The Push for 100 Species in 2021

[Ham]

58) Dollar Sunfish   Dave and I had a really nice trip yesterday. I appreciate him helping he get my Dollar and another lifer.

He's dedicated to the Long Pole and he made it work. We got him several lifers on the Fly Rod. We weren't able to get the chain pickerel (yet) nor the bowfin, but we will. I'll let him tell his stories though.

[FishnDave]

@Ham is a joy to fish with.  He can catch anything and everything!  Its so exciting to see him closing in on his 100-species goal!  And I appreciate his patience... some of my target species were not cooperating with me at all.  He proved there were Chain Pickerel in the area, I just couldn't get a strike.  He introduced me to several species I never expected to catch.  Very cool!  And I had to downsize further than I like to, to catch those Dollar Sunfish.  Ham gave me some smaller tippet and loaned me a tiny fly and split shot that I could use on my fly rod...and that did the trick.  They are gorgeous fish! 

We didn't get skunked!  Well, we sorta did:

 

 

@Johnsfolly  Gave me a couple great tips to put me on some species I was interested in as well.  

I'll post those pics shortly... I want to keep the species caught this year in order, and I have a couple I caught while in Iowa last week for my son's and daughter's college graduations.  

All right...on with it!

[FishnDave]

(FND20) Black Crappie (Iowa) (Notaperch oragill):

 

[FishnDave]

(FND21) Yellow Perch (Iowa) (Stripey thingii):

 

[FishnDave]

(FND22) Longear Sunfish (Thissunfish isnotiniowa)

 

[FishnDave]

(FND23) Channel Catfish (Pescador felinus)

Caught a couple little skinny cats on consecutive casts with a beadhead woolly bugger.  Then I lost the fly.

 

[FishnDave]

(FND24) Redspotted Sunfish (Pastelwatercolor pinkishdots)

@Johnsfolly supplied the tip and info that put me on this one...  I don't think I'd ever even HEARD of one before John posted a picture and mentioned it to me.  Really cool fish!  Hard to find, though.... fished the area hard and only caught one.  Made it all the more exciting to catch!

Ever struggled to catch a certain fish species, but once you finally catch one, suddenly you are able to catch more?  The very next day, at a very different place, I caught another one!

 

 

[FishnDave]

(FND25) Warmouth (Hamsfish wasbigger)

@Ham caught a really nice DARK one...beautiful coloration.  I lost a pretty good size one, and then caught this one just a couple casts later.  Also caught some smaller ones.  I'd caught one years ago in Illinois, but didn't have a picture, and wanted to catch one on the fly rod.  Mission accomplished!  These are really cool fish.  I'd love to catch more this size and bigger!

 

[FishnDave]

(FND26) Dollar Sunfish (Dolladolla billsyall)

I spotted these, and could get them to strike, but couldn't catch them with my smaller flies.  @Ham showed me they could be caught....and then lent me the smaller fly I need to catch these.

They look very similar to a longear sunfish. One quick way to differentiate is that Dollar Sunfish have irridescent spots on their black opercle, which is edged in white.

 

[FishnDave]

(FND27) Bantam Sunfish (Flyweight stubbytail)

Did not ever expect to catch one of these...but @Ham made it look easy.  I probably would not have recognized these for what they were, but Ham showed me what to look for....and showed me exactly where to try for them.  Boom!