Johnsfolly

Very sorry to hear about your loss Gary. We will keep you and your family in our thoughts.

My bachelor's memorial day meal was a well seasoned burger topped with swiss cheese, sauted baby bella mushroom and local sweet onions. Sides of baked beans (no smoker) and a salad. All served with the finest china and a fine vintage year of raspberry selzer .

They were more vibrant that the photo shows. Definitely a neat little sunfish. There are several species of these little sunfish, like the black-banded, banded, banded pygmy, bluebarred pygmy, dollar sunfish, fliers, etc. Unfortunately many are either threatened or endangered due to habitat loss or over collection by aquarium enthusiasts. Here's a black-banded A bluebarred pygmy sunfish Here's an orangespotted sunfish. I have been trying to catch one of these in Missouri.

After the fiasco with our travel, I have been trying to catch some white perch for a meal. I went out on Sat to a spot that I caught several 10 to 12 inch whites. I caught a decent striper (>18") but lost it pulling it up onto the dock. I hooked an atlantic silverside and one small perch. I am always amazed how they know when you are planning on keeping some and just don't bite. Last night I headed up to a creek where Livie and I caught a bunch back in March. I started fishing at a public boat ramp and didn't get a bite, but the tide was starting to come in. I did notice some topminnow near the grass by the bank. However, I headed to a spot upstream. Again I hooked into a couple of stripers that threw the hooks and got my most love from small yellow perch that I did not intend to take home. I was also getting hits on the paddle tail when my bait was right below me. I switched to a smaller jig and caught a couple decent redbreast sunfish. I was still getting small taps and I put on a microjig with just a tiny chartreuse plastic piece. I caught several more redbreasts. I then headed back to the boat ramp to try for those topminnows. The grass was pretty flooded by the incoming tide. I got several small fish to bite at the bait, but none that could actually get hooked. I finally got the interest of a larger fish and I landed this sunfish. At first I thought it might have been a juvenile pumpkinseed, but the coloration and patterning was more like one of the spotted sunfish species. Since I just moved into our rental house in Maryland, I don't have internet service and I get poor coverage. So I sent the photo onto Ham and asked him to look into the id of this fish. We both decided that this was a bluespotted sunfish. I'm excited about catching this myself (a new life list fish - and a Maryland list fish ) and more so because Livie should be her by Sat and I know where we will try to get her to catch one as well. Now I just have to go back after those topminnows. Oh and try again for dinner.

They even had several frogs and toads. One of my favorite fish. Oh and it was a crappie bar ! Quite a view outside. Back inside there was the Uncle Bucks Fish Bowl and Grill. We only spent a few hours here, but had a great time. Oh and I bought fishing tackle, but that was no surprise!

I will be the first to admit that I have and still sometimes do schedule family trips so that we can stop at a Cabela's or Bass Pro shops on the way. The Kids always loved the aquariums and mounts. I still like to get to new ones if I can. When they opened the Bass Pro shops in the Pyramid in Memphis my wife said that she would take me there sometime. You know how best intentions are. We never made the time to commit to going down to Memphis. So when we drove back from Maryland, I made it a point to head down to Memphis before getting back into Missouri. I am glad that we did. The Pyramid is an amazing facility. Here are some of the photos from that trip. When we got there a man was cleaning the glass near the bass pro logo. You know that it is a tall building when you have an full elk mount above the fireplace! Was tough to get good photos inside with my phone. Behind Sue and Olivia is the 22 story freestanding elevator to the top of the pyramid. Lots of fish everywhere like these bass and carp. A paddlefish. Several sturgeon (bucket list fish) and large stripers swimming under the docks and boats for sale. Another bucket list fish would be a giant alligator gar like this one. Those are full size hogs. I will admit that as I have gotten older I am more prone to vertigo and that the ride to the top made me a bit uneasy looking out the elevator windows. But the lounge at the top of the pyramid and the view outside was worth the trip up (not as bad going back down). Most fo the fish up there were steampunk specimens like this musky. Or this gar and catfish.

Nice fish. Congrats to you two! Sorry about inconsiderate boaters.

Here's my largest bass on a flyrod. Caught in a small pond in Georgia. I caught it on a small panfish sinking bug. Of course it had a 6 inch bluegill on the bug as well !

Great job on those crappie. Lance34 - Crappie fear you buddy!

Looks like a great day! Congrats to all of you! Good to see Mitch!

Great job and nice walleye! Should make a nice memorial weekend meal.

Great Fish Duane! When fishing jerkbaits I like to use 6 or #8 line. I just don't want to break off on the hook set.

