My personal best small-mouth buffalo is just over 21 pounds. This one was 20 pounds and a few ounces. It's a fish I am very
proud of. It saved a "blank" on a tough day of fishing and although you can't tell from the picture....it added a big smile
on my face when this fish was secured safely in the net.

Early Summer Carp Fishing

We're beginning the summer slow down for carp fishing. In the spring time, carp begin to recover from the winter period when their metabolism slows down dramatically, so they come to life with the warmer water temperatures in spring (late April in Michigan this year).

When the spawn starts (mid to later in May in Michigan), fishing slows down for a couple of weeks (depending on the venue) and then picks back up slowly.

With the summer heat carp seem to move from the shallow water spots into deeper water. That leaves the carp fisherman with a few options:

• Fish venues with deeper water (near dams, in mill ponds, specific spots in rivers, deeper lakes)
• Cast further from show into deeper water (7 or 8 feet seems to be my sweet spot )
• Fish early mornings and later into the evenings (depends a little on the specific venue)

I typically try to do some of all three, but do seem to have more success fishing the spring venues and casting further from shore out into the deeper parts of the lake. I seems to catch most of my fish around 10 a.m. to noon and then from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. or so at my favorite venue.

Here are a few pictures from last weekend's efforts:

Morning carp

Small mouth buffalo

Biggest common carp of the day in the mid teens

Early afternoon common carp

Small mouth buffalo weighing 17 pounds

Carp fishing action shot and the last fish of the day

Occasionally I catch carp like this one with the crooked tail, which seems to be a birth defect

In these pictures I wasn't wearing a hat. I took it off in an attempt at better photos and fewer shadows. I always wear a hat while outside in summer and apply sunscreen regularly. I urge you to do that same. Skin cancer is bad. It affects people of all ages and it does not discriminate (fair skin like mine or a full fledged sun tan, skin cancer doesn't seem to care one way or the other).

I wear SPF100 from Neutrogena in the "dry" formulation.

Pictures of Recent Carp Catches

Here are some pictures of various catches from a recent session. I ended up with 8 carp and a small-mouth buffalo. I also have a pretty funny video I will be posting later on. I was using panko, chicken feed, peanut bird pellets crumbled up, and cream corn with peach or butternut flavor and hook bait dipped in 3D powder. These fish were all caught within 20 minutes of recasting fresh pack bait. Waiting longer than that yesterday did not produce results.

Vacation Day Carp Session

In the autumn of each year I look forward to the chances to catch some high quality carp specimens. I am lucky to have accumulated quite a bit of vacation in my 20 years working at my employer, so I can actually fish several days during October.

After blanking on Saturday after driving 3 hours round trip, I headed out Monday morning with high hopes and the carp did not disappoint me. In fact I caught 9 carp and a small mouth buffalo. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

1st fish of the day

2nd fish of the day

3rd fish

Carp close-up

This fish was the second fish in a double header.
I was struggling to get pictures before another fish screamed off,
so I snapped this picture of the fish while still in the landing net.



This is the first fish of the double header.
It was the big fish of the session at 20 pounds.

This fish was still eating pack bait even after I captured it in the landing net.
It made me laugh so hard I decided to snap a picture as a reminder.

My last fish of the day was caught while I was actually packing up my gear to leave.

Here is a little better picture of the small mouth buffalo. I love this fish.
For a small mouth buffalo, this fish was in pristine condition.
It's not the biggest buffalo I've caught, but it's definitely my favorite.
And in case you are wondering, this fish weighed a little over 16 pounds.

If I am lucky I can get a few more sessions in before it turns too cold to catch. The last few years on Halloween I have had very good fishing luck. My fingers are crossed for this weekend.

Small Mouth Buffalo, Channel Catfish, Bullhead Catfish and Common Carp

After blanking for 7 hours on Friday I decided to return to an old venue with mixed emotions. The old venue isn't what it used to be, but it's definitely better than blanking at a new spot.

I was targeting common carp obviously but I caught a little bit of several different species. The buffalo are cool, simply because they are relatively rare in the venues I have fished in Michigan. I have been fortunate enough to catch quite a few in the last couple of years. They rarely set off a bite alarm, but if you watch your rods closely and see the indicators bounce a couple of times chances are it's a small mouth buffalo at this venue. I've probably missed several others because if you are not watching your rods you may not know you need to set the hook.

I caught a total of 12 fish and at one point in the day just keeping 3 rods in the water was a challenge since I was fishing alone and trying to take a few pictures. My right arm is sore this morning from carrying fish in the net, but it's a good soreness for sure.

I'll rest up this week, pop a few Aleve and hope that my fishing sessions next weekend turn out well too.

None of these fish broke a personal best for any of these species, but almost all were high quality. When I saw the buffalo jump and splash as it neared the net I hoped briefly that it would be a new personal best but it missed that mark by about 15%.

The bite stopped after about 3 p.m. and I only managed a couple of runs (and hook pulls unfortunately) until 5 p.m. so I headed home.