Johnsfolly

Awesome brown trout.

When I first responded to this thread, it hadn't occurred to me that I fish the original floating Rapalas all the time. I buy the black/silver and hand paint them. I didn't even consider a bait developed in the 30's as an "old time" bait, because I catch a lot of fish with them. I am noticing that it's getting harder to find outlets still selling the original floating baits. In a lot of circumstances, I just don't like the noise from the rattle chambers in most of the new plastic baits.

I caught another 30 crappie this evening again using the float and jig combination. I did keep about a dozen for a fish fry,. Only a couple were larger than 8" in length. I also caught a small channel catfish using worms off the bottom. Seems like the crappie bite will continue for a while longer. Many of the females had undeveloped eggs that would seem to indicate that the spawning is not over.

Ended up catching a channel catfish this evening. Now I'm up to 17 species for 2015.

I never got into jitterbugs, but love to fish hula poppers at night.

Did some small creek fishing today using small pieces of worms. I had heard that this creek held white suckers. I caught a bunch of creek chubs including this spawning male. I didn't catch a white sucker, but did land a new species for 2015. I believe it is a common shiner and have one I will key out at work tomorrow. I'll have to take out my daughter, since she has not either of these species. They were definitely not shy. I caught over two dozen fish in a couple of hours.

Is the walleye spawn done? If folks are catching them, what are they using and how are they fishing them? Thanks for the information.

I've been fishing the bank along the dam and the boat dock this April. Fishing has been best near dusk. The females were loaded with eggs early this week, but not so much last night. Seem to be spawning at this time. It was really windy yesterday and the the water was more colored than I have seen this spring. The chop had the fish close to the bank. We were getting bit within 8 feet from shore and less. A couple of fish just got lifted once they bit. No reeling required. We fished small jigs and minnows with about 12 to 20" of line between bait and float. Once the wind died down the lake got flat and fish were breaking the surface all along the dam. That's when we started to really get a deeper bite on longer casts and larger fish. There were several larger fish cruising within 4 feet of the bank. These were either large carp or possibly lake sturgeon. They were three to four feet in length. None of us got close to a bite from them. By the time it was too dark to see the float, caught over two dozen crappie, several bluegill and one crappie over 12" in length. None of use wanted to clean fish. So it was all catch and release.

Thansk again for the warmouth information. I have been doing some more research and will try to find some and hopefully get one on the line this year. Good luck and keep a wet line.

Thanks for the information. This is a speices that I have not considered until I saw your post. Was that a private pond?

Thanks for the information Tim. If we do head down that way, we'll try to stop in at the fly shop.

Great photos of a fishing moment with your child. Glad to see him happy with his catch. Hope he grows into your lifetime fishing buddy.

Tim, Have you guys been getting heavy rain the last couple of days or expect any? How is the river? The USGS looks like the water level has been dropping. Does it still have a lot of color? We (ok I am) are getting anxious for a road trip and are thinking about coming down this weekend. Any information or advice of lures if the water is still colored would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have been targetting trout in some of the smaller wild trout streams or smaller fish lately and use a 6'6" UL spin rod. This summer, I plan to get back to stream bass fishing and will likely pull out the 6' M spin rod. I've really like the Bass Pro Microlite rods.

Where did you catch the warmouth? Around Rolla or further south?

Do we know that the brown trout was not injured during the fight such that it could not be released? I have seen many small fish come drifting down that river that had been injured by folks that either had them break off due to too light a line, inability to fight a fish or deep hooked in the gills. I would rather see those fish harvested instead of slowly dying as if goes downstream. However, you can't write in the regulations that injured fish should be kept, because there are those that will intentionally injure fish just to keep them. If you were to make the upper Current a catch and release river, there will still be injured and killed fish as I described earlier. I fish both with spin and fly gear and enjoy both activities. I also harvest and eat trout. Based upon the limited amount of natural reproduction if any for brown trout they are still very much a put and take population unlike many of the wild trout blue ribbon streams that support natural rainbow trout reproduction. I would not be an advocate of a C&R only for this river.

