Johnsfolly

Daryk Congrats on taking out the kids. There's a connection a kid makes when they catch a fish. Hopefully you'll get them hooked for life. Were all the fish on Ned rigs?

Follysbetterhalf picked up this hat for me when we where at Onondaga Cave state park last weekend beating the heat. Looks like a new foraging hat indeed. In case you can't read the phases from the picture they are: Be down to Earth Start from the ground up Spawn new ideas Be a Fun Guy!

Is that an infamous "Mitch craw" in the jaw of that large smallie? That's a couple of nice fish!

On the home front we had two juveniles at the feeder out front of the house. They looked tiny compared to the adults that have been regulars at the feeder.

Ness After we got home, I looked up the distribution of the ruby throated and they may not get as far west as CO. From the distributions in CO there is the black chinned hummingbird that has a black and then purple throat. Also there is the broad tail hummingbird that the photos in my field guide show the male from different angles and the throat patch looks black in one photo and ruby/fuschia colored in the next one. Both have the green backs like the ruby throated. So I would guess that the broad tails were the ones in the picture. Just saw Lee G's post above. Looks like he and I saw the same distributions.

Ness Are the hummers in CO ruby throated or a different species?

Fending off the rabbits starting to pay off with some ripe lemon boy tomatoes. Decided to try a mushroom garden with one of our plant boxes that gets too much shade. Spread out some old chanterelles and spread mulch over top. Maybe we get some next year.

That kid is excited! Congrats on giving him that thrill with the jig! Hopefully that will lead to a life long fishing buddy.

That's a healthy fish. Congrats! Did you catch it on that spinnerbait above the fish or something else?

Or FREE BEER...

I wonder who would be phishing a fishing forum.

Pat Some days I am more likely to hook up if it was a log and not a fish. Daryk I had to look up bala shark. I always called them tricolored sharks. Pretty likely that it was a carp or some type of sucker. As with Bigfoot, we need a body or at least a photo of the fish.

BH and smalliebigs We definitely don't have as many hummers in our Columbia neighborhood than you two. Been only seeing two or three at a time at any one of our feeders. They have been draining the feeders pretty quickly with this heat. Also do not mind the Seals and Croft song. My uncle Larry looked a lot like James Seals and even wore similar hats. He and my aunt divorced when I was fairly young but that resemblance stuck with me. Now if we can just get a summer breeze that would make me feel fine.

Thanks BH. Now I keep thinking about making mushroom ravioli. Time to break out the pasta maker. Don't know about our tomatoes. Rabbits have been getting the nearly ripe ones. Never had to fence them out before. Hopefully I can salvage a few tomatoes over the next couple of weeks.

Started dinner by cleaning some gulf shrimp, chopping broccoli, onions, and chanterelles. Sauted the broccoli and onion, then added the mushrooms. Once the broccoli was getting tender and the onions were translucent, I added the shrimp and salt and pepper. Once the shrimp were mostly cooked through, I added store bought alfredo sauce and cooked through the shrimp and broccoli. Served with fettuccini noodles.

Al Thanks for the advice. I have to say that I am addicted to seeing that big wake heading for my baits. It is so hard not to set the hook becore you feel the weight on the line. So I am always trying to learn to be a better top water fisherman.

Carol Welcome to the forum. There is a lot of good information to be found here. Also a lot of humor. Just don't believe everything that has been said or take it personally. What fish do you go after?

Daryk Great way to beat the heat with a close fishing trip. Glad you found some that were interested in the spook. Whenever I would rush to get to a spot to be there at the right time or condition a friend of mine used to say that you catch the fish that are ready to bite when you are fishing. So don't worry about things you can't change. Catch the ones in front of you. Congrats.

Congrats on the rainbow! That fish sure has been eating well. Thanks for sharing that suprise catch.

Definitely some fat healthy fish. Congrats on a great night trip.

