Johnsfolly

What a toad! Congrats on landing that giant striper!

Nice fish buddy! You will have to get with @JestersHK on getting a seamonster net. @BilletHead has a net that you can boat deer fawns ! They should be able to lead you to an adequate striper net!

Tell her that is a great catch and a nice addition for dinner!

they make a nice wall hanger😉. As cool as they look to me there is little sense in fighting the design if the gem pans work so much better. But I probably wouldn't fish with a 80 yr old bamboo fly rod either 🙄.

I had fun. Congrats to everyone that participated even with the heatwave! I know that I lost quite a bit of water weight for the small bass that I caught. I hope to be more competitive for the next one 😉

No photos. Had half of a ribeye steak with grilled bok choy with balsamic vinegar, and garlic roasted red potatoes.

They catch all kinds ! I know that @BilletHead catches a lot more variety than we have.

Looks like a great time! Congrats on guiding him to some nice fish!

You'll have to define very far away. An hour, two, or more? I'm not familiar with the St Louis area or the lakes there but know that there should be lots of creeks between 1 to 2 hours from you that will have longears in their more native creek habitats. Good luck.

They catch fish as well as look great. I was sick to my stomach when I lost the first one Marty gave me😒. Then he told me that he makes them to be fished.

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.