Livie hits Her Species Goals already in April

[Johnsfolly]

My daughter set a total number of different species goal at 15 fish species for 2017. As you may have seen from my posts, Livie has picked up a renewed interest in getting out with her dad to get on a variety of fish. We have been mostly fishing local ponds and creeks. Catching some small fish and trying for some that are not so small. So this Sunday we got out to fish local and started for some hybrid sunfish in the pond at my work. On her first cast Livie floated a small jig under a float and landed her first ever hybrid sunfish. (yeah she is also rocking her new fishing sunglasses)

Knowing that there are channel catfish and largemouth bass, I started the day with a 1/8 oz PBJ Ned rig and got a channel catfish.

Since she hasn't caught a channel yet, Livie switched to the Ned rig, but after a few casts, just wasn't getting bit. So we moved to another section of the pond and I rigged up a slip sinker rig with a bait hook threaded with a couple of red worms. Didn't take too long before Livie's rod was bouncing and she landed her first channel catfish of the year.

I know that one of the creeks on this property has a variety of minnows including topminnows. So after several more bluegill on the small jigs and a largemouth on the Ned, we headed to the creek. We saw a couple of different groups of the topminnows and I tried a #14 hook that was just too big. I then switched to a #26 tanago hook and tiny piece of redworm and caught one as soon as I got the bait in the water. I handed the rod to Livie and she caught her first ever blackstripe topminnow using a hook and line. She did catch one in Feb 2016 with her bare hands while we were darter fishing.

This was her 15th species for the year! She had met her 2017-2018 species goal by April 23rd. So far this year she has matched me species for species, except I have a redear sunfish here in MO and four Maryland species that she is unlikely to catch this year, but you never know.

Once I updated our fishing records, it was interesting to me that I had caught my first blackstripe topminnow (my 100th life list species) exactly one year ago using the same setup.Now she has her sights on catching five more species this year to get to twenty total. That make her multispecies fishing dad very happy. 

Last evening we fished a lake that I knew held some crappie, but one that neither of us had ever fished before. I was trying to work on one of my season's goal of catching crappie in a variety of new lakes. Fishing was really slow, but we finally ended up with a couple of nice black crappie using the small jigs and floats that have worked great all this year. Having a great time so far.

 

[JestersHK]

Nice job you two!  Glad you were able to get out for a bit.  Pretty sure if Livie keeps it up she can double that goal for this year!

[Johnsfolly]

8 hours ago, JestersHK said:

Pretty sure if Livie keeps it up she can double that goal for this year!

I agree! There are still many common species like rock bass, smallmouth bass, yellow bullhead, blue catfish, etc. that she hasn't caught yet this year. Just got to see how much more time we can get to go out together this year. She is talking about bringing my travel rod with her when she goes down to visit her Nana in Georgia this summer. That means she will likely need the camera as well.

[Deadstream]

4 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

That means she will likely need the camera as well.

That means she needs her own camera Dad.  You did well teaching her, she is going to kick your ... soon.  Take it like a proud papa.

[Johnsfolly]

14 minutes ago, Deadstream said:

You did well teaching her, she is going to kick your ... soon.  Take it like a proud papa.

Thanks. She already shot a bigger Missouri gobbler than I have. So I couldn't be prouder! I have no problem with her catching more or bigger fish if she keeps fishing with her dad!

[Johnsfolly]

On 4/26/2017 at 9:17 AM, JestersHK said:

Nice job you two!  Glad you were able to get out for a bit.  Pretty sure if Livie keeps it up she can double that goal for this year!

She did set her 2018 goal at 40 species. As of Friday she is at 53 species for the year. Still some winter fish to go after. So may get her a few more.😁.