Through April 8, 2015. I have caught 15 different species. Rainbow trout at Bennett's Springs in March My daughters largest trout to date was 14.25" in length and weighed 1 lbs 4 oz Banded sculpin from Bennett's Springs - smallest fish caught to-date at 2.6" in length. I won the competition with my daughter on the smallest fish for the day on that trip. My daughter with the largest sculpin we caught on our trip to Bennett's in March White crappie My black crappie Largemouth bass My first largemouth of the year was unexpected since I was targetting minnow species in the Maries River in early March. My daughter with her first LMB of the year. I haven't caught any smallmouth bass yet this year, but did hook up with some kentucky / spotted bass fishing the Osage river near the Tavern creek confluence. Sunfish So far only bluegill and green sunfish this year. My daughter with her green sunfish. We don't yet have a picture of her holding a bluegill though she did catch one already this year. I have been targeting species that i would not normally go after. Here are several that I have caught since March. I caught this golden redhorse sucker fishing worms at the Tavern Creek / Osage river confluence. It my largest of this species to-date. Measure 22.25" and weighed over 4 lbs. A also caught a freshwater drum on this same trip using worms. I had never caught a drum before. I caught this common carp also on worms fishing one of the pools at Eagle Bluffs CA in McBaine MO. I know many folks on these forums have caught this species while targetting trout in particular. This is a creek chub I caught in the Maries River using a chartruese 1/125 oz microjig. I also caught a hornyhead chub and a bleeding shiner on this same trip. I caught the chub on the 1/125 oz microjig and the shiner on a gold-ribbed hares ear nymph. Both of these were new species for me. I did have to bring back one of the shiners to id at home. Here is the largest yellow bullhead I have ever caught - 13" and 1.5 lbs. I was targetting channel catfish, but didn't catch any of them.

Many of us keep track of the different fish species that we catch either over a lifetime or a given season. I wanted to set up a thread where folks can document what species they have caught this year. Include any photos that you may have. I personally am targetting a goal of thirty different species to be caught from March 1, 2015 to Feb. 29, 2016 (based upon the Missouri license year). I have been keeping a photo record of each species that I have caught this year. I try to identify them on the water where possible, but may keep a representative to identify using various fish keys. This goal is forcing me to break away from fishing the same waters with the same techniques that I would normally use. Most of my focus so far has been on catching either new species or ones that I would not normally go after. Since I have been talking so much about this at home, my 11 yr old daughter has now set a goal to catch 12 different species. After three fishing trips, she is up to 6 total. Let see what you've caught so far.

Sounds like a great time. Good looking fish. Have you caught a Suwannee yet? I still have them on my to do list for bass fishing. A couple of summers ago I fished Georgia and Florida trying to catch as many different bass species as possible. I lost two Suwannees right at the boat and never hooked up with another. I found red eye bass in up state Georgia in the Amicalola (sp.) river. They are a lot like shoal bass in their preference for fast moving water and shoals.

Do you have photos of them all? I have been keeping a photo journal this year. I'm only up to 15 for the year, but like yourself have a few easy ones that I haven't caught yet.My daughter asked me on how many fish species she has caught this year and what her goal should be. She currently is up to 6 species and has a goal of 12 for the year. She has only been out with me three times this year. I expect her to get over 15 and since she likes the minnows and smaller fish probably will get close to 20 is she fishes enough. If I set up a thread to track these, would you post your photos?

Sounds like a great trip. Over 18 total species?

Good luck and have a great time with you dad. I know you are going for white bass, but I hope you are able to catch a few different species in those southern waters. Can't wait for the report. I'm either going small creek fishing for suckers or minnow species for slough/backwater fishing this weekend for carp or buffalo. either way hope to catch one or more new species.

I wasn't able to lip grab him to land him adn he just slipped through the net. So maybe was a little rough on the release. I saw an 11 by 3 foot section that had to have had 200 - 300 of these guys all lined up about 2 - 4 inches apart. Only about 5 to 10% seemed to be real active when the nymph i was fishing went past them.

I keyed this one out as a bleeding shiner using Pflieger's Fishes of Missouri.

I'm not that familiar with that hybrid. I was always under the impression that cutbows had the orange under the jaw line. The the white tipped ventral and anal fins seemd like there may be some brook trout genes in the mix.