Johnsfolly

Or mop them with a Carolina sauce.

That is a awesome colored smallmouth!

moguy1973 - I fully understand your comment about the playoff system. There is a lot to be said about staying healthy especially when they play best of seven series at each round. This year there hasn't been a lot of home ice advantages. So you may have a point in trying to focus on staying healthy than driving for the best regular season records for seeding and home ice purposes. Though there is the fan and money consideration to play more games on your home ice and generate much more revenue. I wasn't happy that the Pens had to face the Caps in the last round. However, this is still far better than how the last couple of years that the Pirates got screwed by having to play in the play in game after having a better record than most if not all of the other NL division leaders.

Is the 4"4" mostly a nymph rod? I thought I saw a nymph in the corner of one of the fishes mouths. Did you dry fly fish and were they rising or just nymph fished?

I agree that there are enough places in MO to fish for trout that are so varied that you can fish with any technique that you enjoy. I enjoy the solitude of some of the wild trout streams and particularly like the strong fighting wild fish that I have caught in those streams. I don't really like creating fly and jig tree decorations in places like Blue Springs, but that just means I have to be a better caster. I also enjoy the memories that I have made with my family fishing the trout parks and seeing who wins the biggest and more often the smallest fish of the day, which usually includes some sort of sculpin. My youngest daughter is now big enough to handle some of the flows in places like the Current and I hope to make memories with her on those waters as well. I have had courteous and not so courteous folks at the parks and on rivers like the Current. There's too much water out there. I hope that everyone can go and enjoy the fishing that suits you.

Eric82 - Great photos and congrats on catching on your new tackle! Love to see those rainbows with the parr marks and the water looked fantastic. Were most of those rainbows from Mill creek? Thanks for the post.

Great post Phil! I wouldn't mind stowing away on one of your boats myself. That 8+ lb trout is a pig. It looks like it has a 3 lb trout head on and 8 lb body. It's been eating well.

Marcus - The way this series has gone neither team can be comfortable with a two or even three goal lead. Which as a Pens fan has been both exhilarating and devastating. A lot like your Miss.river bass experience in Alton.

Malkin said that they would be heading back to Pittsburgh and the team got it done! The two breakaway goals were things of beauty. Reminded me of Lemieux and Jagr. Got to win game 7 to get to the finals. Go Pens!

Pat - I bought my wife a Olympus Stylus Tough a couple of years ago that has performed really well for me. Pictures are decent, but I don't have to worry about dropping in the water or on land and damaging the camera.

Great post! Love to see the smiles on your kid's faces. Keep them fishing!

For the racing fan, Memorial day weekend should be considered the greatest weekend of racing for the entire year with Formula 1 racing the historical Monaco grand prix, the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, and the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte. This weekend started with the Indy 500 qualifications and have already set the stage for more 500 drama. Sam Schmidt, a former indycar driver that is now a quadriplegic due to a racing accident set the new speed record for autonomous driving with a four lap average of over 150 mph. Josef Newgarden, sat on the provisional pole position with a four lap average speed of 230.700 mph through most of the day yesterday. The last two drivers to make their last qualification attempts were Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe. Hunter-Reay was the second to last qualifier and came up short with a qualification run of 230.648 mph. James Hinchcliffe drives for Sam Schmidt and nearly lost his life in an accident at Indy last year. He was the last qualifier and ran a four lap average speed of 230.760 mph taking this year's pole position. There are a lot of competitive drivers in this year's field and I can't wait to see this race. I have my DVR set to record all three races and will likely overdose on horsepower on Sunday. That is if it doesn't rain in Speedway.

