Johnsfolly

I had never met him but did have conversations with him through the forum. RIP. Mitch thanks for letting us know.

I'm sure that I could find a micro or two catch as well 😅!

Sure looks cold! Still you guys were able to catch a few and that is always better than the alternatives of not catching any or not even going😉

As always a great job Marty! That program means so much to those guys!

A grind would be the most appropriate description of your trip 😁! Highs and lows, frustrating targets, weather, travel, etc. So much easier to just catch bass😉.

Congrats @Daryk Campbell Sr on getting out and catching some fish! Great to see your recovery progressing to the point t where you can walk those banks. I agree with Al on the species I'd. The shiner may be a striped shiner but hard for me to see its features on my phone. Still looks like you has a great time with your micro rod.

Been thinking about this dish for some time, lamb shank curry. I saved two of the deer shanks from my '21 buck for this recipe. Pretty simple recipe massaman curry can of coconut milk, chicken stock, onion, cinnamon, and star anise. Also a few small potatoes. Braised about 3 hours covered and about 30 to 40 mins uncovered. Didn't have more basmati rice so used noodles. Delicious. Not too much coconut so with some heat as well.

@FishnDave surprised that neither of you caught any oscars. Did you guys see any?

I do have plans to at some point chase down the split redeye bass species in GA and AL and will likely try for the swampland longear at the same time. I have caught the rio grande longear already. Not sure if the Ozark and Ouachita are viable or accepted species in the long run. Of the original 13 Lepomis I still need the Northern and spotted.

Not if you accept the revised longear sunfish split 😉

Australian bass on steroids 😁! Looks like a ton of fun.

The catching the first them have to fight of others happens to us a lot. This crested goby is a really cool fish. I only really started seeing people catching these guys about a year ago. Definitely a bucket list fish along with a whole bunch of sleepers.

Congrats Dave again! That's an awesome catch regardless of bait used let alone a fly!

Congrats Dave! I haven't caught either of these species. So I can understand the excitement right out of the gate.

I hate to say this but you still need to catch one😉. That is a buffalo trunkfish. Piers are such a great place to catch multiple species. Never more true than when fishing in FL. Great job to you and @FishnDave on your successes!

This is a lane snapper. They do look alike with juvenile muttons.

She caught a few doubles using the dart and spoon combo versus me with just the spoon. I'll have to catch her on the next trip😉

Congrats on a successful trip and no need to grind it out 😅. This ozark bass aka goggleye sure wanted a mouthful of shad!😉

It actually was a slower bite than the trip a week prior to this trip. Still so much fun😁

Made the rest of the snakehead in a putanesca style dish following a Hank Shaw recipe. Served with a pine nut couscous and steamed broccoli. Was a delicious dish. Now we need to catcha few more snakehead😁

Susquehanna River/Conowingo Dam I took off an hour early on Friday to try for another shad trip up the Susquehanna River/ Conowingo Dam. We had to stop for gas and some 3/8 oz inline sinkers on the way to fish. Got to the water about 6:45. They were still running some water through the dam. We met Cole again and his brother. They had been fishing since 12:30 and had over forty each by the time we got there. Though they both thought that the bite was not a good as our previous trip. I tied on a chartreuse Neugasser flutter spoon which caught a most of my shad on the last trip. I fished it behind a 3/8 oz inline sinker. Livie had on a green/chartreuse 1/4 oz dart and a green/white glitter spoon. She landed the first shad, a hickory, between us. I caught a hickory as well. I struggled early while Cole, his brother (they both has on silver or silver/green spoons) and Livie were catching two to three to my one. I switched over to a silver spoon and was getting consistent bites (still had some struggles landing a few). I did get the first American shad between Livie and I. Livie followed up with her first Maryland American shad! Around 7:20 they slowed the release further and the water started to fall. Still got bites. Since Livie had a dart/spoon combo, she did catch a couple of doubles which made us glad for the bringing the net. Livie's first double. The tough catch was to net another one of Livie's double hickories and one of the larger American shad that I caught that night. Cole and his brother left after his borther caught his 70th shad for the day. As the water continued to drop the bite slowed as the fish seemed to follow the falling water. We also got hung up in the rocks more frequently. I broke off another spoon and we called it a night at the dam around 8:20 pm. Not as big a bite as our last trip. I still caught 13 hickories and 3 American shad and Livie had 16 Hickories and 2 Americans in roughly an hour and a half to hour 45 mins of fishing. With the falling water we decided to try to microfish the Deer Creek confluence before heading home. Deer Creek / Susquehanna Rvr It was well after 9 pm when we got to the creek and geared up. As expected the creek was running low and relatively clear. I had waders on and was looking for two or three species of darter, shield, logperch and banded, that are found in deer creek. Livie was bank bound and trying for any active minnows. I have not had much luck night fishing for darters so far. This night I found more active fish and was able to catch a couple of nice tessellated darters which is a species I have caught before. As I was darter fishing, I noticed what looked like an eel tail coming out from under a rock. I had Live come over and she put her bait next to the "tail" and it didn't move. She even touched it and it pulled up under the rock and then came back out. At that time Livie noticed the head of the fish on the other side of the rock and it didn't take long to hook up with that eel. Now we were not real successful in geting good photos of that one. She did find a much smaller one in another location and caught that one by hand and into the photo bag! We saw an even smaller one (4 inches maybe) come out of the hole that this one was hiding. I caught one more tessellated before we decided to leave. This guy was the biggest one that I have caught, over four and a half inches. We got home after midnight, tired, but happy for another successful trip.

