Johnsfolly

Welcome to the Forum. Those are great looking fish! Congrats! I have never been snagging, but have plans to be out on Sunday giving it a shot. I hope to have some similar success.

I wasn't sure if it was the scene where John Glenn's wife wouldn't talk with Lyndon because of her stutter. Love that movie. Always was fascinated by Chuck Yeager.

Actually we like it a little better than the chase in Bullitt. We really love when both cars make the jump as they are going down the hill.

Mitch - I'm thinking that it might be from the Right Stuff, but not certain. Definitely one or more of the actresses were from that film. My son and I agree that the all time best movie car chase scene is in The Dead Pool with Clint being chased by the RC car.

Spent some time looking yesterday. Just ended up with a tick. Been hearing about some being found up my way. Seemed early in the spots we looked so far.

Do any of you remember the Missouri state record black crappie? They had it at the Columbia Bass pro shop until it died. That was a sad day for me. I loved going over and just looking at that garbage can lid sized crappie. When I had clients in town that had any interest in fishing we would head over to gawk at "Pat". I borrowed this picture from the MDC state records page.

Dan Looks like you guys had a great trip! he should be proud of those fish. Very nice bunch of whites, a great crappie, and nice bass. He's even getting his grandfathers camera presence. Congrats! Hopefully next time he can show us a walleye swimming in front of the camera.

After all of the crappie and panfishing that we had done in Feb and March, my daughter kept asking to go “tiny fish” fishing. So of course I had to correct her that the term was microfishing. Ok I didn’t do that, but did look at the weather to see when it would be best suited to get after the tiny fish. I really want to fish a stream system that has greenside darters in order to catch a nice male in its breeding colors. My daughter really wants to catch some new species and preferably catch one or two with her hands. I had agreed that I would start a thread on OAF dedicated to her hand fishing catches when she is able to catch some. Of course she also calls our posts on OAF as my “blogging site” and I always correct her that this is a public forum with discussion about fishing in and outside of the Ozarks and also about other very important topics . She told me that blogging sounds better than just me talking with a bunch of old guys on the internet . Anyway back to the fishing. We planned on getting out last Saturday before the rain. However, the rain was headed towards us from the south, which is where we were originally headed. So I decided we would stay close to home. The creek is only about 10 minutes from the house. Even then the rain hit us just as we were getting on the water. A lot of microfishing is really about seeing the fish respond and strike the bait then a quick hook set. If you feel the fish take the bait, then it’s likely that it will swallow the small hooks. Getting a size 26 hook out of a 2-3 inch fish is a real challenge if it swallows the hook and it very likely will lead to the death of the fish. So it’s best if there is decent water clarity to go after the really small guys, like the darters. The rain on the water disturbed the surface too much to really focus on the darters in the creek. So Livie and I shared the rod with the size 14 hooks and went after larger fish. Livie caught one common shiner and a small bluegill and I caught three common shiners before we were too soaked and left the creek. This common shiner was Livie’s first catch for this species. Here’s her bluegill. I had planned on a trip down to Bennett Springs on Sunday, but again due to the weather and some commitments around the house we hit the local stream again. This time we were equipped with better rain gear and polarized glasses to better see the darters. Livie caught the first two darters on the #26 hook, this female and male orangethroat darters. While she was going after the darters, I was catching common shiners on the #14 hook. Then I switched rods with Livie and she caught her first longear sunfish for this year. Livie kept getting sunfish bites while I fished for the darters. I kept trying to get one of the minnows in a small school interested in my bait, but I just couldn’t get them to bite. However, I was able to catch my first orangethroat darters of the new fishing year. We switched rods again and I caught two creek chubs. This second fish was a nice male that was getting his breeding coloration and nuptial turbercles on its head and snout. Microfish are not always small. This chub was at least seven inches long. That is about the size of some bass photos posted on this forum that I see from some of the SW MO kayak fisherman/photographers . Livie also caught a nice creek chub and then her first green sunfish of the year. I also caught my first green and my first longear sunfish. It’s funny how perspective plays into our excitement about each of these catches. Since they are the first ones we have caught this year, we are excited with each of these fish. Though they will become more of a nuisance later in the year when they take out baits as we are trying for something else. We didn’t fish much longer. Livie was not able to catch one with her hands, but will keep trying. She did end up catching 6 different species on this trip and now has caught a total of 55 fish and 10 different species since the beginning of March. Two of them were new lifelist species. I also caught 6 different species on this trip, which brings my species count to 13 since the beginning of the month. With all of the rain, the creek I was going to fish for greenside darters is now running like chocolate milk. So I will have to hope that it will clear within the next week or so for me to get back after them. I know that these are not the big bass or stripers or trout photos, but dropping down the hook sizes and getting back to basic bait fishing, I get to enjoy fishing with my family in places like this one close to home.

SIO3 - congrats on getting the orchid to bloom again. I have heard that they need a steady environment, so having it behind the TV and just keeping it in one spot helps. Try this trick, after the last flower drops off of the flower stalk, cut the stalk in front (towards the flower end of the stalk) of the node where the first flower bloomed. We have had success in getting the plant to shoot another flower stalk off of that one. There will be fewer flowers than the original stalk, but you'll get another few weeks of flowers if it works. If it doesn't work for you, you haven't lost anything for trying. We keep ours in the living room and in the kitchen windows. We have gotten our Phalaenopsis orchids to bloom a couple of times over the years. All four of ours are in bloom or soon to be in bloom. So your wife should just keep doing what's she doing with that one and it should bloom again next year as well.

