Johnsfolly

Great job getting her and her sibling into fishing! That is a nice crappie and she should be proud! I often share the responses from the gals/guys from the forum with my kids and wife so that they get to see the admiration when they make good while fishing or hunting. I would love to see her face when she hooks into a big and feisty white bass! Keep us posted if you find some.

Bret Enjoyed the clip of your son! Would love to see your show. Keep up the good work!

I wonder if the river is the original collection site of the Tippecanoe darter, Etheostoma tippecanoe. It is definitely a fish that I would love to catch someday. OTF - Thanks for the photos!

Most of "her" gifts are likely "our" gifts. Well she has no problem if I use it to make good food for her and the kids ! Saves her the trouble to having to make dinner or lunch.

I used the immersion blender that I had bought for Sue. That worked like a champ and I just added all of the oil at once. We used to whisk our own whipped cream. So I definitely did not want to experience that again. I probably would still hand whisk whipped cream, because it can be over whipped easily. We just don't make that often anymore. We haven't had enough tomatoes to think about making ketchup. I would have to ask Ness what he does with his surplus tomatoes .

BH - Great looking tartar! My betterhalf says that we may not buy store mayo anymore since my homemade last batch was so good. Seems like I'm stuck making mayo . Does Pat want you to make all your own condiments from now on? I would wonder how different heirloom tomatoes would taste in ketchup.

Dan Great bunch of fish! Congrats on the walleye! I would assume that qualifies as your March fish. Great job! So do you still need one in April or can you consider this as goal met?

I was snowbound yesterday and decided to not fish on Saturday. So I really wanted to get out today. I didn't want to go far, so decided on fishing Little Dixie lake again hoping that the cold snap wouldn't have pushed the crappie too far from the bank. I started on the dam close to the parking lot and fished the 1/64 oz jig under a float. I spoke with a fisherman that had been fishing minnows and only caught a couple of small bass and didn't have a single crappie bite. The wind was pretty cool, but the dam protected me from the wind, mostly at least. I started with a white/chartreuse jig. I got a white crappie on the first cast. That one was followed by a mix of both white and black crappie. All of the fish caught on this stop hit within 16 to 20 feet from shore and were tight to the cover. I landed 9 crappie and then headed to the other end of the dam. I fished a couple of different spots and caught a few more white and black crappie with some other colors (purple pink or green and black). None of the areas or the baits resulted in catches as consistently as I had in the first location. These crappie again were all within 12 to 18 feet from the bank and were still tight to the cover. I did catch one black crappie that was no where near any added cover. Eventually the cold wind forced me off the lake. I left at 6:20 and had landed 14 crappie. Not too bad when I had expected far fewer fish after the cold snap.

Yesterday I got snowbound and did not head out to a small river to target minnows and early breeding darters. We decided to make spaghetti sauce So I thawed out 2 pounds of ground venison and mixed and browned that with 2 pounds of sweet Italian pork sausage. I added two diced yellow onions, two diced green bell peppers, two diced red bell peppers, minced two heads of garlic, diced two pounds of mixed mushrooms and cooked with the meats until the onions were translucent. Then I split this mixture into two 6 quart pans. I added almost a quarter cup of both dried sweet basil and oregano. Then it was a cup of south African pinotage red wine, a couple of large cans of tomato sauce, diced stewed tomatoes, and 16 oz of tomato paste. I reduced the heat and cooked the sauce on low heat for almost three hours. Great smells throughout the house while the sauce cooked. Ended up with about 10 to 11 quarts of sauce. Then we had spaghetti.

BH - That soup and bread look great. I would be salivating if I didn't just eat roasted pork loin with roasted carrot/parsnips mix with caraway seeds.

Congrats! Looks like you have a fine fish dinner. Glad that you were able to catch a few nice fish.

You took on the snow and caught a nice pile of fish! Great job Ben!

Great Job Dan on the crappie! Nice pile of eaters. I agree with Ben. The ones that I have kept were all pre-spawn condition. The eggs were still not really developed in the females.