Dan Should still be headed back to MO regularly. May have an opportunity to fish together. Feel free to bother me anytime 😀.

I know. No photos and it didn't happen ! I'll let my wife know that she needs to photodocument these events!

Very nice mixed bag of fish. Congrats!

Good luck Kayser. Keep posting from your new waters.

I didn't know where to put this post, either here or on the Support Forum. I ended up here because no one is ill and I didn't want to take away from those that need support. So this will just be a narrative on the Folly family issues the last couple of days. I was headed back to Maryland on Tuesday. Now that we have secured a rental home, this was going to be a time for a partial move. We packed the Sequoia with items that I would need to have when I am in MD and until we make the final move. Since I needed to be at work Weds morning, I was going to fly and my Betterhalf would drop me off at the airport and continue driving onto Maryland. I don't really know what was going on, but I seemed to lack focus at the airport. Or maybe it was reading and responding to several posts on the forum. I even almost boarded a flight to Detroit ! My flight got moved to a different gate well across the airport and was delayed until after 9 pm. My concern was if they cancelled the flight with my wife driving through Illinois at the time. At last we boarded and I got into Baltimore after midnight. As I got my phone off of airplane mode, I saw a text from my wife. She only asked that I call her as soon as I landed. That is not a text that you want to see after a 2 hour flight and no contact. I gave her a call and she told me that she missed the first two deer but not the third. She told me later that as she was driving along she heard me tell her in her head to turn on her high beams (Marty knows very well what she was hearing in her head ). She got her high beams on and maybe that spooked the deer. Who knows. So at the time of my call they were getting the SUV on the tow truck and getting ready to take it into Marshall Illinois. She got a room at the Super 8 for the night for her and Livie. So at this point She is ok for the evening. My journey continued. I picked up my rental car and headed to Easton - about an 89 mile trip. I pulled into the hotel lobby by 2:30 am. There was a note on the front desk that said that the night manager was away from the desk. I sat down and watched the George Lopez show. After a couple of minutes I called the front desk once, twice, three times over a 10 minute period. If I was turkey hunting that gobbler would have been in my lap by now, but still no one to check me in. I went to the office door and knocked several times, then to the door around the side and knocked there as well. still nobody. At 3 am I went behind the desk and found my room paperwork and my keys. So I filled out the paper, signed it and put it on their keyboard then headed up to my room. Thankfully the keys worked. I would have been really pissed If I had to sleep in the rental car. After talking with the insurance folks and the garage guys, they wanted to total the car. Sue did not think that the damage was that bad. So she got ahold of my daughter and her boyfriend and they drove out from Springfield with a tow dolly. They did get the car to Columbia and to our local garage. We'll see what they have to say about what it would take to fix the car. Since we were planning on moving into the house, I had Sue only book my hotel through Friday morning. What I didn't know is that she only had me booked through Weds night. So she got a call from the hotel when I did not check out this morning. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I stay at this hotel so often lately that they had no problem extending my stay and even more so after Sue told them about my late night self check-in and her accident. So I have at least a hotel room through this weekend. The next issue is that Sue has the house keys. So I have to get ahold of the land lord to get me a key tomorrow so that I have a place to stay. Once I get into the house, I have to find someone with a mower so that I can cut the grass. I then have to pick up a bed and a few other things to live alone until Sat when Sue and Livie try again at moving some of our stuff. What a saga! also there are a lot of issue at work, but that is another rant.

Last real meal that I made at home. I sliced an onion into thick rings and got some color on them then added a couple cans of a local dark Kolsch with a hint of coffee. Once the brats had cooked, I pulled them and got them out onto the grill. Grilled them to get that great grill flavor and that dark skin . Then onto a fresh baked roll, topped with grilled onions and condiments. Not many steps but a great sandwich!

It seems to me that the in zone 3 they want to minimize line crosses between guys casting/cranking lures or fly casting and those that are drifting baits under a float or with baits weighted on the bottom.

Great looking fish Brett. Congrats on a great trip!

Sounds like a great trip QB! I was talking with a couple of friends as we were putting in our cast quota for a possible musky and striper fishing on Beaver came up in the conversation. I said that I know a guy😀!

Those GTs are great fish, but that trigger has my eye! Great looking fish and they're also tasty😀! Sounds like an awesome trip! Great job!

Ham I agree about both of you guys being such a distance even when I was in Columbia.

Marty great trip! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Richard. You got me jealous for those walleye and that drum☺!

Awesome bull bluegill buddy! Great looking fish. ! I love catching big panfish. Haven't caught them on a flyrod in a long time. Congrats!