Johnsfolly

We will go. I have been waiting for this reopening since they shut down the previous exhibit! Can't say how often I have been to their construction website to review progress over the years.

I know. We had a trip of a lifetime last fall when we landed 5 with three fisherman! What was disappointing this trip was the lack following fish. That made for a long day even though we were off the water by 2 pm. This is what I will try next trip.

Chris down by you muskies are stocked in Fellows lake and Pomme de Terre.

Good luck on fishing streamers at night! Want to see those photos once you have been succcessful.

With the first real weather shift this fall with a north wind, cooler temps, and overcast skies, we headed out to try for the first muskies of this fall. Left the house at 4:30 am and met Jamie at 4:45 and headed north. We got on the lake and were fishing by 7 am. Armed with big baits and heavy braid we started our day of casting (and casting and casting some more...). Like any fishing trip it is the anticipation of the strike that keeps you going. When that strike comes from a 30 to 40 inch toothsome musky it can get pretty exciting. We were fishing a cove with standing timber. I was casting a large crappie sized crankbait and Jamie a gold/copper double gold blade bucktail that his uncle makes and sells around Pomme de Terre. You can get lulled a bit when you're not seeing any fish following your baits. But the ends when Jamie screams " Fish, Fish, Following!!!" and he is actively running his figure eights with a big female following close behind. She finally hit on the third pass and the fight was on. My day as the netman begins. We got her netted and the worked the hooks out. She wasn't a thick girl but pushed the tape at 40". We fished for a few more hours hitting all of the likely and even some unlikely structure to find another musky. Switched baits often, but kept coming back to the crankbait and the bucktail. We fished some of the same spots that last fall produced with encounters and strikes and even landed fish. Not on this trip. We weren't even getting follows. Saw a couple of musky that came an went just as quickly, but not following our baits. As we were fishing a long offshore point, Jamie gets another bite on the bucktail. This fish hit near the end of a long cast and fought Jamie all the way back to the boat with large head shakes. Jamie tells me it's a big fish but he gets it next to the boat. I get her netted. She had really thick shoulders, but was only 34" in length. Not long but definitely a great looking fish. Little did we know that this would be the last fish that would give us a chance to catch. We only had one other confirmed musky encounter for the rest of the day. I had one bite on the bucktail, but it might just have been a bass. I did snag a large snapping turtle on it front foot that thankfully pulled the hook as I got it next to the boat. Not as memorable as our last musky outing. Though the weather was more to our liking, the surface temps were still in the mid 70s. That may have kept many of the fish in the deeper water. With the temps expected to be in the 90s this week it may be 10-14 days before there is a large enough drop in the water temp to warrant getting back out again.

Livie got her first emergent adult today. A male monarch. We have 10 or 11 more chrysalis' left. And off he goes. Several more should emerge over the next 6 to 7 days.

Man that is another giant! I can't stand not being able to get down there and try for one of these big browns. Any information on what he used to catch that fish?

I have not much to add to this discussion that has not already been covered. Good luck when you head down to Florida. Can't wait to see a bunch of your posts!

That just sounds delicious!

I thought it was a big brown trout. Ham that is the only sucker that I have caught this year. Still can't find a northern hogsucker to take a worm before the longears devour the bait.

Thanks again DJ on meeting up with Livie and I. It was a great time fishing with you guys. I'm glad that we were able to get the girls together. It didn't take too long before we were hearing.."Snap peas! those are my favorite too!" Now it the pressure is on for us tot get them out again! This is what it looks like when your host calls the shot and you are able to catch a fish where he told you one would be! Livie with the Bass after making the shot! Father and Daughter fishing one of the log jams. Livie with a smallmouth. We got some interest from a couple of gar in this hole later in the day, but we weren't able to land any ! DJ had one let go of his rebel craw right at the bank. Kierstin had a tough day, but got her first mosquitofish. She got catching after breaking the ice with this one. After her catch I had a turn on the microrig and caught a few minnows . After we headed back for a well deserved break and necessary hydration, we fished another area and it was on for catching sunfish and assorted minnows. Kierstin was hitting the bluegill, green, and longear sunfish pretty hard with the fly rod and a beetle. Livie was catching them with microjigs and worms. DJ put on a half-moon microhook and just got after the minnows. He caught carmine shiners, blackstriped topminnows, Northern studfish, mosquitofish, etc. on a tiny piece of worm. I tried for what appeared to be a brooks silverside, but could not get it hooked up. AS DJ mentioned, Livie was the multispecies queen of the day for both fish and other critters. She caught largemouth and smallmouth bass, blackstriped topminnows, northern studfish, carimine and common shiners, bluegill, green and longear sunfish. The surprise fish catches of the day were two channel catfish. Then there was the toads, frogs, and reptiles including what looked like a tiny fence lizard and a chicken turtle. It wasn't a death march, but it was a long fun day. I know the girls want to get back together as soon as possible. We will have try to make that happen.

I caught this one on a marabou jig back in June. That would be hit or miss proposition. Of course you don't have to bet that you would eat your rod if you caught a sucker on a jig! Seriously Seth is the guy on OAF that knows how to catch these guys consistently.

They are darned tasty after a day of elk hunting! BH don't shy away from targeting rainbows in your ire about transplanted fish pushing out or hybridizing with the cutthroats.

Yessir! Snag away.

Give me a couole of weeks ti do the research and I can get a life snag list for OAF members☺. If you have leader in hand and can id the brush then count it as a caught species. I caught eastern red cedar, shag bark hickory, white and red oak, and a couple unidentified snags on my trip yesterday☺. Even then I could not snag a rock.

Great looking raindows! Congrats!

I actually caught several eight pounders today but the hook pulled each time☺. I did snag a snapping turtle. Thankfully the hook pulled as I got it by the boat.

Double DANG! As I saw the title thought that you guys got some sandhill crane meat. As you mentioned, I have also heard cranes called flying prime rib.

DANG!

Ness I made a sichuan squirrel dish (probably a similar recipe to BH) and posted a couple of times on here. The heat comes from using black bean and chili paste. Look up Hank Shaws sichuan rabbit.

If you followed Hank's recipe, I'm cerain that it is good☺!

Yeah its not me holding that tiger trout☺! That's what's wrong with this photo.

I was stunned about the smallie and that big brown trout. I got excited about the whitetail shiners and carp on our last trip!

Agreed on the buttonbush.

Here's an unusual fish pictute. Probably shoild throw that one back☺!