Johnsfolly

Good luck guys. Always loved chanterelle foraging even more than morels. We've had some great spots all around Columbia and many heavy sacks of chants. A favorite recipe was to make roulade chicken breasts with a chanterelle and apricot stuffing.😁

I've caught Atlantic sharpnose, smooth and spiny dogfish. Do have plans on a shark trip offshore this summer and some local beach trips. Don't expect a great white. Hoping for sandbar or sand tigers. A mako or thresher would be awesome but not very likely.

Great to back on that new streak Pete😉!

I have a photo of a barracuda that I saw down in Key Largo that had at least four jigs dangling from it's mouth.

I had a buddy lose a large roostertail in our site pond when I worked in FL. He lost it to a big green sunfish and his old line didn't help. I caught that fish two days later on a fluke. I could see the spinner blade sticking out of its mouth. I caught a 3+ lb bass one time in FL that had ca 15 to 18 inches of 6# or less line trailing from its anus .

I lost one last year on my Nov FL trip. I had a new reel that I was planning on using for shore fishing stripers and bluefish. I hadn't used it before. I didn't bring a 7 to 8 ft MH rod with me since I didn't want the baggage fees. So I bought one for $20 at Walmart and put on that reel. I was fishing a pier that did not have railings. I cast out a cut bait and set the rod on a bucket. With the current I didn't want to keep the bail open, but the big mistake was to not really loosen up the drag. The fish grabbed the bait and the rod was gone in 5 - 10 seconds. If I had one of my baitrunner reels I may have caught that fish. The guy next to me was using the one bench on the pier as a rod rest and he almost lost one of his rods but the reel hung up on the top of the bench before the whole thing ended up in the water. He pulled two large stingrays to the pier, which is likely what took my rod.

We use an Atlas hand crank roller. I agree that handmade pasta is great, but can be a bit of time to make and to clean up after. So we leave it for special occassions. Maybe if I made it every day I would be more proficient and take less time to make a batch or three.

Hey Dave - Really love those northern studfish catches! Very cool when they get colored up like those guys. You do have both blackspotted and blackstriped topminnows in you photo mix.

Great that you got out and caught a salty fish! I agree that it's a gulf toadfish and no they are not venomous. Gulf toadfish are commonly believed to be toxic/venomous, but this belief is untrue. While other members of the batrachoidid family (toadfishes) do have toxic excretions, the Gulf Toadfish does not. The purpose of these excretions is still unknown and, although it can have irritating effects on people and fish, it is not a toxin. I catch oyster toadfish all the time and you do not want to lip one (he says from experience🙄).

Slowly eeking out more lifers. Took advantage of a planned black sea bass trip in NJ to target some lifers. We had a dismal night trip going for banded and blackbanded sunfish. Seemed like the water levels were higher than when a buddy caught a bunch a year or so ago. Saw only a couple of uninterested fish including several redfin pickerel (cousins of those grass pickerel @Ham and @FishnDave catch in AR). May have to try again later in the summer. I had a contact give me information on feather blennies in the Manasquan river. We got out there on Tuesday of this week and found several and even caught some 🙂. #12 Lifer for 2024 - Feather Blenny Livie's Male Feather Blenny was much nicer than mine. #13 Seaboard Goby Livie also caught an unexpected Lifer, a smallmouth flounder, that we originally thought was a juvenile summer flounder. Turns out that this species only gets to 5 inches in length. Close up of it's name sake.

I used to make a chicken version of cacciatore. Was a great way to elevate cheap chicken back in the day. Now there is no cheap chicken🙄.

We do like to eat them when we catch them.

Was going to bring this one up but saw that you did. I don't worry about flathead like I do the effects of those big blue cats. The young striper recruitment has been dismal the last few years in the bay. Could be warmer water temps but also increased predation in the spawning creeks and rivers that didn't have a large predator like blue cats previously. As agressive as pickerel might be they aren't really going to make a big impact on juvenile stirper numbers. Those young fish were more likely to be eaten by other stripers once they got into the bay. Now there are blue cats in all of the big rivers and almost all of the smaller tributaries on both sides of the bay. Snakeheads have expanded into those same areas as well. I saw four the other night while I was out fishing a small creek for darters. Had to kick one out of my way as I headed upstream. Also they have been finding crabs in the stomachs of blue cats and over the last few years the crab populations are dropping as well. I found out that there isn't the processing plants locally that can handle the blue cats. So there isn't a real viable commercial utilization of those fish yet.

They are good to eat and have a nice firm white flesh. Also you tend to get a bit more meat from them. There are a couple of other OAF folks that have been catching them in AR. They can let you know how good table fare they may be.

That was our entire spring this year. Screwed all of my creek fishing plans for weeks and weeks 🙄

I was thinking that as well.

According to the Peterson's reptile field guide that is a red-eared slider. Just in case you didn't know or were wondering😉

Great show😉

I agree. If I am keeping bass they are going to be less than 12 inches and under most lake slot limits. I find that bass that size don't have that muddy taste like the larger ones. Besides in this instance I would want that bass to spawn.

Just formalized my Herp life list😉. I have 97 on the.list so far. Need to go looking for a few to get over 100😁

The species name for one of the "red worm or red wigglers" species is Eisenia fetida based upon their smell😉. We tend to have both red worms that we use for panfish and microfishing and canadian nightcrawlers for catfish and suckers.

@Quillback and @Dutch sounds like a great trip and report! That was a solid white bass.