Not a hook and line state record, but a big spotted nonetheless. Warsaw angler catches state-record spotted bass Congratulations to Jason Reynolds on breaking the state record by catching a 2-pound, 11-ounce spotted bass on Truman Lake. WARSAW, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports Jason Reynolds of Warsaw became the most recent record-setting angler in Missouri when he hooked a spotted bass on Truman Lake on a jug line. The new “alternative method” record spotted bass, caught by Reynolds on May 11 weighed 2-pounds, 11-ounces with a length of 17 1/2 inches. Reynolds was using bluegill for bait to try to catch catfish, but instead caught a state-record spotted bass. “I really can’t believe I caught a state--record fish,” Reynolds said. “I almost released the fish right after I got it in the boat, but I didn’t because it was hooked in the gills and I wanted to make sure it was going to live before I released it.” Reynolds added that once MDC confirmed he broke a state-record he was in shock. “I have fished all my life and caught some pretty nice fish, but I would have never thought I would have a state-record with my name on it,” he said. “I’m so grateful and proud to have caught that fish.” MDC staff verified the record-weight fish using a certified scale in at Lost Valley Fish Hatchery in Warsaw. Reynolds noted he gave the spotted bass to staff at the hatchery so they could help nurse the fish back to its healthy self. “I was hoping to release the spotted bass back into Truman Lake, but the fish didn’t make it,” he said. “So now I am going to mount it and put on my wall.” Reynolds’ recent catch broke the previous state-record spotted bass by almost 1 pound in the alternative methods category. This state record fish is the 12th fishing record broken this year. Missouri state-record fish are recognized in two categories: pole-and-line and alternative methods. Alternative methods include: throwlines, trotlines, limb lines, bank lines, jug lines, spearfishing, snagging, snaring, gigging, grabbing, archery, and atlatl. Conservation makes Missouri a great place to fish. For more information on state-record fish, visit the MDC website at http://on.mo.gov/1S64jH6. Jason Reynolds broke the state record by catching a 2-pound, 11-ounce spotted bass with a jug line on Truman Lake May 11, 2016.

That sucked! TB sure looked like they wanted this game more than the Pens. It started in the second period when they were pressing and stealing passes in the Pittsburgh zone and that intensity kept up through the OT. Have to hope that the Pens can take the next game in TB and make this a 7 game series. Fleury looked rusty and the question is start him or Murray in game 6.

BH - Great to see you and Mrs. BH out on the water again. I love the baits. The color schemes are pretty cool! Great photos!

Blues got to scoring last night. Looks good for going home to St Louis in game 5. They should have quieted some of their critics with ther performance

Bfishn - We were fishing off of the Rt T causeway/bridge on the east side of the lake. Only been up there a couple of times in the last 10 days. So I am not that familiar with the lake, but would assume that this would be the middle fork.

Got off early from work to go to the doctor for a three month follow-up check. I got the Penguins game scheduled on the DVR. Had the rods in the car and took by better half and my youngest daughter up to Thomas Hill to fish the causeway. Plenty of current was running under the bridge from the north. Hardly any wind, but the water was still fairly muddy. Got a small mixed bag of fish, hybrids, largemouth bass, crappie, and channel catfish, using a variety of jigs with and without floats. Still have fillets from my Sunday trip. All fish were released this evening. Everyone had a good time. Both the girls caught their first hybrid stripers off the bridge. Olivia's first - about 12". "Follysbetterhalf" with her first hybrid. No crappie for either girl. Fishing was slow from the bridge. Olivia really wanted a catfish and got her chance when she landed this channel catfish. I did catch the biggest crappie. Olivia quickly reminded me that I was the only one to catch crappie so it was no big deal that I caught the biggest one. She also did point out that she caught the first fish of the trip.

Last night's crappie really shows off the gray in my playoff beard. (had to bring some fishing into this thread) Getting ready to watch the blues game. Hope they get some offense this evening or else it will be a long way back from being down 2-1.

Flysmallie - due to the repugnant image that this picture brings to mind I cannot "like" your post. I did laugh, then cringe, and maybe threw up in my mouth a little . Thanks for that, maybe!

Marcus I feel your pain. Both series knotted at 1 a piece.

Down 2-0 after two. Blues have to get some scoring to get back into this game. Got to keep guys out of the penalty box. SJ looks good on their power play.

Since my last update I added the greenside darter, carmine or rosyface shiner, Ozark minnow, and on Sunday caught a sand shiner in Perche creek. As this photo shows the sand shiner is pretty nondescript silver minnow. I didn't find any johnny darters or logperch that are found in this creek.

Marcus That's easy for you to say. In hindsight I agree, but not at the time when I felt that they were giving away the game.

I have learned a lot by the posts on this site over the last couple of years and have fished in many of the waters covered by these forums. I would not have fished those had I not found this site. I also am fairly open about the fish that I catch, the areas that I catch them, and the techniques used to catch those fish. Maybe it is egotistic, but I hope that others can learn from my posts as well. At least a much as one would want to learn about minnows and darters. I do see a difference in providing specific information for species like crappie, white bass, bluegill, etc. that are found locally abundant at certain times of the year and are targeted for sport and food, than providing a specific location to catch individually large trophy fish like smallmouth, largemouth, trout etc. that are (hopefully) being released. I agree with folks like Mitch that certain bodies of water need more protection than others. Though I do believe that all waters can be overfished such that there are less fish or at least to the point where it affects our own time on the water while dealing with crowds. Each has to decide what information they are willing to divulge in their posts.