Micro Fishing The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

[Ham]

 To borrow a line from Forrest Gump, "I'm Not a Smart Man". I always have multiple options for a fishing trip. Today I chose to drive about 7 hours to fish for 3 1/2 hours. I was trying for a Lifer and maybe a species or two for "The Push".

The Good was that I caught fish right away. I was turning down opportunities trying to get that Lifer. 

The Bad, I did not get the Lifer. I tried. I tried hard. It was Hot. I stayed with it, but it just did not happen. Yet. It will.

the Ugly, way too much driving and not near enough actual fishing. If you haven't micro fished you probably think that it is easier than conventional fishing. If you think that, you are mistaken. I do both ; I can tell you micro fishing is lots more difficult and more frustrating.

I am getting much better at catching darters. I am getting much better at not wasting time on the water. I am getting much better at bait management. All those improvements still wasn't enough to overcome the flood tide of non targeted darters ( ie the Rainbow scourge).

So, I had another adventure with highs and lows. A little bit of a saving grace, but frustrated none the less. 
 

lots of pics to follow

[Ham]

Aggressive and seemingly omnipresent 

[Ham]

These guys were turds too. There were multiple minnows I wanted to try to catch. You can't because these hyper aggressive jerks knock the other fish out of the way

Bleeding Shiner

[Ham]

And then of course 

Knobfin Sculpin

[Ham]

My little ray of light a drab female Southern Red Bellied Dace

[Ham]

Not pictured are the Long Eared Sunfish and Green Sunfish. Just because. They absolutely get in the way and wreck your bait. 

[Johnsfolly]

I understand the frustration. Especially on the skewed drive to fish ratio. You did catch some great looking rainbow darters! The SRB dace gets you one fish closer.

[snagged in outlet 3]

46 minutes ago, Ham said:

Aggressive and seemingly omnipresent 

Are those top two in spawning colors? Beautiful little fish!

[Ham]

2 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Are those top two in spawning colors? Beautiful little fish!

A definite maybe. Their colors were so vibrant that I got my hopes up. My memory was fuzzy on the target darter fin colors, I knew they had been caught in that creek. In my ignorance, I never dreamed Rainbow Darters would be there in such abundance 

[Ham]

Oh, and I made a friend