Johnsfolly

You're getting there buddy! You know that plains topminnow spot is much closer to you than going for the common shiners around Columbia. I have only caught 73 different species for the year so far and I am not trying for fly caught fish. Not sure I will break 100. As I get closer and the year winds down, I may push for more common species, e.g., carp, brown trout, creek chub, Delmarva sculpin, rosyside shiners, tessellated darters, etc., that I haven't targeted this year since I have been pushing the lifer list targets. I haven't even caught a tautog or a striped bass yet this year🙄.

Another from Blairs Valley lake and the rainbow that I was after😁

A couple more from Hunting Crk Lake and some caught fish😉

That's awesome!

Blairs Valley Lake, Clearspring MD

Hunting Crk Lake, Cunningham Falls State Park Western Maryland.

@Daryk Campbell Sr looks like you had some fun😉. Bet it felt good to catch fish on your own creations.

The quote is "A fed bear is a dead bear!" In the Poconos there are lots of bear encounters but none that I am aware of that resulted in someone being attacked and mauled to death. They ruled out rabies and distemper for the one bear (I didn't read the other victim report 🙄). Seems like there is more going on with these attacks.

Where was this when my kids were babies🤔🤣? Hoping that one of my daughters will have a baby and invite grandpa over to watch it😁!

I don't know if these were my first fish but I do remember catching bluegill and small bass from a.community pond at my aunt's place in Fishkill NY. We would only get out there once or twice every couple of years. That pond had the most aggressive bass. So much so that I would go thru my tackle box and try lures that I hadn't caught fish. If I couldn't get a bite in the pond I would just toss those lures🤔😉. In the late summer trips the bats would be thick and they would dive bomb our baits. I do remember catching my first brown trout in CT on a rooster tail when I was 10 or 11. I know that I have told this story before. My first fly caught fish was a fallfish from a creek in the Poconos when I was 21. I was fishing a Caddis and lost sight of my bait. I made my back cast and the fish went sailing past my head and landed on the bank behind me🤣.

I knew that I would get some push back since the State agencies aren't being affected by the Govt shutdown. Still thought it was funny enough to post😉😁😁

Nice fishing @Ham! You know I love those Cyprinella shiners! I still need to catch both of those species😉. I hope to get back out to the midwest and chase those guys.

These are by far the most common suburban fall mushroom that we have seen. The neighbor's yard had several nice flushes and Sue and Livie brought some home. We confirmed species by the white spore print and cooked up some. Just a little butter and S&P. They retained their firmness. Weren't slimy and had a mild flavor but with just a slight bitter aftertaste. I was heading out of town when they harvested them and we didn't get a chance to try them in some recipes. Maybe next year.

You should just get one of these self driving vehicles to take you fishing😉😁

I was hoping to get three or four lifers and achieved that number. I also wanted to have a chance to catch a grassie or gar on one of your jigs. Never really had that chance but don't regret going back down to Galveston for the darter gobies.

Let me know if you need info for wild brook trout in Maryland. Some creeks here have stream bred browns. Most trout are stocked all over the state.

I track the states where I have caught trout. If I can get one in each state would be a nice secondary goal. I am more likely to follow the Billetheads and go for the different subspecies of trout across the country. That fits more in my goal to catch 500 different species and subspecies of fish.

I was hoping to get two new states this year - AL and OR. Alabama is not likely to happen but still have hope to get a few OR fish in Nov.

I also love catching brown trout. Wished that we lived closer to fish the fall Taney browns.

