2024 Round up - A year in the life of a multispecies angler - aka nutjob!

[Johnsfolly]

On 12/31/2024 at 2:30 PM, Johnsfolly said:

Thanks Jeff. Good luck on you next trip. We have been having warm (mid 50's low 60's) weather and it's going to drop into the 30's after Weds afternoon. I am hoping to get my first 2025 fish tomorrow. Likely to be a local sunfish, bullhead or carp.

@Quillback We fished a sunfish honeyhole yesterday and my first 2025 fish was a bluegill 😁.

I also caught a yellow perch which was the first one that I caught since 2021. We tried for carp but that spot was wide open to the 20 to 25 mph winds that hit us in the face. We didn't stay too long. Livie did catch another bluegill there but no carp or bullheads.

[Quillback]

Nice, I did not fish last year for bream, I mean bluegill.  Have to get out for them this year.  

[Quillback]

I did fish on Beaver today, several firsts for 2025, of course you can get a lot of firsts your first time out.  😃

First fish of the year, first smallmouth, and first swimbait fish:

First hybrid, a lot of spotted bass in this one, but olive colored.

 

First keeper smallie (16.5 inches), on a Ned rig, but not first Ned fish of the year:

And to wrap it up, first largemouth of the year and first crankbait fish.  

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

I did fish on Beaver today, several firsts for 2025, of course you can get a lot of firsts your first time out.  😃

First fish of the year, first smallmouth, and first swimbait fish:

First hybrid, a lot of spotted bass in this one, but olive colored.

 

First keeper smallie (16.5 inches), on a Ned rig, but not first Ned fish of the year:

And to wrap it up, first largemouth of the year and first crankbait fish.  

Congrats! That a nice mix of firsts😉!

[FishnDave]

Can I post my 2024 Summary here?  Here it goes:

I didn't catch as many species as Livie, John, nor Hamilton.  It wasn't a goal, but I managed to catch my most species in a year at 87 on fly, with 28 new Flyfers.  My Fly Lifelist is now at 143.  123 of those are U.S. Freshwater species.  I haven't looked at my all-tackle lifelist for a long time, so that's for another day.

I didn't track days, outings or overall numbers.  I did that for 10 consecutive years, so I've totally been there...I totally get it.  

I did keep track of 4 species again, although I wasn't trying to stack big numbers for any of these this year. For those 4 species, the 2024 and Flyfetime numbers are:

Grass Carp: 26 / 277

Goldfish: 30 / 377

Koi: 69 / 500

Bowfin: 39 / 203

I'm happy with all those numbers, but may continue to track them without really going hard at them... just for kicks. 

I fished in Alaska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana.

I did start micro flyfishing in 2024, and was able to add some new-to-me species.  Some of my favorite little fish were an Orange-throat Darter, Ozark Logperch, and Southern Redbelly Dace.

Also caught some Orangespotted Sunfish (not new) and Northern Sunfish.  The Northern Sunfish was the last of the "original 13 Lepomis Sunfish species" I needed to complete that list.  

Hamilton got us on Alligator Gar this year, so I/we have caught all 5 the U.S. Gar species on fly now.

Added Musky on fly, as well as Striped Bass and Blue Catfish... plus Black Drum, Northern Snakehead, and Rio Grande Cichlid.

I enjoyed catching more Grass Pickerel, Redspotted Sunfish, Shadow Bass, and Dollar Sunfish again this year, and a nice Goldeye.

Some pics, many of which have been shared throughout the year:

 

[Johnsfolly]

7 hours ago, FishnDave said:

Can I post my 2024 Summary here?  Here it goes:

I didn't catch as many species as Livie, John, nor Hamilton.  It wasn't a goal, but I managed to catch my most species in a year at 87 on fly, with 28 new Flyfers.  My Fly Lifelist is now at 143.  123 of those are U.S. Freshwater species.  I haven't looked at my all-tackle lifelist for a long time, so that's for another day.

I didn't track days, outings or overall numbers.  I did that for 10 consecutive years, so I've totally been there...I totally get it.  

I did keep track of 4 species again, although I wasn't trying to stack big numbers for any of these this year. For those 4 species, the 2024 and Flyfetime numbers are:

Grass Carp: 26 / 277

Goldfish: 30 / 377

Koi: 69 / 500

Bowfin: 39 / 203

I'm happy with all those numbers, but may continue to track them without really going hard at them... just for kicks. 

I fished in Alaska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana.

I did start micro flyfishing in 2024, and was able to add some new-to-me species.  Some of my favorite little fish were an Orange-throat Darter, Ozark Logperch, and Southern Redbelly Dace.

Also caught some Orangespotted Sunfish (not new) and Northern Sunfish.  The Northern Sunfish was the last of the "original 13 Lepomis Sunfish species" I needed to complete that list.  

Hamilton got us on Alligator Gar this year, so I/we have caught all 5 the U.S. Gar species on fly now.

Added Musky on fly, as well as Striped Bass and Blue Catfish... plus Black Drum, Northern Snakehead, and Rio Grande Cichlid.

I enjoyed catching more Grass Pickerel, Redspotted Sunfish, Shadow Bass, and Dollar Sunfish again this year, and a nice Goldeye.

Some pics, many of which have been shared throughout the year:

 

I'd say that was a successful year 😁

[FishnDave]

8 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I'd say that was a successful year 😁

I'm VERY happy with it. ☺️