Ham

I’ve watched Softshell turtles hunting for food. I like them, but I Don’t trust them to not bite me.

Put a juicy night crawler in front of a Box Turtle and they become quite animated. we got a very cold box turtle out of a chilly river and moved him to the bank he appeared to be trying to reach. He was making about 4 strokes a minute. I also waded put into heavy current to get a box turtle off a log that was surrounded by very fast water and moved him to the top of a gravel bar to decide his next move. I have no idea how he got there and how he got on top of that downed tree, but he was no going to be able to hable those flows. silly turtles

I thought one sec had red eyes and the opposite sex did not.

You caught perfect fish for eating. A 30 lber is fun to catch and brag on, but you got way better eats.

89) Black Buffalo The Big Stinky Oxbow is a delightful mix of the loved and unloved. Everything from Bass, Bluegill, and crappie to three species of Gar, Buffalo, Grass Carp, Common Carp, Silver carp, Bowfin, and I suspect Northern Snakehead. I target Gar on the outside bend while carp roam the inside edge. Last time I was there trying for a Longnose Gar, I saw Common Carp tailing on these mud flats. Its hard to tell exactly how dirty the water is because the clay/mud/sand bottom shows through since it’s really shallow, but all those rough fish toiling away for their supper keeps it stirred up. If you ever want to be Super Frustrated, you should consider trying for carp with a fly rod.it’s been a struggle. The ones in Big Stinky don’t spook as bad as most places, but it’s hard for them to see your fly too. After I got my gar, I switched to carp. I had lots of chances at fish yesterday. I made lots of presentations. I changed flys a few times. Looking for something that would land softly and settle slowly yet stand out enough for them to see. I’m learning. I added a palsa indicator to help me see a take. It was not supposed to float the fly and it was too small to do so. after some good chances, I finally put the fly close enough and saw the fish stop and the palsa wiggle. I Set and was into a decent fish. Nice initial run, then a reverse course and a run under the boat, and then another decent run and the hook popped out. I was NOT happy (I’m still not ok about that one). I regrouped mentally. Spotted another fish. Another good presentation. Another wiggle of the palsa. Set and came tight. Fish starts a softer initial run. Smaller fish. Another burst and hook pulls out again. F bomb. So, I suspect that fish bumped tippet and got stuck in the face, but wasn’t an eat. I’ve got a fly that they were “eating” and I just had to do better and land one. Another 30 minutes or so of searching for the right chance before I saw a big dopey one feeding heavy. I put the fly in there and got a big eat. I set and the carp face came up out of the water and he gave me a big head shake and the hook popped out. So yeah, I’m done with that fly forever. I guess there just isn’t another hook gap to hook and hold. I changed flys and lost one to a tree while trying for grass carp or black Buffalo. Dark fish in a little deeper water. Back to the area where I hooked three. Time is starting to become an issue. I tried for a few before seeing a slow cruiser. I put the fly in front and hopped it when it got close. Nothing. I recast in front of him again. Nothing. I placed it in front of him a third time and you could see him noticing it. Full stop. Head turned to the left. Head angles down. Palsa jumps. Set! The fish rolls over backward and head comes out of the water. He looked really surprised. I thought that’s a weird looking carp. The fight was not all that. Fish gave up pretty easy. I thought that was odd. It it did not like the net and would run a bit every time I tried to net him, but he got tired enough for Mr Clumsy to get him in it. my turn to be surprised. Not a carp, but instead my Flyfer Black Buffalo. a storm started blowing in so I bailed. Very Happy with my day.

I really hope the AGFC can re-establish a Good population of Alligator Gar in the state. Habitat changes will prevent it to being nearly as good as it once was and they’ll need to reign in those guys with pointy sticks that love to kill stuff for the fun of killing stuff. I of course won’t live long enough to see em get really big, but it doesn’t take long to get 4 footers.

88) Longnose Gar I’m kinda surprised that it took me this long. I’ve had more than a dozen hooked that I just could not get to hand including a couple of BIG ones and a melanistic one. I’ve been nervously watching water levels at Batesvillie looking for a number than would enable me to get Waldo into “The BIG Stinky” an Oxbow off the White River near Oil Trough, AR. Today was my day off and magically the water level was where I needed it to be. It hasn’t been high enough recently. I got started about 1100. I had three rods rigged out. Two for Gar and one for carp. I had a rope fly on the 6 weight and a Woolie on the 8 weight. I had been casting for like two minutes and I missed a pretty decent Longnose which was the primary target of the day. Them a pretty solid Largemouth ate my rope fly. I stripped the rope fly along a log and let it settle for a while. The line came tight and I lifted I to a real nice Longnose. The rope fly had done its job and I didn’t stress about it very much. I really need a Musky cradle. It was a chore getting the gar I to my oversized net. then I had to spend a lot of time with the stinky thing to get all the rope out of its teeth. it taped out at 43 inches glad I got it done.

I Don’t care at all about records where the fish killed with a bow and arrow. Hook and Line or don’t bother with a “record”.

I do ok

I’m a circle hook guy for bowfin if using cutbait. It’s SUPER difficult for me not to set the hook, but if you let the circle hook do it’s thing, really good hook up ratio.

