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This time took the little 12 foot duck boat without the mud motor . Put in the two seats we use just to fish this craft. Tight quarters but we have fly fished this way for years. Use trolling motor for this boat pond hopping. The wind was down early but got crazy later on. We each strung up a rod each and put on what worked yesterday. Grinch bug sculpins. Pat used the last purple and I put on a crawfish orange one. We would fish a section anchored then move and repeat the bank. Had to weed through those stinkin green bass to get to the crappie. Bass averaged two to three pounds plus and we caught a bunch. Lots of big bluegill also. In four set ups were kept 31 crappie that beat 12 inches. Even those 12 inch fish with deep bodies are thick shoulders would not go into a crappie measure device. They would get stuck before bottoming out. Have you ever gotten a crappie thumb? It was getting really windy so we loaded the bank and drove along the dam and fished the shore where we caught yesterday. Kept another 9 fish giving us a total of 40. We had ice in a cooler and loaded the fish in it. Close to town we got more and dumped on top of those, got a drink and snack and headed home to fillet. Pat and I have a good system. Using an ironing board I fillet them and pass her the sides and she cuts off the ribs. We completed that task in 39 minutes for 40 fish. Not bad at all. Pat washed and dried those fillets and weighed them. 13 pounds of boneless fillets. Good eats!

I fished the Cotter walk-in access yesterday and had a decent morning. The water was running at 1 unit until 11 am and then it increased to around 3 units when I left. I had the best luck early using a size 16 Y2K under an indicator and then around 9 the caddis started popping. I switched to an elk hair dry fly and did well with that. I had quite a few takes and missed a number of fish due to setting the hook too soon. Ended the morning with a couple dozen including this nice brown. He took the elk hair and it was fun watching him come up and eat it.

My buddy John found some whites this weekend in the Indian Creek area, and we launched early this morning to see if they were still there. They were there. In a little cove you can just about cast across. For about an hour and a half it was just about a bite every cast. We caught a bunch of whites, lost count. Brought home a couple that were 2 3/4 lbs. 1-2 lbers were the majority of the fish we caught. In between we picked up 3 walleye, all keepers, biggest was a little over 5 lbs. (released). Couple of black bass mixed in. They shut down and we fished a few banks and the back end of another cove hoping to catch some smallies. We caught 6 or 7 smalls and a big ol' crappie. Couple of the smalls were chunky keepers. 2.8 keitechs were all we used. Brought home enough for a couple of meals:

With the rain we got I wasn't even looking forward to everything soaked this morning. It's like walking in a a swamp. Actually waited until good lite before walking in. Lite enough no gobbling on the roost if they even did. Squish, squish, squish were splashed along to the field behind the house. Got into a cedar grove thinking it may be dry to sit down and listen. We had gotten in this last few days 4.3 inches of rain. Nope wet under the cedars. I called a bit with no answer. We slipped out of there and hit a tree row along the field we were in. We stuck tight to the edge of that in and out of multiflora rose. Ahead two hens I could see heading our way. I told Pat duck in and we did. We squatted down. Mistake could not even see the field. Back up and standing with persimmon trees to lean up against. No calling involved. Why possibly mess up a good ambush? This edge was so thick with brush. It's was about impossible to see anything. Then a Tom head. All I could see and Pat couldn't. It stepped into the open and I shot. As it was flopping around a second Tom ran over to see what happened to his buddy and Pat shot it. Ha! I picked up mine and it was heavy, like really heavy. Nice spurs on both. I walked back to the house for the four wheeler. After picking up Pat and the birds we measured the beards and spurs. Mine 10 on the beard and inch and a quarter on one spur. Other did not make that it was a tad shorter. Pat 9 and a half on the beard and inch Spurs. Now to get a weight on the big one. Holy mackerel I had no idea. I remember @Seth got a big one last year or the year before but wow. VID_20250421_075025175.mp4 This was a good deal. We aren't trophy hunters. We are about the groceries. Last couple of years it has been tough for us. Only one last season. We love eating wild turkey.

I was heading back to Taney this morning and hit something on the road out. Tire was flat in seconds. Took me about an hour to change it. The spare has been under my truck since 2012 and it looked it. 😆. I went back to the condo not sure if the spare was safe. Dumped my boat in here and ran to the back of the cove. I had been through my regular regular rotation of cranks, jerks, spinner bait, floating worm, jig and senko. Nada. Put on the dreaded Ned and immediately started catching. Caught a few spots, a couple small smallmouth and then hooked something better. Nearly 20” white bass! There was water coming in the creek and I guess they liked it. Quit counting after 10 or so. Spent almost 2 hours picking them off here and there. Going back and forth to let them rest. Had a great time! In reference to the title in case you didn’t know. I spent untold hundreds of dollars chasing the mythical white bass run for years. Never did experience it. In fact at Swan one year, we pulled up hopped out and got in line with everyone. Nada. Nobody catching any. Then boom! I caught a nice rainbow. Almost 19”. Nobody could believe it. So every year when people post about the white bass run I call it fake news.😂

SWPA is releasing lots of water to bring the lake down after the recent monsoons. I took the boat up to the state park and anchored in some semi-protected water and started trying different flies to see what works. I caught a couple on a Y2K under an indicator and then switched to a crackle back and caught 1 on that and missed a couple others. Switched to a tiger tail and caught 2 more on that and then tried a 1/32 olive/brown jig and caught 3 rainbows and a decent walleye on that. I didn't bring a cooler, so the walleye went back. Lots of boat traffic up there today. Here's a couple of the better rainbows and the walleye....

