Johnsfolly

Didn't he once say that the hardest punch he ever threw was against Robin Givens🙄?

There are at least nine of the 13 recognized species of Lepomis sunfish commonly found in MO; including bluegill, redear, green, warmouth, longear, orangespotted, redspotted, dollar, and bantam. It is my understanding that true pumpkinseed sunfish, Lepomis gibbosus, are pretty rare in MO. I know that I have spent some money and put in a bunch of miles trying to catch the bantam and dollar sunfish in MO. I also had to eventually run to KS to catch an orangespotted sunfish this summer. Still have been a lot of fun so far.

ok - last attempt - 405

Almost thought that you were going beyond PG-13 with the double entendre.

Be careful you're sounding like a biologist🤔.

Very true!

I hope So!

hey in FL you can have gators and pythons😄

No reason to pour a lot of money if the population was increasing on its own. They are looking at starting a hunting season for bears in MO.

I bet you loved those tests that required to read all questions first before solving and the last question is answer question one only and have a good break🤔

414

I'm up to 50 different species so far this year. Six were new species.

Where its legal throwing a Sabiki is a great way to catch herring and lots of other small fish species. Like @Ham no problem throwing one.

You know how people that have been severely traumatized have a tendency to block that painful memory, that was the biting flies experience 🙄

That's just flat out funny!!!

I had thought that new records needed to meet the Master Angler criteria, but since they had a previous record on the books this fish counts. I think that I have caught larger ones on hook and line. Congrats to Robert on this state record fish! Need to get some guys to set up limb lines for longears . St. Louis angler catches state record longear sunfish Robert Audrain III now holds the record longear sunfish under alternative methods JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) congratulates Robert Audrain III of St. Louis for catching a new state record longear sunfish. Audrain was fishing from a private pond in Franklin County July 3 when he caught the 4-ounce fish. “I was fishing off my father-in-law’s dock at a private lake a little south of Eureka,” Audrain said. “I was with my 12-year-old son and we knew there was some good-sized sunfish in the lake. I was using my handline and it was the first line I threw in when we caught the fish.” The sunfish was weighed on a certified scale at MDC’s St. Louis Regional Office. It’s the 8th state-record fish recorded for 2020. “It’s funny because most of my friends thought it was a joke,” laughed Audrain. “Because of the fish’s size, they really didn’t think that it was a record.” The previous record was a 3-ounce fish caught in 1993 in Lick Log Creek. “The previous record was recognized before the requirement to meet or exceed the Master Angler Award minimum was instituted,” explained MDC Fisheries Programs Specialist Andrew Branson. “Even though this new record is below the Master Angler Award minimum of 8-ounces, it still beats the existing record.” As for his new record, Audrain said he plans to mount the sunfish. “My buddy’s father is a taxidermist, and I think I’m going to have him mount it,” he said. “But I think my son and I are going to try for another record. We’re pretty sure there’s a bigger fish in that lake. I think it’d be cool for him to beat my record!” Missouri state-record fish are recognized in two categories: pole-and-line and alternative methods. Alternative methods include: trotlines, throwlines, limblines, banklines, juglines, spearfishing, snagging, snaring, gigging, grabbing, archery, and atlatl. For more information on state-record fish, visit http://bit.ly/2efq1vl. CAPTION: Robert Audrain III of St. Louis is the latest record-holder of 2020 after catching a 4-ounce longear sunfish July 3 off a private lake in Franklin County. Find this and other MDC media releases in our MDC online Newsroom.

They have armadillos in their trousers or maybe the making of a salad.

Well it's too thick to be rattlesnake and not dark enough to be 'Dillo. Maybe nutria?

We only saw a couple of boats on the Current. When we got back to the Jacks Fork access it looked like a pool party with folks everywhere. Sunbathing on the boat ramp, floating in innertubes, etc. One surprise was the small size of the smallmouth that we had caught.

I caught a 4 footer in Florida. Don't want to do that again. It was hard sometimes to get fish in before the gators ate them on your line.

