October 22, 2023

 Visited an access on the Current River in MO.  Waded upstream.  Hoped for a Brown Trout.  Saw some biggies, had one strike.  Caught 2 Rainbow Trout, a Creek Chub, and a Largemouth Bass.

October 15, 2023

 Got out and flyfished for nearly 3 hours on Sunday afternoon.  Caught 20 Goldfish and 15 Koi.  Here's some of  them:

October 14, 2023

 Cool, cloudy, windy, occasional drizzle.  Took a final Bowfin trip for the year.  Caught 10!  Plus a nice Warmouth, a couple Largemouth Bass, a tiny Bluegill, a few Green Sunfish, and a Shortnose Gar.

Birds are migrating south!

October 13, 2023

Fished after work / before dark.  Started sunny, ended cloudy and drizzly.

Caught 2 White Bass, 2 Shortnose Gar, a Longear Sunfish, and a couple Green Sunfish.

October 12, 2023

 Got out yesterday evening before dark. Caught Largemouth Bass, Redear Sunfish, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, and Hybrid Sunfish.

October 8, 2023

 No longer chasing bowfin numbers, additional species for the year, nor bigger fish of any particular species... I can relax and enjoy fishing for the rest of the year...no goals, no pressure of any kind.  I reviewed my options... and fell back to where I've been going a lot this year already.  Because there's a good variety, and some fun fun there.

Hi temp was forecasted to be in the upper 60's.  It was breezier than I would have preferred.  Water was significantly lower than its been all year...and it's been low!  

Long story short...I landed 7 Eyetail Bowfin, and lost at least that many more.  Had gar strikes, but didn't really set the hook on them.  Caught some Largemouth Bass, Green Sunfish, Warmouth, a Bluegill, and a Common Carp.

October 1, 2023

 I went back to the last place I fished.  I wanted to catch a bigger Longnose Gar.  We'd seen some, but weren't able to hook...or land any of them.  I was hoping for one AT LEAST 40", and possibly even over 48".

I tied up a fly specifically for this.  It worked!  I got my new Personal Best Longnose Gar... 47.5", calc'd wt of over 10 lbs.

Also caught a Bluegill, Black Crappies, White Crappies (to 13"), and 2 Freshwater Drum:

HB: September 25-27, 2023

 My buddy Hamilton visited Saint Louis from Arkansas for a few days of fishing.  I can barely remember everything I caught, so I won't speak for what Hamilton caught.  Mostly we caught a lot of the same stuff, but sometimes we each caught a few species the other did not.

Day 1: 

We met up in the early afternoon at Simpson Park Lake spillway.  Water has been low.  I caught Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Longear Sunfish, and Hybrid Sunfish.

Then we went to a public park to fish for Koi and Goldfish.  I caught 15 Koi and 12 Goldfish.

Koi:

Goldfish:

We finished the day at a creek leading into a lake.  I caught Largemouth Bass, Green Sunfish, Bluegill, Hybrid Sunfish and (maybe? Longear Sunfish).

Day 2:

We went to an urban creek.  I caught Green Sunfish, Hybrid Sunfish, Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, Longear Sunfish, and a Grass Carp.

My buddy Hamilton caught a 31.5" BEAUTIFUL chunky Grass Carp!  Very cool!

 

Then we went looking to catch bullhead on fly.  I caught some Black Bullheads, and some really nice Goldfish.

We finished out the day at a "swamp".  Mostly I was acting as guide...showing where and how to fish,  and trying not to catch the fish I wanted Hamilton to catch.  Nevertheless, I managed to catch Green Sunfish, a Warmouth, and a Bowfin.

At one point, we'd seen an isolated rain shower in the distance.  We thought it might miss us... but weren't too worried since it was hot and it might even feel good!  It hit us!  The temp dropped at least 20 degrees, the wind picked up, then we had a sideways downpour with quite a bit of marble-sized hail!  We got drenched on one side, then the wind direction changed and we got similarly drenched on the other side.  We were both completely soaked... even my shoes were filled with water!  But we got a nice rainbow once the storm moved on.

Day 3:

Hamilton had a long drive ahead of him to get home in the afternoon. So, of course we headed further north a couple hours to get to another fishing spot.

I caught Bluegill, Black Crappie, White Crappie, Freshwater Drum, and Longnose Gar.

It was a fun 3 days of fishing!