FishnDave

2 more fly rod species for 2023.... #77 and #78. 27" Walleye: 37" Longnose Gar. (This is gar species #4 for the year. The last U.S. gar I need now is Alligator Gar.) Also caught a couple Hybrid Sunfish: It was a very hot day on Sunday. It got to a point I couldn't continue to fish. Other anglers left when I did for the same reason.

Wait, really? @fishinwrench Is your Birthday Aug 19? Mine is.

Wow, beautiful fish! Congrats! 👍

Is the full name McCloud River Redband Trout? Same-same. As long as YOU know what it is.

Wow, looks like you had a great day of fishing!! That particular fish could be a Longear hybrid, or its colors are just really washed out? Plus each fish just looks different from the next, so... They are different species. For reference purposes... Pumpkinseed Sunfish: Longear Sunfish:

Ha! No worries. You're much too competitive for that. You caught 13, didn't you! 😆 15?

Did NOT want to come up! Silly Buff.... and he ATE A BOWFIN FLY!!! How cool is that??

We caught a lot of the same species, of course. In addition to the Flathead and Buffalo, @Ham caught 2 other species I didn't catch during the trip.... Bigeye Shiner and Largemouth Bass. Combined, we caught 24 species!

Based on the original post, and other stories shared here, is the pattern that the otters get aggressive in the evenings/after dark time frame?

Day 4 (Aug. 13): We fished a couple places on the White River, with the main goal of getting me Mooneye on fly, and also Skipjack Herring. I'd caught Skipjack before, but not this year, and had only caught one Mooneye, years ago, on conventional gear. So a Mooneye would be a Flyfer! @Ham did it! He put me on 'em! I caught Skipjack, Mooneye, White Bass, Longear Sunfish, and a Freshwater Drum! My biggest Skipjack of the trip was freakishly strong! For whatever reason that makes no sense, I was using an 8 wt fly rod, and that Skipjack had it BENT OVER!! I was trying to hoist it to the surface, and it would not come up for the longest time! WHAT??? Anyway, the fish from this trip brought my 2023 Fly Fishing List to 76 species, and my Flyfishing Life List to 110 species. Thanks for the good times and hospitality, Hamilton! I really appreciate it! We'll definitely do it again sometime.

Day 3 (Aug. 12): More rain. We got soaked. We fished a number of places, stopped at places that we didn't fish because the water was too high. In other places it was low. It was a day of few fish, but very awesome fish. At the first spot, we wanted Longnose Gar, and saw some. They would surface and then dive and disappear. We each caught a Shortnose Gar. I spotted something I at first thought was a Muskrat, since it was partially out of the water on the surface, and a brown color. Eventually we realized it was a fish, and Hamilton saw it well enough to identify it as a Flathead Catfish. I had a brief chance to put my fly in front of it, but got no reaction from the Flathead. Hamilton got his chance, and got the eat, and hookup!! After some tense moments and fish thrashing, and sticks in the way, we somehow managed to get a net under it. BOOM!! It was much bigger than we at first though, and SUPER fat! Turns out it was choking down a fair-sized Freshwater Drum, whose tail was still sticking out of its throat, pretty much touching the inside of its jawbone. We think because its belly was so full had something to do with it hanging out near the surface and slowly cruising around under the trees where we spotted it. Flatheads on fly are super rare! Hamilton deserved every bit of it, and totally sealed his LEGENDARY Status. Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame... are you listening?? At another spot, we tried for Orangespotted Sunfish, because they are a cool fish! We didn't get any, but I caught a Warmouth. At yet another spot, we saw gar gulping at first. We launched the boat, and the gar mostly quit showing themselves. But bowfin started surfacing more frequently. We focused on them, and had some incredible eats where the line would just start running full speed away. I lost most of mine, but managed to land two. Hamilton landed 5, and lost a couple. It was really fun! Mosquitos we hunting us aggressively. Hamilton the wizard also got his 2nd incredible rare catch of the day... a Bigmouth Buffalo ate his bowfin fly!! STRONG fight!

