Johnsfolly

I'm going with 29" in length and 10 lbs 12 oz.

I have no disdain for carp. Think that they are a great fighting fish. Great catches! Congrats to all the lucky anglers. I haven't found a relatively local population of grass carp near Columbia. Caught commons in Eagle bluff CA.

Nice report BH! Some nice fat bass. Gotta love a hefty tug on the line or 22 of them☺.

Out raspberries are loaded this year as well. Picked the first hand full of ripe ones yesterday.

I also do want to say that I was fishing Wilson's creek at 6:30 am Sat morning and then the Delaware access of the James river. No fish at Wilson's creek, but did catch this 14" smallmouth at 9:30 am in the James. Then a day spent with the family touring the Smallin Civil War cave and Relics Antique mall before meeting JHK at 9:15 pm down at Taney. So I don't look near as bad as I probably felt at the time. Good thing we were catching fish to keep me awake .

Between 12:30 and 12:45 am. Not as young as I used to be.

Finally got to editing the photos that JestersHK took while he and I were fishing last Sat. I caught the smallmouth and walleye on a stickbait and the sucker on a 1/8 oz marabou zig jig. Smallmouth - since I was hoping for a brown trout this was the wrong brown fish for Sat night but a nice fighting fish. My PB walleye (ok only my second walleye ever) - estimated 19 to 20" This fish fought so hard that I was convinced that it was a brown trout, but it wasn't. It's likely a white sucker, but I know a guy that knows about these fishes. So hopefully he will confirm the id of this fish. By the way, JestersHK's grip didn't taste so good . What can you do when night fishing? No pictures of the procession of rainbows. Did catch a few with some serious shoulders. Seemed to fight harder at night. I hope to get down there again soon. JHK put us on the fish!

She caught an awesome bass! Great job dad getting her out and on fish! She should remember that for some time.

JestersHK Do you even sleep☺!?! Had a great time and am glad that we were able to finally get to fish Taney. It was only Nov when we started the discussion about fishing for browns. As you mentioned had a great multispecies trip on a lake that I only expected to catch some rainbows and maybe a brown. Got my PB for walleye on this trip. Will have to figure out from the photos what type of sucker I caught. Hopefully a new species. That was a big fish as well. Lots of nice thick rainbows. You are really figuring out this lake. You didnt even mention how you called the shot that I would catch a fish within 5 casts and hit that walleye on the third cast☺! Hopefully we can get out after them again!

Norm Great report! Glad to see that you getting out on the water. Sounds like you have got those creeks figured out pretty well. Any photos?

The Folly family fished RR trout park today. Water was still pretty dingy and the fishing was pretty slow. Livie caught both banded and Ozark sculpins. The one Ozark sculpin had a surprise in store, another smaller sculpin that it had eaten. The small sculpin was still alive, but just barely. When Livie let the two of them go, she swears that the large one ate the small one again. I did catch a couple of nice trout on white and also on salmon colored 1/125 oz microjigs with a small split shot above the jig.

I'll have to get after them one or two evenings next week just to catch up.

Thanks again BH. Lots of laughs from most here in Nixa about the dinner rolls. Pretty sure that you know who was not amused . See you have freedom to bring up those stories. I have been getting flack all day about possibly alluding to whom didn't prepare their carnita right ! So I have to live with them closely for the next couple of days and have to watch my step. I know that there are those that state that OAF is like their family. I have to disagree for a few different reasons 1) You don't get to chose your family 2) OAF is less dysfunctional than many families (barring any catch and release discussions or about whether the MDC is doing a good job, etc.) 3) The whole point of being involved in OAF is because we are all ridiculously obsessed with fishing. Most of my family don't even really fish. This really is a great place to talk to guys that have similar interests and sometimes we actually get together in real life and it is just as great then as well. Thanks to Phil!

You know that I was looking at them. Just being spiteful aren't you? Ok that's a nice mess of squirrels. That female looks like she had some little ones around not too long ago.

Nice snapper and hogfish. Congrats on you and you son getting your dinner. That's an awesome meal! Love the photos! Hopefully he can get his sea legs soon. Sea sickness sucks. If it's real bad you just want to die.

After threatening several times we were able to get to Vernon county MO to visit Billethead and his Mrs. Oh and Sadie as well. Pretty sure that she enjoyed the constant attention as she made the rounds from one person to another. Spent a fair amount of time taking in all that is BHV. Looked over the heavily guarded tomato plants in the garden, to the fry painting station, the various waterfowl and mammal mounts, we even caught a glimpse of the mega wok cooking station. It was like seeing every post come to life. All of that paled in comparison to meeting BH and his Mrs. What a great and genuine couple. They opened their home (yes they do live in their home) to a bunch of folks that they met on the internet. Ok they knew about me, my Betterhalf, and Livie but maybe not our oldest Jackie and our 17 yr old son Sean. They soon found out that I am not the only story teller in the family. Lots of stories were told. Also a few jabs about how some people dress while fishing or what color fishing line they use. Lots of laughs intermixed with all eyes looking outside as the variety of game animals walked by the house. Was really hard not to beg BH to bring out the .17 rifle to take a few of the young ''groceries" running around out the window. As good as the conversation was or BH showing us his selfbows, it wasnt until Sean mentioned that he was hungry that BH showed his true colors. He jumped up and headed to the kitchen to heat up some goose fajitas for my son and then Livie. Pretty soon all of us were enjoying the fajitas. Then the buffet opened up. BH got out the sichuan duck (actually goose) and turkey carnitas. It was one great bite after another. Yes Ness we even had chopped cilantro on the carnitas. Believe it not there apparently is a right way to make the carnitas ☺. I won't say (or can't say because she's my wife) who made theirs incorrectly. Then came the peach crumble made with peaches from the "peachless" tree out front. When we left with parting gifts (gooseberry jam,BBQ sauce, tbai pepper plants, and several packets of goose meat, we were full of great food and just excited about the visit. As Mrs BH said "if you leave their house hungry it's your fault". None of us left hungry. Can't wait to see when we can get back together and possibly fish. Sorry no photos. What happens in BHV stays in BHV! So maybe this never happened.

