Johnsfolly

I guess that I could have titled this post as OAF at BSSPP 2018 of Folly's Feb Fishing at Bennett's with Ham and BilletHead. The day started with 5:45 am groups texts from Flippin AR, Milo MO, and Columbia MO. Three anglers heading to Lebanon MO to try to catch some trout as well as anything that would bite. The first texts were notifications of guys leaving their homes, then a weather discussion like "11 degrees", "A balmy 9 in BilletHeadville", "It's downright balmy 14 here in Camdenton." "Heat Wave", "Is it going to make it up to freezing?", "Yep". I have a tendency of being a bit of a lead foot any time that I leave the house before dawn to go fishing. That is especially the case when I am meeting guys at a certain time who like myself are up before dawn. We originally were to meet at 8 am. Ham through that he could be there by 9:30. I had a long day on Thurs and thought may get there by 9 am. I was wrong. I got there right before the 8 am whistle. Figuring that I was early, I had some time to make a cast or two. I hooked and landed two rainbows on a 1/125 oz white grub microjig. After the second fish, I headed to the store to meet Ham and Marty. Soon after I parked at the store, Ham pulled in next to me. The two trout shredded the chenille off on my microjig and I needed some replacements. Ham and I went in and looked over the baits and rods and we both picked up a few microjigs to use. As we were getting gear ready, the man from Milo pulled in to the parking lot. Little did Marty know that he brought a flyrod to a JIG Fight! We started above the plunge pool below the spring. Ham was fishing his Zig Jigs and I started with the white grub microjig. Marty was fishing a leech and hooked up first. Then Ham caught his first trout of the day. One of the amazing sights that occurred time and time again was when Ham would get bit on his white or the olive ginger jigs, the hooked fish would get mobbed by lots of other trout apparently to try to take the bait from the hooked fish's mouth. Marty came over and we all were catching trout. The first to tire of rainbows was Ham and he started to target the lesser fish in the area, with attention paid to the hidden and then plentiful sculpin. Ham landed his first Ozark sculpin of the year (his tenth species for 2018), then another, and another. Some were males that began to show their breeding coloration, their blue-green face and chin. Even Marty with his Y2K fly got into catching these microfish, his new lifer an Ozark sculpin. Often he even had five or six sculpin after his baits at any one time. He caught one Ozark sculpin after another and he even found a large sculpin with a smaller one in its jaws. Ham switched from catching sculpin and rainbows. I had seen a large banded sculpin in the channel. but could get it hooked. Ham found one closer to the bank and tried to get it hooked, but could not get a hook set on the fish. I tried with a John Deere microjig and I didn't get the fish's attention but got surrounded by Ozarks. After catching a couple of them, I finally got the attention of the banded sculpin and got it to bite. This fish clearly shows the coloration of a banded sculpin and the most important feature is that the lateral line extends all the way to the caudal fin (tail). Whereas this Ozark sculpin with a similar coloration has its lateral line ends in the middle dark stripe below the second dorsal fin just before the caudal fin. The picture makes the 1/125 oz jig look huge. In order to try to catch a few more species, we headed downstream to a spot that I had caught a rock bass and some striped shiners on my last trip. There were also trout to be caught as well. Ham caught the first striped shiner. When it came to catching trout, no need to hide the bank, since the spring branch was full of trout in every hole that we fished. Lots fell to the olive/ginger, white, olive/orange zig jigs as well as various microjigs, white, john deere, pink grubs, etc. Ham even made the statement that these Bennett Springs trout made the White River trout look educated! We caught lots of chunky trout. Still had to protect the striped shiner hotspots (crouching Marty - Striped shiner)! These holes held bleeding shiners as well that were susceptible to Marty's fly and our jigs. Ham and I each caught northern rock bass and a hornyhead chub was fooled by one of Marty's flies. The early single digit temps may have dissuaded other fishermen. We didn't see more than a hand full of guys fishing all day. The temps rose and it was a pleasant day throughout. I had caught seven different species in the spring branch and two others in the Niangua. Ham caught at least six species with three of those new on his 2018 species total. Marty caught at least five different species, including a new lifer. (they can correct those totals). It was a great multispecies trip with great friends from OAF.

I'm out. I prefer fewer crowds at Bennett's. Good luck to you guys that will stand elbow to elbow trying to catch trout on Opening Day!

I catch hundreds of fish that I release soon after the hook set☺!

I haven't heard about cooking a roux in the oven. It's got great color and I would imagine flavor as well!

I always equated Guinness to liquid bread, either a brown or Irish soda bread☺. When we were living in Northern Ireland 18 yrs ago my wife was pregnant and it was common to have women drink a half pint of Guinness each day during their pregnancy. Of course it was recommended that the father drink 2 to 3 pints oer day as well! At least I think that recommendation was for expecting fathers ☺! Hang in there Patfish and stay strong.

I would like to see using the drone more like a planer board and release the line once the fish hits then you fight the fish on rod and reel. I know saltwater guys just use them to drop baits into a school of fish well off the shoreline. Haven't looked into using drones to drop baits and whether they would be allowed to drop a bait in a tailwater where you cannot get in with a boat.

That's a chunky spot! Very nice fish!

Very nice bass. Congrats on a fine day fishing!

Very cool drones. It's amazing the technology that is available. If you have the money to pay for it☺.

Congrats QB on a decent day winter bank fishing! Photos aren't too bad either.

Awesome story about a great hunt buddy! Congrats on the banded birds!☺ Tell Pat that some folks are better lucky than good especially guys that refer to their Mrs as his retriever. Lucky that she puts up with you buddy.

