Johnsfolly

I agree with Ham in that I track those fish I catch with hook and line and a rod of some sort. My daughter likes to hand catch or net some of her fish, which is fine by me. I would think that when I lived in Florida and bottom fished offshore, I would catch more variety on a given trip than I have fishing freshwater. I didn't record my catches then like I do now. So I cannot confirm the total number of species on any given trip. My best so far has been 6 species; long-eared, green, and bluegill sunfish, largemouth and smallmouth bass, and northern rock bass. I wasn't fishing any of my small minnow baits or I could have caught bleeding shiners, creek and hornyhead chubs on that same trip.

So far since the 3rd; 2016 tally is largemouth bass, black crappie, creek chub, and orangethroat darter. Not too many pictures thus far this year except from a darter trip that I took yesterday with a friend and my daughter. The darters were caught on #20 long shank hooks and one or two worm segments. Her list includes fish that she has also caught by hand; creek chub, orangethroat darter, and blackstriped topminnow (caught with her hands).

Great catch! I look forward to see more from you and your son.

I just picked up my MO 2016-2017 license. So I can begin this year's tally. My big target this year is going to be new species. I'm working on adding 15 new species to the life list this license year. Going small for micros should help. Still want to lip a shadow bass.

Thanks for sharing that link. Some great fish.

I can try them as well. I picked up a small container to hold the fish for photos. So I'm planning on going back out for more darters later this week. I'll let you know how they do.

Ham - I bought some euro larvae on-line at BassPro shops. I have not seen them in any outlet stores. I got them for our ice-fishing, but have not yet used them. A single segment might actually be a little large for true micros like darters. I was actually pretty amazed at how long I could keep fishing the worm pieces. The last segment or two of the red worms stayed on through several fish.

Amery - I would agree about a fly rod to be better able to cast out the small flies that I was using. That assumes that I am that good at casting. I have to seriously home those skills to be able to effectively fish this small stream without spooking every trout with the fly line going over their heads. I have fished all of the wild trout streams in MO with my spinning gear and do find that the line and bait rarely spook the trout even if they can clearly see me when I cast to them. I can currently forget about trying Blue Springs with a fly rod at this time. I lost a lot of tackle using a rod that I can cast well on that little stream.

I would love to fish the drainage ditch that you caught the quillback. I moved ever closer to tenkara after I bought #20 long shank hooks to fish for darters on Saturday. I caught a few orangethroats with one or two red worm segments. I thought I had two species, but now looks like all were the same species. My photos were not great. So I need to go back and catch them again to confirm if they were different subspecies.

I heard that they are decent to eat. Never had them so I look forward to giving them a try.

Sounds like a great time Ham. I've missed my dad a lot over the last two years. I never did get in any ice fishing for yellow bass with my daughter. Will have to put them on my 2016 goals.

