Johnsfolly

Ron - still appreciate anyone that is willing to put their life on the line to protect others. Thanks again.

That's a beautiful smallmouth! Great post and photos!

Here is the first real meal to test out my gall bladderless lifestyle. Chicken picatta, zucchini with dill, and carrots with sweet potatoes with a little honey and cinnamon. The vegetables were put in foil packs and grilled. The chicken was done on the stove. Tried to use as little oil as possible. Hear that too much fat in my diet from this point on will lead to some serious GI distress. Didn't realize that my diabetes diagnosis in Jan would lead to a lifestyle change that was prepping me for this next stage in a more fat free and carb controlled diet.

LRF - Great post! It's amazing how something so small like a jig can effect someone's life. I agree with Mitch you just never know what someone is going through, but can be affected by an act of kindness.

Sure looks like it's been in the river it's whole life thus far. Really nice looking fish.

2-1 end of the second. Looks favorable for the Pens thus far. Though San Jose looked better in the 2nd than they did in the first period. Hope that the Pens play the third like they in game 1 and take a win in the shark tank. After 2.5 days in the hospital, just can't watch the end of this game tonight. Thank goodness for DVR. Go Pens!

Great fish Ron. If the Col in your screen name is short for Colonel, thank you for your service.

Glad to her that she is getting better!

The Texas brown tarantula is found in the south west part of Missouri. I have seen some on a couple of different trips to and from Branson, once at night on 65 heading into town and the other during the day on 160 East in the Mark Twain Nat forest after passing Beaver Creek. Pretty freaky seeing one cross the road at night.

Sound like a great time. Those are some great photos! I particularly like the perspective on your last shot. Were you still holding the fish or did it just stay put on its own?

I mentioned to my wife that there is a way to get her Olympus Stylus Tough back she can get me the 870 upgrade. Those pictures look great. Maybe for our 21st anniversary or Christmas. Something to look forward to.

Ham - I looked like a cheap shot to me. We'll have to see how much if any ice time he will miss or if he can be effective when he returns. Rust has been a playoff phenom and I hate to lose him for too many games. There were some great assists in this game, particularly the passes by Crosby and Letang. That kind of puck movement gives me a lot hope for this series. The sharks will adjust in game 2 like they did in the 2nd period and we are likely headed for a 7 game series.

Thanks for the head's up. Had no idea when or if they were going to repair the bridge.

Looking forward to setting up a trip. You mean I shouldn't be eating the shiners and darters that I catch? All you have to do is dredge them in flour and fry. Don't even have to clean them first. OK only kidding, but I have had a dish called whitebait in Ireland that was just fried whole minnows with a dipping sauce. It must be what they do with the leftover bait after fishing for mackerel. They weren't bad except the lens of the eyes were solid.

Dan - looks like you and your boy got into a variety of fish on Sat. Glad to now see the pictures. Keep after them.

Those harnesses look like they should catch fish. I hand paint my hard body lures. I do it with a brush. Most don't look as good as the air brushed lures I have seen others posting here. Don't think I have any photos.

Good luck. I hope your dad catches a bunch tomorrow.

I love all of the color phase bears. In PA we just had all black with maybe a white patch on the chest.

Congrats on a great trip! Too bad no photos, but better to be safe on crowded waters.

Looking forward to tonight's opening game of the Stanley cup finals. I don't follow the West teams except for St Louis, Nashville, and Chicago. So I really don't know how the Sharks will match up with the Penguins. Hope to see a great series and ultimately a fourth cup for the Pens!

Hamilton wins in the wet in Monaco, Rookie Rossi outlasts and out passed the field in Indy, and Truex Jr. dominates in Charlotte. Some much racing so little time. I had to delay watching the Coca-Cola 600 until this morning. The Indy 500 was by far the most competitive race all weekend. Lead changes and top contenders falling out early. Did my own 540+ miler on Saturday in order to fish. So I had a great time on Sunday and today watching these races.

Ollie - I sent you a PM.

Very funny! Had me til the end. Hook line and acorn.