A four year reprise of where it started. At 7:30 am on July 10th, I met up with @Ham again at the Eminence boat ramp on the Jacks Fork river. It had been nearly four years since we first met and fished this area. Again this time I had come down from Columbia and Ham up from Flippin to see what we could catch. We did discuss our targets for the day. Trip Goals: Catch 15 different fish species between the two of us. Catch a total of 3 new lifelist species between the two of us. Catch 5 new fish for our annual species total Catch 50 total fish for Waldo The first catching happened right at the boat ramp on the Jack Fork. We both had micro gear and were casting to the schools of bleeding shiners, chubs, stonerollers, etc. Ham was fishing a microjig with a tandem fly and I was fishing a #22 with a piece of worm. Ham caught the first fish of the day, a bleeding shiner, then another. Then bigeye and striped shiners. it would make life so much easier if fish realized that we just want a photo and we will let them go soon after that, but they sometimes just don't cooperate. So Ham is getting the species total and numbers going while I'm still sitting on zero. Had my chances, but lost a couple. Then I finally got on the board with a longear sunfish. Then a couple of bleeding shiners. Ham had moved upstream to the other ramp. As I was heading his way a bunch of darters caught my eye. Had to stop and try for them since I have not seen many in MD and have not caught one in 2020. Played with them and caught two. Ham also caught this guy and I had to play my role as COD - Crusher of Dreams and id'ed it as a rainbow darter. Still a new species for the year for both of us and another on the board. We had to pull ourselves away from the Jacks Fork and head to the Two River access on the Current. I had tow primary lifer targets in mind for this trip, a current darter and skipjack herring. I would obsess about the skipjack, but more on that later. We pulled into a large side pool and tried for pickerel, shadow bass, and smallies. We threw some jerkbaits for pickerel with no success. Ham caught shadows and smallies in this hole. I caught my first smallmouth bass of the year on an olive Rapala X-Rap that I was throwing for the pickerel. Only about 7 to 8 inches in length, but it will "click" . I followed that up with my first shadow bass of the year as well caught on a 1/8 oz Tri-olive Zig Jig. At the head of the pool Ham had a skipjack follow his jig as he was winding it in. I put on a small silver spoon and the quest began. I got it to follow once, but no bites. Tried many casts for another but none showed up. This will become a recurring theme throughout the day. We moved spots and ran up the Jacks Fork. Could see many new fish, but caught a couple more smallmouth and shadow bass drifting back downstream. Then onto the next spot and the next. In one of the big pools that we fished, the drum would taunt Ham. I have caught a drum this year so I was more focused on what fish were around the logs and root wads in the pool, like whitetail shiners. I caught a shadow bass but could not get the shiners to play. The drum were frustrating Ham as well. Ham will have to correct me, but I thought that we caught the first bluegill of the day in that hole. After that hole we went further downstream. Caught a few striped shiners and more bluegill in a woody creek coming into the river. My first striped shiner in that area hit the X-rap that I was using again for pickerel! We moved on to fish along a bank with boulders and rock to look for sculpin. Saw a logperch, but not for long. Ham caught the first green sunfish of the trip and had a drum go towards his jig. After that he was