JHK The water has a fair amount of tannin stain to it. I've been wondering if that affects the color of these fish. The bluegill also were darker than I find around here as well. Regardless I thought they looked pretty spectacular.

For mother's day the girls made my betterhalf toad in the hole toast/eggs for breakfast. We also made a great fruit salad using cantaloupe, watermelon, mango, pineapple, blueberries, and strawberries. Drizzled each bowl with a mint simple syrup. For dinner it was surf and turf. I picked up a lobster tail, some gulf shrimp, and two thick T-bone steaks. I prepared a apricot marmalade and Dijon mustard glaze for the shrimp. Steaks were seasoned with Montreal seasoning. Fingerling Yukon potatoes were drizzled with EVOO, salt and pepper and some herbs wrapped in foil and thrown on the grill. Grilled the lobster and steaks. For the shrimp to prevent the glaze from burning, I grilled the seasoned shrimp first then glazed the cooked side and then repeated until they were done about 3 to 4 minutes. I browned some butter for the lobster. My better half felt appreciated for one day at least until she saw the dishes .

Took this photo some time ago. One of the meals that we made with Livie's turkey. Just used one breast for this meal. I sliced the breast meat across the grain and pounded it very thin. After that I handed the cutlets to Livie where she tossed them in flour, then egg wash and into panko crumbs. Fried to a golden brown. I made a mushroom gravy by steeping dried porcini mushrooms in hot chicken stock then added cornstarch. I dry sauted sliced portabella and Asian mushrooms then added the stock mixture to the pan and cooked until thickened. Served the turkey with sauted zucchini and roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Was a really great tribute to her first turkey.

I also appreciate finding those new holes and seams. What is sad to me is when a traditional big fish hole like a deep bluff hole gets filled in with sand and becomes as barren as a desert.

You should have a good time no matter what you end up going for down there. I have only caught dolphin on your list. The others are on my bucket list. Good luck.

Congrats on a cold but productive morning! I'm not sure what the actual color that you are talking about as the "red magic" would love to see one if you are willing to PM a photo. I am partial to baby bass flukes as my go to stream bait.

I like going after panfish myself. Caught a fair number of large bull gills over the years, but none over a pound. Must have been a great fight. I have been lucky enough to catch a few 1+ to nearly two pound Oscars down in Florida many years ago. They fight like a bluegill on steroids. They were such awesome fighters. I also like to keep a few gills each year. One of my favorite fish to eat. I have not yet caught a coppernose bluegill, but am hoping to fish for them in Florida, possibly next year. Also in the Appalachicola river area there is the hand-painted blugill. Pretty cool looking.

Wasn't able to edit my photos when I was in Maryland earlier in the month. So this post is a little late. I fished Tuckahoe Lake, a small lake upstream from the stream that I fished the last time in Maryland. I had about an hour and 45 minutes before dusk. I was originally hoping to catch a few crappie. So I had a small jig about 14 " under a float. I was fishing the corner of the lake. There was a fair amount of vegetation along the bank. So I fished a gap in the vegetation. There were pumpkinseed sunfish bedded right along the bank. I had caught that species before, but did not have any photos. So I was hoping to catch at least on pumpkinseed on this trip. The first few casts only got small taps and no hook sets. I even tried a couple of the pumpkinseed, but they just grabbed the tail end of the jig and never got to the hook. So I switched to a John Deere microjig and fished it without the float. I hooked up to a decent redear sunfish almost as soon as the bait hit the water. What was unusual about this fish was that the fins and belly were very dark. I caught several more redear and all were this dark coloration. The fishing was fast and furious with a fish each cast. I also caught several nice bluegill that were also dark in their coloration. After I made two or more casts without getting a strike I moved along the bank to the next spot that had an opening in the vegetation. There as a large tree in the water and I could see sunfish swirling all around this cover. This spot yielded mostly bluegill and a couple of redear sunfish. Again once the fishing slowed down I moved locations. I ended up next to a dock and got back into the redears. They ranged from 8 to 11 inches in length and the males were so darkly colored that they looked like a different species than those I catch here in MO. I kept fishing until I could not really see well enough or light enough to get good photos. I ended up with 18 redear, 20 bluegill, and 3 pumpkinseed sunfish. I finally got a decent picture of the last pumpkinseed that I caught just at last light using a gold 1/125 oz jig head. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend a wonderful evening on a very productive lake. Never did catch a crappie, but no regrets.

Dan Good luck on any fishing that you do while down in the Keys. Lots of species to go after in that area both inshore or offshore. You should do well. You going out with a guide while you are down there? Can't wait to see some fish pictures!