Even with temperatures expected to exceed 100 degrees today, I was set on getting out to my favorite smallmouth water to see if I could catch more top water fish than mid or bottom baits. I got to the access point at 9:30 this morning. Air temp was probably close to 88-90 degrees. The water seemed to be around 80-85 degrees. There is a long hole right at the access. This area gets fished a lot. I put on the Perch pattern Whopper Plopper and had two blow ups and one 10" largemouth on the line. Several more blow ups while casting toward a rock pile downstream from me. There was shade above the rocks and it extended well over the water. Caught one more largemouth a little smaller than the first one. With all of the blow ups there seemed to be fish around that pile and I switched to the 1/8 oz PBJ Ned rig and hooked up with another small largemouth on the first cast. Several cast later and nothing to show for my efforts except lots of small fish pecking at the Ned. The river narrows above this hole and most stretches don't hold a lot of water. Cast the Ned to some deeper water behind a laydown tree and get a strike by a smallmouth that comes undone next to me. Same on the next cast a little further upstream. Both fish probably weren't much longer than 8". Next hole and still fishing the Ned I lose two more smallmouth one was over 12" in length. Catch two smallmouth, both about 9-10" in length and a 9" largemouth. The bottom is getting more large rocks and boulders, which in this system means more smallmouth and also more potential snags with the Ned. Switch back to the WP and have a couple of smallmouth hits and land a 12" fish. I am headed up to several boulder filled runs that are below a large long and deep hole. Although I haven't fished this section for a couple of years, I know this stretch well having caught a bunch of smallmouth every time I fish this section. I have twice caught my personal Missouri best smallmouth at the head of this deep hole, two fish a few years apart with both fish measuring 17.75". Headed up to this section of water and spooked a juvenile bald eagle off the bank. Fishing the WP I land two more largemouth, two really fat green sunfish, and three more smallmouth. I didn't catch any more fish on the WP, mainly because I felt that the bait might be spooking the fish when it hits the water. With too many boulders for the Ned. I put on a fluke. The first cast was just upstream of a large boulder and the fish must have been watching it, because it took the bait just as it hit the water. A couple of cast later, I caught my largest smallmouth, a 14" fish, and that fish pushed a 10 foot wake to get the fluke. I caught a couple of more smallmouth and a couple of largemouth. I switched to a super-fluke and only got a gar interested, but could not get the gar on the line. I kept seeing a large bass swimming in the hole. I put on a Excaliber Spit'n Image WTD bait. I did not catch the big one, but caught two largemouth and two green sunfish in this hole. It was now about 1:15 pm and the temp must have been close to 98 degrees. I fished the next hole upstream and that was about as far upstream as I got today. Just getting two hot for me. I caught another largemouth and smallmouth on the Spit'n image in that hole. Stopped in the shade above that short hole and saw a madtom go up under a rock just below me. I switched to my microfishing line and hooks. Didn't see the madtom again. Tried to catch some juvenile hog suckers, but could not do to too many mosquitofish and bleeding shiners. I did land this big female mosquitofish. Caught several shiners and a studfish. Done microfishing and headed back down stream back to the large hole. Kept seeing two large bass, but between my offerings today and the foot prints in the gravel from a previous fisherman these bass would get to within a couple of inches and never take my baits. Did get another gar to chew on my fluke, but could not get a hook set on this fish. Ended with this 8" smallmouth. Total tally was 12 fish with the Ned and fluke versus 15 fish on the WP and Spit'n image top water baits. So even with the heat the top water bite was not bad for nearly 100 degrees (on the way home, the local bank registered 101 degrees).

Don't have pictures. Tonight was grilled chicken thighs that were marinated with a fig balsamic vinegar, oil, and spices. Also had grilled cauliflower, chanterelles, onion, and yellow squash. Dessert was a couple of spiced peaches that we had canned a couple of weeks ago.

Al Nice looking boat. I especially like the cutthroat decal in the front. Should be a great boat.

I like to cook with dried porcinis. I will soak them in hot water to reconstitute. Mostly do that for the intense flavored liquor than the actual mushroom. Then i use the liquor and mushrooms as a braising liquid for shortribs or squirrel, etc. Real interested in grinding any dried chants in sauces like BH did for his tomato sauce.

Eric82 Those are some nice chunky fish. Congrats. Looks like you got bass dialed in as well as trout on the fly. Thsnks for the post.