Day 2 Continued: The river had come up considerably, so next I decided to go somewhere to try for Ozark Bass. This creek was low and clear. I ended up catching 4 Ozark Bass, some Green Sunfish, Longear Sunfish, and Striped Shiner. After Hamilton got home from work, we took his son Ian out for dinner. Then the two of us went out after dark...on a very dark, moonless night, very hot and humid... and pursued Madtoms on fly. The creek was a bit high and slightly colored up from recent rains. We saw very few. I spotted 2 Slender Madtoms and 1 Checkered Madtom. Hamilton put his fly on the lips of one of the Slenders several times, and it refused to respond to it at all. I never did present a fly to any. We did walk within a few feet of a beaver sitting on its haunches doing something nefarious in the dark. He didn't run away, but watched us walk past. I bet his friends will never believe his story of seeing talking lights go floating by in the night.

Day 2 (Aug. 11): Solo day.... @Ham had to work today. I told him some species I was hoping to catch, and he supplied me with ample intel, spots, and even texted me pins so I could find the spots with my GPS. Hoping to add Brown Trout, and Brook Trout to my 2023 Flyfishing List, and Cutthroat to my Flyfishing Life List, I visited Bull Shoals Dam for the first time. I arrived at the parking area, and a fellow was leaving and said they had sounded the horn 5 minutes before. Water would be rising. Shucks. I got my waders on, sling pack, net, shut my tailgate, locked the car, and started heading for the path to the water. And realized I should probably take a rod. 😏 I returned to my car and grabbed a rod. Wow... Too many other thoughts about fishing running through my head, I'll say. Completely unfamiliar with the area, I was unsure where to start. There was an angler fishing in a likely looking spot already, and I didn't want to crowd him at all. I tried a ways upstream first, and it was shallow and fast water. No takers. I went downstream a ways from that lone angler, and started catching fish. No Browns or Cutties, but I caught 3 Rainbows (including a very strong 15-incher with beautiful perfect white-tipped fins), and a dozen Brook Trout.

As @Ham mentioned in his 2023 Fly Fishing Species thread, we fished together this past extended weekend. It was an Odyssey from Saint Louis to Cotter and well beyond. Between me driving and Hamilton driving... around 1500 miles were tallied. And we fished a little bit, too. We fought a number of rainstorm events that weren't in the forecast, and had to deal with high waters, stained waters, and all the debris washed into the waters. #fishing #firstworldproblems I want Hamilton to add his own observations to this thread, if he will, and the additional fish species caught. I know he caught some species I didn't catch, but I would probably misstate or overlook certain ones, so I won't try. Just fill in the blanks, Hamilton! Day 1 (Aug. 10): We met up at the Current River in MO. I reached our destination early, and caught a couple Smallmouth Bass before Hamilton arrived. He launched his boat, and the first place we went too had a bunch of Longnose Gar on the surface, but they all slowly swam away or dropped deeper and mostly out-of-sight. Later we saw them again, but they weren't interested in hitting our flies. In addition to Smallmouth Bass (all just little ones), I caught Carmine Shiner, Bluegill, Longear Sunfish, Green Sunfish, Hornyhead Chubs, Striped Shiners, Bleeding Shiners, Northern Studfish. Hamilton lent me his rod with tiny flies tied on which enabled me to catch the Carmine Shiner and Bleeding Shiners. I also caught my goal for the trip, a new Flyfer Shadow Bass! My pics: Smallmouth Bass: Carmine Shiner: Shadow Bass: Bleeding Shiners: Striped Shiners: Northern Studfish: I did take pictures of the other species. On our way out, we briefly fished from shore on the Jacks Fork, so Hamilton to catch a Hornyhead Chub. I think he caught 2! He's like Babe Ruth calling his Home Run shots! And I caught another Smallmouth Bass.

