Fishing a Creek Near Columbia

[Johnsfolly]

I haven't posted about my fishing near Columbia when I was last in Missouri back in early Aug. 

Prior to heading to MO we fished a bit in KS. Trying for new species, but really only had less than two hours for any given spot. Still was hopeful that the location selceted would give up a new minnow, darter, etc. We saw plenty of tiny darters that were likely Johnny darters, which was one of my targets. They were all just too small for even my tanago hooks 😒. I also was hoping to find fathead minnow, but only managed to catch a couple of creeks chubs.

We also fished the Republican river. We saw colored up shiners that we hoped were redfin shiners, but they were red shiners (I have caught these in MO).

We saw what looked like a large school of small and a couple much larger quillbacks ( @Quillback). None of which were interested in any worms that we threw their way. The red shiner was a new lifer for Livie. I drove away from KS to MO with a warning ticket and my tail between my legs.

I had a couple of spots figured out to try for logperch and johnny darters back in MO. I started and spent a lot of time fishing the pools above and below a low water bridge. I saw a bunch of variety, including a shortnose gar, longear, bluegill, green sunfish, largemouth bass, channel catfish, common shiners, blackstripe topminnows, western mosquitofish, brook silversides, gizzard shad, possible quillbacks, northern hog suckers, possible johnny darter, golden redhorse suckers, and one unidentified buffalo. I threw a small 1/32 oz marabou jig to the gar. It quickly bit and cut me off. I got to watch it chew and eat the jig and it never went after another bait. I tried for the Johnny darter and had to catch and redistribute many longear and green sunfish.

Once I was able to get an unmolseted bait down to it the darter spurned my advances. The best micros that I caught were brook silverside and blackstripe topminnows.

I was able to catch one of the channel catfish and flipped a trout magnet jig with redworm in front to a feeding golden redhorse and watched it eat 😉.

I didn't get much beyond these pools to find more darters at that location. I did go to another location and found the logperch that I was looking for. However, they were located in a school of well over 100 stonerollers that spooked at the slightest ripple in the water. I only had one chance with that school and the logperch did not eat the bait and then they all spooked. I had another Johnny darter spurn my bait and I found two other logperch with a single stoneroller. One actually turned toward my bait and then they all swam off into deeper water. So much for any lifers from around Columbia 😒. Still was happy the variety of the fish I did catch.

 

[Quillback]

Quillbacks are very smart and hard to catch. 😁

[fishinwrench]

Are you really hesitant to publicly name Cedar cr. ?  😅

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

Are you really hesitant to publicly name Cedar cr. ?  😅

Maybe 🙄😅

[fshndoug]

every creek in Missouri has cedars around it

[Johnsfolly]

19 hours ago, Quillback said:

Quillbacks are very smart and hard to catch. 😁

Jeff I am pretty sure that you had mentioned this before that your avatar name really refers to the quillback rockfish and not the sucker.

[Quillback]

4 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Jeff I am pretty sure that you had mentioned this before that your avatar name really refers to the quillback rockfish and not the sucker.

Yep, I started using the Quillback moniker when I lived in WA and was on the steelheader.net forum,  I've had it for a long time.   I have also caught the saltwater version when I lived there, it is an ugly fish but tasty to eat.

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, Quillback said:

it is an ugly fish but tasty to eat

I liked them better than the salmon that we caught and sent home from Alaska.

[Quillback]

3 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I liked them better than the salmon that we caught and sent home from Alaska.

Salmon is just OK for me.  I gave a lot away, some of my neighbors loved the stuff.  I used to smoke some of it, that was excellent.  My favorite west coast fish to eat were ling cod.

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, Quillback said:

Salmon is just OK for me.  I gave a lot away, some of my neighbors loved the stuff.  I used to smoke some of it, that was excellent.  My favorite west coast fish to eat were ling cod.

I've only caught one ling cod and it was out of season😟. Would have loved to try it.