Johnsfolly

I'm jealous of your organizational skills 😉. I hope that the auction is successful for you.

Moroccan chicken in a tagine. Cooked with turmeric, onions, black olives and preserved lemons. Served with rice.

I think that it would suck walking with bare feet over those acorns to go take a leak 😅

While I was down in NC on Friday you needed an umbrella if you stood under the white oaks. Hundreds of acorns under the trees and many, many more still dropping.

I can kill them when its warm. I just don't like the idea of losing meat due to spoilage in hot or warm weather.

Sounds like a productive day @cheesemaster. Congrats on that nice LMB! I wonder if the turkeys just said, the H#&! with it I'm done flying 🤣!

@Daryk Campbell Sr all good things must come to an end. If I didn't have to do that work thing, I would have posted this earlier 😉. My last trip was to fish the Eno river in hopes of one last shot at a snail bullhead or the elusive roanoke bass before I have to pack it up and head back to Maryland. I will admit that I made a couple of real mistakes. The first was to not do more research on access locations on the Eno river. The second was to try and fish a popular state park access on a beautiful Sat afternoon 🤔. Anyway, I thought both of these things as I pulled into the nearly full (and somewhat large) parking lot. I still had on my waders from my trip out to Germanton for those crescent shiners that way I could just get my rods and tackle and head down to the river. On a side note, I did go into a McDonald's still wearing my waders. I figure any MCD's is like going into a Walmart so didn't think anything about changing before getting lunch 🤣. As I got to the river, three of the primary spots where others have caught snail bullheads had screaming splashing kids or were really shallow. I walked downstream to get away from the crowds. I found a spot that had quite a bunch of smaller fish with red fins. I knew that bull chubs and white shiners also had red fins. Not surprised that yet again my first fish was a bluegill. At least I got the skunk off 😉. I followed up this bluegill by catching a bunch of redbreast sunfish. Seems that most of the shiner sized fish with the red fins were redbreast sunfish. I did see a couple of 8 inch or so chubs swimming past me and always when I was unable to make a cast towards or in front of them 😒. I finally made a cast down between two boulders and hooked up with a possibly my first ever bull chub 👍. (still working on confirming its id). Also note the red fins. I caught a few more sunfish. If you don't know I track each species that I catch. I do this by reciting my totals for each fish. For example, in this pool I would count 4 redbreast, 2 bluegill, 1 chub... then add the new fish into those totals. I will also often text my daughter or wife with the numbers and then reset my mental count. That system keeps me from having to need five or six separate counters on the water or as @Ham experienced having a small notepad to document my catches. The next pool downstream had an uprooted tree in the water. I made a cast on the upstream side of the rootwad knowing that there is likely a deeper spot there. I hooked up immediately to another redbreast sunfish. As I was releasing the fish, I noticed a great blue heron standing about 15 feet from me near the other bank. I made another cast and caught another redbreast, then another. As I released them, I noticed that the heron would move its head towards me like it was trying to catch the fish. The next fish was a small redbreast and I tossed it to the heron, which it caught as soon as it hit the water. This was a mistake 😧. The next fish caught (7 redbreast...) was the largest one yet. as soon as the fish broke the surface near me, the heron flew right at me trying to eat the fish. I wanted nothing to do with trying to get the heron off my line if it ate the fish. I had my telescoping rod and pushed the bird away. I turned away from the bird and lifted the fish and the bird was right on it again. Again it got poked with the rod. I pulled the fish around in a circle while fending off the heron. After two circles, I made a break downstream keeping the fish under the water and away from the heron. Once I was about 60 ft downstream and behind a bit of bank, I was able to lift the fish and unhook it. I felt like I had invited in a vampire 😅. I moved well downstream. I found that the next spot was easily accessed. I encountered more screaming children, dogs, lovers, etc. I did find a pool with a number of confirmed minnows with red fins. I was able to catch my first white shiner and several of the possible bull chubs. white shiner Possible bull chub I tried for some darters and had no love. Further downstream I made my last stand for the day. Caught a few more bluegill and my 19th redbreast sunfish of the trip. No roanoke bass or snail bullheads were caught. It was a beautiful day. I could not fault people wanting to visit this great location. I should have tried for more secluded access to this river. But I will have to come back better informed and ready.

Here's a little redbreast sunfish if that helps 😅. I didn't even photograph the smallest ones 😉

Couple of bruiser greenies!

Too hot to hang one before I can butcher it. Now it's just about getting right temp wise to make a few sits.

