Ham

Kind of a pre-mop fly?

Ohhhhh Yeah!

Dave has been ON FIRE lately.

Man John that is a very cool Anchovey

At the 3/4 pole, I can report that I have definitely kept it goofy. I also got my Lifelist up to 202; my Flyrod Lifelist to 62, I’m at 122 species of fish for the year. I’ve caught 2340 fish so far this year so that’s tracking nicely towards 3000. I’m putting lots of miles on vehicles and catching fish in more counties .it’s been an awesome fishing year and I hate that is winding down. Oh Well, I’ll keep at it and we’ll see how things end up.

Long time coming, but I got it done. Ozark Madtom. It’s not a fluke. I can catch them now.All three pics are from the same fish. My son Ian got his lifer tonight also snd we probably saw a dozen individual fishI could (and can) catch more, but I was satisfied with one.

I think guys bring them in for live bait for catfish. Enough survive to get the ball rolling. My Dad swore they were tasty. You need them to be a little larger than what I catch in Lake Barnett AND you need to eat them Fresh. The quality of the meat drops a bunch of you freeze them. I like catching them, but I don’t like this trend of them popping up places they don’t belong.

#shotsfired

So , I started off the day ahead of schedule and maintained that thru Toltec, but that all went to heck because of my Orangespotted Sunfish obsession. It’s real bad y’all.this ditch below the Keo Fish Farm should have held an OSSF for me in Lonoke County. It did not and worse I saw grass carp frolicking. I thought that I could pull a @FishnDaveand get one of the feral grassies to eat, but they run and hid when I was getting ready for them. I also spent time at the England Community Fishing Pond trying for a lifer. Then another ditch that didn’t work. And another ditch by Neelam Cemetary.I hit the county line for Jefferson and tried one more promising little ditch. Time is stacked against me now. I started catching the fire out of Sunfish. Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Longears, Redspotted, and lots of weird hybrids. I hoped to eventually get to an OSSF, but I ran out of time.a frantic 1:15 minute drive to Jenkins Ferry State Park to fish the Saline Riveronce there I granted myself 15 minutes to get it done. Not a problem. I spent half that time looking for something special. It didn’t happen. I caught this Black Spotted Top Minnow and a couple of small Green Sunfish.I had the now traditional Orange Soda celebration of the counties and the Yellow Bass on fly and started my drive home.Fatburger for Supper in Greenbriar to wrap things up. I think I have at least one more multi-county trip left in me for the year. 54 completed, but the road gets steeper as you go.

That’s so Awesome!!! I’m seriously jealous!

#53 Lonoke County Today was a Full day of goofiness. I knew I was going to be burning tons of gas so I combined some side projects with the County Quest First stop was in …I was fishing Lake Barnett. I discovered it had yellow bass last time around. I went there to get one on fly. And I did. #51 species on fly for the yearI departed ahead of schedule from home and stayed ahead of schedule. On to Toltec. I visited the Toltec Indian Mounds. I fished Mound Pond from an elevated walkway. I got a Nice Bluegill. Water was low and ugly green. I won’t go back. I also stopped at a couple of ditches looking for Orangespotted Sunfish which I did not catch. I stopped at a community fishing pond in England, AR. It’s BIG. I only caught panfish on fly and not. I got tagged in the ankle by a Red Wasp while trying for a lifer minnow. Sucked. Hang with me more to come.

#50 on fly Brook Silverside

baby Snake River Cutt (maybe)

I was gonna mention that, but I fell asleep before J could make the post.

Cashing them checks

I do what I can

Thanks for the kind words Rick. I’m not sure I deserve all of them, but I appreciate them none the less. hope we can fish together sooner rather than later.

Boxcar Willie is Gonna be my Female Doggy.