Link to the orange nurse shark https://share.google/images/ELI3NDiOhe0Va4fGD

Last Week I was back down in Texas for a business conference in Houston. I added a couple of days to the trip to get back out for new fish species that I was not able to fish or catch on my last trip back in Nov. I had planned for some freshwater and saltwater fishing. The first afternoon found me trying to find fishable access to the White Oak Bayou. I headed to Woodland park just north of downtown Houston. The creek banks in most spots had 4 to 10 ft drops down to the water. Most of the walking trail looked like this between the trail and the water ... I did find three access points, but still needed some mountain goat footing to fish the bank in the one access point. Fortunately the banks were sand which provided some grip. My targets were grass carp and spotted gar. Long story short, I saw both but they stayed out of casting range or on the down stream side of deadfalls that I could not get below and cast back upstream. I did have one gar that was tight up under some brush upstream of me. I made a cast and hung in the brush and a small sunfish grabbed the cutbait. That got me unhung and the gar came out and chased the sunfish. It ignored the cutbait and didn't respond to any of my other casts. I tried chumming for the carp using bread and strawberry dough baits. I just ended up feeding the turtles. I even landed one🙄. I saw a decent mirror pearl colored koi but it dissappeared quickly. I did catch a couple of sunfish and a Texas cichlid, all on bait. I did see a bunch of established exotic finches, scaly breasted munias. Bluegill Plains longear TX Cichlid The next morning had me running an hour down to Galveston Island. I felt certain that the small inlet to the East End Lagoon off of the shipping channel would be my best shot at catching some lifers. I had been in contact with one of the Houston area INAT folks for the past year and they have caught at least four species from that area that would be lifers for me. I typically don't like blind casting for micros, but on my first cast into the current I landed the first of my targets, a flagfin mojarra! I caught several of these guys. I also fished the schools of minnows looking for longnose and/or diamond killifish. I caught a bunch of the longnose killies, another lifer😉. I didn't find or have any luck on diamond killies. I tied on a larger hook and tossed out my shrimp. I would get bit as soon as I came tight. Nearly all of those fish were pinfish. I did land a small gray snapper and a cool looking pigfish. Redfish and gulf/southern flounder were also targets for this trip. That afternoon I headed to Sea Wolf Park to try for any of those species. The fish report board at the park had folks catching croakers, sand weakfish, ladyfish and kingfish. I still hadn't caught a ladyfish or a gulf kingfish. I fished a variety of baits and setups, high low rigs with shrimp or fishbites, fish finding rigs with cutbaits or tadem jig rigs with gulp minnows or swimming mullets. I caught a lot of croakers on the high low rigs with shrimp and the fishbites. I did land a couple of lifer ladyfish and a bunch of sand weakfish (aka sand trout), Even a southern kingfish - but not a Gulf king😒. Photos of the park. After dark I headed back to East end lagoon to do some night fishing. I was hoping to find some small flounder species or another target - the darter goby. Even with my brightest light setting I could only see about 12 to 16 inches deep and my red light setting was not useful at all. I saw a bunch of mullets that spooked at every opportunity. I saw more longnose killifish that refused to bite my shrimp. I also found what I thought must be the darter gobies and they also did not bite. I only caught one frillfin goby. Saturday was either going to be another saltwater or freshwater trip. Since I saw the possible darter gobies and still wanted to try and catch a redfish or gulf kingfish, I went back down to the Gulf to fish. I should have predicted that the beaches would be crowded since it was a decent Saturday. The first couple of spots were too crowded for me to feel comfortable fishing. Lost me a lot of fishing time. I ended up in Galveston Island State Park. There was a decent sized lagoon with a couple of folks already fishing. I started by microfishing a small outlet channel. Only bites were crabs. I saw two of the other folks catch puppy redfish on shrimp in the lagoon. I put on a tandem jig rig and fished 1.5 inch Gulp minnows and 1 inch pearl swimming mullets. I would get bites on each cast. No hook ups and often the tails would be bitten off the baits. Switched up to a high low rig with smaller hooks and caught a couple of pinfish, the likely culprits biting off the tails. I switched back to the tandem jig rig with a 3 inch chartruese swimming mullet and the pearl mullet bait. I got a decent bite that wasn't fighting like a pinfish. The body shape was right for a redfish, but instead it was a croaker😒. With the diamond killifish and the possible darter goby targets I headed back to the East End lagoon. The diamond killifish has a shorter body length like a sheepshead minnow but with a deeper body. I had on my tanago hook with shrimp and casted out to a school of fish that did not look like longnose killies. Turns out they were more flagfin mojarras. I caught a bunch before moving on. Close to where I saw them the night before I found about 6 or so gobies that could be the darter goby. They were only about 1.5 to 2 inches in length. They were agressive but since they were so small it was hard to get a hook set. I did lift one and finally got the largest one into the photo bag! Turned out to be the darter goby and the fourth lifer of my trip (would be my last as well). I had a great trip. I suspect that I will be back in TX in the near future and hope to get back after those targets that I didn't catch and maybe a few others as well.

I have seen an orange green sunfish and nurse shark articles lately. Is the incidence of these genetic oddities increasing or are more folks out there fishing?

Sea Wolf Park Sunset - Galveston TX