It's Saturday and I have no work obligations. I just get to fish😁. I had plans to make an hour run up to Town Fork Creek in Germanton, NC, then another hour and 45 mins out to a creek in the mountains further west. The targets were crescent shiners and redlip shiners in Town Fork Creek and Fiery black and Warpaint shiners in the mountains. Since I was not able to catch a snail bullhead on Friday, I wanted to fish the Eno River near Hillsborough which was another 30 mins east of where I would start in Mebane. Looking at the proposed 6 to 7 hours of travel, I dropped the trip into the mountains and gained another 2 to 3 hours of fishing time. Throughout this trip I was using my phone GPS to locate the spots that I wanted to go and then playing that through the car's GPS. The map was always about 0.2 to 0.3 miles delayed from where I actually was at any given time. Also frequently I lost GPS signal. The trip to Germanton resulted in me having to reconfigure the system a couple of times to find out where I was and how to get to where I wanted to be. I wish that I had some hard maps. Anyway, I found the spots. First spot was a small park that I thought might get me access to the Town Fork creek. Nope. The next spot did not have any roadside parking anywhere close to the creek. The next spot had the most promise with deeper water for fishing. However, it was off of a private road. Finally, I found a spot that I could pull off and access the creek 😉. On a few of the recent trips with my daughter we have been seeing antlions. We would see a couple to maybe a dozen cones in spots. Under the bridge on this creek was the mother lode of antlions. I just had to send Livie a photo. This photo was about a tenth of the number that I saw in the sands. Under the bridge there was a deeper trough on the far bank. I could not see any fish in the creek. I had on a #20 long shank hook with a small piece of worm under a float. My first drift and I hooked into a possible bluehead chub (more work to id this guy). I made several more casts and never got another bite. One thing to say is that many NC streams just don't have the numbers of minnows and chubs that you would typically find in the Ozarks. This may be a tough day with few fish caught. I fished a few more runs, maybe getting a small strike or two or nothing. then I found a deeper run with an undercut bank. I got several strikes but no hook ups. I switched to a Tanago #26 hook and was able to land another one of the chubs before they stopped biting. Fished a couple more spots again without success. I even saw one darter and it was not interested in my bait. After about 90 mins of fishing, I found a bigger and deeper pool that had fish actively surfacing. These were larger fish and I switched back to the #22 hook. I missed several strikes since they would hit as soon as the bait hit the water and before I could take the slack out of the line 🙄. After missing a couple of strikes at the end of one of my drifts, I hooked up. When I saw the fish, I knew that I had a lifer, but which one? I got the fish in the bag and could see that I caught my very first crescent shiner 😁! A caught another chub and then followed that with this big male crescent! Since it was later than I had intended for this spot. I left soon after catching that last crescent. I had an hour and 45 min drive to the next spot and hopefully a snail bullhead or roanoke bass.

Jeff nice looking striper from a tough day of fishing. Still a lot better than being at work. You get on more next time!

After catching my first flat bullhead, I got back to the car without enough time to go to the primary spot that I intended to fish for snail bullheads. I chose a closer location what was within 15 mins of my current location. This spot had a spillway and a levee that seemed to control the water in the swampy area upstream from the pool I would be fishing. I started by fishing where I thought the edge of the concrete spillway would be. The bottom was pretty rocky and I was using about 1/4 to 3/8 oz of lead. I immediately got bites and again it was bluegill. Not sure how to get away from these guys 🤔. I made close casts in the rocks and where I thought the edge was. Still caught bluegill until the sun was setting quickly and the bluegill bite dropped off. I made some casts up the spillway but no bites. I made a long cast towards the island in the photo. I got a heavy thumping hit and got hung in brush when I set the hook. I was able to pull loose then hung again and pulled loose again. Thankful that I didn't lose my rig. I hate trying to tie on new terminal tackle at night using the headlamp. I made a shorter cast and felt like something picked up my bait. I set back and got a heavy pull. I had my light off and could not see the fish well enough to id when it was at the surface. It fought well and was a longer fish. I was thinking channel cat, but hoped for a bullhead. What I hadn't realized is that @Ham or @FishnDave must have set up a BowFunMe page for my trip🤣 as I landed a surprise bowfin😁! Only about 16 to 17 inches in length, but I was very happy. There are discussions about a split in the current species for bowfin with one species being on the east coast, Amia calva, and the other, Amia ocellicauda, ranging from the Great lakes down through the Mississippi river drainages. Prior to meeting Ham I have only caught one bowfin in Florida and had no photos. I caught bowfin while fishing with Ham in Texas, which would be the new species A. ocellicauda, and had photos of those fish. Now I have my photos (although a little blurry) of Amia calva😁. I fished for a while longer and tried above the spillway. Up there I only got slapped at by a beaver and no fish. I never did get a bullhead at this spot. Still had Saturday to try and work in another spot for those bullheads.

I love the fall. Great temps, usually dry, then you have fall colors. Been down in NC last few days and things are just starting to turn.

Let's get one on the line for you then we'll see😉

Jeff I'm sure that there will be more in the very near future and some that you are likely familiar with already😉.

That looks delicious!

That is awesome buddy! You work so hard to figure out those walleye that you deserve those rewards. And some nice smallies to boot! I just wish that there was a video that went along with this trip. Miss seeing those Stockton videos.

