FishnDave

Went to Iowa this past weekend for my daughter's wedding. Wanted to catch a Pumpkinseed Sunfish while there, since they aren't in Missouri. The first place we tried was weed choked and nearly impossible to fish. Tried a different pond nearby and caught one! Species #59 on the fly rod this year.

When I pulled this out of the water, I was REALLY hoping it was a baby Flathead Catfish...but it isn't. Yellow Bullhead: Shortnose Gar: Lots of snakes seen. I was really excited to see the big black Western Ratsnake stretched across the trail (right half of picture below). It let me take some pictures and then I edged around it and we both went on our separate ways.

Shoot. One time (maybe more than one time), a buddy called me to say the white bass were going bonkers along shore at a local reservoir. Come on over! I jumped in the car, drove over, pulled in the parking lot, could SEE the fish busting and frothing the surface, and my buddy catching fish. I opened my car door....and it was like somebody turned off the hot tub. Nothing. You can't convince me it wasn't ME.

Did you check that product website for ideas...OnlyFans?

Everybody should get some fans. Ceiling mounted would work.

Wow! That's a GIANT bass, Jim!! Congrats! 🏆🎣

Between tying flies for a friend and picking my wife up from the airport, I squeezed in some hot (90 degrees) fishing at (as @Ham calls it) Beatdown Creek. Miserable place on most days...doubly worse on hot days. First (little) Channel Catfish of the year...my 2023 Flyrod Species total is now at 58. Best year ever, with over 1/2 year to go. New species for the year will get much harder to come by from here on out...travel will be required.

Redspotted Sunfish: Longear Sunfish: Thanks to @Johnsfolly and @Ham for helping me I.D. this fish, it was a first for me. Blackspotted Topminnow:

I lieu of a Sunkist Salute, I suggested we do the Electric Slide....but I was over-ruled.

The Florida Gar we caught, compared to Shortnose Gar, were much thicker, wider, and heavier for their length. Fun catches! Also frustrating when they wouldn't strike, or wouldn't stay hooked. "It was a grind." (Or is that something only bass tourney guys are supposed to say?... a little joke from another recent thread on OAF. )

It was a teaching moment.

Conjecture here... Maybe the super-aggressive fish of old got caught and harvested (as was more common then), leaving the lighter biters. Or, even if those aggressive fish were released, they learned to be a little more tentative with their strikes after being caught? I've seen in just a year or two of fishing smaller waters, how fishing pressure will push the bass to feeding at unusual times....after dark, for example. Magazine articles have been written about such phenomena. Anybody else seen similar behaviors? Also, what about.... perhaps when we select for big deer and big fish (for example), it leaves the smaller ones to pass on their genes, creating a loop of ever-smaller game? 10" Bluegills aren't nearly as common now.

As the unfortunate ladies learned, that held the elevator door open for us at the hotel,.... we were fishermen who absolutely SMELLED of success!

Thanks! I caught 4....the other 3 were much smaller. 34"+ is pretty nice for this creek...I've caught a few others around that size, and biggest in the creek so far was 36.5". My biggest ever was a fat 41" fish that weighed around 35 lbs. This skinny 34.5" fish was probably only @ 15 lbs at best. Very glad to have caught it!

34.5"

It really was an epic trip. @Ham put us in spots to catch species I've wanted to catch for quite some time. Probably would never have managed all these on my own! I'm super-happy with what I was able to catch, and NO REGRETS on stuff I didn't catch. On Tarpon, I went 0 for 0, as far as I know. I think I had one snook roll on my fly, and on the last day saw a HUGE snook swim by at our last spot. Other than that, they were extremely absent in places they should have been in good numbers. Fun times and good laughs for sure!

Good luck on your quest, John! 🍀

I think @Ham just forgot to post his picture. They were RARE! We saw maybe 1/2 dozen Oscars total during the trip. And the ones we saw were usually a pair that were guarding fry and would not eat... they'd just back away.

I don't. 😜 I mean...it is what it is. I don't plan to ever chase those split-offs. I did it for the Bowfin split, though, so obviously I'm not against it.