Last fall I wrote here about trying my smallmouth baitcasting tackle out here on the Yellowstone River for trout, and hooking (and losing at the bitter end) the largest trout by far I'd ever hooked anywhere but Alaska. I called it sacrilege because I was almost embarrassed to be fishing casting tackle on an iconic fly fishing river. We've been out here since early March, and it's been a pretty sucky spring so far. Cold. Snow. And WIND. So far I've actually had one nice day a couple weeks ago that I got on the river by myself in my little Water Master raft, and one day floating in the little drift boat with Mary. Both days, the fishing was pretty decent. Both days, I took nothing but fly tackle. I hadn't fished the casting rod since one more day last fall. We got up this morning, and I checked the forecast. I had two options I was thinking about for today. One was fishing. The other was maybe fishing maybe not...I belong to an athletic club in Bozeman, and there's open pickup basketball there every day of the week from noon to 2:00. There's also pickup basketball for older guys (like me) from 10:00 to noon on Tuesdays and Fridays. I almost never miss the old guys game, and had played yesterday. Sometimes I stay afterwards to play with the young guys for an hour or so...the old guys play half court and it's not as much of a workout as playing with a bunch of 20 somethings full court. But yesterday, not enough young guys showed up after I'd played with the old guys (by the way, I'm 72, and there are three or four men playing that are older than I am...one is in his 80s!). So I thought maybe I'd load up my waders and fly tackle along with my gym shoes and clothes, and head over to the athletic club. If there weren't enough guys again, I'd drive on out to the lower Madison and wade fish. I checked the river at the house...it's been very murky for the last couple days from a somewhat warm heavy rain over the weekend. It was still murky but fishable, and had come up a few inches during that time but seeemed to be dropping a bit. What to do...Mary said, "Just get on the river. I'll pick you up at 3:30 wherever you want to fish." Well, it seems the older I get, the more piddling around I do before I actually get on the river. I checked to see if the Water Master would fit into the back of the 4-Runner, so that Mary could use it to shuttle me. Had to rummage around to find a carabiner that I could use to click into the latch on the hatchback of the 4-Runner...last summer I'd tried hauling a couple kayaks in the back, and found out that the darned open hatchback gives you that loud warning ding-ding-ding without over stopping, which is exceedingly annoying on a 30 minute drive, but if you push a carabiner into the open latch on it, the latch clicks closed and the car is fooled into thinking the door is shut. Stored the carabiner and a length of rope in the 4-Runner, unloaded the raft from it and into my old Chevy truck, gathered all my gear, and at the last minute, grabbed the only jerkbait I still had and my baitcasting rod and threw them in. As I drove through town, I stopped at the butcher shop to get a good sandwich made for lunch. Stopped again at the only sporting goods store in town that might have actual lures instead of flies, and bought a couple countdown Rapalas. Stopped again at the quick shop for gas and grabbed a sweet tea and a couple donuts to eat on the way to the put-in. And finally made it to the river about 10:15. There were a couple guides and their clients getting their boats and tackle ready, so I threw on my waders and asked them if they minded if I went ahead and put in, and they said to go ahead, they weren't quite ready. So soon I was finally on the river. I didn't rig up the baitcasting rod in their presence! I stopped at the first riffle eddy to drift nymphs along the seam. Nothing. Stopped at the next one, hooked a whitefish and then a heavy fish that turned out to be a mountain sucker, one of the more annoying fish to hook, because they are covered with a snotty slime that hardens and sticks to your hands, your net, your line...yuck. No trout, but I did briefly hook a 10 inch rainbow that leaped 4 feet out of the water twice like a fishy maniac. Okay...might as well try the jerkbait. I put on one of the new Rapalas. Fished it for a half mile before hooking and losing a decent brown. Shortly afterward I caught a 12 inch rainbow, and then a 17 inch rainbow. Stopped at another riffle corner to nymph. Nothing. Back to the Rapala. Nothing. The day was gorgeous. Sunny, 60 degrees, no wind. The fishing wasn't. I stopped for lunch and savored my excellent sandwich, watching a stretch of bank just below where if trout are rising anywhere, they will be there. Saw one small rise. Midges were sparsely flitting across the surface. An occasional mayfly fluttered by. Not much happening. Might as well keep fishing the Rapala...nope. Why not put on that Pointer 75 that I'd hooked that giant trout on? So I did. I started down that bank I'd been watching, and immediately caught a 15 inch rainbow and then a 19 inch brown. Hooked a slightly bigger brown and lost it on the next stretch of similar bank. Caught another nice rainbow. Fishing wasn't fast by any means, but the quality of the fish was making me happy. And then the sky began to cloud over. And then the wind made its presence known. I was drifting down a fairly fast rip-rapped bank and getting no action, until a huge brown struck right at the boat, nearly jerking the rod out of my hands. I saw its side turn as it struck, had it on briefly, and lost it. And then nothing. And then the wind really cut loose. Blowing out of the northeast, which means blowing straight upstream, 30 miles an hour. The temperature dropped into the upper 40s. I was done. I rowed hard against the wind the last mile to the take-out, getting there in plenty of time to wait for Mary to show up at 3:30. Tonight as I write this...it's snowing.

Fished this morning and was mainly staying out of the way of tournament anglers. Hit several locations and finally landed on some nice LM. The fish were in a spawning area with lots of shad. The depth was 10 to 15ft and the fish were feeding on the shad. Used a Keitech 2.8 and a 4" Yamamoto grub. Only had 4 keepers but I think I could have had a solid limit in an 8hr tournament day. The shad were so thick and the fish were really dialed in to the real deal. WT 57ish

I was aware that Norfork came up significantly and quickly. I knew that it had not crested yet. I thought I had a spot where I could find White Bass. I was right and wrong. The lake was up and ugly. Muddy and full of debris. I had to stop repeatedly to clear the jet. I had to stop and clear the indicator hole as I got an overheat warning. My first spot held no clear water at the back like I hoped. On to the next spot. I found my clear water. I found a friend. end of the road. This was a good spot. The right spot. Just a little early. No White Bass.First fish was a Fat Little Smallie. no more in the main creek, so I searched a side Creek looking for Logperch. I never saw one. I saw Ozark Darters. I saw various micros. Wind was getting Stoopid. First micro caught was a Duskystripe Shiner. A Central Stoneroller came next. a bigger one. I was trying for one of three or four bossy males cruising around, but to no avail. I started trying more spots for Whites. Waldo will get shallow. I noticed Carp spawning, but not all of them were spawning. Some mixed in were cruising and eating a little. I tried sticking my boat and casting, but they didn’t like me looming above them. I started to give up, but decided to park the boat and wade using my knee boots. It didn’t take long. I started making short roll casts right in front of the feeders. It literally took like 5 minutes. One vacuumed up my fly. He was in like 12 inches of water. Really limited what he could do. I didn’t rush. I just enjoyed it. my first carp of the year. I sure hope it isn’t the last.

Pat and I attended the tri lakes fly-fishers expo in Clinton Mo. Today. Super turnout. Lots of vendors and tyers. Seen lots of old friends and some new ones. OAF had a good turnout. We had the pleasure to meet @tjm. Great visit with him. Then @kjackson brought me some lead for making anchors. Also some tiny hooks. Fun times ahead 😀. Got to trade fun insults with a leprechaun @fshndougPiper. Then there was the New tyer/vendor @Ryan Miloshewski. Had a good lunch from the vendor provided and attended a seminar on the driftless area. Been to the Wisconsin part and wanted to do Iowa and Minnesota. This wanted to make Pat and I go back even worse. Many neat things in the silent auction and the bucket raffle. Lost a bid on a nice assortment of dyed bucktails. Young people friendly. Good to see the young ones talking to tyers and paying attention. Ryan got hit up from one young man that was wanting to trade streamers with him and Ryan agreed.

Our last full day in FL was going to be another shot at Jack Dempsey cichlids in Bradenton FL and then onto Ft DeSoto State Park (with one stop) for more salty fish. I have fished Ware's creek in Bradenton before. The spot that I fish was not in a great neighborhood (plan was to let Sue drop us off and pick us up after a bit of time). I found another section of the creek that ran past a small sports park. We got there and I felt a lot better about fishing this spot. We could immediately see very large tilapia on beds (one can be seen in the photo). We also saw a lot of smaller fish that would be in the size range of the Jack Dempsey targets. We had a tanago rig and another with a #18 hook with a worm piece and split shots. We had to carefully walk down the rip rap to get closer to the water. Livie was using the #18 rig and hooked up with a possible Jack Dempsey (I had not seen that fish at the time). Turns out that it was a nice male Jack Dempsey. I had the tanago rod and was getting bites but hard to get good hook sets with that small hook and these larger fish. I ended up getting the rod for Livie and caught what I thought might be a female or juvenile Jack Dempsey, but it is actually a texas cichlid. We could see some striped fish swimming around and tried to get them interested in our baits. They would spook and not pick up the baits. I switched out the tanago and now had two rods with bigger hooks. I moved towards the overpass and saw several of the striped fish. I eventually caught one of them. It was not another striped exotic, but a juvenile sheepshead. I didn't think of this being a brackish system, but it was. We did see a couple of crevalle jacks cruising the creek. I certainly did not think that our four pound line would not be enough to land one of those strong fighters. I did finally get a male Jack Dempsey on the line and in hand 😁. I got my bait into several groups of fish feeding off of the rocks. One or more would chase the bait. I got a decent hook set, but the fish fell within a hole in the rip rap. I did put in my effort to get down and try to get that fish in hand. I was able to move a couple of rocks and pulled the fish from the hole and got it cleaned up. Once cleaned, the photos clearly indicated that this was another new species, a blackchin tilapia. What made this so exciting for me was that this fish was my 300th confirmed fish species on hook and line😁😁!!! We set a timer and let Livie try hooks baited with bread to try for the big tilapia that we were seeing. She never caught one and we headed towards Ft DeSoto for more salty fish. We made one stop before the park. We pulled off of the Pinellas parkway and parked below the bridge. I was hoping to get a chance at a gulf toadfish that I could not get in hand on my trip to Galveston last Nov. I was happy to see a lot of large rocks below the bridge. Sue fished a high low rig with shrimp. Livie had the #18 hook rig and I had a single hook rig with a #12 hook with a 1 oz weight and plunged it into likely holes in the rocks. Fishing the third hole, I got a strong thump and pulled up #301 fish species, a gulf Toadfish! Sue was catching one pinfish after another. Livie had a small goby go after her baits, but she didn't get one hooked up (inever saw it when I had the tanago rod). I gave her my rod and fished some more holes and she finally got a gulf toadfish. She also caught a few pinfish and a nice pigfish before we left for the piers. Ft DeSoto state park has two fishing piers. We started with the bay side fishing pier. Like the Pass-a-Grille location the water clarity was not a clear as it was when I fished it in Nov 23. The fishing was also much slower. We started fishing not too far from the waves on the beach. The hope was to catch some kingfish species, gulf or northern kingfish. Sue did catch a gulf kingfish but neither Livie or I could get one. We caught quite a few pinfish but no love when fishing the sabiki around the pilings. After 90 mins or so we moved to the Gulf side pier which is much longer. I switched to small pieces of Fishbites instead of the shrimp pieces that would get easily picked off by the smaller fish. Again we caught lots of pinfish, no kingfish, but several silver perch and pigfish. As the sun was beginning to set, Livie noticed a bunch of fish flashing below the pier. We got out the sabiki and got into a bunch of scaled sardines which was another Lifer for Livie. She also caught a couple of thread herrings. Once the school got far enough away from the pier, the pelicans got their share. They would dive bomb over and over again. The final tally from this trip: Livie caught 22 different fish species and 11 lifers Sue caught 15 different species and 8 Lifers (put her over 100 species to date) I caught 23 different species and 4 lifers Livie did end up catching that big frillfin goby at Maximo Park! Stopped at my family's home in Savannah on the way home and caught a few small black crappie, mummichogs, and a pinfish from the lakes/lagoons😁.

