April 27, 2024

 First visit of the year to this spot. Its a not insignificant drive, but very doable for a day trip.  I didn't catch big numbers of fish, but managed 10 species, and some nice individuals.

I caught Largemouth Bass, Green Sunfish, Walleye, Longnose Gar, White Crappie, Black Crappie, Hybrid Striped Bass, White Bass, Bighead Carp, and Gizzard Shad.  

The Bighead Carp... well the indicator went down, so I set the hook.  The fish ended up being hooked in the eye socket (eyeball was not damaged).  The Gizzard Shad measured 15" (BIG!) and ATE a fairly large fly!  The biggest White Bass was a male, and measured 16".  The Longnose Gar was not a large individual, and was missing the tip of his upper jaw.  May have been born that way....or certainly it was well healed-over if it was from trauma.

Bighead Carp

Walleye on fly

Longnose Gar on fly

Hybrid Striped Bass on fly

White Crappie on fly

16" White Bass on fly

15" Gizzard Shad on fly! It ate it!

White Bass on Fly

White Crappie on fly

White Bass on fly

I did not catch the fish below on my fly rod.... they were beached on shore, but still alive, so I rescued about a half dozen of them back to the water.  They are Slenderhead Darters.

Slenderhead Darters

April 25, 2024

 I went to another spot looking for Orangespotted Sunfish.  It was a spot I'd fished once last year and managed to catch one on a fly that was really to big for it, but it hit it anyway.

Armed with smaller flies, I put on a #16 beadhead fly in pink.  I'm very excited to have caught 5, and lost a few others!  Such a great little fish!

Orangespotted Sunfish on fly!

This is the fly I used.  #16 60-degree jig hooks, 2.8mm tungsten bead, pink marabou tail, pink yarn body.

I also caught some Green Sunfish, Bluegills, and a Longear Sunfish.

April 22-24, 2024

 I don't often fish during the work-week anymore, but my wife is out-of-town for her work.  So.....

Monday evening, I went to an urban creek above a lake to try for Orangespotted Sunfish.  I did not see nor catch any.  I did catch a bunch of Green Sunfish (including some rather tiny ones! Very cute.), a few Bluegills and Hybrid Sunfish, a Black Crappie, and a Grass Carp.  I lost a Shortnose Gar and another Grass Carp broke my line.

After work on Tuesday, I did some errands, and then fished for a bit after the rain passed.  Saw a big fat Redear, but it swam away when I put my fly near it.  I managed to catch another Redear, though.  And a Largemouth Bass, and a couple Hybrid Sunfish.

Wednesday after work, I visited an urban creek, it was still a bit stained from Tuesday's rain, but otherwise was nearly normal.

I caught 2 Hybrid Sunfish, 1 Shortnose Gar, and 2 Grass Carp.  The larger Grass Carp measured 31".

I took pics of both sides of this Grass Carp.... it only had one eye, and appeared to have been born that way.  Cyclops!

Deer in the Creek:

April 21, 2024

 Didn't have a lot of time... got out fishing around mid-afternoon.  Air temp upper 50's.  Wind speed @ 15mph.

Caught 7 fish, 6 species.  Cool, but also was unable to string together successful patterns for anything. So, how good am I really?  Most times, I just feel like I'm plucking the low-hanging fruits. 😉

I ended with 1 Common Carp, 1 Black Crappie, 1 Largemouth Bass, 2 Green Sunfish, 1 Eyetail Bowfin, and 1 Spotted Gar.  I missed/lost a number of other gar and bowfin.  I call it "charity". 

ok.  Pics!

Spotted Gar

Spotted Gar

Spotted Gar

Common Carp

Eyetail Bowfin

Black Crappie

a couple of Green Sunfish

April 14, 2024

Temps in the 80's, rather windy much of the time (like 15mph).  Went to two fishing spots, racked up well over 10,000 steps on the day, and caught a couple species to add to the 2024 Flyfishing Fish List.  Now at 33 species for the year on fly.

First spot, I managed to catch a Grass Carp.  I missed at least one other, and also missed a 3rd really good strike from something.  Tried a bit for some topminnows and mosquitofish with micro flies, but did not hook any that were biting the flies.

Next spot, I missed and lost a number of Bowfin and Shortnose Gar... but managed to catch 4 of the Bowfin and 3 Gar.  Also caught 2 Green Sunfish while trying unsuccessfully for Warmouth.

The gar above was the largest landed of the day, at 25" long.

April 6, 2024

 A flyfishing buddy and his flyfishing wife, from Iowa, both of whom I've fished with before, came down to the Saint Louis area for a weekend of fishing before staying to glimpse the Eclipse in that path of totality a bit further south.

Like me, they are adding species to their flyfishing lists.  Both have more than I do.  They are just getting into micro flyfishing as well, so we visited a creek I've hit a time or two this year.  It was pretty fun introducing them to this creek!

As for what I personally caught... I did manage 10 species on the afternoon, including one new-to-me species.  The new species was an Emerald Shiner:  (This is one fish...I usually take multiple pics of a suspected new fish, because each pic may offer a different clue that helps identify these small critters.)

I also caught...

Bleeding Shiners:

Blackspotted Topminnows:

Northern Studfish:

Creek Chubs:

Striped Shiners:

Longear Sunfish:

Green Sunfish:

Bluegill:

Hybrid Sunfish: