Johnsfolly

BH Great end to your season. Congrats on your successful and memorable hunts! Thanks for bringing us along on several. Looking forward to next year. Now let's hear about some french fries.

Due to a cold could not get out to fish our local urban trout lake for the Feb 1 catch and keep opener. I did get out for a little over an hour this morning with my daughter and brother in-law. It was 26 deg when we left the car and there was a steady breeze making it feel colder. Olivia was the first to get a bite when it was still a bit dark on her powerbait Gulp eggs. She didn't want the net and it got off right at the bank. I got bit not long after her and landed the first rainbow of the morning also on Gulp eggs. Then Olivia hooked another smaller fish and we landed it in the net. Not long after she got another bait in the water, she landed her second rainbow. At that point she was frigid and her hands hurt and headed to the car. Herbie and I didn't last much longer, but I also had to leave to get ready for work. So I made one last cast into Olivia's spot and hooked another, but that one got off before I could get the net. We took home three rainbows. Will have to go out later today to finish catching a meal.

Got my pack of golden craws today. They look great. Still may get out to see what colors I could add to get them to look more like the craws in the river I fish most. Can't wait to try them out.

Phone glitch. Double post.

Those are a couple of pigs! Good thing that you followed your gut. Beautiful day, great scenery and a pair of big bass! A great start to your year.

Envy'n a natural spring water.

That's a great trout! It's hard to stick out for a quality bite versus going for quantity fishing. Congrats on your persistence with the jerkbait!

Well maybe it was a true croaker and not a spot. You know that those are hard to tell apart. Your 19.5 " spotted bass is a pretty nice fish.

Ok so the spot croaker joke didn't go over well. Must be too far from the coast. I haven't caught many spotted bass. My best is a little over 12" from the Osage river.

My biggest spot was just over 8 inches long. I caught it while pier fishing on Wrightsville Beach, NC. I was fishing bloodworms off the bottom. Sorry I don't have a picture.

Hog Wally would love to go, but stuck at work. Good luck!

This is a heck of a big fish! Maybe his dad will hang this one up in the Springfield BPS. Springfield fisherman takes state-record bigmouth buffalo MDC congratulates John Paul Morris on breaking the state record by shooting a 57-pound, 13-ounce bigmouth buffalo with a bow and arrow on a private pond in Henry County. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports that John Paul Morris of Springfield became the most recent record-breaking fisherman in Missouri when he shot a bigmouth buffalo on a private pond in Henry County using a bow and arrow. The new “alternative method” record bigmouth buffalo taken by Morris Jan. 21 weighed 57 pounds, 13 ounces. It measured at 39 inches with a girth of 32 ½ inches. The fish was shot on a coal mine strip pit. “Several of my friends and I shot at this bigmouth buffalo in eight feet of water and none of us connected,” said Morris. “So we moved on and then the fish came up from behind the boat on our wake. That’s when I got an arrow in it.” Morris added everyone in the group knew the fish was pretty big, but didn’t know it was a state record. “Once we got it in the boat, it seemed to just get bigger,” Morris said. “I knew the Missouri bigmouth buffalo record was in the mid-50s, and once we found out how much the fish I brought in weighed, I was ecstatic!” The new bigmouth buffalo broke the previous alternative-method state record of 54 pounds taken on Pomme de Terre Lake in 2015. MDC staff verified the new record-weight fish using a certified scale at Lost Valley Fish Hatchery in Warsaw. John Paul said his dad Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, was very excited that he got the state-record bigmouth buffalo. “I plan on mounting this fish and placing it on the wall,” he said. “I have caught a lot big fish while bowfishing, but this one means a lot to me because this is the first time I have ever broken a state record.” Missouri state-record fish are recognized in two categories: pole-and-line and alternative methods. Bowfishing is considered an alternative method and consist of a bow or crossbow that shoots arrows attached to a string so that the fish can be retrieved after they’re pierced. Other alternative methods include: throwlines, trotlines, limb lines, bank lines, jug lines, spearfishing, snagging, snaring, gigging, grabbing, and atlatl. For more information on state-record fish, visit the MDC website at http://on.mo.gov/2efq1vl. John Paul Morris broke the state-record by shooting this 57-pound, 13-ounce bigmouth buffalo with a bow and arrow on a private pond in Henry County Jan. 21.(NOTE: High-res image available at http://on.mo.gov/2j99dbA).

Sounds like you guys had a great time at the open house. I did visit your site again and picked up a couple of colors. Can't wait to get to use them in a couple of holes where I smallmouth fish near home.

Tonight we were going to have 7 for dinner. We had chicken breasts. I had found a recipe for panko/parm crusted baked chicken. So Olivia did her first butterfly cuts on several of the chicken breasts. I mixed Dijon mustard with thyme, cayenne powder, and salt. I slathered each breast with the mustard mixture and then coated with a 50:50 mix of grated parmesan and panko bread crumbs. The chicken was placed upon a broiling pan and cooked at 450 deg F for about 15 to 16 minutes. I also baked brussel sprouts that were coated with a little olive oil, S&P, and a grilled vegetable spice mix. My wife made baked caramelized sweet potato. Sorry about the photo quality.

BH - would love to see that recipe. That meatloaf looks fantastic. So do the meatballs, but more interested in the meatloaf. I believe that I still have some of the charity ground venison in our freezer.

BH I've seen that video before. Those guys have some guts to get that cat released.

Lance you are definitely dialed in on those crappie. I can't even recall how many slabs I have seen in your posts. Keep them coming.

Dan I agree with Hammer time your living a winter dream. We haven't had snow to speak of in the last few winters. Good to see it somewhere. The closest I came to conditions like your photos was cross country skiing in New Hampshire nearly a couple of decades ago. Though you photos are bringing back great memories. Thanks for posting. Good luck on your next trip out on Beaver lake. The more I read posts about that lake, the more interested I am to try for stripers down there. Keep up your posts.

Ham I agree just hadn't thought about bass fishing in LA. Been bass fishing in TX and FL. Of course that's for a LMB. A smallmouth would be different as well.

Dan Personally I would look into a replica mount and let her go. I love taxidermy so it wouldn't be a hard decision except for actually making the payments. Pictures are great and you will need good ones to get a replica anyways. I really want some fish on my walls to go with my deer and turkey taxidermy. I have set 7 lbs and 6 lbs as the minimum weights for a bass or trout mount in MO. Now if I catch a bass in FL or TX it would have to exceed 10 lbs. Hopefully we could all have problems like what to do with a trophy fish. Good Luck.

Dan - good luck in Feb and Mar. I still want to try out the spoon fishing for walleye and white bass, but will likely start pestering you after March. I'm rooting for you to get these last two (three) fish to meet your goal.

Dan Congrats on a January walleye! Looks like it was eating well or full of eggs. If that was going to be the only one, it was a nice one to catch. Just two more, February and March?

We went for a full fry tonight. I fried the shadow bass that we caught yesterday and the crappie and walleye from Saturday. Also butterflied some american caught gulf shrimp and put them in the mix. Coated with italian seasoned bread crumbs for the fish and panko for the shrimp. I made tartar sauce by mixing mayo with diced dill pickle and capers, little mustard, garlic powder, then a dose of pickle and lime juices. This definitely was not a diet dinner.

Thats a great looking trout! Congrats on a successful Crane fishing trip!

Those are great looking lakers! Just a couple of pigs! Congrats on those winter fish.