FishnDave

Bleeding Shiners Striped Shiners

Caught 2 Crayfish while micro-fishing. The first was a complete surprise, as I didn't even see it until I lifted it from the water. The second was sight-fished.

Went looking for some colored-up micros. Only "colored up" fish I caught were the Longear Sunfish and male Northern Studfish. Been wanting some some better pics of the Studfish, so I managed that. I ended up catching 14 species for the day, which was pretty awesome! Some of the "surprise" species I didn't expect were a Yellow Bullhead, a Northern Rock Bass, and a Kentucky Spotted Bass. I believe I also caught both Blackspotted and Blackstripe Topminnows.

Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar and butterfly With a Tiger Swallowtail: and a Zebra Swallowtail:

cool! Gulf Toadfish, maybe?

Shoot, we better hurry on down if we wanna catch one of the "first 10 in MO"!

They are here, and not ever going away. Why malign the fish? They didn't ask for it, but are surviving the best they can. We can stress and worry and freak out about this thing we have no control over. Or go catch some and enjoy the experience. Maybe an over-reaction would be to now introduce Wels Catfish and Arapaima to try and eliminate the Snakeheads? 😜 There's been articles about Flathead Catfish INVADING Georgia. GEORGIA!! omg, they might affect the prized Redbreast Sunfish! (Redbreast Sunfish are cool... but I saw an article that actually gave that as a reason to fan negative emotions towards Flatheads.) Please... Flatheads are native to our continent. They are never found in huge numbers ANYWHERE throughout their extensive native range. Top level predators generally help keep the entire ecosystem HEALTHY. These invasives are a concern, but since it can't be reversed, and nothing is going to be done about it.... why stoke sensationalistic claims that they will take over and eliminate native fish stocks...of which many already may not be truly native. Blue Cats were stocked in NE U.S. and now are affecting Chesapeake Bay fish and shellfish. That's a legitimate concern. HUMANS are responsible for that fiasco, and now we blame the fish? Cripes....

Depending on proximity to the streams you wish to visit, I've enjoyed staying in Decorah, or Boarders Inn & Suites in Fayette, or Boarders Inn & Suites in Waukon, or Sportsmen Motel in Dorchester. Been to Seed Savers a few times, fished for the native Brook Trout there, and there are also Brown Trout there. NE Iowa's Driftless Region is pretty cool. Unlike much of the rest of the relatively flat & featureless state, it's beautiful there, not too dissimilar from the Ozarks region.

Its unfortunate that we have a new non-native species that wasn't intentionally stocked. There's so much fear-mongering associated with this one. I saw a post on FB or IG about this. One commenter made several posts freaking out about them "walking on land!!" They aren't coming for your pets or children. Their range is expanding, they definitely will spread further into Missouri. Online info says they've been in Arkansas since the first report in 2008. 16 years! Still, most Arkansas anglers have never seen one. "Accidental release/escape from a commercial fish farm." Isn't that how Bighead, Silver, and Grass Carp all became established as well? Snakeheads were Federally banned in 2002, why were they allowed to continue farming them in 2008? Fish already compete with other fish for food. Add another predator, the fish populations will balance out to accomodate it. I don't feel snakeheads are going to eradicate other species. We've stocked muskies in lakes... they don't eat all the bass. They have a preferred habitat, which seems to overlap most with Bowfin. Even their spawning is similar. Maybe that's why the 2 species look so much alike. I like catching Bowfin. Will snakeheads displace Bowfin? I hope not. So far, on the East Coast, the 2 often inhabit the same waters. @Ham introduced me to a few. They were interesting, kinda pretty, challenging and exciting to catch on fly! Northern Snakehead: Eyetail Bowfin:

Thanks! I did know this one, but I admit there are lots of animals I don't know.... plenty of ducks and turtles, snakes, etc...I like 'em all, and I'm still learning new ones all the time! I also saw a number of (presumed) turtle nest with egg remnants scattered around. I feel they had hatched, and were not dug up by a predator. I've been seeing some decent-sized softshell turtles recently as well. And there always seems to be some big Common Snapping Turtles around... lately they've been perched on top of dirt/brushpiles on shore.

The herps were out, as usual.

Wow, very sorry to hear of deaths (and destruction) from these tornadoes! It seems almost everybody is getting at least one this year. Really strange. One was confirmed in south St Louis county, MO, yesterday afternoon. Crossed I-55, jumped the Mississippi River into Illinois.

Always excited to catch a Spotted Gar! This was a dark one, it was tough to see the spots!

Eyetail Bowfin (female):

A Freshwater Drum crushed the fly:

Shortnose Gar: This one ate a cicada fly: This one was BLACK! Pretty cool! The top-of-head pic... its got some dirt/sand on it:

Hybrid Sunfish:

a couple catfish decided to eat the fly as well:

Caught 4 Grass Carp on fly:

Good point. Bass teeth definitely would not ever have rotting hunks of fish guts stuck between them. 😜 Has the slime on your truck's steering wheel dried yet?

No gloves? You didn't touch those nasty slime balls, did you? 😏

I know its not everyone's cup-o-tea... but having grown up fishing doughbait or worms for carp, flyfishing artificials for them gave me a huge appreciation for them that I didn't have before. It turned them into predators to be actively enticed. Much more fun and exciting. Just sharing a personal observation. I'm still a little scarred from those early days of doughbait fishing for carp. My dad would catch one and say, "look at the size of this ba$tard!" I suppose I'd heard of bass. I assumed "ba$tard" was another name for these fish. So I was shocked and confused when my mom got angry with me for calling them that.