FishnDave

FREE COFFEE (but the cup is $2)!

Hamilton picked his up today. Apparently THIS is what they look like... @Ham took this photo: I like it. 😍

They hadn't arrived at the fly shop yet, so instead we got the laminated prize cards we are holding in the picture. On their website, they showed this:

Yes, I saw a lot of Box Turtles on Monday during my drive home. It was raining...I assume that may have drove them up onto roads? On the way DOWN, I saw SOOOO MANY dead Armadillos!

Yep...glad I'm not the only one that needs to catch the "easy fish" sometimes. 😬

I'm slow on the pick-up. So...the winning team scattered some of Rick Osborn's ashes on the White River. Really awesome. We knew Rick as @laker67 on this forum. @Ham may have been using one of Rick's fly rods during the tournament. Also really awesome, right? Rick was well represented this past weekend! 👍 👍 🎣 🐟

Caught these while flyfishing with @Ham Maybe 10 years from now, somebody will take pictures of a BIG, beautiful 18"-21" Smallmouth Bass...and I'll say..."Hey, I caught that same fish...10 years ago!" ;o) Baby BOWFIN!! Thanks, Hamilton! Redspotted Sunfish!: Some other stuff.... A fellow angler: \ This poor fella's tail was gone, but he's still trying to live his best life: I'm not sure I'd seen Zebra Swallowtails before. Certainly not this close:

You don't need big fish...just the right ones!

The winners: Copied from: https://ozarkflyfisherjournal.wordpress.com/2022/06/06/odyssey-22-won-and-done/ "MISSOURI fly fishers Mike Kromrey and Kyle Kosovich, dominated the 2022 Dally’s All Species Odyssey, finishing with a record breaking 16 species caught and released. The pair finished 4 species ahead of the next closest teams of David French and Gabe Levin (Creek Chubs) and first timers Hamilton Bell and David Merical (Fly or Die). Kromrey paid tribute at the closing ceremony to one of his fly fishing mentors, Rick Osborne, who passed away recently. The team spread some of Mr Osborne’s ashes on the White River this weekend. “I think some of that spirit was with us,’ he said. Kromrey and Kosovich, both accomplished warmwater and tailwater fly fishers, who now work on water quality in the region, won a pair of new Orvis Blackout rod and Mirage Reel/line outfits worth $1500 each."

Yes, we'd hoped to get at least one, if not 2 or 3 species of gar. They just picked that day to not cooperate at all. We also each had Spotted Bass eats, but somehow managed to not hook up. The guys that won it with 16 species...did fantastic! The stars definitely aligned for those fellas. @Ham's gameplan was solid...very well thought out, as you can imagine. Fishing anywhere on weekends isn't easy, when everybody else is also out fishing, swimming, etc. We had excellent weather! I've got a few more pictures to share later.

Shoot. Sorry to hear about your pain and health issues. I hope the pain subsides and bleeding stops. What were your big plans? Catfishing?

Next up, "Gig a Hog Molly or Snag a Silver Carp in every tributary of the Missouri River!" 😬 You'll earn an enormous belt buckle and some fake novelty teeth. As far as the Smallmouth thing goes....whatever. I've fished at least 5 of the streams already, and didn't catch ANY smallies in 4 of those. They must get hit pretty hard, especially around public access points like where I was fishing. I hope the "Special Management" is able to improve the fishing at some point. 🙄

https://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/trophies-certificates/smallmouth-slam?fbclid=IwAR1eWo4CJzhbDO8kKliBs-D-nxxtQwFxNLSCRtWiKULhlUO4zvV0R0yqEoo

Just for giggles, you could ALWAYS ask for his advice. Then CLEARLY never follow it. 😄

Happy Birthday, Hamilton! Belated...but I got your Happy Birthday wishes sent off in a couple other platforms. When Ham isn't thinking about fishing, he's thinking about thinking about fishing. 👍

I caught a 24" LM many years ago, in October, in central Iowa. Had it weighed and mounted, since it was 1/2" longer that the Iowa State Record of 10 lbs 14 oz (caught May 1984). Figured I'd never catch one bigger than that. Mine only weighed 7 lbs 8 oz on a certified scale. A DNR fisheries guy there claims to have sampled a 24" Largemouth Bass from a lake in Iowa that was spawned out...that weighed 9.4 pounds. I caught quite a few 20"+ Largemouth there...those 20" Largemouth Bass almost always weighed right at 5 lbs. Caught a 20" Smallmouth out of a river in northern Illinois. Didn't weight it. Assumed it would be the same as a Largemouth. But seems like weights I see given for 20" Smallmouth are usually significantly less than 5 lbs. On the other hand....the Iowa State Record Smallmouth Bass is a 22.75", 7 lbs 12 oz, caught September 1990 from a huge natural lake. For comparison.

Those all look great! Really well done!

Very healthy fish! You may already know this, but I've thought it was interesting, and good info to know from literature and pond management seminars I've attended. To get the most out of your bluegills (and I assume its true for other sunfish species as well), you want to leave the big males. They sort of set the size bar for the population...the biggest males build/guard nests, fertilize the eggs, and keep (most of) the smaller bluegills from spawning, which allows those smaller bluegills to grow more quickly to the size of the big ones. If you harvest the big breeding males, the smaller fish will nest, and the max size of the population decreases. You can keep all the females, any size, you want. This is an oversimplification, but is the latest research-based advice. Take it or leave it. Your fish look great!

@Devan S. Good luck in your quest! 👍 Interesting program. I'm surprised the AR program doesn't have qualifying lengths, along with the qualifying weights (like many other states do). I carry a tape measure, but not a scale. Fish weights can vary considerably by season and most recent meal. Lengths generally only go one direction in a fish's lifetime.

Is there a good story about your banishment from Missouri? 😜