One of my obsessions as many on here may know is keeping lists of fish. Two years ago we came down to NC to fish the shad run and were successful in catching some nice American shad. During that trip I drug my wife and daughter to a small creek system that has the flat bullhead, which I had not caught before. Since I am working towards catching all seven species of bullhead, I need to catch this one. It was cold, we caught fish but not the flat bullhead. On this trip I had targeted a return trip to that location. I did come down to NC for some business that paid for my flight and rental car 😉. My plan for Friday was to go to my meetings and be back at the hotel by 12:30 to get ready to make a 2 plus hour trip down to Lumberton NC for spotted sunfish then another 35 mins to Lake Waccamaw for the Waccamaw killifish. Well my business meeting kept me until almost 2 pm. No time for the long-distance trip so stuck with plan B, head after the flat bullheads. It's a 35 to 40 min walk to the creek for a fat guy like me, but it is a biking and running trail so it's a nice and an easy walk. I was armed with redworms, a medium and light action rod and was very out of place amongst the runners and bikers. Started fishing up by the bridge. We fished the other side on our last trip here. First drop was down into a brush pile near my bank and got a bite nearly as soon as the weight hit bottom. A bluegill. This would be one of many on this trip. At least I won't get skunked 😉. I cast across the creek and also up near the bridge pilings. I caught more bluegill and had something large break me off on one of the pilings. I tried fishing downstream to try and avoid the bluegill. Well, I got into a pocket of white perch instead 🙄. I got a cast close to some brush and hooked up a catfish, a white catfish (which is a bullhead species just not the one I was looking for). They do have the light chin barbels but lack a dark spot on the dorsal fin which would be the characters of a flat bullhead. I moved further downstream looking for deeper pockets and brush or downed trees. Still kept catching bluegill and white perch (ended the night with 20 bluegill and 9 white perch). In one spot I made a cast and hooked a longer fish. Hoping it was a bullhead it ended up to be a yellow perch instead. It was getting later and I had plans to fish another spot for a snail bullhead. Running low on time, I found a submerged log in deeper water. I pitched my bait upstream off of the end of the tree. The bait got pounded and I knew that I had some sort of catfish. Hoping that it wasn't another white or worse a channel cat. The coloration told me that it wasn't either of those species. It was my first flat bullhead😁! I have mentioned to @Ham that one key feature of white catfish is that you can lip them and they won't bite the crap out of your thumb like channels and other bullheads. Well to get better photos I lipped this guy. He bit the crap out of my thumb😅! You can see the dark spot on the dorsal and the light chin barbels. Also it has 22 anal fin rays if you really wanted to count them (which I did 😉). The snail bullhead only has 18 to 20 rays in case you wondered. This was my first lifer of the trip and hoping for more. After catching this guy, I had to head out to the next spot while I had enough time to find the spot before it got dark. On the way back I found a dead tree with some oyster mushrooms that made me wish that I had a kitchenette in my hotel room.

There are mountain streams, low country swamps, shore fishing, etc. There is a great variety of fishes, but not every stream or creek is filled with fish like out in the Ozarks.

With all those pins, I thought I was looking down the lane in a bowling alley. 😅. Seriously it looks like there is progress buddy. Keep it up and you and your family will get through this together. Oh and a little help from us fishing knuckleheads hopefully helps some as well 😉.

I moved into a new role at work and part of that job is to know what studies are offered at our other facilities around the country. My first trip was to get down to our North Carolina sites that are located in the middle of the state. I have fished around this area and had not had as much success as we did when fishing the coast or when we have been shad fishing further east. When I set goal for 2022, I specifically had a trip to NC in mind. I set up this trip now in Oct with nice weather and fish still likely to be in a late summer/early fall pattern making my targets a bit easier to find. Things have not really gone to plan. I usually fly Southwest since they don't charge baggage fees for two pieces. That would normally be one suitcase with waders, boots, tackle, clothes, etc. and a rod holder. I found flights but waited too long and missed on Southwest flights that allow me to fish soon after leaving the airport, go to my meeting Friday morning, fish Friday afternoon and most of the day Saturday, returning Sat night. Instead I ended up on American airlines. Still a Thursday flight but not likely to get in early enough to fish. Taking a Sunday morning flight, which will allow me to fish all day Sat. The kicker is that American charges $30 for the first bag and $40 for the second. I could not even consider $140 extra just to bring a rod case. I didn't have any short two piece rods that would fit my luggage. I do have two telescoping travel rods. One is a suitable rod the other is kind of terrible. I also needed bait. I found that there is a Bass Pro shop within 15 mins of the airport. With my wife's blessing I was hoping that ultimately the trip would start off on the right foot. Got there at sunset. Somebody let wild hogs run amok in the men's clothing section. Always enjoy the big tank in BPS. They had your typical fish, LMB, bluegill, hybrid stripers, redfish, and a surprise bowfin. Thought of @FishnDave fishing the tank for his 50th bowfin 🤣 I picked up a three piece ugly stick and bait and could not wait until my meetings were over Friday afternoon to get out and fish.

That Rod is juiced. You can cast about 475 ft to left side of the lake 😅

Love some Joe Cocker. Here one of my favorite SNL bits🤣

Sounds like a challenge but a great time once the frustration wears off. Being successful always goes a long way on these types of trips. You guys caught some great looking trout! Can't wait to see the reproduction mounts😉!