Johnsfolly

Still brewed in Pottsville PA. Nice morels by the way!

That's a good looking perch. In PA when fishing highly pressured lakes, the best perch you could hope for would be about 4 to 6 inches in length. Sounds like a fun trip.

You can't go wrong with any of those achievements. Congrats on a good day of river fishing.

Ham would have to bring us back to the pig conversation.

Haven't seen any at our feeders yet. We have a feeder above our porch just under the eaves and we love to sit out there and listen to them buzz by. Often one will hoover just looking at us as we sit there in the evenings. If we actually could understand their chatter as the dominant birds chase off the other ones, that they are just constantly swearing at each other.

She didn't want to diss me on this post, but did mention that I would find a lot more morels if I wasn't focused on looking under 1-2 feet of water all the time. Morels are on dry ground. Go figure. She hasn't found any of the large ones that you and your lady were finding this weekend. Maybe after this rain if we actually get rain.

Great haul. I haven't looked hard yet. Still focused on fishing. Hoping this rain will get some to pop and I'll get out looking.

Great post and photos. Love seeing thick healthy trout and big browns. Sounds like you had the pattern for these fish.

There did not seem to be any water running while I was there. A few shad were breaking the surface every once in a while, but it didn't seem to be driven by predatory, I.e., white or hybrid bass, feeding activity. The carp and possibly paddlefish were also breaking the surface, but not as much as I have seen on past trips..

A piebald deer has leucism where there is a defect in localized areas of cells that cannot produce any pigmentation, which results in the "pied" splotches of white hair or skin all over the animal. White tigers are another example. Albinos are slightly different in that they cannot produce melanin, but can produce some color with some albinos being pale yellow instead of white.

I typically don't carry two rods that have a similar function, I have carried a fly rod and a spinning rod at times and have used a back pack to hold the second rod. Now I have a Shakespeare travel rod that I use for microfishing that fits in the back "keeper" pocket of my fishing vest. So if when I am fishing for trout or smallmouth and come upon a bunch of sculpin, darters, or minnows, I will switch to that rod. Since I am switching my fishing style, taking the time to pull out and replace the rods in my vest or pack has not been a problem.

Al has me thinking about whether the copper sulfate may be a partial cause of the coloration of this fish. Pretty cool looking fish.

Go out late and didn't begin fishing until after 8 am. Partly cloudy with more clouds in the early afternoon. The wind was constant with heavy winds at times from the east. Made strike detection somewhat difficult. Some fish were getting caught on singles and tandem jig rigs. Seems like most folks caught at least one fish, but few had more than two or three this morning. One guy next to me had success with a stringer full of whites and decent sized hybrids. Most fish caught along the banks were whites and hybrids. Very few crappie and even fewer keeper crappie were caught. Lots of jigs lost during the morning, but I could not connect on any fish using the jig rigs. I was more successful with an olive green X-rap with a single white caught on both sides of the tailwater. I also caught a sub-keeper largemouth and my first Truman hybrid down near the boat restriction markers. The hybrid was 18" and over three pounds and should make a nice dinner.

Sorry about making this a pig thread. anyone find any morels this weekend?

Great report Phil. I look forward to getting down and fishing Taney again this year.

Nice Fish and report! Have to get back to the 11 pt.

we put our feeders out yesterday. I need to get an oriole feeder out as well.

JD and MO - I agree with both of you. I have seen a lot of pig hunting shows and have always questioned how effective hunting would be if you only shoot a single boar or two on a hunt when each sow can drop two or three litters of piglets a year. Got to get most if not all of the pigs at one time.

Can't hunt pigs in MO anymore, so if I get out I don't think I will stumble upon a blind pig and I hope to find more than just a couple of acorns. Good luck to those going out on Monday. Be safe and know your target.

Good luck on Monday. Work will keep me out of the woods until later in the week or more likely the weekend. Haven't really patterned any birds yet. Hope to not take the blind pig approach this year.

Nice bunch of crappie. Congrats on a few great trips.

I have had good luck with Shimano and Plueger president reels. I'm a 95%+ wade fisherman and have had both brand of reels last a fairly long time after being in water, sand, thrown on gravel bars, etc.

Here are photos of one of the cardinal shiners that I caught and the banded sculpin from the Spring River. I also caught this longear sunfish in the Spring river. I had never seen one with so much turquoise before. An orangethroat darter from Prairie State Park. I caught this one on the #26 tanago hooks. The coloration is different than others I have caught. So I don't know if this is a young male, a post-spawn male, or maybe a different subspecies. I'm still researching the subspecies, since there are supposed to be at least three subspecies throughout MO.

Nice trip report and photos. I love the colors on that first fish.

A couple of nice hauls for early season. Got to get out, but with all the fishing opportunities and the #26's calling to come out... Maybe convince my wife that the morels are out.