2023 Fishing Goals

[FishnDave]

In December I added one more new flyrod species, so I'm at 113 lifetime, 84 for 2023.  Started the year with 83 flyrod species ever...added 30 new ones!

Caught over 100 koi, over 100 goldfish, and over 100 bowfin on fly this year.  23 Grass Carp.

[Devan S.]

On 12/29/2022 at 10:34 AM, Devan S. said:

2023:

UT/WY cutt slams. 

4 states off my Western Native Trout Challenge(UT/WY/ID/MT)

2 new Arkansas Master Angler Species

I'm going to push the UT/WY slams to 2024/

Traded the 4 states for the Western Native for 5 states. 

Only managed to catch 1 Arkansas Master Angler (3.54lb White bass). Had an 8+ Walleye, 2.36lb Crappie with a couple more between 2 and 2.36lb. 

[Johnsfolly]

Like many others I was busy this year working on my 2023 goals listing. Since I have been posting trip reports I will end up breaking this down into a few posts since for @snagged in outlet 3 sake there will be photos😉.

Ribbonfish - Will try again in 2024

We only got out for ribbonfish once in 2023. Just too many competing activities. Went down to the southern point of the Delmarva peninsula in VA at a peir that we enjoy fishing for it's variety. Caught a bunch of fish, but not a single ribbonfish. It was very windy which had bunched up a lot of eelgrass mats. We found some unusual fish swiming and feeding around and in the mats. We had never seen a fish with that large of a tail and that swam like this one. I was fortunate to get a micro hook with a bit of shrimp in front of a hungry one 🙂.

This was my lifer cobia - not an adult but a juvenile. I'm still looking for it's grandparents.

2 Swamp Lifers - e.g., banded sunfish, pirate perch - Completed

We had tried some of the swampy runs and sloughs in MD and NJ. I had seen posts on INAT of a subspecies of sculpin - the "Delmarva" sculpin in a creek branch within 30 mins of our house. The bonus was that this same creek had pirate perch as well. We had fished on the other side of this creek system before without any luck. We tried a night trip in June and saw lots of pirate perch and we caught a couple.

We also tried for but spooked the sculpin that we saw that night. I went back and caught the sculpin on another trip in July.

 

[Johnsfolly]

On 12/29/2022 at 10:14 AM, Johnsfolly said:

Catch at least one Fish in New State or previous State w/o Photo - Completed

I made this goal knowing that I would have a business trip in CT, originally set for for early Aug and ultimately it got moved to the end of Sept. I had planned, like my trip to TN in March, to spend a couple of days to fish CT in Aug around the time of the original meeting dates and maybe get up to NH. I didn't have any fish photos from when I lived in CT and had never caught a fish in NH. When it got moved to Sept, I decided to take the whole family up to the Northeast in early Aug around my wife's Bday. We learned that if we bought a CT saltwater license we could fish CT, RI, and MA on that license. Bonus! We had plans to fish two trips on a party boat in NH so didn't need a license there either.

Connecticut - had to get one fish photo

Fished in Fort Trumbull State park Pier in New London CT

First fish - goal completed - a black sea bass (not a lifer but we caught a bunch of these guys)

Scup or porgy

Sue's PB scup - 12.5 inches

Winter Flounder

We tried night fishing for squid but only caught a couple of snapper bluefish.

We also fished Bluff Point St park

Caught more sea bass, mummichog, atlantic silversides, and started the streak of bergalls (aka cunner).

Rhode Island - get one fish photo - completed

We then fished the Narragansett Bay from Fort Wethrill State park in RI - another state needing a fish photo 😉

Hey More black sea bass!

Also Cunner!

Yes some were even micro size. What did you expect 😁

Massachusetts - Just because

Already had photos from a 1984 cod trip out of Gloucester aboard the yankee fleet. Dave Marciano from Wicked Tuna was one of the mates at that time and likely on this trip.

We fished the State Pier in Gloucester

Apparently when the squid might be running it becomes a party spot as two Ubers dropped off a bunch of folks.

Only two squid were caught while we were there. We only caught more bergall.

New Hampshire - New state - needed to catch one fish and get a photo - Completed

Fished with the Eastman Docks out of Seabrook NH, with on afternoon mackerel trip and a full day bottom fishing trip over two days.

1st day - mackerel trip. We fished 3/8 oz diamond jigs on the tops of humps from 40 to 80 ft of water above the tops. We only dropped the jigs down from 10 to 20 feet deep for the mackerel. Skirted a storm system the whole afternoon but didn't get wet. The fish came in waves where you got one as quick as you could get the jig back in the water with long lulls between waves. We each caught about 20 atlantic mackerel which was a lifer for all of us.

I noticed that a woman caught a small pollock and figured that she must have been jigging close to the bottom. On the next drift, I dropped to the bottom and jigged up a pollock, a lifer!

I told Livie and Sue to do the same. Livie did and caught a really nice cod (lifer).

I also caught a cod as well as the young man next to me.

I did catch a bergall to keep the streak alive😁!

We still skirted the storm even as we got into the harbor.

Day 2 day was 16 oz weights, heavy line, and 200+ deep water. We fished pieces of squid on high / low rigs.

