FishnDave

Welcome back from the future, Pete! 😁

Sometimes it helps to swap out the factory hooks on a Rapala Ultralight Floating Minnow. I've heard it totally changes the action. You'll be amazed!

8 Bowfin, a Spotted Gar, several Shortnose Gar, Largemouth Bass, Bluegills, a Black Crappie, Warmouth, Green Sunfish, and a Black Bullhead were caught on Saturday.

I was a member, President, and on the Board of Directors for a multispecies fishing club in Iowa. For several years, we took out the "bigs and littles" from the Big Brothers / Big Sisters of Iowa program, fishing on our boats. And a neighborhood with a private lake had us come out and take the adults and kids of neighborhood members who didn't have boats, out on their lake fishing. Both types of events were pretty fun!

These are Redspotted Sunfish. I've somehow managed to catch a fair number of them this year...from maybe at least 5 different locations.

Including these, I'm not up to 66 species on the fly rod in 2023! Fliers (my first ones ever! Thanks @Ham !)

Longear Sunfish:

Freshwater Drum:

Grass Pickerel:

Knobfin Sculpin

Ozark Bass (my first one ever! Thanks @Ham !)

Striped Shiner: Hornyhead Chubs Creek Chub:

Redspotted Sunfish:

Its amazing to me how different each Warmouth can look.

Western Dollar Sunfish:

You have to make sacrifices to win this tournament. Give something back. Duane (the winner) sacrificed his shoes. I sacrificed a fly rod (tip broke off before I could use it for the tournament). We also sacrificed sleep and proper nutrition. Hamilton a bunch of miles on his new truck. I also sacrificed an opportunity to take a much needed shower. My apologies to those downwind...but we had to live up to our team name, Smells Like Success! Hamilton prepared, researched, and prefished the heck out of this again, and put us in a great position to win. We did great last year, and even better this year. There's always something that throws challenges your way, and this year it was weather (rain) and (lack of) current generation at a dam. This tournament is right up our alley, combining things we enjoy: flyfishing and multispecies. What's not to love? We'd be doing that whether there was a tournament or not! We certainly fished a variety of places, from tiny creek and large rivers, to ditches and lakes. There were 18 Teams participating in the tournament this year. It was crazy we caught 19 species (I just recounted) during the tourney, but only 13 were on the list of countable fish. I caught 2 species that were completely new to me, Ozark Bass and Flier. SO COOL!! The 6 species we caught during the tournament that didn't count were: Flier, Redspotted Sunfish, Warmouth, Creek Chub, Hornyhead Chub, and Striped Shiner. Alright... I was in charge of the photos...so.... here's some of the photos: I don't remember if this is where Ham was untangling a knot, or lighting a fuse... (totally kidding! but come on, that's funny!) Another great tournament in the books! Thanks for letting me tag along, @Ham !

Seems kinda harsh. Maybe next time just bake some muffins? 😅

Redear Sunfish:

Also this article gives some insight: https://lakesarearadio.net/2023/03/03/walleye-fishing-scheduled-to-be-open-all-summer-on-mille-lacs-lake/

"What happened to walleye population on Mille Lacs Lake?" The DNR says in June of last year, 7% of walleye caught died from hook mortality. That number jumped to 16% in July as water temperatures increased. Jensen says the walleye population on Mille Lacs has been declining since the late 90s when phosphorus levels in the lake started to get cleaned up.

@echo Welcome to the forum! I hope your home sale goes thru. Congrats on your retirement!