Fishing Goals 2024

[FishnDave]

You had a GREAT Florida Trip! Dandy Midas Cichlids!

[Johnsfolly]

8 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

You had a GREAT Florida Trip! Dandy Midas Cichlids!

FL trips always make you wish that you had more time

[Johnsfolly]

Quick update.

After a month of no fishing due to weather and our trying to move our house by ourselves, finally got out and did some targeted microfishing in PA. 

Both Livie and I caught lifer slimy sculpin (#10). A bit more aggressive than those in MD but less so than in MO.

Livie caught a nice male eastern blacknose dace. Not a lifer but a pretty cool fish.

The second location we were targetting another lifer species - Allegheny pearl dace.

They were tight in wood piles/root wads and more spooky. I did catch one - which is another new minnow species and adds to the lifer total for the year (#11). 

Livie caught another male E blacknose dace.

 

[Johnsfolly]

Slowly eeking out more lifers. Took advantage of a planned black sea bass trip in NJ to target some lifers. We had a dismal night trip going for banded and blackbanded sunfish. Seemed like the water levels were higher than when a buddy caught a bunch a year or so ago. Saw only a couple of uninterested fish including several redfin pickerel (cousins of those grass pickerel @Ham and @FishnDave catch in AR). May have to try again later in the summer. I had a contact give me information on feather blennies in the Manasquan river. We got out there on Tuesday of this week and found several and even caught some 🙂.

#12 Lifer for 2024 - Feather Blenny

Livie's Male Feather Blenny was much nicer than mine.

#13 Seaboard Goby

Livie also caught an unexpected Lifer, a smallmouth flounder, that we originally thought was a juvenile summer flounder. Turns out that this species only gets to 5 inches in length.

Close up of it's name sake.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

On 1/1/2024 at 10:03 PM, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

My goal for this year is to go saltwater fishing.  I must catch something for it to count.  That is it.  

Well, low and behold, I did.   It was a pretty quick trip.   Only a few hours.   Went to Pensacola to pick up my son from my niece's house.  Left Friday back home Sunday (we flew).  Had a few hours to try some shrimp I tied.  No luck.  Went to a new spot used my nephew's spinning rod, and a Berkley Gulp Shrimp plastic.  The tail got bit off pretty quickly.  I kept using it, getting hits, but no hookups.   

About 20 minutes and a few retied jigheads, I caught my first saltwater fish.    He believed it was a Spot.  I have no idea.    It came off the hook over the shore and fell back into the water.   

 

I'm smiling still as this little fish,  Mayne 6 inches fought so much harder than I could have imagined.   It really was exciting.   No pictures of mine, but here is a picture of his catch.  He called it a booger fish.

[FishnDave]

cool!  Gulf Toadfish, maybe?

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

3 hours ago, FishnDave said:

cool!  Gulf Toadfish, maybe?

You got it.   Seems some believe it to be poisonous,  but it is also believed to be a myth.   Interesting.   

[Johnsfolly]

33 minutes ago, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

You got it.   Seems some believe it to be poisonous,  but it is also believed to be a myth.   Interesting.   

Great that you got out and caught a salty fish! I agree that it's a gulf toadfish and no they are not venomous.

Gulf toadfish are commonly believed to be toxic/venomous, but this belief is untrue. While other members of the batrachoidid family (toadfishes) do have toxic excretions, the Gulf Toadfish does not. The purpose of these excretions is still unknown and, although it can have irritating effects on people and fish, it is not a toxin.

 I catch oyster toadfish all the time and you do not want to lip one (he says from experience🙄).

[Johnsfolly]

On 1/24/2024 at 4:56 PM, Johnsfolly said:

Finally put together my targets for 2024

Catch a lifer Skate / Ray / Shark - I am considering taking Sue, Livie and BIL on a charter out of DE for sand tiger and sandbar sharks also fishing for cownose rays locally

19 Lifers total for the year - this is pretty aggressive but we have a S FL trip planned that should result in a fair number of lifers barring poor weather. I have a business trip in Utah in March (may not be able to fish if creeks are high due to runoff), two business trips to Texas in Oct and Nov and either a business trip to SD or CA. I will plan on a day or two around these trips to catch some new species.

Two birds with one stone or two goals with one fish😉.

After a couple of attempts was able to land a cownose ray that met my catch a lifer skate / ray / shark goal and added another lifer to the list. Just need another 5 lifers for this year's goal.

You can read about my attempts to catch this species here: 

[WestCentralFisher]

My goal this spring and summer has been to get back where I used to be. It's not as if I ever stopped fishing. I doubt there is a year since I was born where the  number of times I'd been on the water has been <10. But it had fallen out of being a regular habit, and I'd gotten really lazy about fishing a few spots around home and not really venturing further.

I think I've done a pretty good job getting back into the rhythm. Pretty much every weekend I don't have an ironclad obligation, at least for a few hours I find myself on an Ozark creek or river. I've done a few bigger, multi day trips, but a lot of smaller scale ones to a few little Ozark creeks I've found. I'm still not quite as good at reading water as I used to be, and I haven't even really begun getting back into fly fishing yet, but it's a really good start. The more I get back into it, the more I want to even more. I do hope to pick up the fly rod more often, and that's the next venture. 

We've got a three day trip on the blue and white ribbon section of the Current planned for October; my plan is to practice enough by then to catch a few half decent browns on that trip.