So Sunday Morning we are up at em fairly early. Dave cooked us a nice breakfast and we swapped to appropriate swampin rods. Dave had found himself a conservation area that fishes well on foot. Not easy, but productive for fish that can be difficult to locate and catch. It connects to a major river and water levels are manipulated for ducks. It’s mostly used by birders and people hiking etc. a few people fish it for sure, but it’s well off the radar. Much different weather than Saturday ; cool and rainy (Dave lends me a jacket) and kinda breezy. The sun was supposed to pop out at 11 or so, but it never did while we were there. losded backpack with fly gear and four waters and a fancy beef stick. Grabbed 7 weight and 9 weight (what the heck, I own a 9 weight now?). And we hiked in. Dave took me to the proven spots and you can see the swamp musky rolling and maybe occasionally snacking. I put on a heavy dark streamer and start fishing. Very methodical fan casting. Repeat casts to the best areas. Quick up and downs to rising fish. Nada. charge spots. Same. Repeated casts to moving fish and key areas. Nope. Changed fly multiple times ; no change in results. Spent hours doing this. tried a spot with moving water and a smaller streamer on 7 weights. Not a whiff. I decided to take a break from swamp musky and walk the bank looking for some of the common Carp Dave talked about. These backwater bonefish were both plentiful and a pain in the butt. A common Carp on fly would be #50 so I was strongly motivated. water is very shallow and clearer than the swamp musky areas, but seeing them is tricky and there’s God know what other stuff moving around causing the same mud boils that hints to where the carp are. Occasionally, you actually see the carp tailing. Well, I had chances. I had Good Chances. I had a Great chance blown up by a clumsy soft shell turtle. I had another chance ruined by hooking a Longnose Gar. Catching the Gar would have been cool, but it pulled off. finally it all comes together and I hook a decent sized carp. I would have been cool with a 2 lb one, but this was larger. I thought it was big, Dave was less impressed. So you have to lead the hooked carp to an area that you can actually get to the water safely. I checked the distance on Google maps and I fought my carp >500 feet down to where Dave was going to net it for me. Carp apparently don’t care for being netted. After 2 or 3 attempts, the carp pulled off. 💔 So Dave goes back to fishing and I try again. I learned a lot about spooking fish. I did it over and over and over.heavy footsteps. Lining them with fly line. Fly landing too hard. Too aggressive a drag and drop. Silhouetted. Flyrod movement. Sucked. I had one more really good chance where fish closed on the fly with intent and muddied the water so much he could not find it and Soooked as he got too shallow looking for it. I had one more fish hooked. This was a Silver carp I believe. He was hooked in the side of the head and got walked about 350 foot before he came off. I had tried swamp musky for 45 minutes or so in between carp struggles. But nah. I zeroed on Sunday. I didn’t expect to catch a bunch, but I was hoping for a Swamp Musky and a Backwater Bonefish. It’s a Good Spot, but not an easy spot. I hope to fish it again some day. Dave caught three. He had a small drum. He had a common carp, and he had a bowfin. Major Props. after that it was long ride home with cramping hands and legs. I appreciate all of Dave’s help. I’ll let y’all know when I get my 50 th species on fly.

I do not believe it was a Bonnevillie

At this point, I would be remiss if I failed to point out that the fishing was difficult, but Dave was successful. Dave was a perfect host, but I did not want him to just watch me fish. I don’t begrudge him the fish he caught. It’s frustrating to be a scrub, but it’s motivation to improve. Dave caught almost twice as many fish as I did. He caught multiple grassies (and one was a Giant) and multiple Channel Cats..My only saving Grace was the Goldeye which I would not have caught without Dave’s help. But wait, it gets worse for Ham on Sunday

Next stop was Dave’s almost famous Bullhead Hole. I got lots of chances. I lost more than I wanted to, but caught five. I was hoping to run across a Yellow Bullhead, but it would appear they were all Black Bullhead. I when probably 5/9 of the catfish I hooked and the catfish went 2/5 poking me with a fin on the release. #ouchies Toxic Avenger Bullhead. so, it’s been all Sunshine and Puppies for Saturday. I was a little later than I planned on getting back to Dave. I’m at 48 species now and feeling pretty hopeful about getting to 50 species on fly with Dave on Beatdown Creek and/or our Sunday fishing location. so with High hopes and insufficient food onboard we started fishing the creek. Last year the creek ran higher and the banks were nearly free of vegetation. The terrain was difficult, but casting was not impaired and the fish were less spooky. This year the water was lower and clearer. Heavy vegetation made casting a bear. The fish were less plentiful and more spooky. Dave was a kind and helpful host. Giving me first shots at all the best targets. Sharing what he has learned from the hard lessons taught there. He did all he could to help me get it done. My target species was a grass carp., but I had hoped for a channel cat maybe or a common carp and a faint dream of a Goldeye. so a long sad sorry of missed chances and misbehaving fish. Spooky Shortnose Gar and Evaporating Grass Carp vexed me again and again. My best grass carp chance was a big one that ate my indicator. All I wanted was a little one to eat my fly. so I caught a goofy Shortnose Gar. I got him photographed and released and as I was getting my stuff straightened out, Dave shouted for me to get my fly back where it had been that he had seen a fish Erin my fly. So I followed my guides instructions and with a little luck and some timely fly movement I got a fish to strike. It seemed decent sized and out up a Good scrap. I caught a glimpse and dared to dream that I had hooked my Lifer Goldeye. It was a stressful few seconds that seemed very much longer before I slipped the net under my Goldeye. a wise thing to have done would been to have returned to the car for food and water. But feeling the rush of excitement over my Lifer I pushed on and on long after I started feeling really poorly and long after I stopped fishing at anything near my best. I finally tapped out completely and gave into reality. I caught a White Bass and Hybrid Green Sunfish in there somewhere. After some food and water, We tried again. Hitting new water. Hole after hole. Mile after mile. I missed a Great chance at a big drum at my feet. I got another Shortnose.Gar and that was about it. I had failed. I knew that a long night of severe leg cramps lay ahead. I tried rehydrating and eating stuff high in potassium to no avail. BUT still now sitting at 49 species on fly I had hopes for Sunday.

