Johnsfolly

If you don't like crowds get there early. After noon it just gets really crowded.

They sell camo T-shirts "Carp Fisherman do it on the Bank"

When we were at the Johnson Shut-ins last week, I saw several different species of fish that I would love to catch including several greenside darters and a couple of logperch. The logperch is one of Missouri's largest darter species and one species that I had not yet seen let alone had the opportunity to catch. Also this area also has the brook darter. I didn't get to fish the last time down, so I packed up my daughter and we went yesterday as sort of a pre-Father's day event. BilletHead has started discussions on several occasions about what would you do for a single fish, drive 40 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours, ... I have always felt that it could be worth it for the experience. With that in mind we set off at 5:45 am to the Black river to fish below the shut-ins (ended up as a 420 mile round trip) for the hope of catching a brook darter, greenside darter, and/or a logperch. Knowing that you cannot fish in the designated swim areas I had a plan to pack in our fishing gear and hike down river. We ended up on a trail that headed up the hills above the shut-ins. Finally we found a side trail that headed back down towards the river. We did see a couple of lizards along the way including this male fence lizard. You can just make out his blue patch of breeding coloration on his side. Believe it or not, Livie was not able to catch this guy. Don't worry she caught a few other things with her hands (more on them later). After an invigorating hike with a couple of white knuckle slides, we made it to the river. Saw lots of fish including many darters right off the bat. Could be a good day! We got the rods rigged up and baited (using in nightcrawler pieces instead of redworms because that's what we had at home). Of course Livie caught a small green sufish right off - with her HANDS ! Then she caught one with her rod. While she was catching sunfish, I focused on trying after the micros around me. I caught a few bleeding shiners right off the bat before I targeted the darters around us. We each targeted the more colorful darters, which were likely to be the males. Based upon their size, I was fairly certain that we had caught brook darters. It was not until I uploaded the photos that it became apparent that we had in fact caught small rainbow darters. Still nice looking fish, but somewhat disappointed because If I had looked closer at them we could have kept fishing for the brooks. After catching these guys, I focused on trying to find and catch some other darters. Livie was excited catching a bunch of longear sunfish which is always the case when you catch the first few . I was even happy to catch a few as a break from trying not to fall on the slick rocks (Note use felts soled boots if you have them!) and hunting for some new species. I found a spot that had a few greenside darters. Livie was first up to try for these guys. This is a species that can be difficult to get on a bait or to catch once they do go after your bait. Livie suffered through both scenarios with one of two fish just being spooked by the bait or not being able to get a hook set on the fish if it did bite. She got very frustrated and gave me the rod. I had a bit better success in terms of getting fish interested in the baits, but never got one hooked. I lifted a few out of the water and one actually flew out of the water and almost landed in the catch bag Livie was holding. Both of us were frustrated and moved on. Didn't get another chance at any greenside darters. Another frustration was trying to hook the nightcrawler pieces onto the small hooks, The worm pieces were a bit large and did not stay on the hooks very well. Livie did get a nice hand caught bullfrog tadpole as a consolation prize. I chased studfish and blackstripe topminnows as I continued downstream, but either spooked them or could not get them hooked. I came up to a large deeper pool. I caught sight of a large striped darter, the first logperch sighting!! I just had a topminnow strip my bait and had to call Livie to head back down to me with the bait and the rest of our gear. I spooked the first one that I tried to get on my bait. I didn't see another one for 5 or 10 mins. Then there were two in a spot about 20 feet from me. I snuck up to them and spooked them again. This time they came back quickly to the same spot. I dropped my bait and got bit as soon as it hit the water, it was a longear sunfish, then another, and another. I started seeing more logperch, but every one of them seemed to be surrounded by two or more sunfish. I ended up putting on another sinker to get the bait quickly through the gauntlet of sunfish down to the logperch. Once the bait got down to the darters, they would go after it or the sinkers or the bait or sinkers.... Or another sunfish! Finally the cry of "Get the bag.. Get the bag!" rang out and the first logperch of the day was in the bag. Livie was up next and she had much the same experience with about 15 to 20 sunfish caught before she caught her logperch near this brush. Unfortunately it did not get into the bag for a photo. She was heartbroken and spent another 20 plus minutes trying for another one only to catch at least another 7 or 8 sunfish. Severely dehydrated we left and hiked back to the car. We got dinner at Kettlehut smokehouse in Festus MO and split a piece of their lemon cheesecake pie! This post has been promoted to an article

I've hugged a couple as well usually when I am using my climbing stand ! I may be a city boy due to my work, but an outdoorsman through and through.