You just better hope that she doesn't read this or it might be the shock collar for BH😜!

"When I was born, I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother." Once when I was a kid I lost my parents. I saw a policeman and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him "Do you think that we'll ever find them?" He said " I don't know kid. There are so many places that they could hide!" I said to my psychiatrist "Everyone hates me!" He told me that I was being ridiculous. I haven't met everyone yet!

I'm still living that dream of travelling 2 to 4 hours each way to fish good trout waters☺. Smallies are a bit closer.

Tried to give more of the step by step photos. There may have been more on my Betterhalf's phone. I had asked her to take some. Just didn't get them uploaded😞.

If this spot still has this structure, there's bound to be more browns lurking there. I caught this one in 2014 after drawing it out from that undercut bank on the far shore.

Very nice fish. Congrats to you both. You need to get a portable backdrop so Al doesn't have to bend over in the pictures !

I personally found better places to fish for both numbers, size of fish, and also more aesthetics. Makes it hard to go back to a spot that for me didn't hold that potential. I often think about going back just before I hit Vichy on Rt 63, but instead the car just keeps heading south !

Found a recipe for the rabbits, Rabbit stew with coconut cream. Pretty simple recipe from Allrecipes.com. Sliced a green and red bell pepper and two small habenaro chilis and minced garlic. I had a client in today and left most of the dish for my Betterhalf. She also sliced an onion and peeled and sliced a ripe tomato. She browned the rabbit pieces in our dutch oven, removed the pieces and cooked the garlic, peppers, and onions until the onion was translucent. She added the rabbit to the oven, then added the tomatoes, about 2 cups of chicken stock, and brought to a boil then dropped to a simmer for over two hours. Once tender removed the rabbit again and kept warm, brought the braising liquid to a boil and reduced the volume by half. Returned the rabbit and added 2/3 cup of coconut milk and S&P to taste. While reducing the braising liquid, we prepped the rice by bringing 3 1/2 cups of chicken stock to a boil with three jasmine tea bags steeping, once steeped added two cups of rice. I chunked a buttercup squash. I partially cooked the squash with a little boiling water then into a skillet with a little coconut oil and touch of butter to carmelize the outside and finish cooking the squash. Once the rice was done, served it up for all!

Its been a long time since I fished either spot. The best fishing was after there was a big accidental release from the trout park. Outside of that could expect to catch a couple fish only. Maybe a brown or two.

Marty Thanks for the tutorial on rendering goose fat. Makes me appreciate the white gold in my freezer☺!

Congrats to you both on a couple of fine limits of Canada's! You guys were where they wanted to be. Success due to a great scouting job ahead of the hunt!

Actually Pete and Johnny call Jon by his first name - Richard☺. So we were all good.

Thanks Ness. It's a cherished moment for certain. We all liked this photo as well after the game.

Yesterday met up with my friend Jon, his dad Pete and friend Johnny and we headed out to a local conservation area with a pack of beagles . Armed with the beagles and shotguns we had rabbits on the mind. Personally I have not shot at a running (or flying) target with my shotgun at all this season. Another friend of mine had hunted this property last Feb and they bagged 21 rabbits. We thought we could get a few ourselves this year. As soon as we crossed the fence and headed down to a small pond with lots of brush, the beagles began their hunt. I have not hunted with dogs too often. I was amazed how the dogs could just walk along and then in an instant begin hoovering scent along the ground. It wasn't more that twenty minutes that Clyde started bawling and the others picked up the scent as well and the whole pack started after the rabbit barking all the way. That is except Jr the pup in training. The rabbit was stuck in the CRP grasses as we stationed in the short grass trails criss-crossing the area. The rabbit popped out of the tall grass on my left and continued past me. I go the gun up and followd the rabbit, then BOOM! I shot behind the rabbit and off he ran. It took the dogs a couple of minutes to come out and a few minutes more until they picked up the scent and got back on the rabbit's trail. He circled down below us to the right and with the beagles in tow. The rabbit got past Pete and circled one more time before Johnny's 12 ga barked and he called in his dogs to share in the dead rabbit. One down. We went a little further into the CA land and the dogs picked up another rabbit. This one started with a small loop, followed by a larger one. We saw it a couple of times and Johnny shot twice, but didn't put it down. One last loop and again it came out in front of Johnny and this time it didn't get away. Two rabibits and we are still in sight of the trucks. Can you tell me that you would not expect to find a rabbit in this area. Nope no rabbits, but lots of rubs and deer trails throughout the brush. We did find a few more spots and a couple more rabbits. I missed another, but it got into an area about 150 by 60 feet of thick brush in a draw. We surrounded this draw, This rabbit was not getting away. It popped out again in front of me, but between me and Jon leaving me not safe shot. Johnny was able to shoot safely and we had our third rabbit. It was now close to noon and we hunted back to the trucks. The dogs got some water and we got a drink our selves. One of the dogs picked a rabbit just off of the parking area. Four of the dogs headed off to the left and Jr off to the right. A rabbit kicked out from the right with Jr following. It ran across the road and Jr followed until it go to a fence. The dog followed the fence and then headed across the street and began bawling when it picked up the rabbit's scent on the other side of the road. that got the pack's attention and they all ran across the road and got into the chase. Jon and I went across the street. The dogs really chased after this rabbit through some thick stuff. It popped out and ran up the trail away from me but with the trucks behind it I did not pull the trigger. It crossed the road and didn't make it too far past Pete's 410. Not as many rabbits as I would have hoped for, I shot poorly, but had a great time. Johnny gifted me his three rabbits and it's what's for dinner !