targeting the drum while I was focused on the darters amongst the rocks. Again mostly rainbows, but there was one greenside darter that I just could not keep a bait in front of while the boat was moving in the water. Ham did the impossible and finally hooked and we landed the first drum on a jig! He came back to try for the greenside darter, but no success. We tried a little creek to look for current darters. Again lots of bleeding shiners and other micros. I actually saw a 5 inch rainbow trout and had it bite my microgear but missed getting a hookset. Ham caught a northern studfish and I caught a blackspotted topminnow to continue to add to the species totals for the day. I went up into the creek and saw a groups o minnow with orange tinted fins. They looked like bluntnose minnows to me. They were spooky, but I did get one to bite and got it in the bag for photos. The blackspot at the tail as well as the lateral stripe led me to believe that this was a bluntnose minnow, but it just didn't look right. I ultimately ended up looking over a few different species and again none really looked like this fish. I contacted a friend and he responded that he believes that this fish is a common hybrid in that area with a parental lineage of an Ozark minnow and hornyhead chub. Not sure how those seemingly different species would be able to hybridize, but this fish does have characters of both of those species. So who knows. We did count it as a different "species" for the day. I called Ham over to try for these fish as well, but the few that I had seen had left the area. Then the darters from hell showed up. We just got into a bunch of greenside darters including a couple of males in breeding colors. Ham has not caught one before and he did most of the fishing for them. Many just would not play or were in positions where you couldn't get a bait to easily enough to get a bite. So nothing there either . We went to a few more spots and creeks, but never did really find any current darters. I had my chances at a few skipjacks. I had one bite a PET No 1 spoon and missed getting it hooked. I tried silver in-line spinners that just didn't go fast enough to trigger a bite. My next possible successful attempt was using a PET spoon tied to the white/gray Zig Jig. One skipjack actually hit both the spoon and the jig on a retrieve and did not get hooked. I never did land one and spent a lot of productive fishing time trying for those guys, which limited Ham's ability to catch more species himself. We did have an encounter with Cujo, I mean Emma, which at one point I thought she might have tried to jump into the boat. We did stop in one hole just to abuse sunfish for a while. That was fun. All in all it was a good day, albeit quite hot. So how did we do on our goals? Catch 15 different fish species between the two of us. - we only caught a total of 13 Bleeding shiner, bigeye shiner, Northern studfish, striped shiner, smallmouth bass, shadow bass, rainbow darter, hybrid minnow, longear sunfish, bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, drum, and blackspotted topminnow - Catch a total of 3 new lifelist species between the two of us. - neither of us caught a new lifer 0 - had chances at greenside darters, the hybrid minnow, and skipjack herring Catch 5 new fish in total for our annual species total - I caught my first bleeding shiner, striped shiner, blackspotted topminnow, smallmouth bass, shadow bass, and rainbow darter of the year Ham caught his first bleeding shiner, rainbow darter, and drum of the year Catch 50 total fish for Waldo - In total we caught well over 70 fish on the day. It's always a great time getting together with Ham. Can't wait to do it again.

