Johnsfolly

Thanks Jeff. Very intetesting read. I was going to say the same thing as SIO3. I remember that study with the two ponds. Makes management difficult.

Thanks buddy. I enjoy introducing folks to my obsession (as does DJ ). If you don't mind getting home well after dark, I could pick you up the next time I ride through your town heading down to Poplar bluff. May be the 13th of July.

Congrats on a nice bow and smallie! Always great when you figure out a new stretch of water.

Nice hybrid. Congrats! Not a bad first trip.

My friend asks about us visiting him in Vermont. With the work that I have to do by the end of the year I don't think that I will have time to get up that way and finish the last three northeast states. I really want to fish Maine. Got several marine sculpin to catch😁. Some big enough to eat.

As part of my last trip back to Missouri, I got in early to St Louis. I had seen the flooding around the Mississippi river from the air and could not believe how much water was around. I have been keeping track of the states that I have caught fish and for the 20 some years that I have lived in MO I have never caught a fish in Illinois. I had bought non-res fishing licenses twice already. First time I was staying in Pontoon Beach for the Indycar race out at Gateway. I only had two hours to fish. I lost two gar and got no other bites at Horseshoe Lake. As I was headed back to the hotel to get ready for the race, I saw a slough that had a couple of carp surfacing but I had no baits that they wanted. My next trip was a total bust with heavy rains and darkness. So I really wanted to get any fish on this trip. I went to Horseshoe lake and found out that it was a free fishing weekend. With some redworms in hand I went to catch an Illinois fish ! At horseshoe the wind was heavy at best and gale'ish at worst . That lake is very shallow and I was getting no love from any fish while have my bait blown back towards me. I moved to another location that I found on goggle maps. It turns out that the next location was a restored wetland with heavy lotus growth, limited open water, and NO FISHING!! I did pass a small lake that looked to be part of a small community and headed back to that lake. I asked a couple of guys bank fishing if it was a public lake and got the affirmative. Started fishing near a patch of lilies using a trout magnet jig and float. I got a couple of timid strikes. So switched to a worm. Missed a couple of strikes then got a good hook set on my first Illinois fish, a white crappie (Maryland has mainly black crappie and this was also the first of this species in 2019). I followed that up with a bluegill then it was time to get on the road to Columbia. So Illinois was checked off the list, the 26th state so far !

Been a while since we had any note worthy homemade meals. One was a chicken fajita dish. The ingredients were pretty standard; chicken, onions, yellow bell pepper... However what was different was the spice blend. I used cumin, dark chili powder, garlic powder, Mexican oregano, tajin seasoning, and epazote. The epazote adds a very different flavor profile to the dish. It's hard to explain the flavor. However, I feel that this is a truly Mexican addition and not your typical Tex/Mex flavor. @BilletHead that is a Lodge cast iron fajita pan .

Congrats to you guys! Lots of fishing memories made and probably need to plan a return trip to get your son that brown trout!

Sorry buddy on the warmouth. As you know I missed out by not realizing how close I was to Mingo and those bantam sunfish. I was too focused on the CA near Poplar Bluff and lost site of the forest. May haunt me until I figure out how to get back down that way.

I was in Missouri starting on the 14th and was there for a week on business - ugly business. I needed a release and started looking at options. I have a goal to catch two new sunfish and two darters this year. I have been trying to catch a brook darter in the black river and it's tributaries a couple of times already. I saw a couple of Ben Cantrell's blogs on catching a variety of sunfish species, including warmouth, dollar, and bantam sunfish near Poplar Bluff. I was going to be on my own until Sunday. So developed a plan to fish a couple of likely spots down that way to try and catch some new species. Compared to the local waters which were running brown and muddy, the creeks down around Poplar Bluff were dropping and may actually be running clear. I got on the road and headed east towards Saint Louis and then south, way south. I was going to start fishing near Poplar Bluff, then Wappello, and then a tributary of Lower Taum Sauk Lake. In one of the blogs I read about an unnamed park in Poplar Bluff with a ditch and a cold water pond. I was looking to start fishing one of the conservation areas, but found myself in McLane park. As I was driving through the park I saw a small creek and a ditch running through the park. I walked along the ditch and saw several topminnows. I got out my microrig and got after those fish with a #20 hook with a bit of chartreuse plastic. Since they were spooky I had to try to sneak up to get after these fish. I spooked several, but I finally got a solid bite and landed my first blackspotted topminnow of the year. I was done spooking these fish and went to the pond that had the cold water stream running into it. I still had my microrig. I saw schools of minnows. I made several casts and easily caught several more of the topminnows. Why did I even try to fish the ditch? I kept spooking the other minnows. I did make a couple of casts into the pond that was loaded with sunfish and a couple of smallmouth bass. I caught a longear sunfish. I looked and looked at this fish trying to wish it to be a dollar sunfish if there was flecks of color on the operculum. Just couldn't and it was just a longear. I really should have been smarter and went back to the car and got my other rod to really go after those sunfish. With the microrig I switched to piece of redworm. I ended up catching a central stoneroller that may have been one of the fish in those spooky schools of fish. I continued to fish the creek. further upstream I finally saw some darters. I know that one of the them was a definite brook darter. It was a male with very blue coloration. I tried several time to get it to eat my bait. Every time I would get the bait near the fish it would list to its side then weakly swim off. I never got it to bite my bait. I high banked fished with no luck. I slipped down to the creek and got closer but no fish. I got back up to the bank I saw a tightcut in the clay bottom of the creek. There was a sycamore that had been growing down near the creek bottom. I climbed down and stood on the root wad and above the fish. I dropped the bait and the fish were eager to grab the bait. I caught my first darter. Looking it over it was a brook darter - my first of this species! The cold water and condensation made for a poor photo. I caught a couple of females and another male from that same hole. I spent a lot of time in this creek and missed an opportunity in the pond, but had to get going to my next spot. I drove up to Wappello to fish the spillway below the lake. I put on a black and green trout magnet. I got a couple of small bites when I fished it without a float. I added a float and could almost reach the other bank. I made a cast near some standing rocks and got a strong bite but lost the fish. Cast back out and got a solid bite. I landed an unusual sunfish, my first warmouth, ever! I caught a couple of green sunfish and then had to run to the last spot. I was going to fish a spot where I had seen a different madtom species and was hoping to catch a few to get my trifecta of new species. I was going to get to the creek after dark. At one time I saw a gray animal run across the road. It was not a deer or a dog. I can only assume that it was a feral pig. I got out the microrig with worm piece and put on my headlamp. I went down to the creek. Saw what I thought was a checkered madtom, but it was a crayfish. I saw several others and lots of minnows, but no madtoms. I searched for a long stretch. I only ended up seeing one madtom. It looked to be a slender madtom and It never even sniffed my bait before it swam away. It was time to go. I drove on back to Columbia. I pulled into the hotel just after 2:30 am. I drove over 620 miles, I caught several new species for 2019 and two life list species. All in all a good day.

