Johnsfolly

Looks great buddy. Even after eating this still makes me drool a bit looking at the photo

So I has been more than a week since I have been back in Maryland. Been a bachelor all this time, but with work, handling the garden, chickens, laundry, and feeding myself I have not put efforts in larger posts. I wanted to talk about the last fishing trip in Kansas with my daughter Livie. We ended up where I had started this fishing trip back at the plunge pool. After see the bass in the pool on the last trip and the drum that I caught, Livie wanted to fish for bass to start the day. I rigged up an extra wide worm hook and a fluke in baby bass color. I gave her a quick primer on how to fish the bait. On the first cast she got bit but pulled the hook on the hook set. I told her to let them swim with a bit more. Next cast and she caught her first bass of the trip. She caught two more on the fluke then let dad take over. Not having too much chance when fishing micros, I gave this 13 inch largemouth a little long arm deal ! We switched out the fluke for a texas rigged green pumpkin Berkley worm. Livie caught two more and dad caught another as well as a big green sunfish. My goal was to try for some darters and a possible madtom or two. While I was doing that Livie wanted to go for an orangespotted sunfish. The pool was blocked by a small rock dam and foamy on the surface. We opened up the dam and the foam quickly went down stream giving Livie a clear view of any orangespotted sunfish. She spotted one near where I caught mine on the last trip. As I was telling her to be careful to not catch one of the many other sunfish, she was landing the orangespotted sunfish on her first cast . After showing up dad, she had fun with the other sunfish like this longear sunfish. I was frustrated at the darters that would hit the bait once and then spooked off. I only saw five or so darters in the creek. Just couldn't get it done. I also had a madtom spook that wanted nothing to do with the bait. I did find a madtom to play and landed what I had hoped to be a new species. It was a cool catch but was a slender madtom that I have caught before. Done with the micros, we headed down to the pool that I had caught my drum on the last trip. We could see several big carp as well as a drum or two as we snuck to the pool. we tied on an olive/black marabou 1/16 oz jig and tipped it with a little redworm. Livie was having a tough time getting her cast into the sweet spot in the pool. So I showed her where to cast and how to retrieve the bait. As it was coming in a big drum inhaled the bait and I handed her the rod to fight the drum. She did a great job and landed this big drum from a small pool. She got that fish released and fished from the bottom of the pool. With more comfort that she would not tangle in brush above her she made some casts into the pool. I went back to get the other rod and she hooked up and was fighting a nice carp as I got back to her. Not long after she released this fish, a thunderstorm came in quickly and we got back to the vehicle before the deluge was upon us. We had a great time fishing Kansas and hope to get back that way again while my son is stationed out that way.

We were in Missouri the first week of July. I picked up a Wagner Ware #8 that I wanted to give to one of my kids once it has been cleaned and reseasoned. There is something visceral about that first cleaning with oven cleaner. Starting to get off the 50 to 60 years of build-up. The old carbon fought well but I was able to get a refurbished skillet done and I gave it to my daughter and her boyfriend for hopefully another 40 to 50 years of cooking .

@BilletHead nice pieces. Did you get some of those from Relics since one or more of those look familiar?

Not a legal entry since I didn't photograph the fish with 733. Also I didn't photo my authentication of my unusually large hands which are easily 24 inches long making this fish easily 20 inches in length 🤣.

Its a male redbreast sunfish. The redbreast and green sunfish were the only aggressive fish in the creek that I was fishing. Didn't get a chance to throw a line in the Potomac due to high number of people everywhere and low water like this spot. Looks nice kind of like sections of lower Current river. Need to figure out where fish would be holding. Wish that it wasn't 3 hours from house.

Casting a small jig to a 12 to 13 inch smallie and hooked this guy. Did not catch a bass today 😒. Smallies in MD are snobs. Rejected all those good MO baits. Going for LMB tomorrow. Not likely to get a 20 inch fish just want to post an actual bass photo.

Your juniper is looking good!

Nice fat fish buddy! Early lead is not a bad place to be!

Congrats to Pat! That is a great blue catfish!

This always makes me laugh!

Nice new profile photo! Looks very relaxing.

Though not likely to catch a bass larger than 12 inches, I donated to CAM. So put me on the list Jeff.

I was going to get into taxonomic research, genetic confirmation and assignment of new species, etc., but it's probably because they wouldn't give him a new truck at the MDC. So they pay him to update that book.

I sent the photo onto Robert Hrabik who is currently revising the Fishes of Missouri guidebook. His response was highfin carpsucker.

Congrats on a very nice rainbow! Go catch some more! We used to fish some strip pits that we called extreme adventure fishing. Similarly we would often have to climb up and down cliffs to get to the water. I once caught a 6+ lb channel cat which I am certain someone switched at the last minute for the 8 lb bass that was on my line . I thought about keeping the catfish for dinner. I looked at the catfish and then at the 16 foot cliff above me and then at the catfish.... Needless to say that catfish swam off strong !

So I pulled out the Fishes of Missouri 2nd edition to look over this guy again. The first pair was between the quillback and the other carpsuckers (i.e., highfin and river). The features for the quillback were: A lack of a projection on the lower lip - well we can't see the lower lip The upper jaw does not extend beyond the front of the eye - hard to tell from the photo but looks like it might not extend beyond the front of the eye. Quillback had 36 or 37 lateral line scales - this fish appears to have 36 again hard to tell from the photo; the other carpsuckers have from 34 to 36 lateral line scales The length of the snout is about equal to the distance from the back of the eye to the upper end of the gill opening - on this fish the snout is much shorter than the distance from the back of the eye to the gill opening Based upon that last feature, I went to the pairing for the highfin and river carpsuckers. For a highfin the primary dorsal ray is approximately as long or longer than the length of the dorsal fin - it does not appear that on this fish that the dorsal ray is that long For a highfin the standard length (length from tip of snout to the base of the tail (caudal peduncle)) is les than 2.6 times the body depth (distance from belly to top of the back) - for this fish its standard length is 2.26 times its depth The river carpsuckers does not have a long primary dorsal ray and its length is at last 2.6 times its body depth. To me the weight of evidence is that @Al Agnew is correct about this fish being a highfin carpsucker.

I'm talking about out here in the Chesapeake. we have really bad water quality here in the summer. Also people around here think that fish are indestructible. I have been really bad at catching any eaters this year. Only had a meal of catfish this year. I'm slacking for sure.

Healthy looking fish Jeff! Last year there was really high catch and release mortality in the summer from the recreational fisheries. So we are being asked to refrain from any striper fishing if the water temp gets too hot to hold adequate O2 levels.That may be most afternoons in the shallower waters near the banks.

Looks like more investigation is needed ! I'll dig thru some keys and see if there are identifying features in the original photo possibly those that have been discussed already or others that will help with this id.

She sounds hideous. Well she's a guy! Have to be my favorite lines!

Jeff I would agree with you that it is likely a quillback. @curtisce pretty cool fish. @BilletHead is right am a bit jealous of a cool catch like that guy.

Congrats! It's been a while since I have seen that nice of a brown trout from that river.

Plants typically respond to injury by sending out more shoots. Stimulating the growth of new shoots should lead to more flowers and fruit. You will get a thicker lawn by routinely cutting the grass and stimulating side shoots. Deadheading flowering plants usually results in multiple flushes of flowers. Fruit trees and vines throw out more flowers and then more fruit.

The hard decision to make is to cull the deer. Snipers would cost far less or better yet sell tags to bowhunters and actually make money. Still having 2000 deer castrated or not will still result in collisions.