Started off with the Ned, then kept at it with a Swimbait and a crankbait. Fished Spring Creek to Point 16. Water temps 57-60.

They were biting yesterday. Most of my fish came on the little 2.8 swimmer. I did catch some on the Ned, but they were running smaller on the Ned and tended to be nest guarding males. There are fish spawning, water temps were 66-68. My best one of the day, 18". Don't know if it is a spawned out female or a male. Black spot on the back. Nest guarder. A pretty keeper smallmouth,

Great time to be out. I was out earlier in the week, lower end. Definitely saw quite a few fish on beds. I caught more largemouth than I normally do. Ned was quite productive but also needed a good weedless rig to fish laydowns. Biggest was 4.2#

The smallies are biting. Dutch and myself caught 60 today, maybe 4 of them were spots, but the rest smallies. Dutch, once again, had a couple of decent fish that I got to net. One of them looks to b a meanmouth. A lot of 12-15" fish, I think mostly males moving onto the banks. Ned rigs were the best bait, followed by 2.8 Keitechs. Some spots, especially back in Indian have a lot of floating wood. Did see a few stripers early blowing up by the boat. Had one take a swipe at the spook, he did not get it however. WT 60-62

Fished from 11 till 5 yesterday in the wind. Easy 2 footers between Baxter and Point 9. Big Phoenix just flat ate it up. Surface temp at H hwy. ramp 58. Backs of some of the pockets 60. I looked and looked and saw zero beds. Water main lake between Baxter and Point 9 probably 8’ to 10’ visibility. NADA. What I did find was just flat one of those great days of fishing. As I pulled into a creek and it’s a BIG 2 part creek on the right channel with the wind screaming in there were at least 50 Loons. One of the biggest flocks I’ve seen. They were spread for I’m guessing a 1/4 mile. Really probably more than 50. Quite a few gulls also. Boat was in 85’ of water and both of the Garmin’s 2D sonar on my console just flat blacked out. Solid shad top to about 60’ deep I shut down and moved to the Livescope and 2D on the bow there were holes in the schools everywhere. Lots from fish but I could see the Loons swimming thru the schools. The underwater acrobatics of the birds was just mind boggling. Much like a cat with a mouse that has no chance. At this point I haven’t even picked up a rod. Then I hear what I thought was a feed and immediately turn my head and they are busting on the surface, thru the waves. I snatched up the 2.8 and it was on. Caught 6 all big thumper K’s, one 19” that weighed close to 4 pounds. I started paying really close attention and back further in the creek I could see them on top all over in small pods. I put a white W. Plopper on and caught two more right off the bat then they would not hit it again. They would and did continue to eat the little Keitech. Surface temp was 59.1. Stayed in there for 4 hours and had 32 total all but maybe 1 or 2 were solid prespawn keepers. Caught all three black bass varieties. At least a dozen really nice 17” to 19 inch Jaws. Had one 3.52 and one 3.74 LM. Probably could have caught more but I couldn’t quit watching the crazy antics of the Loons. I know y’all are going to hate this but I saw 90% of the fish eat that little swim bait. It got refused a bunch too. You might despise Livescope but it was one of the most entertaining days I’ve ever spent in the water. You basically catch or get bit by one out of 20 that see your bait. Educational and fascinating. Now here is another deal. I caught as many shad as it did bass. I accidentally snagged shad from 3” in size to smaller than your little fingernail. Yes we all know and see a shad spawn in the bushes and on the docks in late May. I would like to know how many times a year shad spawn. I snagged two shad at one time on the little size 1 hook that it would have taken 4 to cover a dime. They were so small they were transparent. The wind had blown millions and millions into that creek. The fish were bloated with them. Would really love some thoughts on the shad spawn. Its just about to bust loose. Good Luck

Since I do fish table rock does that mean Im allowed to opine? I didn't realize those were the rules. By your metrics, you and all the C&R folks shouldn't get an opinion because you don't keep any bass. I do fish table rock, and I do keep the bass, so technically Mr Bush and MDC should regard my opinion the most. Anecdotes dont equal evidence. The article very clearly states that the spotted bass population has increased yet the size of 15-inch fish has decreased. As i already mentioned there are too many c&r anglers anymore for it to make much difference, but there is no denying that removing smaller bass will result in a higher % of larger fish. Its just basic math. Bass fisherman just love bass too much to bring themselves to harvest one, but it is against their best interest in most cases. If they did limit the length to 12 I'd keep more of the 12-14 inches and throw back the 15+, but the current regs force me to keep the bigs that I'd rather toss back.

I have a counter proposal - Set the minimum size for all three bass species on TR to 18 inches or better yet 20 inches - surely this would send the tournaments to Texas, Forida, or better yet Mexico.😊 Bobby

If you wanna spend a day in the Gravois arm, or on the lower end of Lake O, here in a week or two I'll do it.

