Sucker, Largescale

During our family road trip we camped for a night on the Kootenai River in Idaho. We were fortunate enough to find a gravel bar that was full of hungry Large-scale Suckers. (Thanks Matthew Miller for help with the ID for this midwesterner.) Catfish Jr started out with catching a huge 23", milt leaking, tubed up, brightly colored male. We began getting bites on every cast. The action was hot and heavy. I landed 6 fish in a row! Meanwhile, Catfish Jr was getting taunted with repeated worm strippings. His frustration was growing with every fish he netted for me. I even dragged the last two out of the water without disturbing him, so he could focus on landing a second fish. After being kicked in the nuts for almost an hour, he finally landed his own female Large-scale. Boost! The blue tipped fins and tails on these girls were so beautiful, none of the pictures do them justice. I've never seen such pretty violet-blue colors on a fish before.