Congrats on finding those slab crappie! Sure looks like a fun day.

With a BOGO grip and using one hand🤔😅

https://forums.ozarkanglers.com/topic/76945-choptank-surprise/?do=findComment&comment=701313 Snakehead prepped for the breading stations and fryer. I sliced the fillet into bitesize fingers. Took off the little bit of blood line meat. Snakehead is a firm white meat more like white bass but less of a blood line. So has a more mild flavor. Post-frying. We'll get a bit more adventurous with the other fillet.

A lot of local fish are migrating upstream to spawn. We had the yellow and then white perch, river herring, shad, white suckers, redhorse suckers and even several minnow species. I have heard that Eastern Silvery minnows migrate up into the upper Choptank and its tributaries in the spring. I took about an hour off of work on Tuesday to take Livie to see if we can catch some of these spring spawners. We took a medium heavy rod with a high/low bait rig, the micro rod with a #26 tanago, and a UL rod with a #20 hook rig. We have never fished this section of the Choptank, we set up near the spillway where there was a large eddy. A guy on INAT caught a few large male white suckers around this area. I figured that the high/low rig could attract a sucker or maybe some catfish. I put some worms on the high/low rig and pitched into the eddy. The sinker just hit the bottom and I got a double with a redbreast and blugill sunfish. Three mors casts and more sunfish caught and released. Also some white perch were in the mix. Livie caught a bunch of sunfish from the eddy as well. Even a double perch. While she was fishing the eddy I was using the #20 hook with a little red worm and a float. As with the eddy these fish were actively feeding. Didn't take long for the float to go under. I caught my first minnow took some photos, then another, and another..... Then Livie caught a few. They all appeared to be males and females of the same species. Were they a E silvery minnow? @Daryk Campbell Sr the bag is getting a workout😁! Unfortunately they were all spottail shiners, which until recently would have been lifers for both Livie and I. However, like most fish once you catch that first one it can be hard to keep them off of the hook. We have now caught this species in four different locations. Two are tributaries of the Choptank and the Choptank which is not a surprise. With all of the minnows, sunfish, etc. there were a lot of fish eating birds. We saw at least 6 herons and two osprey overhead. Further down stream I even hooked a large minnow or small sunfish and had a decent bass hammer it. I fought it for a bit then the hook pulled from the smaller fishes mouth and the bass was gone. Who knows what other predators were in this creek. I headed back up to Livie and the car. As I was getting to the car I saw that Livie was hooked up and the rod had a large bend in it. Here is a text conversation about this situation. Livie in her words (I did some minor spelling edits 😉) Ok so I was bottom fishing and I had a HUGE hit so I set the hook and it's PULLING and hard, dad was at the car so I asked him if he would grab the net. And he took his sweet ol time, as I was just letting it have line and chilling I thought it was just a sucker so I was not being crazy about getting it in though I was like " this is NOT swimming like a sucker" Response: Whoo hoo go Livie go. Sounds like slow net man dad is the sucker. Come on John get down there with the net! L: So I was thinking a really big bass? Maybe just a weird sucker? But I saw it and it looked like an eel? Cuz I saw that it's head and body was the same size. So dad said maybe a big catfish? And then he was like ITS A SNAKE HEAD!! then I was really cool and got it in the net ❤️ also the net was WAY too small for it and it was folded in half lmao. Response: Like I said it's a beast! L: He was horribly slow so we are lucky I was so awesome and got it 👍. It was weird cuz it was shaking its head so hard so I knew it was not s sucker.. at least not any I have caught before. It was hardly on anymore when we got it in cuz I have JUST lipped it. I just never had a chance before so I was going through my list of fish and it was not at all on it lol . Response: Would you rather catch a micro when you sent the hook and it flys out of the water back at ya or a fish that fights back? L: Well it definitely depends on what micro we are talking about... nothing and I mean nothing can beat how fun it is to get sculpin. Response: And sculpin are so ugly they are pretty. L: They are just so fun u don't do anything and they will fight to the death with each other to get the bait. So here is Livie's first snakehead! 25 inches in length and 13.5 inches in girth! We don't have a scale to weigh the fish whole. So had to weigh the fish after we filleted it at home and estimated total from the different pieces that we weighed. Total of 6 lbs and 4 oz. Yes I did net the fish. I had to dig it our from under waders and boots, then get back down to the creek. That's my story and I'm sticking with it 😅. Took a while to get her to stop smiling. We did keep the head and it will be a project to clean and rebuild the skull. We've eaten one fillet so far. See the cooking thread for the before and after of the fried snakehead. Never did catch the E. silvery minnow. Will try again soon. But it was a great time fishing with my daughter!