Johnsfolly

You and me as well😢. Maybe Santa @BilletHead will bring some to Jigfest.

Take a look at the what's cooking thread. Hundreds of pages that have braised meat meals and tips. The longer that you cook the neat and keep it in liquid the more likely it will be tender. If I am not following a recipe my fallback is to dust the squirrel in seasoned flour (salt, pepper, garlic powder, sometimes curry). I'll brown the pieces in oil in a dutch oven. Once brown I'll add chicken stock, a mushroom liquer (chicken stock soaked dried porcini mushroom), usually white wine or an amber beer. As Marty said keep the liquid halfway covering the meat. I'll add cut carrots, onions, and garlic cloves. Cook for 2 to 3 hours. During tge last 40 min add in some more liquid and sliced flavorful mushrooms (chanterelles, baby portabellas, etc.). Serve over noodles or rice. In salivating thinking about it now.

Congrats and thank you for your service buddy.

I wet mine and use game shears. I keep the tails dry so cut them before I wet them down. With as many squirrels that I kill each year always seems to take a bit of time to skin them.

She was getting a bit metaphysical and insisted that we go with the flow. She has been outfishing me the last few trips. No problems for me or my ego. I have a long term goal to fish with my grandkids and if her outfishing me now ultimately achieves that goal then I win😁.

I was able to take off a couple of hours yestetday and decided to put my hunting license and fall turkey tags to work. Got my 12 ga and my camo on and headed to a National forest land access that I had found hen of the wooods mushrooms and had a chance at bumping some turkeys as well as bushytails. I had a modified choke and my small game loads. I had my turkey choke as well as a couple of turkey loads as well. I headed across a wide cattle field heading to the woodlots. I immediately saw a fox squirrel off near a single tree in the field. Then a couple more. No shots on any of them but good to see active game. As I headed down to a wooded creek bottom I had a shot at a large fox squirrel. I prefer grays or young foxes so let this guy bound away. I headed up the over the ridge above the creek and heard some squirrels ahead and to my side. About 20 yards to my right I saw a pair of grays. The one gave me a shot opportunity but moved higher in the tree. The two chased each other around and headed back down the tree. The first one gave me a shot and I dropped it. The second soon stopped in the same spot and met the same fate as the first. Two shots and a couple of nice grays on the ground. Just need a couple more for a fine small game meal. I got moving again. As I was coming around a stock pond I could see a coyote near a large lone persimmon tree. I made some squeaks with my mouth. The coyote would look up in my direction but wouldn't leave that tree. It didn't stay too long as I headed towards that area. So my goal was to get some aquirrels but to also find some bones for my daughter's halloween costume. I went into a stand of cedars that I often find old cow bones. I found a jaw bone and vertebrae. As I was sneaking through the cedars I heard some squirrels ahead of me. Two ran up ahead of me and no shots. I saw some more bones ahead. I picked up both lower jaw bones, a couple of molars and the skull plate of a spike buck. With the bones secured back to the hunt. I got into a couple more grays and shot my third of the night. I have found that I can move through the noisy woods calling on my turkey call and not spook too much game. Often I will get squirrels to respond to that call. I came around the end of a ridge top and found an older slightly yellowing Hericium coralloides. I've eaten and ejoyed these guys before and was dissapointed to find an older one. As I headed along the backside of that ridge I made some hen clucks and yelps and got a response ahead of me. I snuck closer and called some more. The bird responded. Hoping that I could get it headed my way I continued to call and got response. This went on for a while. In that time I was able to switch out my choke tubes, loaded my turkey loads, and got my headnet and gloves on. The bird seemed to head away from me slightly. I snuck over to the ridge where I thought that the bird was when it first responded. As I got to that ridge top I could hear scratching ahead of me. I decided to sneak in further and not call. I got to a tree to setup just above where I could still hear the scratching. I must have moved slightly since a blue head appeared ahead of me. She was agitated and moved away from me. I shot thinking it was about 50 yards but more likely 65 yards and a clean miss. Since this was a single bird I called for a few more minutes and switched back to small game set up. I was heading back out of this section of woods and bunped another fox squirrel. No shot. Then a gray that came back down the tree towards me. The fourth was in the game bag. I was walking along an old grassy logging road and thought that it would be cool to bump a rabbit. Around the next bend I saw a cotton white tail bounding away. I put the gun up and the rabbit stood to look at what was behind it as I shot. I had another run off into some thick brush and got away. The game bag was certainly getting heavy. I decided to skirt the next cattle field in case I could get another rabbit. I was thinking at this point that I hadn't seen any deer. About 80 yards ahead of me was a feeding doe! I watched her for a while and tried to get a good photo. Too dark and far away for my camera. Would have been an easy rifle shot. If I had my bow maybe I would have tried to reach a stand of small trees in front and to my left that would have put me about 50 yards to her. Maybe another night. Definitely enjoyed the evening and headed home with a Missouri mixed small game bag and a bunch of memories😁.

