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Quick Multispecies Trip with Ham - 05Jun21


Johnsfolly

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Our Midwest trip is winding down and I had one last trip planned and that was a multispecies trip with @Ham. At my request we were going to fish Georges creek for what would bite. I really wanted to catch a whitetail shiner (one of my favorite minnows) and an Ozark darter. Ham was willing to sacrifice the likelihood of catching any new species to allow me the opportunity to add a bunch of new yearly fish and also a possible lifer species or two. We only had a few hours and I felt that we made good use of our time on the day.

Ham started with the flyrod to catch a few to add to his flyrod catch total for the year. While I was fighting a difficult eddy to catch a darter, Ham was landing a few fish. The first new flyrod species was a striped shiner. He followed up that catch with several longear sunfish.

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I called it on the darters to be able to catch a few fish on my own as well. Instead of a fly I took a meat approach and fished a trout magnet mini-jig head with a bit of worm. I was fishing a new rod that Ham gave me (very appreciated my friend!) and landed a hornyhead chub. Followed that with a duskystripe shiner (with crapy photos to follow).

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One unsual situation that we faed was an aggressive nature of the stonerollers in the creek. Normally you nearly have to force feed then a bait but these guys were ready to feed on the baits that we threw at them. This guy used to be a central stoneroller, now might be the Plains?!?

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We both caught a few of the stonerollers as well as whitetail shiners. After losing a big male before a photo, I did manage to get a nice WT into the bag and photographed.

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Ham was able to catch a wedgespot shiner. One of the dreaded they all look pretty much the same Notropis species (Spoiler alert - another shows up later). With limited time we moved to a hole upstream that Ham assured me had lots of darters. That was an understatement - they were very abundantĀ šŸ˜. And agressissive which helps when you are targeting a lifer darter. I played with several males before landing my first Ozark darter! I think that I even smiledĀ šŸ˜‰.

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We both caught a few more males, immature males and females in that spot. Ham was able to get a creek chub to bite his fly adding another flyrod fish for the day. He'll have to respond to which other fish he caught on the long pole.

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We moved one last time and got into more minnows than I have seen in a year out in MD. Lots of darters that were less than willing to play and super stud studfish. Running out of time before needing to head home. so a run down of some noteworthy fishes.

Ham's ozark minnow

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We both caught another mystery Notropis that will need Id work. Appreciate any thoughts.

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Also my first studfish of the year.

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Missed bagging a super male, but Ham caught and bagged one!

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So much more to add. Will let Ham add his thoughts. As always the trip ends much too soon. I had a great time and appreciate Ham for taking me out and putting me on fish that I just can't get out East!Ā 

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I appreciate you coming out to fish with me John. I know part of the appealĀ was the chance to addĀ a few species and get closer to 100 for the year (and a lifer!) , but I appreciate you driving 6 plus hours to have <4 hours actual fishing time nonetheless.

I wish it been 4 days instead of 4 hours. I still have a lot to learn about micro fishing and I enjoy learning with you. I enjoyed it very much and I added a couple of species to my total. With the time we had and the flow conditions on area rivers, I feel like we made the right call

I wish the flow rate had been a little lower. I wish I had gotten you on a couple more species. I think the fish were there, we just didn't have any more time.Ā 

Every Saint has a past, every Sinner has a future. On Instagram @hamneedstofish

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FWIW, I added Striped Shiner, Creek Chub, Longear Sunfish, and Green Sunfish to the flyrod list.

I expect I'll catch all of them again. Pretty sure that puts me at 15 with an original goal of 25

Every Saint has a past, every Sinner has a future. On Instagram @hamneedstofish

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