Late September 2020

 Flyfished an urban creek.  I only managed to land 5 fish... 2 Channel Catfish (biggest measured 20"), 2 Goldeye, and 1 Grass Carp.

Seen while fishing:

Hardy Hibiscus:

Jawbone...assumed it was deer, but wasn't an exact match to pictures I found online.  Also close but not exact were camels, cows, goats, sheep....so, I'm not really sure.

And also this stuff...I'm told the common name is "Beggar's Lice"...and is edible.  Certainly a pain to remove from clothing.

Mid-September 2020

 Fished some new-to-me places in Missouri.

Blue Springs Creek is, as you might guess, a spring-fed creek.  It has a population of naturally-reproducing Rainbow Trout.  I'd read that the past severals years of droughts and floods had taken its toll on the larger trout in this small creek.  Everyone (including the MDC folks) seems to agree this is a tough creek to catch fish on.  So, I feel fortunate to have caught 2 little rainbows off one small tree branch in the water, and also caught a creek chub.

Here's some thing seen while there:

I found what I believe is a uniface scraper stone tool:

I also visited Mineral Fork, a tributary of the Big River.  I hoped for Smallmouth.  Saw some, but did not catch any.  Instead, I caught a few small Largemouth Bass, Bluegills, Hybrid Sunfish, Longear Sunfish, and a Striped Shiner.  

And some things seen while fishing:

Box Turtle shell:

Still trying to get some Missouri Smallmouth, I tried another creek that was recommended by a friend.  I promised not to name this one, since its a small creek and can't stand much fishing pressure.  Success!  I caught 4 Smallmouth, some Bluegills, Hybrid Sunfish, Green Sunfish, Longear Sunfish, Creek Chubs, and a Hornyhead Chub.

Smallmouth Bass:

Green Sunfish:

Green Sunfish and Hybrid Sunfish:

Longear Sunfish:

Creek Chubs:

Hornyhead Chub:

Things seen while fishing:

A turkey feather on shore.....and a deer hip bone under water:

And a dead Armadillo:

Beautiful rocky-bottomed clear water stream:

And I hit a pond for some Largemouth Bass:

They hit Gamechangers and Howitzer Poppers.

Not a bad few weeks.... No real big fish, but a variety, and colorful fish, and beautiful surroundings.

Early September 2020

Not quite the success of the previous couple trips, but caught 10 species on one outing, probably a new record for me.

I caught:

Grass Carp, Shortnose Gar, Largemouth Bass, White Bass, Redear Sunfish, Bluegills, Longear Sunfish, Channel Catfish, Silver Carp, and Hybrid Sunfish.

Got up and close with a beaver.  See if you can spot it in each picture:

The following weekend I tried for bass.  Caught some...nothing big.

Late August 2020

 And....MORE of those OTHER fish!  I enjoyed my last outing, so I set out to see if I could reproduce similar results.

I used 2 separate fly patterns...an unweighted olive woolly bugger, and a beadhead black nymph with hackle collar and round rubber split tail (I still don't know the name of the fly).  Both were very effective.

I caught 8 species:  (7) Grass Carp, (7+) Shortnose Gar, (3) Bluegills, (1) White Bass, (1) Kentucky Spotted Bass, (1) Channel Catfish, (1) Bighead Carp(?), (2) Goldeye.

The Goldeye were a first for me, so that was pretty cool!

Once again, I really enjoyed the variety.