Johnsfolly

My wife caught another 15 last weekend😀.

My bad for not looking at the forum that this was posted😌. Thinking that it might be about Sonny's BBQ some of my favorite ribs from Florida. I was wrong... horribly wrong😵!

We left Texas behind on Friday afternoon thankful that we 1) still had Waldo in good shape, 2) we were out of the rain, 3) had on dry clothes, and 4) neither of us had hypothermia ! This is a bad picture if you are a boat owner. Ham dropped me off at the Little Rock airport so that I could pick up my rental car that I would use to get to Columbia for work once this trip was over. He and I met for dinner and I followed him back to Flippin. Sat we headed to White Hole access and were met with a nearly full boat ramp. Could have been an ominous start. At one point I counted well over 60 boats and then just stopped counting. It's a good thing that we were after the yellow perch run and not those stocked rainbows. Ham pulled up to a hole that he has seen and possible caught perch previously. I had a casting weight with a dropper loop armed with a #10 Aberdeen hook and some redworm. I pitched the bait into an opening in the weeds. It was less than 20 seconds that I missed a small bite. I repositioned the bait and hooked into my first yellow perch of the day. Took about a minute ! I am no stranger to this fish. So maybe it was familiarity with my quarry, but more likely just that Ham put us in the right spot. I gave my rod to Ham since he was champing at the bit to catch one of these guys himself. Took a little longer but not by much until he had his first of the day as well. Ham and I proceeded to drop into grass edges, under grass mats, etc. to catch more. Ham caught a few more from this spot. I got trout blocked and only landed one more perch from that spot. First I was blocked by what I am inclined to consider as a Bonneville cutthroat (my first ever; let me know from you knowledgeable guys if this should be considered a Yellowstone instead @netboy or @mojorig) followed by a rainbow. I was halfway to a slam, but wanted to catch more perch . We moved to a new spot upriver. At the confluence of this small tributary. I caught bluegill and two more yellow perch one of which took the hook too deep and didn't make it. Ham hooked some trout. I couldn't get the suckers to bite at this location either. Further upstream we went and into another small creek. I saw brook trout, rainbows and what looked like a decent brown trout as we went into the creek. The only fish that we could see were trout as we went further up the creek. Some of those trout were less than 5 to 6 inches in length. We headed back to the confluence and Ham hooked one of the brookies on his Zig jig. Then another. Now he had half a slam as well. I also caught a snakeriver cutthroat trout at that spot. I caught a rainbow but no other trout. I did land a new species for 2019, a male hornyhead chub. He was "dressed" for the ladies with a bright red spot and sported a head covered in breeding tubercles. We looked over a few more creeks and rock piles, etc. looking for interesting fish. Still not too worried about a slam. Then we made the big run uplake where we met @snagged in outlet 3. I had on an olive ginger 1/32 oz Zig jig and was casting towards the shore line or running the jig down through the troughs between the weed lines while Ham was talking with Pete. Just as we said goodbye to Pete I hooked and landed my first brook trout of the day! Three quarters of the way to a slam (or maybe 4/5? ). I caught another brook trout and Ham caught brooks and rainbows. We drifted downstream where Ham landed his cutthroat. We did come to the White to get me on knobfin sculpin. So it was decision time - go for the slam or head downstream for the knobfin. I wanted the slam. Problem was that water had been flayed over by boat after boat after boat. We soldiered on anyway. Ham came closest to a slam but lost the one brown that he hooked. I caught a couple more brook trout and a few rainbows, but don't think that I had on and lost a brown. We gave it a shot regardless. Headed back to the boat ramp. We tried a couple of rocky points and Ham caught a knobfin sculpin. I hooked a 5 inch rainbow. I did end up landing a knobfin sculpin at Stetson's dock. It was another great day fishing from Waldo. I appreciate Ham taking me on this adventure. I look forward when we can do it all again!

Nice bass. Congrats and hope that your success continues!

Glad to have met @snagged in outlet 3 on the river. Those were some nice browns that he caught. I caught my third (technically fourth) trout species just after we talked. Remind me to not try and fish the White on a balmy Oct Saturday if I wanted seclusion on the water !

It was a great trip (all except the frigid stinging rain on Friday ! Even in the rain the cypress are impressive trees. Ham bore the brunt of the rain as he was driving the boat. As Ham mentioned I had not fished tree tops for crappie using those long poles. Pretty similar to how Livie and I fish the piers here in Maryland. I just need to pay attention to when Ham is moving the boat and get that jig the heck out of that tree top before the hound dog needs to come out . Also haven't had much experience with using a baitcasting reel except for musky fishing and those lures are quite a bit bigger so not as many bird's nests. Also there is typically no overhead branches or docks behind you to grab your lures on a musky lake. We ate well. Chicken with lemon and capers with rice, fried crappie with beans, and only one frozen pizza. We caught bluegill, longear sunfish, redear sunfish, green sunfish, warmouth, redspotted sunfish, blackstriped topminnows, spotted bass, largemouth bass, white and black crappie, bowfin, chain pickerel, channel catfish, and blue catfish. Ham can add any that I might have missed. Only one really unwanted visitor but Ham would have to tell that tale. So that was Texas. Onto Arkansas and the White River for its famous yellow perch fishing !

