Johnsfolly

Ham What is your species total? Catch any new ones in September? The two most unusual catches for me this year was the 8" goldfish I caught in Hickory Creek back in Sept. and two golden shiners (6 and 7 ") while fishing for crappie in March.

I have had bats hit my line, but have never hooked one. When I was living in Florida, I did hook a brown pelican. Anytime you threw out your bait or tried to land a fish this bird would dive on it in the water. I tried to pull out my bait as it opened its mouth and must have set the hook. It took 5 minutes or so to get the bird close. I eventually had to cut the line to keep from getting beaten by its wings. It went right back to the railing that it was sitting on when I made my cast. After meeting with me that bird now had four lines coming out of its beak.

Nice pictures. I would have been happy with the first one if that were the only musky I caught. That second one is a great catch.

Great goal to get done with your daughter. My youngest daughter and I have fished all four parks and my wife and my tow other children have fished thre out of the four, but not in a single year. Sounds like a plan for 2015.

Good Luck. I hope to see some pictures by Monday.

Bluebasser I would love to hear how you did and what they were biting on. I would like to catch a musky and Hazel and Pomme de Terre seem to be the places locally to catch one.

Here's a giant longear that I caught on the Maries river. I didn't have to resort to any fake hero shots to show just how big this fish was. I just have a hard time bending my right arm at times. Ham I agree with you that these guys are one ot the prettiest fish in our streams. I would love to set up a fish tank with them if I could figure out how to keep their coloration.

Wayne I have thought that the Niangua would be a good candidate river for the slam. I don't know how far downstream you would have to go to get into good largemouth bass fishing. I would not mind giving it a try.

Ham I haven't caught a sturgeon. I don't have a boat. So I have not been out on any of the bigger rivers. I still am trying to get out and snag a paddlefish. I just want to catch just one.

Nice sucker. Ham is that #27 or have you caught a couple of others since your last tally?

My folks live in Georgia and I found out that at least 6 bass species lived in the state. So in the summer of 2009 I fished all over the state to catch a bunch of new species. Here is a shoal bass that I caught on an Excalibur Spit'n Image topwater while fishing the Upper Ocmulgee River in Jasper CO, Georgia. Here is what the river looked like. I also caught several redeye bass on the Spit'n image topwater in Amicalola Creek in Dawson CO, GA. Above the bridge was a recognized GA trout fishing area to give you an idea of the habitat for these bass. The Amicalola falls is the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi river. I fished the Wakulla River south of Tallahasee Florida that summer as well using 3" flukes and lost two Suwannee bass right at the boat. It appeared that they were just holding the bait with a closer mouth until the got near the boat. They were both less than 10" long. I just couldn't get them to bite on any smaller lures to get a good hookset. So I still have to go back to FL to try for them again. My wife is going to hate me going onto roughfish.com. She supports my obsessive goals about fishing and hunting until I get to 85+% of the goal. Then I get really obsessed and she is tired of me talking about or planning the next trip. I'm currently trying to catch a trout at each Missouri recognized trout streams by the MDC designations. I have two sections of the North Fork of the White rvier and same on the Eleven point river as well as the section of Lake Taneycomo below the trophy management area to complete the task. I cannot think about anything else at this point. Living in Columbia, I have to plan to stay down that way. So that adds additional costs to the trips. She is ready for me to move onto the next goal. have you caught a grass pickerel? Crane creek in Crane, MO has a fair number of them. I caught my first one back in March on that creek.

Great brown trout.

BBT try to catch them. This guy put up a pretty good fight especially with the 2 lb line I was using.

Seems like some giant smallies are being caught this year. I just can't seem to get out after them. Great catch!

I don't have a boat and wade fish. I would love to try to just fish either the Current or Meramec in a boat to try for the slam in the same river.

Ham. Were you fishing the Current in Mo or in Arkansas? Are you tracking how many different species you catch in a year? I track every fish that I catch and love to catch new species. I'm up to 86 different freshwater and saltwater fish species over my fishing career. I need to catch the guadeloupe and the Suwannee river bass to finish catching all of the black bass species.

Ham, Where did you catch shadow bass? I have caught rock bass (goggle-eye), Ambloplites rupestris and ozark bass, Ambloplites constellatus. So I would be interested in catching a shadow bass sometime.

Thanks for the tips. I let you know later this year on how I did.

Except for Little Piney and Mill Creek, I fished all of those streams this spring/summer as well. When I fished Crane and Hickory Creeks the Friday and Saturday prior to Labor day, I made two stops at Roaring River to bring home trout for the family. However, I have never seen that tribute memorial.

I have had some fishing trips saved by chubs or long-eared sunfish. Where were you fishing?

Several years ago, a friend and i were fishing the Current river and got run off the water by 10 am due to the canoe hatch. We had already caught a few brown and rainbow trout on the trip. So we packed up and headed back north to fish for smallmouth around Vienna. On the way back we came up with the Ozark Slam, which is to catch a brown trout, rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and rock bass (goggle-eye) all on the same day. So far I have not done this on the same river, but believe that the Meramac, Current, or Niangua are good candidates. Below are pictures from my last successful slam in 2011. My friend was deployed to Afghanistan at the time and I caught a slam for him in abstentia, ie., caught two of each species. Let me know if any others have caught them all on the same day or better yet in the same river.

Several years ago my wife and I were snorkeling in John Pennecamp marine Sanc. off of Key Largo. I had an underwater camera and was taking pictures of any new species of fish that we found. She thought I was crazy as i swam up to a 7' bull shark just to get a better picture. I would share it but its a paper photo.

thanks for the information. Any lure selections that you would suggest? I typically fish streamers or minnow baits for browns and smallmouth.

I have been on a mision to catch a trout in every recognized trout stream/river in Missouri. I am now down to the North Fork of the white river and the eleven point. Should I target fishing this river in mid- to late October when the brown trout may be active prior to their attempted spawning in early winter? Wait until January/February after they recover from their spawining attempts or would anytime be a good time to catch browns and rainbows on this river?

2Sheds- Thanks for the comments on the North fork and 11 point. I will add a post onto those forums to get some advice for fall / winter fishing on both rivers. In terms of the logical order, the pictures appear to be in numerical order going from the North east starting with Blue Springs down to the south west and appears to be ending in Roaring River state park. You have also gone from colorful juvenile and adult wild trout with parr marks and vivid colors to what appears to be a hatchery raised fish with no real coloration.