You've achieved LEGENDARY Status!!! 🤩

At the end of the article..."perhaps nothing is overrated"... Everybody is different. Some folks enjoy focusing their fishing time on a single species, whether that's a trout, bass, crappie, catfish, carp, gar, sturgeon, musky, whatever. Its all good. Maybe some folks just fish for whatever's easy and close to home. Great. There's so many ways to go about and enjoying fishing. Thank goodness we aren't all doing the same thing, right? I enjoy catching almost any fish. And I get sort of...I don't know...bored?...if I only catch one species for too long. I like knowing there's more types of fish out there. Some are bigger, some are stronger, some are more challenging, some are more "beautiful", some are less common, some are more unique in some way. I feel fish have an inherent value, whether outright, or as a food for other fish. Folks who know how to catch species "x"...also have value to the rest of us. If I want to catch species "x" and want to reduce my learning curve, I can learn from those that have caught them. We're here for a short time. Enjoy your fishing time however you want to do it. Eat 'em if you want. Don't kill it if you aren't gonna eat it.

Wow! Beauties!! 😍

I agree, Jungle Jim makes great jigheads! 👍👍

This makes so much sense... cuz you're the GOAT! And maybe explains why I've been catching so many turtles.... 😜

Right! If you can find carp happily feeding that are oblivious to your presence... That's golden! While I've seen carp darting in and aggressively feeding on small shad they'd pinned up against a bank...and caught those same carp on flies.... most of the time they don't expend much energy. They move along slowly, stop and feed in a spot for a short minute, then move along further. In that more typical situation, a #8 or #6 fly, like a small woolly bugger, tied with beadchain eyes to keep the hook point UP, but that still allows for a reasonable sink rate (you want the fly to get to the bottom, but if it plummets too fast, the fish may ignore it. If it drops slightly less fast, it may look more like an easy meal, and the fish get a chance to see it fall longer, which might spark their interest) is a big benefit to the angler. A total fly length of 1"-1.5" is good. Over 2", in most waters, is too big. One trick in muddy water is to make your fly a little flashier by using a gold metallic mylar chenille for the body. It just helps the fish see the fly. Not necessary in clearer water. Blacks, browns, orange flies all work, but I've also caught plenty of carp on chartreuse and silver and white and purple, etc...so be prepared to try different stuff until the fish finally like what they see.

Depends on what the carp are doing. Near bottom, mid-depth, or surface? I sometimes catch invisible ones by accident while trying for some other species. When targeting them specifically, you want to fish to visible targets. Often, they are feeding on the bottom. Cast beyond them far enough so they don't spook, then drag the fly shallow in the water to near their head. Don't line them, but let the fly drop to the bottom close to them where they can see it. They often will move and suck in the fly. If you can see the fly, this is easy. If you can't...it's guesswork on whether you think the fish ate the fly or not. You get better at figuring it out over time. Your line may (or may not) twitch, the fish may flare its gills, or give some other sign that it ate. Carp have good eyes and will move a short distance to a fly if they want it. Some fish usually won't, like Smallmouth Buffalo and many sucker species...which is very frustrating. Dead-sticking is probably not a good technique, IMO. You can drop a fly near the fish's head, and let the fly sit on the bottom to see if the fish is interesting in moving over and eating it. If not, move the fly slightly...make it look alive, but not too fast to catch...then let it sit again to see what the carp does. Repeat. On this particular day, I was at times fishing for Grass Carp. I saw a couple small pods of Common Carp hanging just under the surface in spots where Grass Carp often hang out. Since they were just below the surface, I used a microjig about 8" below an indicator. I cast a bit upstream of the fish, and they were slowly moving upstream as the microjig was slowly moving downstream. I missed a couple strikes, but had one that sucked it in pretty good, and I stuck it.

No. But I know a guy..... 😁

Aw c'mon! The speedo-wearing driver of the Mustang said he was sorry! In his defense, he thought it was just gonna be air. An important lesson was learned... remove the speedo first.