Okay so we are bragging about the bigger fish. We also pulled a lot of mini fish out of the brush, stumps, cypress knees and tree roots along the bank. With a new boat there are always a bunch of first fish that happen. Like the first channel catfish, first spotted bass, first bowfin, first blackstriped topminnow, maybe first redear sunfish, etc. that occurred on this trip. One of the fish that Ham and I discussed prior to this trip was the possibility of catching a spotted sunfish. Looking over photos of fish that Ham has caught in the past I was certain that he was catching redspotted sunfish. So we needed to catch some to confirm. On one of the tree tops without much crappie action, Ham was throwing towards the back of a cut. I threw my olive Gulp honey worm close to the bank between two cypress knees and got a bite. I pulled in the first redspotted sunfish of the trip (actually my only one as well). It didn't take Ham too long to catch his first and then with a pattern he was able to call the shot as to what cypress knees, roots would hold a redspotted sunfish. We caught bluegill (Moe or Momo's), longear sunfish (aka Larry since that was the least favorite of the three stooges), juvenile or hybrid longears (Larry X), green sunfish, and warmouth. Ham caught the smallest warmouth that either of us have ever seen on Lake of the Pines. For the first few days, we had opportunities at several micros but didn't fish for them and spent most time fishing for other fish. I did get excited about some topminnows and I could see a couple of species. Also there were a few different schools of minnows seen throughout the trip. I tried fishing with a shorter pole on Thursday for a different topminnow species than I have seen before and had one bite and drop off and didn't get close enough to reach any others. At the boat ramp Thurs. there were groups of topminnows and I called the shot that it wouldn't take more than a minute to catch one of them. It didn't take more than a minute and I landed my first blackstriped topminnow of the year. On Friday morning it didn't take Ham that long to catch his first of that species for 2019 either. Friday's poor weather did not allow us much opportunity to catch any other micros for the trip .

We had a great time and one pastime was coming up with nicknames for these fish. Ham mentioned Swamp Musky already, but didn't talk about BOWFUN! Now these fish are considered trash fish by most folks, but to those of us in love with the thump and strong pull they can be a lot of fun. As Ham mentioned, after catching that crappie in the brush sitting in about 4 to 6 feet of water, I hit it again with the 1/32 oz crappie tube jig and Bobby Garland pearl crappie plastic. That fish hit like a freight train and fortunately ran out of the brush into more open water. That allowed me to actually play the fish using that long pole to wear it down. I back reeled a lot and let the drag work as well when the fish ran, trying to maintain constant pressure. I was also fortunate that the jig caught the fish right in the lip and upper jaw and not in its hard palate where it may have pulled sooner. It was my largest swamp musky to date - 23" and 4+ pounds. My second encounter with the Swamp Musky was in the same lake where Ham had two solid bowfun strikes. This fish hit the bait about 6 to 8 feet from the boat and not more than 30 yards from Ham's strikes. I did not get a solid hook set and the fish swam off. Later as we had circled the banks of this small lake and heading to the channel out to the bayou, I made a cast with the spinnerbait again not more than 70 yards from my last encounter, the bait got smashed. Again I was fortunate to have the hook find the spot just behind the upper jaw and not in the hard palate. After the nice fight my second swamp musky was in the net . Keep an eye out this holiday season for our line of swamp musky apparel and video series !

I now have that fish and a big boatside musky as haunting fish memories of that moment when the hook popped. That was a hard fighting fish on such a light pole. I was trying not to horse that fish and as Ham knows there was a lot of give an take using that little reel's drag, back reeling, and bringing in line when I could. Ham didn't mention that there was only 9 feet of line out when that hook pulled on that fish. Still didn't get a look at the fish, but it was so close. That fish was well above the weight limit of that thin wire 1/32 oz crappie jig.

This made me sad. Story later😟

Pulling out of the driveway. Waldo in the fog😀.

Setting this up as a placeholder for the initial Where's Waldo tour of Texas 2019. Currently waiting to get on a flight to ST Louis then onto Little Rock AR. Will meet up with @Ham and head to Texas pulling Waldo, the new boat. Getting ready for Fish, Fish, eat, Fish, Fish, eat Fish, sleep?... Repeat😀!!! Morre to come...

Those are some nice rockfish (aka stripers). We live in Royal Oak MD which is between St Michaels and Easton on the eastern side of the bay.

I have always considered yellow perch as a northern species. They are pretty common here in Maryland. I do believe that there are some in Bull Shoals. I'm sure that the lakes like Clear Lake or Okoboji north of @FishnDave have their share of yellow perch.

And for perch, I'm talking about yellow perch. Also sauger and saugeye. Not "black perch", ozark perch or brim which are likely green sunfish or bluegill😌.

Congrats on a couple of brownies! Pretty fish!

A Big fan of all his shows. So absolutely loved this finale!

@Quillback and @MOPanfisher are correct, it's a logperch. That is one of the largest darter species in the Ozarks. All darters are related to walleye and perch. That's why it may look like a juvenile walleye in body shape.

They look freaking awesome guys. I love the small rainbows on the mounts! That big girl is still swimming and dining on those stockers rainbows! Congrats again @JestersHK and @fmcbrandon!

I haven't figured out the stripers out here in MD yet. Catch schoolies from the banks and docks but so far nothing big. I do tend to fish more for different fish than devote too much time just on stripers😌. Also a boat would go a big way towards more productive waters for sure.

That's a nice bucketmouth! Congrats! That bass could have eaten all three of the Iowa bass that I have caught all at once😌.

He got by quoting lyrics from all of his songs. That's tha hardest working man in show biz. Give props to that reporter she seemed to roll with his nonsense.

Jeff I probably won't know until mid Nov whether I will be able to get down this year. If I do may need lodging and will need an open boat seat. Been soaking live baits all summer would have to remember how to fish a jig😌.

Saw that Lost Valley Hatchery was constructed starting in 1977. But I read that somewhere. May be fake news😀.

Later in Dec may be better for my schedule. But I am likely going to be a last minute decision regardless of the weekend selected. So get a consensus and I will see if I can work out the travel.