June 22, 2024

 Visited 2 spots in southern MO.  One I had been to before, one I had not heard of before but it was recommended by a fishing buddy.

2.5 hours to the first spot, 1.5 hours to the 2nd spot, and then 2.5 hours home.  6.5 hours drive time consumes a lot of (potential) fishing time!

Still, it was a good day. I caught 16 species!  I believe that is a NEW personal record for number of species in one day.  Most were micros.  Darters were one of my main targets for the trip.  I didn't see many.  I did get one or two to hit the tanago fly...but they were just to small to eat it far enough for me to hook them. Pretty little guys, tho.

I caught:

Bleeding Shiners

Striped Shiners

Mimic Shiner

Northern Studfish

Blackspotted Topminnow

Hornyhead Chub

Longear Sunfish

Green Sunfish

Bluegill

Hybrid sunfish

Redspotted Sunfish

Shadow Bass

Smallmouth Bass

Warmouth

Western Dollar Sunfish

and Golden Shiner

Also had a bird land on my hat for a bit while I was fishing.

On to the pics!.....

Shadow Bass

Longear Sunfish

Northern Studfish

Redspotted Sunfish

Hybrid Sunfish

Smallmouth Bass

Mimic Shiner

Warmouth

Western Dollar Sunfish

Bleeding Shiner

Golden Shiners

Blackspotted Sunfish

Hornyhead Chubs

Striped Shiners

Midland Watersnake

Bird on my hat.  Baby Barn Swallow, perhaps?

I also saw a lizard...it was black with some yellow (broken?) stripes.  The closest I could come up with is possibly a Six-lined Racerunner... but could have a been a Five-lined Skink?

June 15, 2024

 Drove an hour and visited a place I had not been to before.  Always exciting to learn a new place!  It was Mississippi River floodplain lowland swamp type of place.  A fisheries biologist told me Pirate Perch and Grass Pickerel had been sampled here, along with Spotted Gar, Bowfin, and other stuff I enjoy catching.  So... off I went.

Driving in, there was abundant wildlife.  I saw deer, a raccoon, turtles, snakes, a lizard (I think...super rare in this area!), Redheaded Woodpeckers, Indigo Buntings, Goldfinches, Cardinals, herons, buzzards... really fun to see!

I stopped at a number of spots.  Some were too shallow, or weed choked, or otherwise unfishable.  Others were interesting.  Most had tiny minnows (Western Mosquitofish / gambusia).  Some had bigger fish!

I did not manage to catch Pirate Perch (which apparently feed at night and hide in deep cover during the day), nor Grass Pickerel.

I DID catch Eyetail Bowfin, some gar (possibly spotted x shortnose hybrids?), Warmouth, Green Sunfish, some very feisty Largemouth Bass, Bluegills, and Black Crappies.

One of the Warmouth I caught was absolutely GORGEOUS!  One of the prettiest ones I've caught, for sure.  And after fishing other spots, I returned to the spot later in the day and caught another Warmouth... that turned out to be the same one from 6 hours earlier!  No, the water wasn't clear enough to see the fish, so it was pretty random, I felt.  Very cool, though!

Here's that Warmouth:

Warmouth on fly

This was when I caught it the 2nd time, 6 hours later:

For comparison, below are a couple other Warmouth I caught the same day.  Less colorful, but I like them all.  Such a cool species!

And some of the other fish:

Black Crappie

Bluegill

This Bowfin measured 25"...not my biggest ever, but maybe the 2nd biggest:

Eyetail Bowfin on fly

This smaller one had black fins which was pretty neat:

Some of the bigger bass:

Largemouth Bass on fly

All the gar were nice ones.  I only measured one, and it was 29.5"!

June 9, 2024

 Went after micros on flies again.  It had been several weeks, and I hoped some of these little fish would be sporting their spawning coloration (usually more red).  The minnow species I caught had, if anything, less coloration than the previous trip, so the spawn must be over for those.  The Longear Sunfish continue to get more vibrant colors.  The male Northern Studfish also had good colors.  Studfish are a colorful fish, and I've been wanting to get better pictures of them, and I like how some turned out.

Anyway, I ended up catching 14 species, which is probably my personal record for species in one day.

I caught Blackspotted Topminnows, Blackstripe Topminnows, Northern Studfish, Longear Sunfish, Green Sunfish, Bluegill, Hybrid Sunfish, a Northern Rock Bass, Kentucky Spotted Bass, Largemouth Bass, Bleeding Shiners, Striped Shiners, Creek Chubs, and a Yellow Bullhead. Pretty amazing for such a small creek.  There were other types of minnows visible, but I didn't manage to catch anything else, obviously.

Male Northern Studfish

Blackspotted Topminnows

Blackspotted Topminnows

Blackstripe Topminnows

Bleeding Shiners

Striped Shiners

Yellow Bullhead

Kentucky Spotted Bass

Green Sunfish

Rock Bass

Longear Sunfish

Creek Chub

I did also catch 2 Crayfish on fly.  The first one was a total surprise, I didn't even see it first.  The second one was intentional.

I saw a number of butterflies.  Turns out the black ones are Pipevine Swallowtails.  I saw a bizarre caterpillar, which turned out to be the caterpillar of those butterflies!

I also saw Tiger Swallowtail and Zebra Swallowtail.

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar