Johnsfolly

@Kayser Awesome photo album! Some gorgeous scenery, beautiful water, and great looking fish. Even the ones over the fire. Probably no shortage of brookies. Thanks for posting.

Nobody has mentioned shuffling your feet while drifting a scud behind you😂! Thought that technique has caught more Taney trout than any others. Seriously there have been many good pointers to catch those Taney fish.

We like them. One summer we did have a large one that would hang onto the hummingbird feeder. Had to take if off there a couple of times before it didn't come back. Never saw it catch a bird but did see it try once.

Congrats! They do looked pleased with themselves. Great memories!

Wikipedia (as reliable that is) had their total revenue as $40M and operating income of $20M in 2012.

I personally think that it is a common mindset throughout the fishing community. Many folks do not value these resources and thus don't see it as being wrong to take more than the regs allow or ones outside of reg limits.

I did not quickly find the date of release of the first Duck Commander hunting video but did see a Duck Commander 16 video. Tells me that they have been selling those videos for many years and likely all of the other merchandise as well. As mentioned they also had Buck Commander videos and show and that associated merchandise. Their T shirts range from $5 to $25.

Jeff - keep me down as a possible. My son threw us a major curveball that may affect my ability to get back to the midwest at that time. I'll let you know as things progress.

No photos tonight. Made a pork butt with sauerkraut. Pork rub consisted of chili powder, garlic powder, ground cumin, smoked paprika, chinese 5 spice, brown sugar, and dry mustard. Seared the meat in a little olive oil. Made braising liquid with chicken stock, pinot grigio, and a little mirin. Added onion to the pork and liquid. Cooked form almost 2 hours. Added sauerkraut and caraway seeds. Cooked another 30 min. Served with leftover potato au gratin.

Good luck! I hope that you find some pickerel as well.

Ham - Also sorry about the loss of your father. I know that it is still a difficult time. I have in the past tracked my totals based upon the Missouri license period from Mar 1 to Feb 28th. I switched things up this year and only recorded totals since March 1 to Dec 31, 2018 in order to get onto a calendar year like most others. The Numbers I went out and fished 67 times and caught a total of 603 fish of all sizes from a Bluespotted sunfish to a sharpnose shark. I caught fish in four new states: Ohio, Iowa, Virginia, and Tennessee - didn't catch many fish in any of those states, but one was enough. I helped my daughter catch 53 total species and 21 new species including her first shark! Got my wife to fish a couple of times and slowly getting her interested again! I caught 66 different species (new high total for a year); 22 new species. I caught 22 hickory shad which is quickly becoming a favorite fish species. I added 13 more Maryland fish to the list; puts me at 22% of the total MD freshwater species. Still no largemouth or smallmouth bass landed in MD - looking forward to getting those in 2019. My travel and move to MD kept me from fishing more with OAF folks which I regret. Also the weather issues around Jigfest stopped me from fishing with some other great guys. I am looking forward to some trips with OAF folks in 2019. I plan to continue to contribute to these pages even if I no longer live in near the Ozarks.

Great job Ham! looked over some dead water today. No micros - probably not until April or May. Would love to have a great coldwater system like the White close by!

Congrats on catching some bass on New Year's Eve!

When I lived in Florida we had a clear water pond at the fieldsite where I worked. We had several 5 to 6 lb bass swimming around the pond. At that time they would have been the biggest bass if I landed one. I had just moved there and still only had 4# line on my reels. I saw a big one swimming along the bank and threw a 3 inch sluggo in front of it. The bass inhaled the bait. The line snapped when I set the hook. The fish didn't even move when that happened. A couple months later my buddy was fishing that pond and had one of the big bass take his bait. My buddy had old line on his reel. The bass dug down into the weeds at the bottom of the pond. Not wanting him to lose the fish I stripped down to my shorts and dove into the pond. I swam out and down the line. I could feel that the bass was still on the line. I reached into the weeds and grabbed its mouth. I got it to the surface. It was just over 5 and a half pounds. It also had about 12 to 18 inches of 4 lb line coming out of its mouth. Couldn't see the bait, but I did cut as much line as possible before we released her back into the pond. I did end up catching a 5.25 lb bass that fall. Still one of my largest to date.

Maybe after you pull them out of the freezer. Not a problem when they are alive.