Does that include removing introductions of native species into waters where they had not been historically? We need to bring back a pandemic illness or two to knock down our population to prehistoric levels as well ! That should help the boat traffic as well.

Definitely some toads! Great looking smallies! Thanks for posting.

Sue picked up the radish sprouts for salads. They added a bit of spicy flavor to the dish. Figured that I would have lost that if I had cooked them. I guess that I could have said "... and topped with an arranegement of microgreens...."😀.

We had a nothing fancy fishing trip to a local pond that was stocked with bluegill and bluegill/green sunfish hybrids. There are also channel cats and largemouth bass. Livie hasn't caught a channel cat or one of the hybrids this year. We had a nightcrawler on the bottom and a small worm under a float. It seemed like bluegill were the main event for the evening. I had lost a decent bass and Livie lost two decent bottom fish. If it wasn't for the bluegill we would have had a bad evening. Livie did sight fish and land a real nice hybrid! Made her dad proud! A poor photo but confirmation that dad landed a fish . We each caught nearly 20 sunfish in about an hour and a half. It was a great evening!

Very good video! You definitely have the tournament retrieve down pat - two cranks and lift into the boat ! I loved that really dark male. Very nice looked like a great time!

Don't ask Hog Wally, his photos are taken to hide the background ! I don't know if any of my minnow photos would work for you, but let me know if there are some species that I might have a catch photo of that you could use.

Phil I know that you have criteria that you look for in a post before you repost that as an article (e.g. describe location, techniques, conditions, species or location of interest, photos of fish, anglers, scenery, etc.) and probably things that would not be in an article (e.g. derogatory comments, profanity, inappropriate clothing, etc.). It may be helpful for you to provide some of that information to help guys determine if what they are posting should be considered as an article.

Ok so a quick attempt to clear out some food from the freezer. Thawed a couple of chicken breasts. Slice the meat thin and mixed the slices in a bowl with sambal chili sauce, soy sauce, and cornstarch. Cooked until just browning on med-high heat. I removed the chicken from the pan and cooked green peppers, celery, shallot, and slivered garlic. Added the chicken and a bit of soy sauce, salt and pepper and sliced green onions. Served over rice and topped with some hot radish sprouts.

Not a vegetable garden post. We have a very thick stand of common milkweed in our yard this year. The pollinators have been covering the flowers. Here are a few of the insects we have attracted this year. Silver spotted skippers spicebush (pipevine?) swallowtail butterflies Clearwing moth (we call them hummingbird moths) Bumblebees galore A potter wasp I haven't got photos, but we have seen tiger swallowtails, monarchs, great spangled frittilaries, a bunch of different flies, bees, and moths.

Jeff, Looks like the fish missed you from your day off ! Congrats on some nice bass! I really like that thick smallie and the meanmouth.

He hasn't complained yet when I have done my 8 hour round trip drive to catch brook trout in MD or those two 5 to 6 hour drives for shad. Besides my son will have one of our vehicles here in Columbia that I should be able to use.

Lots of bears in the northeast and I am sure throughout the US are being poached mainly for their gall bladders. I personally like bear meat and would love to be here when they do open up a hunting season.

I appreciate that a lot buddy! Thanks. Now I just have to figure out how much time I will tell my boss that I need to spend on my trips back to MO and add a day or two extra .

Some of the microfish (e.g., creek chubs) I catch could be bigger than a few of those wild McClouds. I actually have caught several grass pickerel in that creek a few years ago. It's the only place that I have caught that species.

I may ruffle some fly fisherman, but I have not fly fished this creek. Regardless I have had success using a hopper as additional weight and indicator with a copper john dropper. Got bites including several big bites on both flies.

Definitely three fish on my wish list. Will have to see if they are found around Maryland. Or else I may have to bug you on one of my return trips to see if you could put me on some😀!

No fear Ronnie I'm way ahead of you in that area !

It's a great looking boat. Didn't get to fish out of it but heard good things about it at Jigfest. Wish that it wasn't for sale. If we were staying in Missouri would be interested. Good luck!

That water looked awesome. Looked like a great spot to fish. Are they stocked daily like the trout parks? They definitely were not shy in that clear water. Congrats!

Sounds like a great time. Thanks for the report. Congrats on a successful trip and a great bunch of hard fighting hybrids!

Do they come in sizes smaller than a 1/2 inch diameter? That's the smallest I saw on a few websites. Seems like that size or larger would affect your casting.