I’ll never tell

So Day 2 started before daylight for me. Dave was being a Good husband and running his wife to the Airport. It was nice to meet her. Dave married up. So while he was busy, I went to the two Sure Thing (TM) locations that he found in Stl. I was still butt hurt from the Highway Closure at Chain of Rocks and I took it out on the willing biters. I won’t post all the pics, but let’s just say the ornamental carp are NOT quite as cunning as the wild cousins. I did notice that I mostly caught little ones. I think @FishnDavehas educated most of the Big ones. I did get some larger ones. I want to let y’all know that netting one of these guys solo on a slippery slope was not easy. I was fishing with Dave the rest of the weekend so I played by house rules. All my fishing on Saturday and Sunday would be flyrod only. I used a new fun little flyrod. I got a TFO Bug Launcher. It’s a 7 foot 4/5 weight. 2.3 oz and $90 bucks. Big Fun.somewhere along the way I caught a couple of Goldfish too.so I probably stayed about 10 minutes too long, but I left em biting so I should get a Gold Star for that. so I had added two species on fly. Sitting at 47 and feeling Pretty Good about myself. Heading to an urban water feature that has a Good number of hungry Bullheads.

Hunter Biden might be the only person that documents their bad decisions better than me.To be fair, his are much more egregious and grandiose as well as unethical and illegal, but I digress. I journeyed NE to fish with @FishnDavein The STL. We had talked about it in March and the stars aligned for a September yard pass. One of my fishing goals this year was 50 species on fly. At the time, I thought it was both outlandish and totally doable. So fast forward to now, I had gotten to 45 species and I really wanted to get to that 50 species plateau fishing with Dave. Buuuuut never being Happy with something straight forward as that, I wanted to fish the Chain of Rocks on the Illinois side. I had dreams of Shovelnose Sturgeon, Silver Chub, micros, small catfish on fly, White Bass, Yellow Bass, and Hybrid Striper. Well, the simple things are all complicated. 9/9 Jet from the house at like 0745. I had the odd feeling to hold off buying the Illinois fishing license until I got there, but I got paranoid that I would not have cell service onsite. I caved and bought the license on Friday. Y’all likely can’t really understand the ridiculous amount of overthinking and over planning I had done for the Chain of Rocks. Shovelnose Sturgeon was the primary target and I had lots of gear for that, but I also tried to over every option I could think of. It was a lot of gear and I made sure I had more than enough live bait. wellllll. the only road in was shut down for repairs until 9/15/22. Done. Over. Didn’t even get to try. Like Leo from EPF would say “you can’t make this stuff up”. I tried to regroup on the fly. The other spot I knew about for Shovelnose was 1:30 away the wrong direction. So I am determined to catch a fish in Illinois. In retrospect, I wish I had driven to below Lake Carlyle, but conditions probably weren’t right. I opted for a little further up the Mississippi River. I found an access and tried to catch something. I found a canal with a spillway. I caught a Longnose Gar on a small swimbait. Tried other stuff to no avail. I moved down to the actually river. I fought through nasty undergrowth to reach the water. I tried dragging flies around the rip rap hoping for just about anything.. no bites. Back to the mouth of that canal. I saw some fishing moving and swung a fly through them and felt a live bump and I was into something solid. I think I foul hooked a silver carp. Hook pulled after a tussle. I swapped to conventional gear. I hooked another invasive beast and about had him hooked when again the hook pulled. I decided to relocate to Melvin Price L/D. I had caught fish there before and I was hoping to do even better this time, but the water was wrong. The bite was off. I got a mini drum on fly. road construction made getting there hard and getting to Dave’s house even harder, but I did. Thus ends the fishing on Day One.