I went down to Crane creek yesterday to try to catch two more species to complete my annual total species caught during the MO license year goal. My hope was to catch a McCloud river rainbow (separate subspecies so considering this different from the rainbows released elsewhere) and a grass pickerel. I left the house at 4 am, stopped to drop off a care package to my daughter in Warrensburg, and still able to get on the water around 8 am. I could not believe that there were no cars in the parking lot when I arrived. I fished the upper section of the creek where I had success there in the past. The first observation was that a lot of the logjams and wood piles where moved out of many of the holes that I fished in the past. There was no shoreline vegetation. I did have my Mad turkey blind with me and was wearing camo jacket and pants. The wind was really strong throughout the day. As with past trips, I was fishing with spin tackle and 2 lb P-line fluoroclear line. So my bait were not going to have much weight to help with casting. I started fishing with a hopper and copper john nymph combo using the hopper as a indicator and to add additional weight for casting. The wind really prevented me from standing further back from the creek to make accurate casts. So I had to fish closer to the creek than I would really prefer. So I tried to fish fast moving water sections so that the trout were less likely to see me. That worked. Once I was able to drop my bait in the current seem I got bit. The trout caught me off guard and ran downstream and broke me off on some wood. I moved down stream and fished an S curve that cut under a large sycamore tree. I did set-up the miniblind and cast from behind the blind drifting my baits down the stream to below the undercut tree. I did not have any more copper john baits, So I switched to a beaded Prince nymph and got bit by a large trout, but did not get a hook set. I let the nymph drift a couple of more times and let it go further downstream. I only had one fish go after that bait again and it was a large striped shiner and not a rainbow. I switched to a gold ribbed hares ear nymph and again missed another trout. After several more casts I decided to fish off of the roots of the sycamore roots. I could see one large trout and several smaller ones and a plenty of chubs and shiners. I switched to a multicolored egg. The large trout did hit the bait and again I did not get a hook set on this fish. I did drift the egg a couple of more times and caught a 6 " rainbow with heavy parr marks and a fat 10 " trout. Now with two McClouds caught, I was trying for a pickerel. I switched to a Panther martin spinner. I caught several large creek chubs and may have one pickerel follow this bait. I just didn't see as many pickerel as I did on my last trip to Crane. Maybe they are more active in the summer or the lack of wood cover resulted in less pickerel. I did fish another big sycamore over a big hole and again was standing on the roots drifting baits below me. I saw a decent trout and drifted my bait towards him and he bit I had to fight it down the bank to get to a spot that I could land him with my net. He was 15.5 inches in length, but really thin for his length. It’s possible that he was recovering from the spawn. It was a good thing that he swallowed my minnow before I landed him to give him a needed protein boost. Alright I was not using live bait. I caught him on the same egg pattern that I caught the other trout this morning. I did not catch any other new species towards my goal, but I had a great day on the creek. 480 miles round trip in one day was worth it to fish such a great stream and catching my personal best for this creek. Priceless.

Nice photos and congrats on a good day on the river. I haven't gone down that hill in many years. The last time I tore the sole of one of my wading boots getting back up to the road. Since you can't wear felt soles anymore, I may have to take a trip back down there.

I may have to disagree with the creek chub assessment. Below are photos of creek chub (top), common (middle) and striped shiners (bottom). Although both the chub and common shiner are in breeding colors you can still see the dark spot on the front base of the dorsal fin of the creek chub, which both males and females display. Creek chubs also tend to be fairly cylindrical in their body shape. Your fish is more flattened from side to side and a similar general shape to the common or striped shiner. Based upon where you were fishing (south of Missouri and Osage rivers) it may likely be a striped shiner. it's hard to tell these apart without dissecting them.

That was a great trip!

Nice fish on 2 lb line. Should be a fish that she will remember.

That's a nice fish. How long was it?

Thanks Tim. I would prefer not to even float a bait past a redd. If I can see them I can avoid them. I don't plan on being in the water much or at all if I can help it. Any bait suggestions?

congrats on a great fish!

How's the water level at Crane creek? Is it fishable and clear enough to avoid any redds in the stream? Thinking about a trip down that way and any information is appreciated.

Did you see any redds in the gravel road? I would think that there was a nice current break at the fire ring might even held a big brown or two.

Nice to hear about your trout fishing trip. Sounds like a great time. I love catching trout and brown trout in particular. So just a little jealous.

Ham - congrats on the 41 species this year. I'm sitting 15 shy of that total at 26. I did catch a northern hog sucker and we confirmed (using Pflieger's fishes of Missouri guide) that my daughter and I caught both Ozark and banded sculpin this year. I'm four shy of my goal for the year, but since I follow the MO fishing license dates I still have until the end of Feb to land a couple of more species. My daughter caught an orange-throat darter by hand pushing her year total up to 11 with a goal of 12. It's her goal so she can decide her "fish catching" methods. She had fun chasing them around in the shallow water on our trip down the North Fork. The rain this spring and summer really hamstrung my bank and wade fishing efforts this year. I was also disappointed that my trip to PA did not add to my species total. I was targeting yellow perch and chain pickerel, but only caught sunfish and crappie. I bought my daughter an ice fishing rod and some lures this Xmas, since she says she really likes ice fishing for trout. I'm not sure we will have enough ice to safely fish around here. If I can afford it, I would like to do some ice fishing up in Iowa or MN to target yellow bass and perch, maybe even a walley or pike.

have fun. I too am jealous. Have family coming in and my daughter coming home this weekend and not able to get out.

Sounds like you had a great time Ham! Makes me jealous being stuck at work on a Monday.