Worked first couple of days of our stay here in MO. Still thinking about how to get Livie on a species that she has not caught this year. White crappie seemed like the best bet without having to travel far. After work we got the rods in the car and headed to Little Dixie Lake. Since we weren't going to have a whole lot of time, we decided to fish trout magnet jigs right off the dock. Livie was fishing a 6' airstream UL rod with #2 lb Pline fluoroclear line. She had a white and chartteuse jig body. I had a similiar set-up with a 7' airstream UL rod and same line. I started with a black back and green belly jig. First fish was going to get a cookie. Livie had her first fish before I had even got to the end of the dock. It was also a white crappie her 50th different species since March. So she gets a cookie 😁. She had three more crappie before I caught my first. I switched to a black and chartreuse jig and Livie caught a couoke more to my one. After this beat down she offered to let me fish her rod and I oassed 😌. I did look for another bait like hers. Could only find a pink back white belly jig and put that one on. I go into Livie's Tai Chi approach to catching these crappie. She would say that if you go with the flow and don't care to catch a fish you will catch a fish. We ended the night as it got dark. Only fished about an hour. Livie had 12 to dad's 7 crappie. Was a great time and beautiful evening.

Sounded like an interesting day for sure. Congrats on getting some of those fish in the boat!

Looks like a great time. I always enjoy catching a bunch of different fish. You guys were successful in that! Congrats!

Thanks Dan! Those fish are under my skin ever since that first trip. I'm working on a musky trip somewhere, possibly Pomme, for Sunday. Lots of encounters to keep me coming back, but it's been a while since I held one. Love to change that soon!

Looks fun buddy. We have spent so much time in the salt that I have not caught a bass yet in Maryland.

Are you taking out your daughter? Livie wants to spend time with her friends this weekend .

I'm in MO and have my bow in tow. I have plans to get out sometime this weekend and early next week. Just have to plan around where to go during the youth season this weekend.

Looks awesome guys! Still have not found even remotely comparable smallmouth waters in Maryland like those in Missouri. Have to keep looking hopefully with a couple of HD hellgrammites in the tackle bag.

TJM - From what I could find there are no native trout species found in Missouri. Not even brook trout which are native to the eastern mountains were not found in Missouri historically. @Al Agnew will likely know more than I do on that subject. I do not believe that there is a naturalized (breeding population) population of rainbows in the Niangua. There are many other sites in MO where the water temps and dissolved oxygen concentrations year round remain in the range where the rainbows have become naturalized, like Crane creek, Barren Fork creek, Mill creek, Blue Springs creek, etc.

I'm definitely a wise guy!

Congrats on tagging a doe. Cool pictures of those elk. I think that it is awesome to be able to see elk in Missouri. Can't wait for them to put in a limited draw hunt for elk.

This all from the guy that doesn't want the MDC to spend money on trout😜! Looks like you guys still had a good time fishing together.

Good looking hens. I hope to get out some time this week to check the spots where I have found old hens previously. Maybe take the scattergun (only guns I brought to MO this trip) and one of my children for some groceries as well, aka bushytails or hens of another kind ! We didn't know how the hens would freeze. So the what we didn't eat from that small hen that Livie found in Maryland went into the dehydrator.

The farm where we get our Christmas trees must be full of them. Seems like at least every other year or two we will have one or more egg masses in the tree when we get it home. If you have learned anything about our family and my youngest that means that we will put the egg mass(es) in a jar and cover it with cheesecloth. It will stay in the house for a while until it gets warm outside. Then it will go outside placed so that it is out of the rain. More often than not come late spring there will be tens of little preying mantis ready to be released. Last year they got released into the tomato plants on the deck.

I think that the Hens have more mushroom flavor than chickens. I like the texture of the chickens a bit better.

Congrats on a nice bunch of fish! Great job staying with them. Also nice to catch a bunch of bonus fish as well.

Nice bass. Definitely a nice striper and a pig of a spotted bass!

What an innocent looking killing machine

Actually been watching a lot of winter jetty fishing videos for tautog or blackfish. Many of the video spots I recognize. So I am confident that I will be able to land a few in Nov. Livie may come along. We'll have to see. Looking forward to a briny winter fishery😁.