Johnsfolly

If you didn't know, when I am not chasing lifers I tend to be fond of chasing trout in many different locations. There aren't many stream-bred brown trout or wild brook trout streams closer than a couple of hours from me. It's the weekend and they were forecasting some bad weather moving in. I decided to go for some stocker rainbows and I did a trip North to the Patapsco River near Elderburg MD, which they stocked on the 4th. With the bad weather I figured I could get in a couple of hours of fishing. I didn't expect that It would be snowing as soon as I got there. The road ran along the river and I could spot likely holes to target for holdover trout. I met a man and his young son along the road that were not having much luck. I decided to go well below them before fishing. Upstream from where I parked, there was a small creek confluence with the river. I checked but the hole at the confluence was only big enough to hold a single trout and I didn't see or spook any. I will have to remember to check out that spot for micros later in the spring/summer😉. The snow was getting heavy. I headed downstream and found a nice hole to fish. After my initial attempts at getting a strike were spurned, I had to make a shift in plans. The snow had now turned to feezing rain and my fishing window was closing. I just knew that this hole was the best spot for a holdover stocker in the limited time provided by the weather. (purists cover your ears/eyes 😉😂) Since I was planning on keeping a fish or two, I tied on a #20 treble hook with a split shot about 6 inches from the hook. I put on a couple of bubblegum colored Gulp eggs and cast out into the current seam on the edge of the deep water. I have used this setup to harvest stockers for years from stocked ponds like the Urban trout program in MO. It didn't take long and I hooked and landed a decent 13" stocker rainbow. I would love to say that I caught a few more, but no more bites even from casts to spots that should have had fish. The weather was getting worse and I had a bit of drive home and decided to leave after 20 or so mins after catching that trout. I can't complain since I did end up catching a trout in a new location. I plan on coming back to this area and hope to find some decent fallfish or maybe some interesting micros. I plan on making this trout with a hot chili/sesame oil with lemongrass. Maybe that will end up on the What's cooking thread.

Last night I heated up the last braised beef short rib with the carrots, parsnips and king oyster mushrooms that I made Thursday. Almost better the second time around.

We love a good chili dog and those look like good ones😉.

Song from one of my favorite travel albums. Was listening to this while headed back from a fishing trip yesterday.

Half the band was from the US and the other half was from England. So no matter where they played they were Foreigners 😁

Seen them in concert. Like the Kinks and the Pretenders if you know what I mean 😉. Anyon know how the band Foreigner got their name?

Seems like some years they run that last week in Jan/first week of Feb. Other times later towards the end of Feb. The white perch follow a couple weeks later. Shad run picks up in Apr.

@ness We lived about 40 mins from Derry in the town of Coleraine. Mostly we drove through Derry on our way to Donegal. As you mentioned the Irish were pushed from the better lands in the East of the island and pushed to the rougher areas in the West. There are lots of areas in Donegal where English is almost a second language. I recall one trip where none of the signage was in English unlike my map. So I kept driving such that the ocean/coast was on our left or rear until we ended up in Derry and roads that I recognized. Also on that trip we were passed by some cars that were just flying by. Turned out we were in a local road rally race course😅. If you haven't been you guys should consider going. We would love to get back there.

We haven't been there in a long long time. Back in the 90's, the peace accords were still somewhat new. I could see an issue since both green and orange are in the Republic of Ireland flag and not the White and Red Northern Ireland aka Ulster flag. At that time we were there, lots of folks would wear green shirts since the local footbal or hurling clubs often had green jerseys. I could see staying away from Orange. Orange is the color of the Orange order, the Ulster loyalist (protestant) groups. Back when we were there (likely still today since they have been marching for over 200 years by then) they would March thru Catholic/Republican neighborhoods. Our lab was a pretty 50:50 split of protestant:Catholic due to forced hiring practices. The gov't Home Office couldn't figure out what to do with me as a non-denominational Christian. Anyway in July (the marching season) folks in the lab simply would not go out of their way to talk to each other, if they didn't need to provide some information to each other. I will say that we really enjoyed living there. The people for the most part are very friendly even though some of the older folks carried a chip on their shoulders and were hesitant around American and British folks. That may have all changed since we were there. The country has so much to offer.

Really like Van Morrison at the Folly Household as well. We even have some songs that he performed with the Chieftains. Also Mick Jagger's version of the Long Black Veil. I will have to watch that movie. I used to drive into Belfast for supplies when I was working in Northern Ireland in the late 90's. They no longer had border crossing gates/checkpoints, but there was always a heavily fortified military building with "police/troops" at the border crossings. Lots and lots of IRA murals on the buildings through town.

Does mean that I should be trying to see if they are making any local spawning runs. I have missed the yellow perch runs the last few years. I did have a 49 fish day catching white perch last year on a single white and chartruese trout magnet jig before I lost that jig. Caught the 50th of the day on a 1/16 oz jig with chartruese grub body 😉

Here's the photo. About 90 mins NW of us. That's downstream but close to where we shad fish. It's hard to find decent bank fishing in the area. The boats get the bigger perch (yellows and whites)

Congrats! You have that over me since I still haven't caught one yet. Glad that you guys had a good time.

One of our favorite Folly family movies. We quote lines from this movie and the Holy Grail all the time followed closely by Princess Bride.

Did I miss a fishing report? Jealous but I do have plans to be in FL in March and there will be photos😉. They are forecasting 6-10 inches here this afternoon/night. Anything over two inches causes a panic here. Should be gone on Thurs with temps up into the high 40s.

This is the real Hedley Lamarr🤔😁

I picked up some large mushroom caps and channeled @grizwilson and made stuffed mushrooms. I used the.braised pork instead of sausage. Added sambal chili sauce, soy sauce and topped with cheese. Served with zucchini and onion saute. Les I miss cooking with you buddy!

I agree. They seem to be more abundant in FL. I might not ever catch one.

I have been looking into best places to target AL shad and came across that same article. Seems.like they are in a similarly bad recruitment situation or worse as the blueback herring out this way.

Braised pork shoulder roast with Parmesan spaghetti squash.

I have caught Neosho's from Indian Creek near Lanagan. Posted a photo on the one of the other threads on here. Caught some redspot chub there as well that they fight almost as well as the bass 😉.

I'm sorry Ryan. Maybe this will add some comic relief😉.

Killing and eating a crane is a bucket list for me as well.