Quick Multispecies Trip with Ham - 05Jun21

[Johnsfolly]

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.

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).

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?!?

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.

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 abundant 😁. 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 smiled 😉.

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.

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

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

Also my first studfish of the year.

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

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! 

 

 

[steve l]

Always love these posts.

[Ham]

I appreciate you coming out to fish with me John. I know part of the appeal was the chance to add 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. 

[Ham]

We may have to phone a friend on the Notropis mysterious but I guess Telescope shiner

[Johnsfolly]

I'll  take a look when I get home tomorrow. May have to contact Bob for an opinion.

[Ham]

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