Caught haddock - lifers for all of us.

I caught some pollock and Sue caught her lifer pollock (no photo). We all caught cusk once we increased the length of our lower dropper line to get closer to bottom. With that change, I was hoping for some marine sculpin but happy with the cusk.We did keep all of the cusk.

Nicer day when we got back to the harbor.

 

[Johnsfolly]

On 1/2/2024 at 9:14 AM, FishnDave said:

In December I added one more new flyrod species, so I'm at 113 lifetime, 84 for 2023.  Started the year with 83 flyrod species ever...added 30 new ones!

Caught over 100 koi, over 100 goldfish, and over 100 bowfin on fly this year.  23 Grass Carp.

What a great year Dave!

[Johnsfolly]

On 12/29/2022 at 10:14 AM, Johnsfolly said:

4 Darters; 1 from MD (Rainbow) and 3 Lifers -

4 Lifer minnows - inland silverside, mimic shiner, silverjaw, etc.

4 Lifer minnows - inland silverside, mimic shiner, silverjaw, etc. - Completed

We did a trip to upstate NY to meet our oldest daughter at the NY Renn Faire. I did a quick trip to the Neversink River hoping to catch a cutlip minnow and slimy sculpin among other potential lifers.

No Sculpin but I did land a cutlip minnow as my first fish of the day😁. I ended up with a couple cutlips and a few eastern blacknose dace.

Pretty neat fish. Turns out that they have been known to attack the eyes of other fish with that lower jaw.

Rosyface shiner caught in Casselman River in Western MD - is a split from the carmine shiner that you can catch in Missouri.

I did make it to Missouri in Oct for a business meeting and spent a few days fishing in SW MO, OK and AR. I caught a species that hadn't known about until I was trying to identify it - bluntface shiner. this is a relative to the whitetail shiner, steelcolor shiner, red shiner species of the Cyprinella genus.

I had a business meeting in Orlando and took a couple of days to fish (seeing a pattern 😉). Fished around a small pier in northern Tampa Bay and caught gulf killifish - part of the Fundulus genus.

I also caught another Fundulus species - a seminole Killifish from a lake north of Orlando.

 

4 Darters; 1 from MD (Rainbow) and 3 Lifers - Partially completed

As I mentioned I had targeted SW MO, OK, and AR to fish on that Oct trip to MO. This was the plan when I set the goal since there were more than a few darters that I had not caught in MO when we lived there. Though much less common there are a few species in MD that I have not caught either.

I went to OK for two reasons - 1) to get a photo of a fish and 2) Ozark Logperch. I had missed ozark logperch back in 2022 in Columbia and wanted another chance. I did catch one in OK.

Later that night I was fishing a small creek in a small SW MO town and caught a sunburst darter.

The next morning in the same location I caught a plateau darter which is one of the orangethroat darter complex subspecies.

I tried for the Current darter, another species split from the orangethroat darter complex from a creek in AR. I only caught rainbow darters and did get my license checked by the game warden. I pulled a hail Mary and drove two and half hours to get to a small creek in south central MO. I didn't know if there would be water and only had about 30 mins of light. I did catch a Current Darter, but didn't see any elk (maybe some can figure out where I was fishing 😉).

Though I tried (last trip was 12/31/23) I did not catch a rainbow darter in MD, but caught plenty in AR and MO. So this goal was only partially completed. I will still target rainbow darters in MD as well as other eastern states in 2024.

[Johnsfolly]

On 12/29/2022 at 10:14 AM, Johnsfolly said:

Lifer Bullhead / madtom - snail or spotted / tadpole, etc. - Completed

For this goal I was able to fish with @Ham down in Arkansas back in Oct. I always appreciate fishing with him especially fishing his local waters. Ham put so much time and thought into how to catch so many species on a regular basis that you just know that you will be on fish and with the right gear. Also he is a lot of fun to fish with as well 😉.

My meetings in Columbia were done around 3 pm and I headed down to Flippin. On the way I stopped at Bagnell dam to see if there was anything going on there. I did a little microfishing near the boat ramp. Caught carmine shiners and ozark minnows.

I have been wanting to get back to S MO / AR again for madtoms. Ham has caught a few species that I wanted to catrch for some time. We got on the waders and were out in the dark chasing these tiny cats. We saw a slender madtom that disappeared almost as soon as we saw it. Further downstream we found an eddy pool that had a checkered madtom and a brushy bottom. He spurned my worm advances and got into the leaf litter. The night was still young and we found a large slender madtom which I was able to hook and get photos. Not a lifer but nice to catch an old friend 🙂.

Ham was able to catch one as well.

Still searching for a lifer madtom, Ham found a checkered and I was able to get a bait in front of it and into the photo bag! As I mentioned this has been a bucket list fish for me for a few years and I was so happy to have a great looking fish in hand.

Lifer Checkered Madtom!

What they look like on the bottom.

Ham was up for the next fish which we thought was another checkered but it was actually an Ozark madtom. With that catch we had caught the proverbial trifecta of madtoms in this creek!