Lucky Guys! MDC announces five hunters drawn for elk permits Five Missourians drawn were among 19,215 applications to hunt antlered elk this fall. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is offering Missourians the state’s first elk-hunting season in modern history starting this October. For the inaugural season, MDC will issue one permit each to five lucky Missourians randomly drawn from 19,215 permit applications, including 33 for one resident-landowner antlered-elk permit and 19,182 for four general permits. The five lucky applicants drawn for a permit to harvest one antlered elk in Missouri this fall are: Bill Clark of Van Buren, who was drawn for the resident-landowner antlered-elk permit. Joseph Benthall of Mount Vernon, who was drawn for an antlered-elk general permit. Michael Buschjost of St. Thomas, who was drawn for an antlered-elk general permit. Samuel Schultz of Winfield, who was drawn for an antlered-elk general permit. Eugene Guilkey of Liberty, who was drawn for an antlered-elk general permit. Each of the five can purchase their elk-hunting permit starting July 1 for a cost of $50. The five hunters can then each harvest one bull elk that has at least one antler being a minimum of six inches long. The five hunters may hunt using archery methods Oct. 17-25 and firearms methods Dec. 12-20. Each permit is valid for both the archery and firearms portions of the elk-hunting season. The resident landowner permit will be used by Clark on his 80 acres east of Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The four general permits may be used within Carter, Reynolds, or Shannon counties excluding the refuge portion of Peck Ranch. Learn more about elk hunting in Missouri online at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/elk. Elk are a native species in Missouri but were hunted to extinction in the state through unregulated hunting during the late 1800s. Missouri’s first pending elk hunt this fall comes after years of restoration efforts of the native species by MDC, numerous partners including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and many supporters including local communities and area landowners. Learn more about elk restoration in Missouri at short.mdc.mo.gov/ZYJ. More on Those Drawn Bill Clark of Van Buren, 78, is a life-long hunter of deer, turkey, and small game. He has also pursued elk in Colorado and Wyoming in the 1990s. He and his family own 80 acres east of Peck Ranch Conservation Area where they conduct timber-stand improvements on the heavily forested property and also plant clover and native grasses for elk and other wildlife. Clark says he applied for the elk hunt because he supports MDC’s elk restoration and management efforts, wildlife management in general, and wants to help the herd by thinning a bull. He adds that he frequently sees elk on his property and has noticed an increase in local tourism since elk first arrived in the area in 2011, including an uptick in elk driving tours at Peck Ranch. Joseph Benthall of Mount Vernon, 37, has been deer hunting off and on for 25 years and has not hunted elk before. He says he applied for the Missouri opportunity because he has wanted to hunt elk but has not had the time or money for a trip out west. He adds that he will only be rifle hunting. Michael Buschjost of St. Thomas, 39, says he is, “Pretty darn excited to draw this tag!” His passion is bowhunting and he has hunted elk in Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming with two bulls and a cow elk harvested from those efforts. He says he is excited to take his three kids with him to scout the area before the season opens. “I’m really looking forward to being part of this first hunt,” says Buschjost. “A ton of work has been done on MDC’s part to make this happen.” Samuel Schultz of Winfield, 42, has been hunting for 30 years and he mostly hunts deer and turkey. He has hunted small game in the past, done some trapping, and loves to fish as well. He has hunted elk before in Colorado back in the early 2000s and says he was fortunate enough to harvest a 6x6 bull with his bow on a self-guided hunt. “I love that MDC brought elk back to Missouri and I can't wait for the opportunity to hunt them,” Schultz says. Eugene Guilkey of Liberty, 59, has lived most of his life in northwest Missouri and has hunted since his youth. Guilkey says he plans to hunt both portions and will use a crossbow during the archery portion. He adds that he will mainly use the archery portion to scout for the rifle portion. “Growing up in Missouri, I used to hunt rabbit, squirrel, quail, and dove, along with deer and turkey. I have never hunted elk,” Guilkey says. “I suppose the cost of a trip like that kept me from pursuing that dream. I also battled cancer last year, and during my battle and recovery, I found an elk-hunting show on television that only hunts public land. I thought perhaps one day I could do that… and now I can! At this time last year, I was given the news I had cancer. Now, a year later, I’ve been given the opportunity of a lifetime! Thank you for the chance!” Guilkey adds that he never wins any drawings. “When MDC contacted me via email, I was at work,” he recalls. “I literally jumped out of my chair screaming I had won! My coworkers thought I had lost my marbles! My family and I were almost in shock and disbelief! Since that day, I’ve thought of almost nothing else in my spare time… lodging, scouting, learning to call elk, gear… I’m like a kid at Christmas!” Bill Clark of Van Buren, Joseph Benthall of Mount Vernon, Michael Buschjost of St Thomas, Samuel Schultz of Winfield, and Eugene Guilkey of Liberty were each drawn for a hunting permit to harvest one antlered elk during Missouri’s first elk season in modern history this fall. Find this and other MDC media releases in our MDC online Newsroom.

Just stop it already! I live by the Chesapeake, the national nursery for the Atlantic coast striper population, and have not caught as many stripers as you have this year buddy! Seriously you have locked in on those guys! You and @Lance34 have me thinking that I may have to fish Beaver if I want to catch stripers.

Agreed!!!

My daughter works retail and gets to deal with all of the vitriol from rude customers about the COVID restrictions. Small business' know that they are likely to lose some customers over signs like these. Being asked to wear a mask when in a store or to abide by the max number of customer rules should not warrant expletive outbursts or death threats IMHO. Under these circumstances now is the time that small businesses and restaurants need our support more than ever. I'm willing to put up with the social distancing requirements to help keep some of these guys in business when this is over if ever.