I took off last Friday and Livie and I went up to the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River to try and catch some shad during their spawning run up the river. Those of you that know me or have read my posts over the years know that I love shad fishing. This year has been tough weather wise with heavy rains in late March and early April. That plus the need to catch up on work commitments after our trip to FL have not allowed for a shad fishing trip earlier in their run. The parking area was pretty well packed when we got to the dam. The concrete platform, aptly named Fisherman's park 😅, that we would fish from was also fairly packed but not with fisherman. Most of the space above the water was occupied by photographers lining the fence and the same down by the water. These folks come to the dam to photograph the many bald eagles that frequent the area. Many get there early in the morning and stay all day just to get that one shot of an eagle fishing or soaring above. I have no problem if they were all up along the fence above the water, but on the platform they were taking up the best spots to effectively fish😒. Livie and I found a spot to fish. We had on a 3/8 oz inline sinker with 18 inches of 8 Lb Pline fluoroclear line and a Nuegasser flutter spoon. I started with yellow/green and Livie a white/red. At this spot the best way to fish is to cast slightly downstream and let the rig drift down in the current while you give it a pull and drop. Once the line is directly below in the current you continue to give the spoon a slight upstream pull and let it drop/flutter back downstream until you get a bite or about a minute or two and then repeat. Often you will feel a fish swiping at the bait. These fish are not actively feeding but are just reacting to the baits. First cast for me ended up in a quick hook up with an American (aka white) shad. I didn't zero😅. We have fished here in the past and have caught up to 30+ fish in a couple of hours. I was hoping for another one of those days. Turns out we really had to work to catch them. I did snag this big gizzard shad. Caught a couple more Americans and a couple of nice hickory shad. Including a PB 17.75" hickory shad. Livie did not have much luck, except for a few snags, with the white/red spoon (which she ended up breaking off; she also broke off one or two more spoons). Fortunately there is a liquor store and bait/tackle shop not far from the dam that sells all of the spoons we would use. She switched to the yellow/green and got some strikes and eventually got a few to the net😁. A nice female Hickory loaded with roe. We tried to do our best to get quick photos and release these fish. Over the four hours that we stayed we only landed just over a dozen shad. Not a great numbers days but good to be back fishing. I hope to get a couple more trips to the dam and the spawning creeks in the area before the run ends. Note: a couple of quillback (and not @Quillback) were snagged while we were there and I know of a guy that caught one on powerbait in a nearby creek two days after we were up that way. I definitely want to try and catch one of them 😉

Ron and Nancy Hanrahan on their new 2025 619 Phoenix from Anglers Port Marina at Warsaw Mo. Beautiful Rug

Great story from this trip. Thanks to Marty and Pat for coming. They’re my favorites. But yes that kid traded me a streamer for a streamer. I helped him and his 10 (10!!) year old friend tie some flies. And let me tell ya, they were both talented. I had about two hours of me helping them along. I had my Great Uncle Jack Neporadny teach me when I was their age. So I was all about it. Jack would be proud. And I loved it! Never asked their names. End of the show comes and the one kid comes up “hey Milo, would you trade a fly for a fly?” I said sure thing buddy. He took my most expensive fly and I got his great deceiver pattern. I said “hey what’s your name?” “My name is Jack.” I had chills run up me like I’ve never had before. Jack Neporadny was telling me something. What a great event.

Due to “ Inclement Weather “ I watched Redcrest start to finish today. I will tell you I totally went nuts watching Westley Strader reel in those Small Jaws. I’ll relate a story we fished Texas 2 weeks ago for Big Florida strain LM. We caught them. My biggest was 6.1 but some of the other guys went double digits. I caught about 15 a day. My week, 5 average per day was a shade over 20 pounds. I fished here last week, using pretty much the same gear as I had put new line on everything and just didn’t want to waste that expensive string. Long story short I caught a 14 3/4 small jaw on a heavy 7’9” Falcon and that fish would have pulled the 4-5-6 pound Floridas backwards. Today on Redcrest the guys catching the LM pretty much just reeled. them in and weighed them. Those Jaws tried to kick Westley’s butt. I’d rather catch one 17” jaw than two 5 pound LM. They just flat have attitude. We went to Sturgeon Bay for Jaws last year. It was fun but our TR Jaws would give them a butt whipping. Long and lean here with a big wide tail and heavy but shorter and chunky up there. Ours looked like the ones they were catching today.

Chicken and noodles swimming in a mashed potato reservoir with a side of fried morels.

We have fished freshwater around Orlando and the salt in Tampa Bay. I still haven't personally caught a new fish species on this trip🤔. I planned on fishing a couple of locations for Jack Dempsey cichlids that I missed catching on my last trip in this area. I still wanted Livie and Sue to be able to catch a few more lifers. We headed to a small park on the Hillsboro river. Hopes were for Sue to catch a spotted sunfish, then maybe a tilapia, gar or bowfin for her or others. Due to the last flooding event last year that damaged walkways, the main park was closed. We went to the smaller park area. I had some cutbait and worms along. The spot looked fishy😉. I put out the cutbait on a baitrunning rig and got Sue set up for sunfish. Sue had some small bites in the deeper water but no hookups. Lots of micros, mostly mosquitofish and some that looked like mollies kept me busy early. I only caught the mosquitofish. When Sue reeled in she paused with the baits almost directly below her and got into some coppernose sunfish, aka brim😂. We rerigged with smaller hooks and only a single hook bottom rig. We all caught coppernose SF. Sue lost a tilapia and we never saw another. We even had a 7(?) foot long bull alligator bellowing to attract females. That was a pretty cool sight. Lots of birds were around. Sue got a few new bird lifers before we left. The next spot was one that I tried to catch Jack Dempsey cichlid back in Nov 23 but the water was covered by invasive weeds. I figured that if we didn't have open water we could keep going south down into Bradenton where I had other Jack Dempsey spots. The spot is just a bridge crossing of a small creek. The road can be pretty busy through it is really in the sticks. Sue wasn't happy just pulling off the road while Livie and I scouted/fished the spot. There was a lot of open water and Livie was seeing a fair number of fish. At the first spot the fish would spook when I cast in my bait, a mini trout magnet jig/worm under a float. I moved to the bridge that would have deeper water and less spooky fish and this is what I saw. Lots and lots of the same fish. I took off the float and dropped in my bait. Some fish spooked but others chased the bait. Keeping the bait moving and close to the surface, it wasn't long until I caught one. Irecognized it immediate and it was my first lifer of the trip! I had caught a pike topminnow! I chased these down in the everglades on my last trip and never saw a one. These are a non-native predatory minnow. Look at the head and teeth, look like small gar or pike (aka its namesake). Livie and Sue came over and each caught some as well. Livie and I continued to fish hoping for Jack Dempseys but only caught more coppernose bluegill.

This was a family trip first and a fishing trip second. We took the morning to visit the Dali Museum in St Petersburg. Dali is one of my favorite artists and we enjoyed going thru this very well done exhibit. I am always amazed at the size of his work. Some paintings are basically done on a 3x5 card or canvas and some are 8 x 15 feet. The plan after the museum was to go to Maximo park and fish for gulf killifish and silver jenny mojarras. Those would be lifers for Sue and Livie and bait for the next stop. There is a small wooden pier near the boat ramps. We were using the tanago set-up and up to #16 hooks with pieces of shrimp. sue had the most opportunity for lifers here and she had the task to catch the killifish and silver jenny mojarras. She got it done with the tanago Her first gulf killifish A surprise frillfin blenny - Lifer number 2 😉 She moved up to the #16 and caught the most silver jennys for the bait bucket. While she was catching those mojarras, I was trying for one of the several small goby targets, clown and code goby, in this area. I landed a couple of frillfin gobies and saw a giant. Livie hooked the giant frillfin on a #18 hook but it dropped off the hook. We caught a bunch of the gulf killifish. I had some small goby rush and pull my tanago into the oysters but never got one hooked up. Did have some fun with little gray snappers😁. Livie didn't catch a silver jenny before we had to leave to fish the next spot. We left Maximo and headed to a small pier on Pass-a-Grille point south of St Pete beach. When I was here in Nov of 2023, I had a run in with a large stingray that has been haunting me. On this trip I brought one of our larger baitrunning reels and a heavy rod looking for revenge. The water was muddy. I thought that we might be looking at the Missouri river. The last trip the water was clear enough to see the bottom in 12 feet of water. Not this day😒. There were two guys fishing that said that they lost a big ray and had caught several catfish. Neither Sue nor Livie have caught either of the two possible marine catfish, the hardhead and gafftopsail, in this area. I have not caught the gafftopsail either. We learned early to not turn our back on the bait bucket as a great egret helped itself to one of our mojarras (leaving only 4). We made sure the lid was on after that and that we did what we could to dissuade the egrets (now a great egret and a snowy) and the great blue heron from going after our baits. I put a whole mojarra on a 5.0 circle hook and cast it out with the big rod. We got the other rods set up with bottom rigs. Livie had a high low with circle hooks and pieces of mojarra. Sue had a single hook bottom rig. We still had the #16 hook 4lb line setup as well. Long story, but I never got a solid bite on the whole mojarra baits. The got cleaned likely by crabs. Sue got quite a few pinfish and a nice silver perch on her shrimp baits. Livie caught the first catfish, her lifer gafftopsail cat (got me a bit jelly 🤔). Sue followed up and landed a lifer hardhead catfish on the shrimp. Livie switched to the small fish rig and gave me a mercy time on her high low rig rod (I still didn't catch anything with that rod either). Livie was bouncing a piece of shrimp around the pier pilings and caught a couple of hard fighting Atlantic Spadefish (Lifer) , pigfish, and white grunts. The guys before us ended up leaving and a couple more showed up. One was cast netting and he caught a couple of sheephead with the cast net. Maybe that was a sign of things to come. I took over the small rig and actually started to catch fish. I also caught a couple of spadefish. Livie didn't like that I let the fish dig and run before landing them. She was telling me to REEL.. REEL... The next fish fought much harder and differently and I did REEL.. and landed a nice sheepshead. It was getting dark, our parking time was done and without any more live bait decided to leave. Maybe I could have caught that ray after dark, but we had 90 min drive back to the hotel and Sue was already waiting in the car. Live another day!