We fished for a little bit longer heading back towards the car. I caught another checkered as we headed back. We were going out for mooneye and skipjack in the White River in the morning. We could have just gone down to fish for trout at Cotter below the house, but drove a lot further downstream.

There were some micros near the boat ramp, but we headed upstream to the spillway to try for skipjack. Ham was fishing with a fly and I had on a swimbait. Ham was able to catch one skipjack, but I didn't even see a follow. We drifted downstream trying for whatever would bite. Tried lures, flies, worms, microgear, etc. Fishing around wing dams and flats, along the banks and any structure. One of the targets on this trip was a western blacktail shiner, another Cyprinella species. Ham wanted one with the fly and I needed a better photo than the one I had from a Missouri trip a few years ago. We both were successful above one of the wing dams. 

There were several schools of micros. Ham caught some duskystripe shiners and I caught what I originally thought was a lifer Mississippi silverside. When I edited my photos, it became clear that this fish was an emerald shiner, a species that I first caught in March down in Tennessee. I was told that this location was the furthest upstream that you would find this species in the White river.

We tried several more wing dams and even anchoring while drifting baits, but no luck on any of the buffalo, carp, suckers, etc. We made a move further downstream to get back on catching mooneye. I will say this and @FishnDave can back me up on this statement, Ham just flat out has these fish figured out!

We both caught several in a few different spots on the river. We both considered mooneye as a unicorn species in the past. After Ham figured what to look for to locate and approach them, they were not hard to get to bite such that even I was able to catch them. 

Lifer Mooneye!

I still tried to catch skipjack. In one split and confluence of the river, I caught a couple of white bass instead of skipjack. Was nice to get a bit more tug on the line.

Back near the boat ramp, we got into the mooneye again and also drifted baits for the suckers and carp that we saw. I cast and drifted past a downed tree and caught this spotted bass.

I had a great time and I know that both Ham and I were glad that a certain transient was not waiting for us at the boat ramp when we got back in. @Ham can add to this report if wants.

[Ham]

That’s a really Pretty Spotted Bass John. I had forgotten about him. 
I’m appreciative of the ones you were able to catch and embarrassed that I caught the Ozark Madtom and the only Skipjack we saw.

I really enjoyed our trip. I wish we could fish together a few times a year. 

 

[Johnsfolly]

10 hours ago, Ham said:

That’s a really Pretty Spotted Bass John. I had forgotten about him. 

Thanks, I hadn't caught one in some time.
I’m appreciative of the ones you were able to catch and embarrassed that I caught the Ozark Madtom and the only Skipjack we saw.

Not a problem my friend. I would rather have one of us catch them when they are in the area.

I really enjoyed our trip. I wish we could fish together a few times a year. 

I do too!

 

[Johnsfolly]

On 12/29/2022 at 10:14 AM, Johnsfolly said:

Not going to step on toes on other threads. Posting my annual Fishing goals list for 2023.

Ribbonfish - Didn't complete

Lifer Bullhead / madtom - snail or spotted / tadpole, etc. - completed

2 Swamp Lifers - e.g., banded sunfish, pirate perch - completed

4 Darters; 1 from MD (Rainbow) and 3 Lifers - Did not catch a rainbow darter in MD

4 Lifer minnows - inland silverside, mimic shiner, silverjaw, etc.- completed

15 Lifers in 2023 - completed

Catch at least one Fish in New State or previous State w/o Photo - completed

My final tally in 2023:

1221 total fish caught from 98 outings - the highest total fish number for me.

108 different species caught in 2023

I caught a total of 35 lifers in 2023 and got as @Ham would say an armchair lifer when they split the bowfin into two species.

Here are some other highlight species caught in 2023

Dusky smooth hound - NJ

Convict Cichlid - Central FL

Green Swordtail - Central FL

Variable Platy - Central FL

Caught all three in a small creek. The swordtail and platy were in the same pool.

Spotted Sunfish - Central FL

Like @FishnDave I only need the Northern Sunfish to complete the previous "13" Lepomis species, which I am not likely to chase until maybe 2025 or 2026. I have caught the recently split Rio Grande Longear on a trip with Ham in Texas.

Dimerus Cichlid - Central FL

Crested Goby - FL Everglades

Frillfin Goby - FL Everglades

Initially thought that this might have been a female crested goby, but it was a frillfin instead. 

African Jewel Cichlid - FL Everglades

I did a 400 mile round trip to the Everglades to escape the rains in Central FL. Both Dave and Ham know the spot that I fished since they fished there earlier in the year.

Southern Puffer - Tampa Bay FL

One of the few fish that my daughter was jealous about from my trip. I caught several and wished that I was staying in a place that I could have cooked them. We really like puffers. They are like a fish "drumstick" once they are cleaned.

Atlantic Bumper - Tampa Bay FL

Pretty cool little jack species caught on a Sabiki rig. @snagged in outlet 3 I did not get a jack crevalle and am still looking to catch my first.

Scaled Sardine - Tampa By FL

 

Not a lifer for me, but we stopped at a creek that Ham found that had a good population of mottled sculpin. Dave fished there are had success with a fly. Livie had not caught one before this trip.

Also caught a rainbow darter - much more abundant in MO than in MD.