OK tonight is was pizza at a new place in town, Your Pie. They make personal pizzas in a brick oven. You select the sauce, cheese, veggies, and meats. Nice thin crust. They also have salads that you a can also customize with their toppings. Fresh gelato. Also craft beers and wine. So my pizza was marinara sauce, shredded mozzarella, Italian sausage, meatball, black olives, and pepperoni. My betterhalf had ricotta cheese, pesto sauce, spinach, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. I had a Mother's 3 Blind Mice Brown Ale with my pizza. Olivia had a buffalo chicken pizza and Sean had a pepperoni, banana peppers, olives, Italian sausage pizza.

As of dinner on Weds, it turned out that we still had a few more crappie fillets. I had mentioned the crappie scampi to my wife and that I wanted it for my bday dinner. So she made the crappie with garlic, olive oil, s&p, little butter and when the crappie was cooked threw in the shrimp. This was the quickest part of the meal. Since she went and made a mushroom, chive, and asparagus risotto that took over 40 minutes to make and a few cups of chicken stock. She served the scampi and risotto with fresh asparagus. Afterwards, I got a slice of tempura fried cheesecake at a local sushi bar. No candles, but a nice finish to a nice day.

That's a great looking pile of fresh produce! I almost expected a bunch of fiddlehead ferns. Great Job BH! I need to get out after them again. I would suspect that the potential snow coming in this weekend will likely screw up my bank fishing opportunities.

Now Mitch are we talking about nightcrawlers/red worms or the worms from the fish? If we are using the worms from the fish, they are encysted and would be more like puffed rice with a hint of fish flavor. Not unlike a shrimp puff.

I've seen the photos of Mitch's wife and his in-laws food. I'm right behind you MOPanfisher!

Just to demonstrate that I don't just fish all the time and not help out around the house, here is the shelf that I put up with my son. Now this did get done this morning .

Seth Great job on your success today! Better yet congrats on giving your time to help with this trip!

The red eye bass is a medium to high gradient stream/river fish that is found throughout the mountainous regions of Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama. This species has been now broken up into five species (can find in the Wikipedia link). Again still located in the same range that I mentioned above. They are smaller fish and do have a white edge to their anal and tail fins along with red eyes (though not evident in the picture) like this one I caught in Georgia. If I had gone upstream from where I caught this bass I would have needed a trout stamp. It is not likely that a true red eye bass would be found in Missouri or west of the Mississippi river. Now Both smallmouth and spotted bass can have red eyes like the smallmouth pictured below. Some meanmouth bass are hybrids of smallmouth and spotted bass and would likely have red eyes. I have also heard some people refer to goggle-eye, rock bass, shadow bass, or Ozark bass as red eye bass. The northern rock bass (like the following) should be common around Pomme and found in Shoal creek. Ozark Bass would be found in the Whiter river system (James river, Table rock lake, bull shoals, etc.). Shadow bass (like this one) are found mostly in the south eastern MO rivers and lakes and North eastern AR rivers and lakes.

We have shrimp. So when we get more crappie, I would love to use both. Sounds great!

Had my Betterhalf make some more of the fresh crappie. She followed a really easy baked fish dish. The fish is seasoned with s&p, little lemon juice, then coated with ranch dressing and parmesan cheese. Baked at 350 until flaky. Served with fresh broccoli. With dishes this good, we really have to get back out and get some more crappie!

BH - I have used fish sauce frequently and I have the same reaction almost every time that I use this sauce. Still it adds an authentic Thai flavor to every dish.

My son also has a preference to vinyl and got a record player this last Christmas. He's going on 17 and since he doesn't like to fish, it is hard for us to relate to one another. Except for music. He likes and appreciates his dad's 60-70's music, which is great for me since I am an music Neanderthal with the idea that all new music ended in 1985. He often tells me about the Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, or Santana album that he has downloaded and which ones he likes better. Back in the day (I know I'm becoming a "get off my lawn" kind of guy) you actually had to buy the album to listen to it. So I listened to what was played on the radio or on the few albums I would buy when not buying gas or beer. So he has a much broader range of music and even with the old bands than I do. So we can find something to talk about when he isn't engrossed in one of his games or I am not off some where trying to catch another minnow. This is the key. Thanks.