I never fished the hey day that you guys are talking about. I have lost a few large browns over the years. I fished two years using Fusion line. It would get brittle and often fray at the knot when I was fishing those floating raps and bounce them off rocks. Fusion was worse than mono. I made the perfect cast into a sweeping bend of the river. I lost contact with my bait. A large brown jumped about 25 feet upstream from me with my bait in its mouth. It broke me off without me even feeling the strike. It jumped three times getting closer every jump. The last one was 6 to 8 feet in front of me. I was hoping that I could have caught it in my net. Never saw it again. I was fishing another spot well upstream of the access point in my favorite trout river. I came to an "S" bend in the river with a large wood pile on one side. The largest brown trout that I have seen in that river swam upstream. It was at least 26 to 28 inches in length. I didn't make any casts and tried to stay out of view. I headed upstream and planned to get back to that hole later. A couple of hours later I headed back down to that hole. I came in from a different angle and crept up to that hole. I had on rapala countdown. I cast upstream of that log pile. I made two slight jerks and got pounded. The brown porpoised and its tail was twice the size of my hand. The fish turned and ran towards me and threw the bait with a big head shake.

When I went offshore to fish on Cristmas eve saw an eagle flying with a duck in its talons. It was hounded by gulls until it dropped the duck and the gulls got after it.

They hit the deer carcasses pretty hard here in Maryland. Back in Missouri I had a run in with an eagle heading home from Barren Fork Creek. I turned a sharp corner. The eagle was feeding on a groundhog. When it saw me it tried to fly off with its prize. It couldn't fly quickly and all I saw was a windshield filled with eagle body and wings. It let go of the groundhog and gained enough elevation for me to miss hitting it.

Pretty much sums up the majority of hunting and fishing success. Never killed a duck, but killed more turkeys being between where they are and where they want to go than pulling them away. And that was not because of my calling ability😌.

1588 over 20 inches! My hat is off to you sir for the number of big trout that you have caught and landed. Were the majority of those fish from Taney or other tailwater systems? I just don't see as many scuds in river like the 11 point, North Fork of the White, or Current rivers like I have in Taney.

I am only 1577 fish behind @laker67 in terms of trout over 20 inches😌. So far all mine came from a river and not a tailwater and all were caught with aggressive style baits, jerkbaits , countdowns, streamer, etc. All were caught off of structure where they could ambush prey. Those fish were not slurping scuds they mostly eating fish or crayfish. When I used to keep legal brown trout they usually had guts packed with crayfish parts or fish. One 18" brown was well over 3.5 lbs had two 6 inch hog suckers in its belly. When I caught that fish I had cast upstream of a bluff hole. I was fishing a floating F11 rapala. I let it drift under an overhang then started twitching and pausing the bait. An 18+" brown was following that bait but was not committed. Then the other brown that I hadn't even seen yet torpedoed that bait. So it was full of those suckers and still went after a 4 to 5 inch bait😁!

Mitch fish for more solitary fish like big brown trout would be my suggestion. Don't often see a big brown surrounded by any other fish.

Very Nice! Great stringer of crappie! Like @BilletHead I need to get out fishing and find some good populations of Maryland Crappie. I was hoping that the western mountain lakes would be iced over for ice fishing. Not yet. I suspect that the crappie are too deep to reach effectively from the bank. Without a boat, ice would be a way to reach to deeper fish. Like yourself, four layers of clothes would help greatly! Keep up the great crappie fishing!

Those maps are for active birders and not the birds. These are folks that will travel to see birds or want to confirm a sighting by referencing those maps. So the map is actually more about the time of year when you will find birds in that area than the activity noted. So breeding will refer to the typical time of year when the bird breeds and fledges its young (e.g., Feb to Sep). You should expect to encounter that species during those months in that location. For example you would not go to northern Canada to see bald eagles in Dec or Jan. You would go and expect to see them during spring to fall in that area during the breeding season. If there is an adequate year round food source like fish from unfrozen or only partially frozen lakes or rivers like LOZ, Missouri and Mississippi rivers then you can expect to find eagles anytime of year which is why you see the year round designations in those areas on the map. That will mean that there are likely to be breeding populations of eagles in those areas. It does not mean that there is no migration going on. Many of the eagles seen in MO in the winter are migrants from Canada. Some of the birds that Wrench sees in his area in the spring and summer may migrate to TX or LA in the winter. There may also be resident birds like some resident Canada geese that will no longer migrate very far or at all since they have adequate winter feeding and suitable locations to nest and fledge their young.

Wrench - when they state that a species is there year round that does imply that there is also breeding in those areas as well.