That is a great goal! You should have a great time. I had a great trip in October 2013 fishing Spring creek. I was spin fishing, using 1/32 oz marabou jigs, small in-line spinners, and egg patterns. The trout ranged from 6 to 12" I length. What they didn't have in length they made up with in power. I had a 10" and that 12" trout run all over the stream. Here is the 10" rainbow. At least twice I had multiple fish go after the same bait. PM me a I can give you some idea on access. I have had success in Mill creek as well though never many on any given trip. Don't think that there are no big fish in Mill Creek. When the 17 and 13 year cicadas overlapped, I fished a cicada fly and had a few 20+" rainbows roll on those baits. My buddy caught three that were over 4 lbs that year. The largest that I ever landed was a 13" rainbow that I caught in Feb 2012. Good luck! As I said mostly these trips have been spin fishing.

MOPanfisher - I understand about restocking. I finished the last of the panko crusted fried crappie in a sandwich yesterday for lunch. Got to go get some more. Maybe while my betterhalf is out looking for morels.

Really enjoyed the video Ronnie.! Looked like a great time, though I had a bit of a pucker factor watching you go through the low water bridge.

Redshad - If you haven't sent a PM to Phil, I don't know how the species order is set-up but you change species on the number of posts you submit. I believe that change occurs every ten posts. The number of dots under the species name indicates the number of total posts. One dot few posts - five dots over 1000 posts. If you want to change your title, you can go into your profile and edit your member title.

I posted the initial question in the Yellowcheek Darter thread in the Little Red River forum, but wanted to get a broader audience. I have an ethics issue to consider. This probably pertains more to the guys like myself that enjoy catching a variety of common and unusual species, but all thoughts are welcome. How do you feel about fishing for threatened or endangered species? A couple of examples in MO would be the Niangua darter or Topeka Shiner. Is it ok with catch and release or should they be left alone? If a species is threatened within one state, but common in another, is that fish off-limits within the state that they are threatened?

We typically cast them out then pull them in slightly and then pause to let the jig drop then repeat. Depending upon how active the fish are, we vary the length of time of the pauses. Also we normally don't fish the jig more than 18 to 24 inches below the float. We don't always fish shallow water either. You'd be surprised at how many crappie and bluegill we catch at the end of a 40-60 foot cast from the bank. I'm pretty sure that your daughters could pick up on this technique and then catch larger panfish than their dad as well!

Hog wally Nice smallmouth. I didn't think that you ever got off a boat. congrats on your bank fishing success!

For years and years I caught bass with a Hula Popper. I loved the top water bite and it was a blast to catch largemouth on the top at night. I would hear the plop, pause, plop, pause then woosh and tug. You had to wait for the pull and not the sound of the strike before setting the hook. I would even really fish with other top waters like Jitterbugs. It was a hula popper or nothing when I bass fished. I was in college before I learned to fish soft plastics and it wasn't until I moved to MO in '98 that I found the fluke for river and pond bass. I still have a bunch of poppers, but now I don't fish them that much anymore. I should pull some out this summer and teach my daughter how to fish them.

I could watch Gene Gene the Dancin machine or the unknown comic anytime. Were any of the judges sober on that show? Chuck looked stoned all of the time. Not only did Chuck give us the Gong Show, his shows also made "making whoopee" a national phrase and asked contestant number three "if you were a vegetable and I was a fruit what vegetable would you be?"

I would love to find a spot with grass carp. I've caught common carp but never a grass carp. How could they not fight well seeing that they look like a torpedo.

Marty Now you are just encouraging her. Thanks for nothing buddy.

Oh yeah. How about a little love for replacing this GFI plug in the kitchen?

JJ1 Great post about a great day of panfishing! Those are great looking bluegill! As you know, I also like fishing those smaller jigs and just like bringing in the fish cast after cast. It's a blast and even if you want to keep a few that's great too! As you mentioned, now is the time to fish those ponds and lakes where the weed growth gets too thick later in the year. You know the fish are still there, but you just can't get a bait out to them or have trouble bringing in those fish through the weeds. Keep on them!

I concur with all that you have said in this post. Well stated. I also appreciate seeing you and your daughter getting after them. You and I both hope that they continue to catch the big ones so that they want to continue to get out fishing with dad . That is until they find the boys! Then you hope that they find one that you would be willing to get out with to hunt and fish and not want to leave in the woods or push out of the boat!

I appreciate the kind words. I have been blessed and cursed with natural curiosity, a collector's spirit, a knack for taxonomy, a love of field guides and dichotomous keys, and a photographic memory. I also appreciate all the diversity that the Lord has provided for us to enjoy. So getting after the little ones especially those that are brightly colored in the spring is becoming a obsession. We missed fishing together last Jigfest, I hope if we are both there again that we get a chance to drag some trout around.

Man that makes me jealous! Not about you seeing the owls, which was very cool . But more so about the owls getting a squirrel dinner and I have to wait until May for the season to open to get some fresh ones .