Day 2 Continues with a stop at the Withlacoochee River. Recent rains turned that whole area a muddy mosquito infested hellhole. I foolishly thought I could get a small Suwannee Bass there. nope. I did get another Redbreast SF on fly. And a Flyfer Eastern Mosquitofish. There were some great big females, but the one that happened to suck in the fly was smaller. Feeling the press of time to get to Waycross before a Tackle Shop Closed and to get tent set up in daylight I pressed on. as fate would have it, I happened right by another “planned” stop. It was a complete waste of time at the Alapaha River access. Still looking for Suwannee Bass. I at least wised up and moved on quickly. Heading to Waycross along 122, I kept seeing long barrow pits. I was tempted more and more as I drove along and when I saw a good pull over, I gave in to temptation. I just took the Bug Launcher with the micro fly. I saw more of the ubiquitous Eastern Mosquitofish, but I saw another top minnow cruising along. it did not take long. I kept catching them. Every once in a while a Bluegill would steal it away. I was hoping for another micro to magically show up. I caught this fish and was hoping it was a different species, but I had a nagging thought that it was the same species with dramatic sexual dimorphism. @Johnsfolly later confirmed that the were both sexes of the Lined Topminnow. Another Lifer/Flyfer! I fished on. I still had not spent much time there. Then I saw an oddly colored panfish sneak up. I was able to slow the fly and get a take. Bang! An Eastern Dollar Sunfish! Another Lifer/Flyfer I got to the bait store and got my Ruddy Bowfin insurance policy. Then headed into Traders Hill Campground and Got the tent setup. I had some time and I had an interest so I put the canoe into the St Mary’s river. I had forgot the fly box I needed. That cost me fish, but I did manage to get one big old Bluegill. I had survived the heat, the locals, the poorly controlled pit mix mongrels “belonging” to the locals, and the gators . Back into town for a fast food dinner and then a quick shower and bed. The next day was the Main Event!

So, the lack of fishing time on Monday, meant more fishing time in GA on Tuesday. I was up and out before daylight heading to my “new” spot. parking with the canoe sticking out the back is interesting. I was heading towards Reed Bingham State Park. Nice park. 8/10 would recommend. I paid my daily admit fee and then struggled to get my 3 day GA license online. I finally had to call it in. they made the almost 400 acre lake by impounding the Little River. Water was flowing over the spillway and I planned to start there looking for any number of magical fish to have moved up. my first fish from GA. I saw the odd Gar surface and what I think was a bowfin break the surface, but the black water makes fly fishing tougher than it should be. I caught a fair number of bluegill, but nothing else. I shifted locations and got this guy. I shifted to another location above the spillway and started trying for bowfin. Hindsight blah blah blah. I should have put the canoe in for 2 hours of fishing. I saw a couple of active bowfin and the water while dark was much cleaner than what I would get to fish later. Part of me was thinking it was silly because surely I would get one on fly in Okefenokee. I got to see the eat.Magnolia Crappie (but I just call it a Black Crappie). my next spots were calling me pretty hard, but I wanted to go see a Gopher Tortoise. They have good numbers of them in the park and I saw one, but she spooked when I got closer. He was scuttling around in this burrow under ground. I didn’t have the patience or the time to out-wait the turtle . Off to my next spots on Day 2

Still in Orlando metro area, we left the tropical park to fish the Little Econlackhatchee River. My goal was to catch a metalic shiner, one of my target species for this trip. The Little Econlackhatchee River is a clear water tannin stained river. Wasn't a black river, but light tea colored. We were going to spend about an hour or hour and a half before going to a spot further upstream to try for ruddy bowfin. Livie was fishing a river bend pool using trout magnet jigs. I headed down past the overpass to try for the metallic shiners using a tanago with tiny worm piece. The banks were covered in live oaks. Livie wasn't able to get much love from the Florida bass and sunfish using the jig and plastic body. She added a bit of worm to the jig and then had success with redbreast sunfish and coppernose bluegills. I was fishing my bait below a float. As the float hit the water and drifted by, the shiners would avoid it. I removed the float and drifted the bait such that it was in the face of the shiners. Several would rush the bait and turn away as they got close. I had a few grab the bait but got no hook ups. The retention system below the overpass was a cloth covered concrete system. My hook got hung in a little piece of the cloth next to the water and I had to carefully get down to it without sliding or falling in the river. Once I got my rig dettached, I saw a darter and another. I then focused my attention on this lifer darter species. I spent 35 or 40 mins trying to get one on the hook. They were not too shy once I could battle the current and get the bait positioned well. I did even pull one out of the water but not to hand or into the photo bag. Once they bit the bait and I tried for a hook set they did shy away. Livie was helping to spot more. In my frustrations I handed her my rod when she saw one in a good position. Well She caught it🤔. Livie's Westfall's Darter. After her catch the others stopped playing and actively swam away from my offerings. I only ended up catching a few mosquitofish just to say that I did catch something. I did have plans to try again at this spot before heading to GA at the end of the trip. We headed next to Blanchard Park to try for Plecostomus (sailfin catfish) and ruddy bowfin. They weather turned on us. The wind picked up, the clouds got heavier and the temps that were already cool (e.g., mid 60's) dropped to the high 50's. Livie has wanted to catch a pleco since she saw one at this park a few years ago. She made up a gelatin/spinach bait. It seemed a good idea but the gelatin dissolved too quickly and the many plecos that she could see were not interested. Livie had no luck on the Plecos and I could only get one redbreast sunfish to use as cut bait for the bowfin. We set up near the outlet and fished for 40 mins until nearly dark before we left for the hotel. We did see limpkins and a swallowtail kite (one of my favorite FL birds), so not a dissapointment. Jump to the end of the trip, we did go back to the Little Econ rvr. Livie tried for some large bass that reacted as if everyone casts to them and ended up catching a few large redbreast and a couple of spotted sunfish. She also found the smallest FL softshell turtle that we had ever seen. I again wanted a chance at those darters, but never saw any on this trip. The metallic shiners were mostly gone with just a couple swimming about. I did manage to get into a fallen tree that had a school of minnows in it's branches. I lost one and caught one coastal shiner after having to extract the rod carefully without losing the fish. I also caught a few coppernose bluegill on a trout magnet jig and a few decent spotted sunfish while drifting a worm. We caught fish, not the targets that we were hoping for and Livie did end up with a cool lifer.