One of the hardest things for people to do is to set that next goal once they achieved the initial goal. Where do you go after catching that monster? A new state record? Even @duckydoty is not as mad at them as much as he once was. @JestersHK I was being somewhat serious that maybe you should go and be humbled by fishing for stream bred trout for awhile. Or target a 20 inch brown in the Current or the White to get those juices flowing again.

@ness and @ness'lady congrats! Looks like a great trip! I hope that the rest of the trip matched up with the food. I bet that some pepper on the prosciutto and melon would have complemented the saltiness of the ham and the sweetness of the melon😁.

Now etiquette is a different beast at the trout parks . I don't often wear waders at the parks since most fish can be reached effectively from the bank with the way that I fish and thus really not too much need to get into the water. Way too often have waders walk in front of me while I am fishing. I often have to resist giving them a new piercing or two . But you just can't fix stupid. I either move or just wait a while to begin fishing again.

I really don't believe that the distinction in the different baits definitions have anything to do with the Missouri trout parks. Every state that I have fished uses similar descriptions for artificial lure versus flies, etc. A lot of the destinction I believe is about catch and release. Live baits and scented baits are more prone to being swallowed deeply and could prevent safe release of the fish. Traditional flies and artificial (e.g. hard baits) are not likely to be swallowed deeply (I've seen deeply hooked hard baits but its not as likely). One could argue that releasing a fish after being caught with multiple treble hooks are as damaging or more so than a deeply hooked fish. In the Missouri trout parks, I'm inclined to believe that the zones are as much about appeasing special interests groups, e.g. fly fisherman and ir bait fisherman than potemtial C&R. I also believe that part of the intent is to minimize overlap of folks with very different fishing styles, e.g., lines out bottom fishing versus cranking baits through the water or flycasting, which could result in conflicts through tangled lines. Again these are my thoughts and have not been discussed with anyone from the MDC. @bkbying89 was this person a field agent or someone that works at MDC?

Jeff that is my interpretation as well. That a bait would not be considered as a fly it it had a plastic bait like a grub or a craw etc. I also agree that the agent would have some discretion during any enforcement situation.

I love catching bluegill. Sounds like a great time! Congrats!

I know a guy on here that feels the same way that your daughter does every time he goes fishing. He can't wait to click his counter 😁!

Looking at this photo again reminded me of a family story. When we first moved to Missouri in 2000 I was trying to figure out what was going on with fishing in the state. I had bought the MO gazetter map book and would look for places to fish. My oldest daughter Jackie was 4 at the time. I found an access to the James river that I wanted to fish. The next time we headed down to Springfield. My daughter had that same hat as your daughter is wearing in your photo. I would buy her a fish pin that matched any fish that she had caught. At the time she had a bass and a bluegill pin. Neither wanted fish on this trip but she and my wife Sue were in the river while I tried to catch some fish. They were in the water on a shallow gravel bar. The gravel under my wife's feet got swept away and she fell over onto my daughter and into the water. Long story short both were fine but Jackie's hat got swept away downstream and was lost in deeper water. Hysterics followed not from the near drowning but from losing her hat😌. I have never driven as fast up Rt 65 back to Springfield. We pulled in just as BPS was closing. Sue snuck in through the exit door after a customer came out. She did replace the hat and all was mostly well. No pins😌. Made another trip down later to replace those. Never did catch a James river smallmouth until many years later.

I haven't been the same since that night😌! Agree that there are a bunch of great guys on this forum! Get out and fish with a few!

Thanks for the kind words. We didn't know either when we started microfishing. Go get some tiny hooks, red worms, and catch some. Lots of microfishing blogs online. The Fishes of Missouri is a great book if you can find a copy. A new revision is coming maybe the next year if I stop asking the author to help id my fish😌. Post any photos or PM me and I may be able to help.

That's a great looking fish!

Seems like I will need to be working on old bay BBQ to bring the taste of MD to Taney😁

They do smell😌.

Great to get out with your daughter! And you caught a nice smallie .... Bonus!

Great looking fish. I saw the spoils of the day offline. Hell of a barter day between you guys! Definitely a win win day and a great trip with friends. Still in shock that you drug that guy away from BilletHeadville😁. The squirrels appreciate not having to fear for their lives!