Johnsfolly

We tried white perch roe this spring. It was fine. Texture was a little bit off-putting and really had little flavor. So probably would not do that again, at least not more than another one or two times with different preparations..

We found that out as well. We love fishing the trout magnets and crappie magnets. Now my daughter would be jealous of the needlefish. She has been trying to catch one ever since I caught this small one on a white and chartreuse trout magnet here in the Chesapeake a couple of years ago. The ones around us a pretty small in comparison to those down in FL.

@Hawg looks like everyone is having fun. Don't try an lip those bluefish. That will ruin your day 🙄

Looks pretty close to me.

Sounds like our garage during deer season 😉

I've had luck with that down in Bennett's. I ususally use jigs and microjigs. So the super duper was fun to fish with.

Sounds like we need more gun laws 🙄! Criminals would never break the law with those guns.

I enjoyed the video @Seth. Looked like a fun day. I haven't fished there too often to learn where it fishes best and with which lures. For us Bennetts was a little bit further but didn't cost more to fish. So we spent more time there.

Been on the receiving end of this one. The other crusher of dreams is the USGS current water data site 🙄. I guess it can save a long trip.

I thought that was an HOA meeting 🤣

happy BDay Phil! I hope that the day includes more than "One Cast"😉! As Randy said, I appreciate what you have done and continue to do with this Forum! Have a great Day!

That's what we were trying for in VA. 👍

I have been intrigued with videos from the Carolinas of folks catching the largehead hairtail, aka, ribbonfish, or cutlass fish. I figured that I would try and get down to the Outer Banks this fall and try for them. Looking through YouTube videos I saw one filmed at a spot that I knew fairly well down in Virginia. This spot was only about 3 hours away. So last Saturday I packed the car and loaded up the girls and we headed down to Kiptopeake state park. We usually get down there to fish at least twice a summer over the last two years. I had seen in INATURALIST a lifer goby species, a Seaboard goby, observed in Cape Charles VA, a town about 20 mins north of Kiptopeake. So we did a little recon to check out how I might be able to target that goby at some point. We found a fishing pier near the observation location. I went out onto the pier and saw a school of larger minnows that I did not think were Atlantic silversides. I also found some blennies on the pilings of the pier. This was enough for me to grab some microgear and come back wtih Livie to try for some lifers. We used #22 and #26 hooks with a small weights. We both caught pinfish right off the bat. probably could have caught 20 to 30 if we tried. The large minnows were not that interested in our baits. The school broke up a bunch with every pinfish caught and released. I casted up current of the remaining fish from the larger school and got some interest. A couple of casts later, (when I didn't catch pinfish 🙄) I hooked one of the minnows. Livie grabbed it and got it into our photo bag with water. I asked if it was just a silverside and she said that she has never seen a fish like this one and knew that I had a new lifer. So what she was looking was that giant mouth and the big silver band on my first striped anchovy! ( I can already hear @JestersHK calling this guy bait and he would be right😉. then again so were the pinfish). As hard as we tried it became difficult with the increasing wind for Livie to get a tiny bait into the school of anchovies. We tried a couple of different schools along the pier and none were willing to take the worm baits. We decided to go try for the blennies. Livie was up and we saw a few on a couple of different pilings. We have never had trouble with blennies shying away from the bait, but that is what these guys did and then dissappeared. What a dissapointment. We left soon after since we needed to eat and get to the state park while it was still light. The last fish that Livie caught from the Cape Charles pier was a black sea bass. One the way to the state park we stopped at a Dollar General to see if we could get glow sticks. We found some and headed to the Kiptopeake pier. It was still light when we got there and there was a pretty big crowd. What we didn't know is that we were positioned between lights on the pier. As the night fell, we had only two small sea bass and one spot to show. We were fishing high low rig with a glow stick and one without as well as a glow stick in front of some spoons. No fish. There were lots of baitfish around the lights and by about 9 to 9:30 pm folks began to catch ribbonfish. All were caught right around the lights. We threw a lot of bait (pinfish strips, spot strips, jigs, spoons, crank baits) and only had a couple of follows and not a fish landed. Ribbonfish were actually jumping through schools of baitfish, but still wanted nothing from us. The action died down by 10:30 to 10:45 pm With a three hour trip ahead of us we left at 11:15 just as the moon was rising. This may not have been a success in terms of catching the target species, but I have learned what not to do and have plans if the weather holds to go back down this Weds and try again.

Hey Dan those are ozark bass and not the typical rock bass found north of the white river and its tributaries. Northern rock bass from Vienna MO Ozark Bass from Ozark MO On the south eastern side of the state there are the shadow bass (third rock bass species in the state). One from Current River One that @Ham caught

Looked fantastic to me Dan👍

I do post a lot of dad jokes and meals on the cooking thread. Looking back on threads that I have started at least 10 out of my last 20 were about fishing trips or fishing related.

Happy birthday @rps! Maybe a little early🙄. Hopefully you have a great day planned. So the question is do you make your own Bday dinner? We would love to see it if you did😉.

Brett that was a fantastic weekend! Congrats to the boys and their guide! Landon was the man and made the right call to fish the bridge. Great instincts!

I used to watch some bigfoot show, "Chasing Bigfoot" or something like that. I always want to believe that there might be this undescribed species out there. I had several issues with that show. The first is that this group of researchers would hold a town meeting to gather information about local sightings then proceed to tell everyone at that meeting where they were going to investigate. So that goes back to your statement that someone would go out there (costumed or not) and throw rocks or do tree knocks, etc. while they were filming their episodes. The second and larger issue I had was that the one guy (his last name was Moneymaker🤔) leading these investigations was selling the groups services. I think that for $500 you could have them investigate your area and you could participate in the investigation. The last item was the constant statements from these experts on how the bigfoot likes to hunt, where it would sleep, whether they preferred different tree types, etc.

Unless it was bipedal while running, it was more likely to be a bear. 20 yrs ago many did not think that there were bears in MO, now they have a limited hunting season due to the growing numbers, which includes breeding populations across the state. Black bears Black bears are native to the state of Iowa. Before European settlement, these bears were widespread in the Midwest, and they were documented in 48 counties --- mostly in eastern Iowa --- before 1900. The last historical documentation of a pre-1900 black bear being shot was actually near Spirit Lake, in the year 1876. During colonization, bears were killed because they damaged crops and harassed and killed livestock, and they were also valuable as food and for fur. Because of overhunting during settlement, the black bear was extirpated in Iowa. Extirpated means a species no longer survives in an area, usually due to human persecution or habitat destruction, but it is not completely extinct in the world. Regulation of the killing of bears in the 20th century helped create viable --- or healthy --- populations in states around Iowa, such as Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri. Iowa does not have a current breeding population of black bears, and those appearing in eastern counties are usually coming from surrounding states. It may just be a matter of time before there are established breeding populations of bears in Iowa.

Did a pork butt braise Sunday evening. Used my standard rub with five spice, smoked paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, and a little brown sugar. Before I coated the roast I cut pockets in the meat and stuffed each with whole or half garlic cloves. Coated the meat with the rub and seared on all sides in Dutch oven. Added more garlic and chucked onions along with a dark beer (Modelo negra) and a cup of vegetable stock. Cooked covered for about 3 hrs at 350. Served with a broccoli and cauliflower casserole.

Good for you @mic on getting back out again. Hope that is a trend that you can continue. Also congrats on a new fishing technique for those trout!

@dan hufferd looks like a great way to enjoy the lake plus caught fish is a bonus!