Ham

Guy goes from wanting to catch ONE Bowfin to trying to get to 50 Bowfin on fly in one year. Jeez.

No worries Les, you keep being you. I always have 4-5 conflicting goals going at any one time.

I have semi-firm plans to complete 7 counties next year. Three of those will likely require an overnight stay. the remaining eleven will require extensive planning and likely 3 day trips. I do not believe that I will be able finish next year. I have too many other irons in the fire.

Logan Countyon to New Blaine Community Park.a creek runs into a Arkansas River backwater basin. I was hoping for an Orangespotted Sunfish. I fished a piece of red worm on a size 16 hook on my B&M red neck tenkara pole. I caught a bluegill first.and then a variety of green sunfish and LES hybrids. I caught 15 before I decided that Logan County was complete and I should go with Operation Longshot. Back to Yell County to try the flyrod along the rip rap below the Dardenelle L/D. I got there just after 4 pm and was rigged and in position by 4:20. I started with a @BilletHeadClouser Minnow. I was swinging it tight to shore amongst the rip rap that had tons of threadfin Shad running up and down it. I was waiting for a heavy thump, but I got a light but definite tap. Strip set and lift. I got an unexpected Lifer Threadfin Shad on fly. The hook was completely in his mouth. Might have been a crazy coincidence, but I’ll take it. I will tie in a very small streamer behind a larger fly next time I’m at Dardenelle and see if I can duplicate the catch. I got a Bluegill and a mystery mix sunfish.I got four more Yellow Bass on fly too.I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of drum. That made me think I had no shot at catfish. I eventually triggered a pretty decent drum which got out into the current. I had to follow him downstream on the rocks a little bit.I really wanted a catfish and I really wanted a 50 burger, but after hitting the snooze on my departure alarm a few times, I have up and headed for home.Johnson,Scott, and Logan counties completed. That puts me at 57 counties done and 18 counties to go. I’m likely done for the year on counties, but you never know.

Scott County so I take off for Scott County ahead of schedule and fired up to see new water. I had to go through Logan County to get to Scott County, but I had an evil plan for later. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I saw a sign for an another Lock and Dam on the Arkansas River. I was hoping for a similar set up to at Dardenelle where I can catch fish on dead water pretty consistently. I got there grabbed six weight fly rod, fly fishing bag, and Net and took off to look at the river. Man, I could see Gar everywhere and I had hoped that a spotted Gar would wander within casting range. I also hoped other fish would be on the rocks. I scramble down the rocks and see tons of bait milling about, but nothing hitting it. No flow except for a small creek running in. Nothing was relating to that flow either. I gave it a while with multiple flys. Tried for Gar and stuff closer to the bank. Never got a whiff. I picked up some trash and headed back to the car. this kinda stuff is why we lose access. I had that people are so dumb. Pack it out. Never leave line to ensnare and kill wildlife. we’ll eventually after lots of driving I got to a low water bridge over the mostly dry Petit Jean River near Elm Park, AR. so, I’m pretty short on time and I started to press a bit after losing multiple fish that were pulling drag and then mysteriously pulled off. Butttt, I got one and then another and stuck around until I caught 10.beautiful fish. Scott County Completed and one county to go.

Johnson County I didn’t plan on doing a multi-county quest yesterday, but an unfortunate series of events scuttled a float trip with Johnny. So off I go on what is likely my last county quest of the year. my route to Clarksville took me through Ponca. It was HARD for me not to stop and fish the low water bridge on the Buffalo at Ponca, but time is limited and you have stick to a schedule. I had actually gotten away from the house 30 minutes early and was felling pretty Good about myself. but I had to stop and look at an elk. so back on the road. Another quick stop at Lake Ludwig looking for Spotted Gar.nope, a metric crap tonne of top minnows though. So Spadra Creek was my target. Upper creek is more ozarky and the lower creek is connected to the Arkansas river. I decided to save the upper section for another day and do the chunk down by the river. I was hoping for an Orange Spotted sunfish out of the rip rap around boat launches. I also had hoped for flow along the rip rap and spotted Gar or catfish. I roll up, rig up, and start fishing through bluegill, Longear Sunfish, and Green Sunfish. There was no flow and I never saw a gar at all. First one after catching 15 of the various sunfish, I decided to stay ahead of schedule and depart for Scott County. I did check out a couple of other close options that looked really good in satellite imagery, but less so in person. but Johnson County completed.

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.