Johnsfolly

Well it didn't take too long. We went down to the Ocean City Inlet Pier for a few hours. Livie caught her 90th new species for her lifelist with this pigfish.

Last week we took advantage of the nice weather and headed to an estuarine creek to do some crabbing and fishing. We have caught lots of species from this bridge in the past. One goal that I had was to get Livie on a naked goby, which I have caught here before. I was not entirely altruistic since I was hoping to try for a striped blenny at the same spot. Well when we got to the bridge there was a family camping out right where we wanted to fish . While my wife crabbed, Livie and I both fished and caught silver perch, white perch, spotted (speckled) trout, croaker, spot, and striped bass but no new lifers for either of us. Can't complain since we caught a lot of fish. While we were fishing I was soaking bait in a minnow trap. For four hours and not a single minnow. My plan was to use the minnows to try for snakeheads, but without them I decided to continue to fish salty fish. We ended up on Hooper's Island. It didn't take long to begin catching spot again. Livie caught the first different fish, a southern kingfish. She then caught her first lifer fish of the day, a small black drum . We caught a lot more spot, southern kingfish, mummichogs, and I caught my first Atlantic silverside of the year. The other side of the causeway had more rocks and was calmer water. We microfished for the goby or blenny. I caught three naked gobies before Livie took the rod. It didn't take long for her to catch her first naked goby on a #24 hook with a tiny piece of worm. This is her 89th different species on her lifelist! Hoping to have her at or above 90 by the end of the year. I never did catch a striped blenny, but did land a decent white perch before we quit fishing for the day.

Fake News!! I guess that CHASE is the right word .

From Wikipedia so you know it's true "The mite parasitizes a variety of insect hosts and bites humans, causing red, itchy, and painful wheals (welts). The mites are barely visible, measuring about 0.2-0.8 millimeters; their great reproductive potential, small size, and high capacity for dispersal by wind make them difficult to control or avoid." @fishinwrench sounds like you are just out of luck. I feel your pain though. When I get a bite like a chigger bite or lately fire ant bite, I will itch for months. I'm still scratching fire ant bites that I got when I was in GA back in the first week of Aug . As an FYI you would need a chemist or biochemist to come up with a controlling agent for these guys.

Location first - Neosho's are located in SWMO and NE OK and SE KS. Spring river, Elk river, Indian creek, Neosho river, etc. should have them. One key feature is that they have a bulldog appearance with the lower jaw jutting out slightly. Others @Chief Grey Bear on this forum know much more about these guys than I do.

I agree that 15 species in two days is possible without really pushing.

What cave did you find the salamander? Fisher Cave?

I agree! He is a very talented guy!

Yep on having a pet bunny. He tolerates a lot from us.

Steve was a professional practical joker. He shared his 400 acre family farm with his cousins. Steve only turkey hunted, but his cousins would hunt deer. Knowing the trails that they liked to walk into stand in the early morning predawn hours, he would hang "Blair witch" style twig figures along those trails. He once found an old deer skull with antlers. He set that skull such that the antlers would show slightly above the brush about 100 yds below one of their stands. His cousin watched for that deer to show himself for a couple of hours before he noticed that it never moved. He also tied a line to a small bush on one end and to a flat rock on another. He tossed the rock over a crotch of a small tree. The wind would move that rock thus shaking that small bush. I only turkey hunted with him. So I never got any pranks pulled on me. I did find this point on his property and there is no name on it .

If you haven't figure this out yet, I am always one to take on a multispecies challenge. I would even drag out the long rod if it was needed . Though the rabbit bit through my fly line after my last fishing trip with the long rod and I still have to retie on a leader. Just a reminder to put my stuff away I guess .

Definitely interesting. If he downsized and fished tandem microjig/flies with a tiny trailer fly ala @Ham he could have caught a lot more species in a 15 week period. This challenge was more targeted towards those "game fish".

I have an old friend Steve that is a great collector. He has a world class collection of museum quality pieces. His buddy was more like what you are saying. One day Steve invites his friend over to go hunt a creek. Unbeknownst to his friend Steve planted a point that he had written his friend's name on the back. So as they were "hunting" his friend finds the somewhat obviously placed point. He was so excited to find his first point until Steve flipped it over and said "yeah and it's got your name all over it!"

Nice flathead! That's a great big net as well to make a 10lb cat look small. Sounds like you got a bit of exploring done.

I made a brine with pink salt, water, peach cider, star anise, brown sugar, and smoked paprika. Brined sliced pork loin for a few hours. Served with acorn squash and green beans with bacon and onions. After cooking the pork, I coated the top with red pepper jelly and peach cider.

Is the little boat to keep @JestersHK in line ? Just let him float around by himself behind Riley's. As long as he has a rod in his hands, he would probably like being out there.

In Columbia we would have them breed in our rain barrels. As they got older we would also see one or more on our sliding glass doors catching moths and insects attracted to the kitchen lights. Nice to see them out here in MD as well.

We stuck with the Mediterranean theme with olive and artichoke pesto over pasta.

@Fish24/7 you have had a haul on tomatoes. Looks like a farmer's market sale. Our tomatoes went to the squirrels. They would grab the larger ones and eat them on the bird feeder ! Then we lost the plants during one of our trips to MO and everything dried out. Our cherry tomatoes are bouncing back and may get a few more from them. We do have some small acorn squash coming along and still have the hot peppers.

Just in case you missed him in the previous photo. Tiny tree frog.

Saw this guy over the last couple of days. Hope that it survives. Smallest one we have ever seen.

Saw this guy over the last couple of days. Hope that it survives. Smallest one we have ever seen.

I might know a guy that could hook you up with some fish photos🤣

He caught that striped sucker in Duck Creek CA which is northeast of Mingo. I'm sure that they are in Mingo as well. Saw and lost lots of gar there. Looked like long nose mostly. State record spotted gar was caught in St Francis River back 2019.

Congrats on catching some fish! Don't see a lot of Mark Twain reports. So good for you guys.