Was able to get away to fish a couple of rivers in SW Missouri on Saturday. I had a plan to target catching a brown trout in Roaring River, a redspot chub in the Spring river, and an assortment of minnows and darters species that are only found down in that area of Missouri. Due to travelling out east later in June, my wife conceded to allow for travel expenses but no overnight stays on this trip. Left the house around 2:45 am and headed for the Roaring river. I fished outside of the park and was targeting brown trout using jigs and a Rapala UL minnow jerkbait. The water the running clear and the large limestone flats were really slick making wading a real challenge. I haven't fished this far down from the park before. So I looked for traditional brown trout habitat, deeper runs where boulders meet gravel, large deeper holes around root wads or large boulders. The first trout came out from under a tree running parallel to a boulder strewn run. It was a healthy fish, but the coloration was wrong for a brown. I landed this 15" rainbow. Since I prefer to fish upstream when I can, I continued down stream trying to read the water for potential holding areas and skirting the water to not be seen by the fish in those areas. I finally got to a section of the river below several potential fishing spots and turned to head back upstream. The bottom in this section of river was fairly uniform gravel and not likely to hold many trout. However, I did see a bunch of darters and several minnow species. So I got into my microfishing mode and went after those fish. I caught several darters that were no longer in their breeding coloration and I really could not id real well. It's possible they were rainbow darters. Will have to do some more research. I did not have any trouble identifying this southern redbelly dace. I caught several of these minnows. I had put them on my list as being caught in the Current many years ago before I had the identification guides that I have now. So I recently questioned if the fish that I caught those years ago were really this species. So these few fish confirmed this species on my life list. My bag kept fogging so these pictures are not as good as I would have liked. I also caught central stonerollers in this section. This duskstripe shiner was a minnow that I had hopes of catching on this trip and is a new species for me. As I headed back upstream I switched back to trout fishing and put on a 1/16 oz tan jig. I spooked a nice fish in one run that may have been a brown trout. It headed upstream into a deep hole with three really large boulders. I cast into the hole and landed another nice 12+" rainbow trout. I had another follow, but it did not take the jig. As I headed to the head of the pool, I hooked into this chub. Later I had to recheck the distribution maps to determine that this was more likely a hornyhead chub than the redspot chub I had come to this corner of Missouri to find. I caught two more nice rainbows on the jig, but no browns. Since I was planning on fishing the Spring river as well, I headed back to the car instead of heading further upstream. I left the Roaring river with this shot. The next leg of my trip had me heading up to Stott's city to fish the Spring river. I met up with OAF member Dan Hufferd to discuss this section of the river and strategies to catch a redspot chub. Dan provided me with several of his go to jigs and mentioned spots to fish that were likely to hold this fish. He headed to Stockton with his sons and I headed upstream looking for chub. I found one of the holes that Dan mentioned and had some taps on the jigs, but I just could not get a hook set. Probably not patient enough. I even switched to worms and only caught cardinal shiners and no chubs. After a couple of hours, I decided to head much further upstream where hopefully the water is clearer. It was great meeting Dan and I hope to get back and have him show me the magic with his jig fishing for these chubs. I found a bridge crossing the Spring river that flowed crystal clear. I immediately set to minnow fishing with worms and small hooks and got hooked up with more cardinal shiners and southern redbelly dace. Lot's of darters, but I could not get a hook set in any. In a deeper run I saw a larger fish that I thought was a smallmouth bass take the bait. Even as I was reeling it in, it seemed like a 7-8" smallie. When I landed it I was shocked to see what appears to be a very wild stream bred rainbow trout, parr marks and all. I had no idea that this river even held trout and would not have expected a breeding population of trout. This fish headed upstream towards the bridge after I released it. Around the pilings I saw at least one more trout. At 4:30 pm I called it a day, changed out of my waders and started the 4+ hour trip home. I didn't catch a Roaring river brown nor the redpspot, which means I will have to go back again soon. However, it was a great day, I did get to meet a great guy, and caught a confirmatory and a new fish species. As my wife says, I will always have a reason to head down to that part of the state. Next time will include a little overnight time at the Super 8 in Monett and possibly some gumbo at The Bayou.

Dan - looks like a great time with your son! Keep the videos coming. Nice to get a couple of firsts fish. I hope to see a post form your Stockton trip from Saturday.