Johnsfolly

Very nice mixed species trip. Congrats on a few nice fish!

Ham - congrats on the walleye! Sorry that your season is likely over for the year. As with all fishing endeavors there is always the next bend in the river, another part of the lake, the next trip, and always next year. I hope that you and your family have a great holiday and you have good fishing in 2018!

Happy Holidays to everyone on OAF from the Folly Family. We hope that all is well with each of you that visit this forum! Here at the Folly Farm and Menagerie we are preparing for the holidays. We have our tortoise hitched to his sleigh with hopes that he will be able to help Santa pull his sleigh this Christmas Eve!

Good luck. I'm trying to convince my wife to let me head down that way this weekend. I may not go as far downstream as to where I believe you are headed.

A sculpin killer!?! I'm glad that he got that bad fish out of the population! Leaves more sculpins for us microfishers!

I never questioned whether she was better looking than me. That's why I was dating her then and married to her now . She was a little sister in my fraternity.

Ok - no fancypants scanner, so took photo instead ! Sorry JohnP we have hijacked your thread. I Blame Marty ! No - she was not one of my students. We went to different colleges except for the one semester that I took classes at her school and stayed in her dorm at an all girl college. That's a separate story.

I'd give that a double DANG!! That looks fantastic!

Looks like that trout has been hanging around the cleaning station. What a pig! It's not a trophy since it's only 18", but a real nice rainbow!

I do find that it is hard to work them into an entrée. So I typically just use them for starters ! been running around doing the Xmas shopping, light viewing, etc. So not much homemade dishes lately. For one the more memorable "prepared" dishes, I did brown some diced chicken breast and onions then used Patak's Jalfrezi curry simmering sauce. Served with rice. Turned out to be a decent meal.

This is a pretty typical size. In graduate school as part of our lake research we were able to fish a private lake that does not allow fishing. We were catching perch up to 17" in length (I have actual photos, but not digital photos ). They fought like smallmouth bass. It was awesome, but I got to weigh, measure, and pump the gut contents of each fish that we caught as part of our research. My betterhalf got a lot more enjoyment catching these fish than I did since as soon as I was done processing one fish she had another for me .

No. Haven't fished any water that has yellow perch in Missouri or Arkansas. Yes. I caught several in Maryland this spring/summer. They were all stream fish and not very large.

I enjoy fish in a variety of ways. I agree that white bass are a stronger tasting fish than crappie and at times like to cook them to accent that flavor. Maybe baked with S&P, lemon, and dill. I also like to lightly coat a variety of fish fillets with ranch dressing and then bake the fillets. We also love fried fish and the spice and bread crumb/parmesan mixture that I prepare would make boot leather taste good .

Now you are just encouraging him ! I'll take a minute to congratulate you on your decent day of fishing. That's a bunch of nice crappie and pretty cool about catching the yellow perch. Congrats!

I wasn't aware of the restrictions of equestrian activity above Cedar Grove. I often see groups of riders crossing the river at Parker Hollow access and see ATV tracks upstream from there. I find walking along the horse trails much more difficult than along the ATV tracks. However, both are getting deeper and much worse over the years.

Looks like you had a great day with the jerkbaits! I don't lake fish much this time of year but appreciate your post. Not afraid to show the baits that were working for you!

That's a very nice fish! The landlocked bass you have been catching are rivaling the ocean run trophy stripers I have seen on the Chesapeake bragging boards!

I've heard that sandhills are considered the prime rib of upland birds. Not sure what flamingo would taste like. You'll have to let us know when you deke in a few☺!

He lives to rub it in. I know, I spent a weekend at Jigfest with that guy☺.

JohnP congrats on getting a mess of crappie! Very nice. Not a problem losing jigs if you are getting bit! BH nice guy trying to hijack this thread buddy☺!

I also like their roasted garlic hummus. Very good on pita chips.

HW - assuming those were fish and not just nice and scenic places to fish .

I agree that in general trophy rainbow would be over 20". I track the numbers of trout (separately for each species of trout that I am likely to encounter, i.e. rainbows and browns mostly) that I catch that fall between 12 and 15", 15" to 18" and > 18" and always identify those fish over 20". I would politely disagree about not considering differences in the term "trophy" as they pertain to the waters that you are fishing. Waters that don't receive an influx of stockers should in my opinion be considered differently because those fish had to survive from egg to adulthood based upon the resources available to the stream that they live. Catching a 20+" rainbow at Bennett's may be as much about how many old pellet fed brood stock are being released than if that fish gained that size by what it could eat in the stream. I would rate catching a 14-15" rainbow in Crane or Barren Fork creek or Blue Springs creek as much more exciting of an accomplishment as catching a 2 lb lunker at Bennett's. I have never had a 12+" Bennett's rainbow break me off by fighting so hard like one that I fought in Barren Fork creek. Now I would consider a 3" rainbow darter as a true trophy!

Good luck figuring out the fishing with your rig!

Sounds like you have yourself a keeper. If I had my way, got lucky enough, and the money I would have fish and bird mounts all over my house. I mentioned in another post to Billethead that I would love to have a wood duck drake mount in my house. I almost pulled the trigger on one several years ago, but held off because it was the last day of the fall turkey season and had a hen turkey responding to my call ! She went home with me and the drake flew to safer location downstream and beyond the limits that I had permission to hunt.