Fly Fishing Species 2023

[bfishn]

On 7/5/2023 at 7:53 PM, Ham said:

62) Mooneye 

Im so freaking excited about this one! 

That's so cool. Reminds me of the 'golden eye' (gold eye?) we occasionally caught from the Grand and Chariton Rivers in NoMo. Any of those in your range/on your list?

The only way we ever caught golden eye was on green river worms. Every fish in those rivers ate green river worms. Those streams cut thru 10-15ft of rich soil, leaving mud bluffs. You just had to find a thin layer of buried organic matter in those bluffs and dig 'em out. About 1/4 the size of a crawler, pale gray/green, and the squirmiest, slimiest worms I've ever encountered. Once you had the slime on your hands you could smell it 2 days later. It was worth it.

[Ham]

3 hours ago, bfishn said:

That's so cool. Reminds me of the 'golden eye' (gold eye?) we occasionally caught from the Grand and Chariton Rivers in NoMo. Any of those in your range/on your list?

The only way we ever caught golden eye was on green river worms. Every fish in those rivers ate green river worms. Those streams cut thru 10-15ft of rich soil, leaving mud bluffs. You just had to find a thin layer of buried organic matter in those bluffs and dig 'em out. About 1/4 the size of a crawler, pale gray/green, and the squirmiest, slimiest worms I've ever encountered. Once you had the slime on your hands you could smell it 2 days later. It was worth it.

Awesome! @FishnDave helped me catch my Lifer/Flyfer Goldeye in a Creek that runs into the Missouri River. That’s the only one I have ever caught, but I am told they run up the Little Red River in the Fall. I missed them last year when I tried. 
I fished the White River again yesterday and confirmed my ability to find and catch Mooneye. Maybe I’ll find Goldeye further down the White or Arkansas Rivers in the dingy stuff. 

[FishnDave]

On 7/14/2023 at 9:14 PM, Ham said:

Awesome! @FishnDave helped me catch my Lifer/Flyfer Goldeye in a Creek that runs into the Missouri River. That’s the only one I have ever caught, but I am told they run up the Little Red River in the Fall. I missed them last year when I tried. 
I fished the White River again yesterday and confirmed my ability to find and catch Mooneye. Maybe I’ll find Goldeye further down the White or Arkansas Rivers in the dingy stuff. 

I caught some Goldeye each of the first 2 years after I moved to StL, but none last year (although @Ham caught a nice one...14"?) and none this year.  Strange.  I suspect the water levels in the MO River and creek I fish have not allowed fish to migrate up this tributary like they normally would.

Very cool fish!

 

[Ham]

66) Black Rockfish 

Veey abundant when you find them. Very aggressive especially when the school gets turned on and gets competitive for food. I could have caught lots more of them, but every one of them you catch takes up a few minutes of time that could be used to get other species 

I even got some on top. In like 100 foot of water at the Langara rocks.

[Ham]

67) Pink Salmon

The guides have great disdain for the Pink Salmon. Smaller, don’t fight well, and the meat is of a lesser quality. 
still I was Happy to get my Lifer and My Flyfer. 
The Flyfer but up a minimal scrap, but no matter. Bad pic, but I was really struggling. 
I brought a lot of flys and used a fair amount of them. This was the one that caught my Pink. 
several were really chewed on. I lost one to kelp. 

[Ham]

68) Alaskan Pollock

so, I wasn’t shy about asking people where I could use my flyrod and what species I could try for. They weren’t able to be helpful on the How, but I did learn that there were juvenile Pacific Cod in the bay that the boat dock was in. 
Mind blown. The dock guys are great. They help you dock the boat and launch every time you come and go. They get your fish to the fish station for you. If you are there for any length of time, they tidy the boat up for you. Boats are refueled every evening. You just turn the key and go. 
Anyway, the dock guys were like, “we catch need anything from the store? At the end of the day at shift change all the time”. 
I busted up the Tenkara rod and a tiny trout fly and got one on the first flip. Keep in mind, I’ve been on the North Pacific for hours getting beat up by wind and waves and I’m on the boat dock at like 10 PM catching these tiny Pac Cod. 
IF I wanted to pump numbers up, I could have caught dozens of them. 
There were some larger ones so I tried to use a bigger fly and get further out for the bigger ones. using one of @BilletHead patterns I did get some larger ones and some Black Rockfish around the dock as well. 
edited: the guys that should know better, didn’t 

The Pacific Cod were actually Alaskan Pollock

and likely my Rock Sole was a different flatfish. TBD

Thanks to Random fish need and @Johnsfolly

[Ham]

69) Copper Rockfish after the Pacific Cod, I struggled. I was starting to think I would only have the three Flyfers for the trip. I knew the problem was my inability to get the fly down/boat control. 
I finally came up with a way to add weight that helped me get down quickly. I think you still need a full sink and 700 is probably more than twice as good as the 300 I have, but I added a 1/2 oz bass casting sinker to it and that got me down and kept the fly down.

I was told of a very promising multispecies area and headed there Friday afternoon, BUT wind and swell made that a No for me.

I fished as close as I could and saw that my system was going to work. So, I headed back to the spot where I had caught that 18 lb Lingcod. 
First drop got me this Copper Rockfish.

a little later, I got anothersorry that my hand is in the way, but they are Super Pokey and some of them have teeth or a lot of jaw strength and I’m not always willing to Lip them. 

[Hawg]

Yep sticking your digits in an ocean fish’s mouth is not a good idea. Good call.

[Ham]

70) Quillback These guys get Big and Bad, but this one was still Just a Baby. A pokey, ravenous Baby with a Big Mouth and tremendous jaw strength.

All the guides were Super careful with Rockfish. The pokes from spines had a reputation for getting badly infected especially the Quillback. 

[Ham]

71) Kelp Greenling

This beautiful fish was an unexpected gift. When I first got color, it reminded me of a Brown Trout. I had to think for a minute and look at the mouth and day to myself, “maybe a female Kelp Greenling”

I conferred with the guys at the Lodge and the “confirmed” it, but their ID’s have proven to be not 100% accurate.

very different in appearance to the Male Kelp Greenling. Im Super Happy to have caught a male and a female.