December 28, 2024

 After realizing I was close to achieving 500 Koi on fly (lifetime), I decided to get after them one more time this year.

It was tough, fish weren't particularly willing to collaborate with my efforts.  Many more anglers were about than I've ever seen at this location.  Made for a long afternoon... but once the other anglers left, the fishing seemed to pick up.  I ended up catching 9 Koi (exactly what I needed to reach 500), and 6 Goldfish.

Here's some of my favorites of the day:

This beauty was #500!  And it was one I don't believe I've caught before.

Koi above.... Goldfish below:

December 25, 2024

 Christmas Day.  We'd had our family get-togethers a little early, so not much else going on for me on a drizzly late December day.  Could have sought out some stocker trout somewhere in the St Louis metro area.  I've learned that Koi are also often willing to bite in the colder months, as long as there's no ice on the water... so I chose to try for some.  They fight well and can be very colorful, with sometimes interesting fin and scale patterns as well.

It started out very slow, with the water more stained than during my previous visit, and no fish visible at the start.  It picked up as the afternoon progressed.  I ended up landing 16 Koi and 3 Goldfish.  Below are some of them.

2024 Flyfishing Summary

2024 has been a GREAT year of flyfishing for me.  I didn't fish much more than usual....typically just 1 day/week.  Also a small a handful of multiple-day trips.

I fished in Louisiana, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and Alaska this year.

I fished some new-to-me smaller waters (creeks) for micros, which was my first real foray into flyfishing for tiny stuff. That did add some flyrod species for me, such as Southern Redbelly Dace, Blackspotted Topminnow, Redfin Shiner, Bluntnose Minnow, etc.

I started off the year with a list of 7 species I'd hoped to catch for the first time on the fly rod.  They were: Musky, Alligator Gar, Northern Snakehead, Rio Grande Cichlid, Northern Sunfish, Striped Bass, and Blue Catfish.  With help from my buddy Hamilton for 5 of the 7, I caught all 7 of those!

I also wanted to catch a darter species on fly... didn't have to be this year.... but I managed two... an Orangethroat Darter and an Ozark Logperch!

I ended up catching 87 species on fly for the year, which was my most in a year ever, even though that was not a goal for the year. 

And I caught enough of the 4 species I track to boost my lifetime-on-fly number of each of them to:

Grass Carp: 277

Bowfin: 203

Koi: 500

Goldfish: 377

Some of my favorite fish of the year:

Muskellunge

I liked the markings on the one below:

Muskellunge

Warmouth

Leather Koi

Koi

Leather Koi

Mirror Koi

Koi / Linear Ghost Carp

Grass Carp

Grass Carp

Mirror Butterfly Koi

Mirror Koi

Pumpkinseed Sunfish

Northern Sunfish

Orangethroat Darter

Ozark Logperch

Alligator Gar

Black Drum

Rio Grande Perch

Gafftopsail Catfish

Goldeye

Western Mosquitofish

Bleeding Shiner

Western Dollar Sunfish

Redspotted Sunfish

Shadow Bass

Spotted Gar

Longear Sunfish

Ladyfish

Northern Studfish

Rock Bass

Flier

Grass Pickerel

Redspotted Sunfish

Northern Snakehead

Bighead Carp

White Bass

Gizzard Shad

Walleye

Orangespotted Sunfish

Eyetail Bowfin

Blue Catfish

Striped Bass

Leather Koi

Butterfly Koi