Got a call from James last week wondering about the bite on TR. He had not been on the pond in a while. I told him what I knew and he expanded on it. He gave me a call thanking me and then told me how he caught his best ones. Needless to say after church yesterday I used his advice to catch 12 really, really nice keepers in about 4 hours right in the middle of the day. Spawned out SJ that still weighed 4.01 I listened to the PBFL fishermen complain they could not get a quality bite on Saturday, most weighing in 7-8-10-12 pounds. Some with limits sone not. Might have been what they were doing and how they were doing it. Thanks much Pard appreciate your wisdom. PS, up to Champ to tell ya what he discovered. Not my place. I was just the recipient of the knowledge of an experienced hand.

Purple Grinch bug, kept 12 and left them biting this morning. We were going to launch the little flat bottom boat but north brisk wind and someone like in Pat forgot a jacket so we just fly fished from the bank. Going again in the morning. With boat and jacket. Part two of this in the what's cooking food thread.

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At first, I was complaining we we're seeing shad come over the spill gates. Now we're ready to see them stop coming over. They've flooded the upper lake.... continuous flow of shad flowing through. Good thing I think they should shut down the gates tomorrow, Tuesday at the latest. It's been tough fishing for most people, not really because of the shad but the amount of water being released. It's just tough to get the bait to the bottom, handling the boat and getting things just right for a good bite. Caught 2 trophies on One Cast yesterday - I think we're going to see quite a few big trout caught in the coming weeks because of the shad. It's giving them a good boost of growth too. Shad and the hoards of scuds - they're getting some good protein every day.

I initially whipped these up, thinking that they'd be White Bass slayers..... but as it turned out, the Walleye liked them more. Practically every time I tied one on..... WALLEYE!

Just totally different body styles. We had a blast but the 6.1 That Mark is holding he caught swimming a Keitech on 4# Maxima and it took him about a minute to put it in the net. There were 5 of us on Sturgeon Bay for 4 days. We caught maybe close to 100 fish. The 6.1 was the biggest. We were all a bit disappointed in the fight. Not near what our TR Jaws do in the pulling category. Water temps mid 50’s. Actually the Walleye we caught by accident were the real beast.

Let’s put it this way. If you take out every 250 pound person that eats a Chinese buffet would that leave more food for a person that weighs 150 pounds? Of course not! There is more food there than all the customers can eat regardless of how many or how small or large they are. Table Rock is similar. There is more forage there than can be consumed by the current predator population regardless of how small how many or how large they are. Top_Dollar made some good points. Bass are not like deer, the herd does not need to be thinned. This is not a 1acre farm pond. The creel limit is to prevent over harvest as they by far are the top sought after species on most lakes including TR. By lowering the length they are sending a message to remove fish as the forage base cannot sustain the level of fish that are present. I’m telling you spending between 200 and 300 days a year on the water in ALL seasons during every migration, nothing is further from the truth. Top_Dollar and I believe what he said will throw back 15” fish and eat 12” fish. I’m sure he will, but the next 100 folks won’t. Worse than that the guides won’t be able to C&R. They are going to have to start cleaning 12” bass. There are between 30 and 40 full time guides in TR. 99% are catch and release with their targeted species being spotted bass. You do the math that’s 10’s of thousands of fish that are going to be removed from the population. Every 12” fish that gets a Crisco bath for sure will never get to 16/17/18 inches. Somehow eating 12” fish makes our fish bigger? I guess that would be true if you had 10 fish sitting at a table dividing 1 threadfin shad. But, we don’t. We have threadfin shad gizzard shad and for those of you that don’t think K!s eat gizzard shad you need to remember gizzard shad aren’t born full size. On that note I’ve caught 14” to 19” K!s on 7 to 9 inch glide and swim baits. Besides the shad we have sunfish, crayfish and aquatic insects. Not to mention predators eat predators so yes they eat their own. Plus walleye and for sure the walleye return the favor. The forage base in TR out numbers the predator base thousands to 1. Removing 12” K’s is not going to make us see 10 pound LM, 12 pound walleye and most certainly not 5 pound K’s. Y’all know my position. It comes from being on this lake since the 1970’s. I love it, it made my life. I’ve spent more days on it than the biologist have been on this earth. I’m constantly following the fish in every season. I follow the prey as well as the predators. Thank you for letting me express my opinion and maybe bring 50 years of history and 50 years of knowledge about this Great Lake . I won’t take any more of you time on the topic.

Spotted bass are extremely social, at times the majority of a lake section population will frequent small area’s. On Table Rock from May 20 th. to the 1st.of July there are about 50 locations that will load. This is over 43,000 acres, from the road bed up Long Creek to Wooley up the James to Big M on the White. I have everyone of them marked as do hundreds of fishermen. During the dates I mentioned if on those locations and they do migrate between locations they are as easy to catch as bluegill on a cricket. No secret, people and guides know these. Not uncommon to catch 50 plus a day in these areas during that period. These are post spawn fish recovering from the spawn. They will disperse and chase in open water, but as I’ve stated in the past they are extremely vulnerable during this period. Now here is another caveat. Live Scope. The bass at times could fool the Jimmies and Joe’s by not sitting on the tops or sides of these locations but suspending at the same depth in the proximity of the humps but over open water. How do you think that’s going to work with Active Target or Panoptics? I’ll tell you how, Blood Bath. Bill Anderson our previous lake biologist told me years ago just the guides harvesting keeper limits for their clients could lower the population of 15” fish. Very few guides will kill them. With residents, visitors and guides harvesting 12” fish on live bait and slaughtering them as would be expected as the 12” limit alludes to we need to get RID of them. I’m saying by the 3 rd. season of this, catching a keeper or even a 13” fish will be an issue. I heard KVD on a podcast a couple of weeks ago say until these young Scoper’s came along we really had no idea where fish lived He said we now know and have made them vulnerable 365 days a year. With even the current format and length limits they are more at risk now than ever. I know they are showing lots of spotted bass in the sampling, but if harvesting starts at 12” that is going to change in a hurry. Worse yet, it is going to have ZERO to nothing to do with the LM Or SM population.

I finally got down here and got out at sunrise. I never caught anything big just nice size rainbows and these two bass. No browns. Not as good as I had hoped with the overcast skies. But still great to get out. I quit about 1.

Buy it broke, fix it, sell it. Not only "pays for itself"..... You can actually make a decent living. Enough to raise a family, while always having several boats to fish out of. 😎

So, the seeds for this trip were planted when I failed to catch a Ruddy Bowfin during our trip to the Tamiami Trail. I had to get a Ruddy Bowfin. Okefenokee is thought to be a Great Place to get one. I started to study up and plot and plan. well, I asked around and the people that I thought would be interested in joining me all said No, so it became a solo quest. It’s a LONG Darn way over there. I was planning to fish the East side staying at a campground near Folkston, GA. But within reason, it only made sense to fish along the way. So, The plan was to fish the first afternoon of the trip near Birmingham, AL and stay with Family in the area. Fish the morning of Day 2 and drive on to Georgia. Fish a spot or two on Day 2 and set up Camp. Day 3 was ALL day in the swamp. Day 4 was Osceola National Forest. Day 5 was the Long Drive home. well, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. The punch was flooding rains in Birmingham the day before I was to arrive. Spot 1 and 2 were blown out. NO fishing on Day 1. So, I called an audible. I picked a City in Georgia and drove on. I eventually grabbed a room. I picked alternative spots for Day 2 and grabbed a few hours of sleep. Gas was cheaperstopped at BucceesBuccees peeps are soft. Day Two tales coming soon.

