Share your old fishing pics!

[Johnsfolly]

My 100th species - Blackspotted topminnow from Grindstone Creek in Columbia MO back in 2016. I had seen these fish the day before and they were spooky and kept out of range from my 7 ft rod. This morning I put my spinning reel on my 9 ft fly rod. I had on camo and was creeping around this public park. I barely looked over the edge of the high bank and dropped down a tiny piece of worm on a #26 tanago hook. 

I have since caught a few more from this creek and none have been as spooky as the three or four in the hole I was fishing that day.

[Johnsfolly]

Darters - the fish that got me into microfishing after seeing these Orangethroat darters - Etheostoma spectabile, in a local creek in Columbia in April of 2015.

Started really catching them in Feb 2016

Went to look for others - caught rainbow darters - Etheostoma caeruleum like this male from Ashely Creek (April 2016). Also found out that they are extremely common throughout the Ozarks. The original crusher of dreams darter species.

I found a couple of spots that had populations of greenside darters - Etheostoma blennoides, the second largest darter found in the Ozarks (caught in May 2016). Still looking to land a breeding male for photo. this is one of the more frustrating species to catch. I find that I more often just lift them out of the water after which they just drop back in the water instead of having a good hookset.

The largest darter species are the logperch. We have only caught the common logperch, Percina caprodes. My first was from the Black river in June 2018 and Livie's from a tributary leading into the Lower Taum Sauk reservoir in July 2018.

Livie and I met @Daryk Campbell Sr in March of 2018 to fulfill a promise that I had made to teach him how to catch darters. During that trip he and I both caught a new dater species, the fantail darter, Etheostoma flabellare. He also caught a fantastic rainbow darter, but he can post those photos.

I have tried to go and find localized populations of other darter species.

In April 2018, both Livie and I caught buffalo darters, Etheostoma bison, from a tributary of the Duck river in Tennessee. This was a species that split off from the Orangethroat darter complex.

When we fished the Black river we were targeting Brooks darters, Etheostoma burri, another species split off the Orangethroat complex and caught a lot of rainbow darters. I finally caught them in a small creek in Poplar Bluff MO in June 2019. Not a great set of photos and I may have to try to get some better ones.

The last successful darter species caught was the Strawberry darter, Etheostoma fragi, that I caught in Oct 2019 from a tributary of the Strawberry River in Arkansas.

We don't see a lot of darters out this way mainly due to dark tannic waters on the eastern shore and just far less productivity in the streams, creeks, and rivers out here in MD. I have been trying to catch tessellated darters, but they are more of a problem than the greenside darters so far.

 

[Johnsfolly]

Temperate bass - Morone genus

White Bass - Morone chrysops

I'm the only one so far to have caught white bass in our family. Haven't caught many. First was below Truman Lake in April 2015.

Also a few more recently from below another dam at some Lake in the Ozarks in Nov 2019.

Apr 2016 - First hybrid striper I caught at Truman almost a year to the day that I caught those first white bass.

Again another couple from that other dam in Nov 2019

Livie and Sue both caught hybrids at Thomas Hill in May 2016

Tuckahoe Creek here in Maryland has given use quite a few lifers. I knew about white perch, but it wasn't until I had caught one in April 2017 that I saw that they were also a temperate bass species - Morone americana

Livie with her first also from the Tuckahoe Creek - March 2018

Though I lived in CT for many years I was never able to catch a striped bass. Caught my first back in Tuckahoe Creek in May 2017. Still looking to catch a big one.

Livie caught her first in Oak Creek in March 2018 - may still be her PB but we never measured it.

Now I just have to catch a yellow bass to complete this genus.

 

[FishnDave]

 

27 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Now I just have to catch a yellow bass to complete this genus.

 

I'll trade you 2 yellow bass cards for a white perch card and striped bass card. 😁

[Johnsfolly]

3 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

 

I'll trade you 2 yellow bass cards for a white perch card and striped bass card. 😁

It's a Deal 

[FishnDave]

@Johnsfolly All those darters are pretty cool.  And your first picture...there's so many!  I count at least 7!

[Johnsfolly]

3 hours ago, FishnDave said:

@Johnsfolly All those darters are pretty cool.  And your first picture...there's so many!  I count at least 7!

I see at least 6 possibly 7. After finding it that pool always had a bunch of orangethroats every time we were out there.

[FishnDave]

2010, Saylorville Lake, Iowa...26" Freshwater Drum caught on a Reef Runner Cicada:

A couple channel cats caught a few weeks apart in July, 2008, on fly rod bass poppers after dark...

2008, Saylorville Lake, Iowa.... intentionally pursuing open-water carp with flies:

2008, Florida, Peacock Bass on flies:

 

 

[FishnDave]

Yellow Bass, somewhere in Iowa, 2008:

 

[Johnsfolly]

@FishnDave really nice peacocks. On my bucket list for sure.