I have fished that creek below Lake Spavinaw and Lake Hudson im running out of race track, but I’d love to fish it

87) Redspot Chub @Johnsfolly introduced me to this fish in the Spring River. They look identical to Hornyhead Chubs, but they don’t share the same water. They were not described as a separate species until 1971. last year, my Flyfer came easily from Bella Vista area, but my first swing thru there this year, I did not catch one. I tried at the Bluntface spot kinda a lot with no results. I hit up Bella Vista area creek again on the way home hoping to add Redspot and more. Bella Vista must have had a high water event because lots of changes to stream bed and Stream flow had occurred. Not great. I broke out a light colored and light weight weighted fly to drift along. I was able to see “lights out” bites. When the fly disappeared, it was in a fishes mouth. I got a good take and carefully fought the fish in. Very Happy, but then realized it was a big creek Chub. then, I repeated the process 4 more times. Creek Chub after Creek Chub. I like Creek Chubs and these were Big Ones, but I needed than Redspot. another take a little higher in the water column. Fish was a little more orange colored. Carefully brought in an hustled to the photo bag. that was my guy (or gal), but the colors weren’t great. So, I kept grinding. That’s a Big Chub! I spent a lot of time looking for Plateau Darters. They ghosted me. I tried one more spot on the way out. I got a pretty Redspot. I was pretty disappointed about the lack o darters, but Happy to have finally gotten a Redspot.

86) Bluntface Shiner Lifer/Flyfer Thanks to @Johnsfolly My first drift with a size 16 GRHE and Bang! I had my primary target in hand. I caught a few more before focusing on looking for darters and trying for a Redspot Chub. Easy peasy not counting the 3 1/2 hour drive there.

Make sure that your connections to the battery are really good. Some of the issues might be conmoverse on a silent recall. My Ultrex was 5 years old and I just had work done and parts of that were covered by a silent recall. i wasn’t getting full voltage to TM, but I had some wiring issues. I also had bad sensor in the foot pedal which was covered by the recall. s

I thought he was talking more about delivering large flys,

I understand the desire to lower your cost for gear, but I refuse to buy Temu stuff and the incredibly cheap knock offs. If you do not reward innovators, you will have less innovation.

More like $140 than $75 these days

85) Mississippi Silverside I figured out how to catch Brook Silversides a few years ago. They are plentiful in Bill Shoals and Lake Norfork as well as the creeks and rivers. They are speed freaks. They require a moving target. So, fast forward to last fall. I talked to a couple of older guys in a tiny cluttered boat that had to show me the pile of fish they had caught. Blues, Channel Cats, White Bass, etc. it didn’t seem like they released much. They had a cast net piled in with everything else and they gathered their bait locally. Laying around the bottom of the boat where scattered pieces of bait they had dropped. There was so much clutter that I don’t think the guys could move from where they sat. There were threadfin and/ or small gizzard Shad sprinkled about, but also some big Silversides that were not Brook Silversides so of course I had to figure out how to catch them. Eventually. I stayed focused on the temperate basses and gamefish for the moment. Fast forward to April this year, I went to Dardenelle to catch everything. One of my main targets was those Silversides which I had determined were Mississippi Silversides. I could see one every now and again, but I could not get their interest. I assumed there weren’t many on the rocks right then, but a local arrived and threw his cast net right where I had been fishing and he caught a pile of Silversides. I do occasionally know when to cut my losses. I decided I would have to try again some other day. Yesterday, the bill came due for the Mississippi Silversides. Still, it wasn’t easy. I got lots of looks from those little turds and even hooked a couple in the first few minutes, but I kept swapping flys changing size and colors until I managed to get one to hand. Much much smaller than the big ones that swim there. I assume the larger ones hang deeper maybe. Silversides have a fascinating life cycle that is very brief. They grow very quickly, but most don’t live long. I would love to have caught a hold over that was 5 inches long instead of the 1/2 grown ones that I was dealing with. I had to catch four to get one that the fly stayed in it’s mouth long enough for a picture. Hopefully, I’m done screwing around with these guys. Pretty frustrating little fish. on a positive note, They don’t immediately die on you like the Brook Silversides do.

time with your daughters is even harder to come by than time to fish. Enjoy those opportunities while you have them. it’s nice you had family time

84) Western Blacktail Shiner Sorry John

Photo tanks don’t last long when I take em creeking.

I had a tough day. I had a full description of it, but the website decided that it would just glitch out and wipe it out. im too irritated to try to recreate it. I wanted Longnose Gar today. I didn’t catch any. I was able to get 84) Western Blacktail Shiner though. I also caught a couple Mooneye. There will be payback for the fish that frustrated me today though. I promise.

I think it’s unbridled disdain rather than indifference. With a liberal sprinkling of cowardice on top.

They are an absolute female doggy for everybody. I don’t think you’ve run into the really hard ones yet.

Once I had caught a few Telescope Shiners and gotten a Pretty one, I switched my attention to darters. I had seen a big colorful Male darter earlier, but I was rigged for Shiners not darters. I committed to one small (size 24) fly with an AB sized shot an inch or so in front of it. It seems like if you drag that weight around darters get curious and come check it out. They then might notice the fly and might peck at it, but if you feel a tug, you know unlike Bill Clinton, they inhaled and are likely hooked. some days you drop 3 before you get one to hand, but I was really Lucky and landed most of the ones I hooked. 83) Rainbow Darter