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"!