When you turn into the Roaring River and enter that flat, look to the left and you will see an unimproved launch point just before you reach the channel. Use that point as a reference. Across the river and a little to the right, you will see a small creek that enters. That creek breaks an underwater bluff. The creek itself will hold bass amongst the submerged timber and along the flat bank. Depending on the time of year and water temp I used cranks, spinnerbaits, or Neds for bass. If you look across the river to the left, you will see a cove with docks. The spaces between the docks are prime Ned water. Look 90 degree to the left an see the little island as the channel bends to the left. That island point will always hold bass (mostly spots) and walleye. They may not bite, but they are always there. Just barely to the left of the ramp, the flat drops into a deep channel. Along that edge is an old, submerged rock wall. Both bass and walleye hang out on the wall. Out on the big flat in front of you, humps and bumps and gullies exist. Use you sonar and find them. Those will be where the fish are. Everything I have written is known to the regulars in that area. These are not secret holes. They are a starter for that place. Good luck and tight lines.

I waited until April 7th to write this report because of the big rain event we had over the weekend. I wanted to address how six inches of rain water would affect our fishery. Now I know. Beaver and Table Rock lakes rose several feet and both have crested. Now we know about how much water will run and for how long. Beaver rose from 1,121 to 1,127 feet, and its top of flood pool is 1,130 feet. Operators are not releasing water from Beaver yet. They usually hold Beaver until Table Rock can handle the extra water, or if the level reaches 1,130 feet. Table Rock rose from 914 to 919.9 feet. The power pool (normal) level is 915 feet right now. Operators are running 16,000 cubic feet per second (cfs.) Of that amount, 6,350 cfs is going through two turbines and the rest is coming over the top flood gates. There are two units down for maintenance. My guess is that 16,000 cfs will run until Table Rock is back down to 917 feet, when the flow will slow to 12,000 cfs. I don't know how long the turbines will be off-line. When we have these kind of flows, we want emphasize pointers for fishing on Lake Taneycomo. First, be extra careful when boating. Wear a life jacket. Watch your wake. Watch where you're drifting. Second, in fishing -- if you're drift fishing -- your bait has to be on the bottom. Fish are going to either be on the bottom, or along the banks or up in the creeks. All three places have one thing in common -- the water is slower in all three places. I visited with Guides Rick Lisek and Blake Wilson after their trips Monday. They both drifted scuds on the bottom and caught good numbers of rainbows. I watched Rick clean his clients' fish, and they were were packed full of scuds (freshwater shrimp.) You see, with this heavy flow, gravel starts rolling, dislodging the scuds and moving them downstream. Our trout always take advantage of this and pack their bellies with these high-protein bugs. That's why we're drifting scuds on the bottom. It's good fishing these from the dam clear down to our resort (Lilley's Landing.) We're using a 1/4-ounce bell weight to get the fly down; four-pound line is fine. Use either one or two flies about 24 inches apart. Number 10 or 12 scuds are the best, gray in color. Egg flies and San Juan Worms are also catching fish but not as good as scuds. If you're drifting down past our resort, I'd switch to Power Eggs or night crawlers and fish them on the bottom. Down at the Landing, you can fish with a jig-and-float using a 1/32nd-ounce pink or brown jig or a Berkley's Pink Power Worm on a jig hook. Before the rain, we were catching fish in the mouths of the creeks downtown, Turkey and Roark. While I haven't talked to anyone yet, typically trout will go up in the creeks when there's this much water running. They'll chase spoons and spinners, jigs and eat power bait on the bottom or on a jig hook under a float. We're still hoping for a school of threadfin shad to find their way over the dam and get pulled into our lake, but we have not heard of any yet. I've heard a few fish caught on white jigs but not many. They will hit a white jig, but until we see anything different, I'd throw a sculpin or black 1/8th-ounce jig and get it close to the bottom. View full article

Some friends and I had planned on floating the Big Piney last weekend, but with the 6 inches or so of rain they got we quickly made back up plans. We ended up just fishing the banks around the lakes at Terre Du Lac. When all this rain comes in, the little lakes and ponds in the area get really hot, especially just above the spillway where the water is leaving the lake, and in any creek that is coming in that is not chocolate milk. It is usually a dink fest, but this weekend we caught some really nice ones. I got 1 that was 22" long, and 2 that were 18" along with dozens of dinks. A buddy of mine also caught one that was 22+" long. Mostly right in front of the spillways throwing crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Some of the clearer lakes jerkbaits and swimbaits worked better.

Threw a white jig late afternoon today and caught 3 including this 23"ish brown. They aren't seeing many shad if any but they are hitting a white jig... some. Scuds still the #1 thing to use.

I'll agreee the northern fish are chunkier but shorter?

Day 4 started before daylight. I hit my walk in. Watched Sunrise while walking. Broke camp. Cleaned and put 7 weight and 10 weight rods away. 😢. An idea for a Hail Mary play was building so I didn’t put the 8 weight away. I went back to Okefenokee Adventures. I got a bag of ice. Before I left the area I got out the 8 weight and the net. I worked around the main lagoons and the parts of the canals I could reach. I might have had a bite, but if so it was very wimpy. then I headed to a pond where Redface Topminnows had been documented on multiple occasions. I only found Eastern Mosquitofish and gators. While looking for top minnows, I spooked a baby gator into the water. I had no ideas baby gators where even a thing this time of year. He hit the water and made the distressed baby noise and Momma came at me immediately. I backed off and let me calm down. I gave up on that pond and headed to the National Forest. @Johnsfolly had given he some spots and some advice. I really wanted a Mud Sunfish. I tried a spot on the way with no results. I stopped at a major creek and that was a waste of time. But I was on my Golden Road. 250. I started stopping at every bit of water I saw and I think I caught fish at all of them. It was Hot. The mosquitos were terrible. Fire Ants were everywhere. But I was catching fish. Fish spot with fish was basically my best spot. I caught a Redfin Pickerel first. I had hoped for one on fly, but with my Ruddy Bowfin Luck, my expectations were minimal. I got it done though. On a Pistol Pete which I selected for a Redfin Pickerel bite. Next fish was my real target. Mud Sunfish on the Bug Launcher.I love them! I caught soooooo Many Fliers. I eventually quit taking pictures of them, but I loved all of them. it could be argued that I should have shifted gears after getting the Big Three targets of the day and gone back north to try for Ruddy Bowfin on fly. There is a tonne of truth in that argument. I decided to just stay there and have Fun. I was still looking for a Yellow Bullhead on fly. I never found one. I did find lots more Mud Sunfish. Another Redfin Pickerel. So many Fliers and a few super dark Warmouth. I made the run down to Ocean Pond, but there was so much wind. I decided to culture and run for home. I drove hours to clear time for fishing on Friday morning in Birmingham. What a day! I was thrilled with my successes.

Up before Daylight. Got a walk in ( a little over a mile) and got myself prepped for the day. I was really looking forward to >90 degrees. the recommendations I got and the fishing reports seemed to show the east side of the swamp was a little better fishing. So, I pointed the truck towards Okefenokee Adventures which was pretty close to the campground I stayed in. I likely could have boondocked for free on NWR land, but I. felt like a shower and being able to leave tent/some gear unattended was worth $10 a day. grabbed a bag of ice, chatted with Eric (one of the managers at the operation there), bought a few flys to try for Flier, and slowly pulled things together. The previous day had been a max effort day and I wanted to get everything set up before pushing off. I saw a bowfin or two broach will I was prepping and giggled to myself really looking forward to catching the bowfin. I got started and as I was pushing off I asked one of the guys working there about getting to a more narrow Chute close by. He was like sure, but it’s pretty shallow and you are locked in for a couple of miles, but yeah nobody fishes it much. So, I get over there and it is tight and pretty overgrown. I was concerned that I would not be able to give a big gator room in that canal. Behind me things looked pretty good so I went that route. I had good angles at points, intersections, sections of bank, points in veggie mats, etc I had a lightly weighted brightly colored muddler on my 7 weight for chain pickerel, swamp sally on Bug Launcher for Flier, orange over chartreuse Clouser on 8 weight, and a big yellow streamer on 10 weight. i fished for Bowfin alternating rods. Liked my casts. Liked my flys. Varied my depth. Varied my retrieve speed. Nothing. Here’s we’re expectations can become a trap. If I had expected to struggle, I would have been less stressed. I expected to whack em. I was not whacking em. switched to Swamp Sally. I was gonna catch a few Flier to settle my nerves. Nothing. I cast tight to hard cover close to shore.what little hard ground there was. Tight to pockets in weeds. Let it settle. Watched for the line to jump. Nothing The scenery is beautiful. It wasn’t hot yet. I heard a Bull gator bellow. Bullfrogs doing their thing. I gentle but persistent Current takes you away from the dock and a sub 5 mph breeze kept it cooler and helped with bugs a little. I ran into a guy dunking crickets and asked him how he was doing and he said that he wasn’t catching anything. I had been told better fishing was further down the canal so I fired up my Garmin watch on kayak mode and paddled a mile down the canal and resumed fishing. I had a kayak paddle for distance and a single blade paddle for positional changes. I was sitting on the front seat facing backwards to help with weight distribution. Yeti Roadie loaded down in front of me. Most of my tackle in front of me. Net behind me. started fishing after 20 mins of paddling and caught a Chain Pickerel on the muddler in just a few casts. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy. I wasn’t going to zero. Really different coloration on this guy.. gave the Bowfin another 30 minutes on fly with No Love. I Decided it was time to catch one. I grabbed up the baitcaster with a Chatterbait and covered water. Fire Craw. Looked and felt great. Bowfin said nah. Turned into Cedar Glade Trail. Restricted Use area. No motors. I had a few Fish and Wildlife crew pass me in boats with go devils (odd that those guys never have the HP restrictions that common folk do) and thought it would be nice to avoid that for a minute. I had switched the 8 weight to a banana yellow bead chain bunny Clouser. I made a good toss up that pad edge in the photo and got destroyed by a massive bowfin. Zero to 100 mph hit. Hook caught. Good rod angle, when everything came really tight, the leader blew up on me. My knot failed on the connection from 20 lb fluro to 15 lb fluro. That’s never happened to me before, but I sure was sad that I didn’t just go with a straight 20 lb fluro leader. I rerigged and fished further up the Cedar Glade trail. It looked great and I made lots of good presentations to no avail. my bowfin insurance policy was a locally made lure called a DuraSpin. It’s an inline spinner on a flexible wire shaft. Good treble hook. Good skirt. I bought 4 colors because sometimes color matters right. I had it on my old BPS Medium Travel spinning rod. It is a fairly beefy medium and it was some flex. I was using 20 lb braid to 25 lb mono. I was on my second color. The sun was fully up now and pretty bright so I swapped to a silver blade. Pretty close to where I lost the first bowfin bite, I got a take. Good Fight. In the net, Monkey is off my back. my Lifer Ruddy Bowfin. I went back to my fly rods. Cycling between the three rods every 15 /20 minutes. Trying different things. Different flys. Different target areas. Different retrieves. Nope. every hour to hour and a half, I would pick up my spinning rod and in a few minutes do this. I think I caught male and female fish. Males top out at about 25 inches in length. After that they get girthy instead of longer. I did have one massive fish rush the bait after I lifted it clear of the water. I would like to have caught that one. I really wanted one on my flyrod and as much as possible stuck with that. I tried and I tried and I tried. Going deeper and deeper into the swamp. i got another take on fly. I briefly hooked up. The fish took it late and the rod wasn’t in the best position. Rod soaked up most of the strip set. fairly late in the day. I made a good cast and as I was bringing it back a bowfin moved close to the path of my fly. I did a quick strip/strip/strip and let it settled and I got that lovely solid bowfin thump. Good rod angle, good strip set, big crazy fish on the line. Well, idiots have trained the gators that a splashing fish is a free meal. So, you want to net the fish and get it in the boat to remove the hook quickly. I kept an eye out for gators, but I never want to believe that I see all the gators around me. I would never Trail a foot or a hand in those waters. ☠️ so, the fish is going crazy and I am holding on and grabbing Net from behind me. I am desperate to catch this fish. I get the fish in the net and before I can raise the net up all the way. It rockets straight vertical out of the net and powers off taking the fly line between my fingers. It jumps into a somersault and tosses the hook. I’m crushed. I’m a Blame myself first guy, but I didn’t do anything really wrong. 💩 happens especially with bowfin on fly. I fished on for a while and then started paddling the three plus miles out. By now the with is blowing > 10 mph gusting to 15 mph and I have to paddle into the teeth of it. The kayak paddle was the only way I survived. i did fish a little every now and then, but the wind would blow me back down the canal when I did. it took aver an hour of near non stop paddling to get back to the launch area which I fished again: i caught three Ruddy Bowfin on spinning and none on fly. That one color DuraSpin caught all my bowfin. I did try a third color DuraSpin when the clouds got thicker. I did try a couple of other lures which got no love. I left Okefenokee feeling defeated. Hot, sweaty, itchy (I forgot how much I hate biting insects), and beat down. I headed back to camp. Grabbed a shower and shut it down. I didn’t even go to town for food. I was just Done. I tried to get some rest for Day 4 the Osceola National Forest

We started the trip going to a small park in the Orlando surburbs where the small clear creek has been bordered by planted tropicals. This is a known creek that contains three non-native tropical species; the convict cichlid, green swordtail, and variable platyfish. Also there is the ubiquitous eastern mosquitofish throughout the creek. If you look you can see a couple of intrepid microanglers through the tropical forest identifying their catch😉. You might also see a relative of Godzilla amongst the leaves. This was basic fishing only. No flies, plastics, cranks, etc. Just either small jigs, #16 or tanago hooks with a little bit of worm being dappled thru the brushy banks. We were all successful at catching a couple of the tropical species. Livie caught some very vibrant tropicals. Her nicest convict cichlid Her first green swordtail And one of the nicest platyfish that we saw while fishing there. Sue caught a couple of convicts with this one being the most colorful. I really liked her platyfish which shows the reason they are named VARIABLE platyfish😉😁. In the time alloted, I caught a few of the convicts and one swordtail but no platyfish. Even without fishing this was a very idyllic location. We were successful and headed to the next spot.

I still don’t know how they hook up but I have to tell you a story. Saturday morning 4 of us are floating down the river and I have one of those tied on. We came to where some rail road tracks ran along the river and all kinds of fish were stacked along that riprap bank. I was out front not really fishing. I got to the end of that and decided to wait there for the others to fish that area. I saw some fish moving around so I flipped that fly out there. It moved really well and I started having fun jacking with the gills that were dragging it around by its tail. So I fire it up under a tree and give it a few quick strips and see this dark figure follow it out. Uh oh! I would move it a little and that fish stayed right with it. Little breeze hit and rippled the water just for half a second. Wait, where’s my fly? And that’s when time slowed down. I all of a sudden got a clear view of this fish, 15-16 inches, no monster but a decent fish. And just as I realized I needed to set the hook, I saw the gills flare and watched that ball of rabbit fur come shooting out of her mouth. By then my arm caught up with my brain and that fly shot out of there at around Mach 5. And that fish just slowly swam back to that tree. It would have been cool to catch but it was equally cool seeing that fly come shooting out of its mouth like that.

Fished mostly around point 5 area targeting smallmouth. Fished a few hours each day and caught very few fish. I knew we are not quite prime time yet, but didn’t think it would be that bad! Water temp reading 53, so explains why maybe they aren’t fired up yet. Using Ned rigs, cranks, and swimbaits. Didn’t seem to want any of them.