May 19, 2024

 Before leaving Arkansas on Sunday, I decided to try for some species I don't normally get near home.  My buddy that I fished with the previous day for Snakeheads fish with me.  He knows so many good fishing spots! :)

We stopped at 3 places.  At the first spot, I caught a Creek Chub, Green Sunfish, and Rainbow Trout, then lost a sculpin.  We relocated downstream 100 yards or so, and I caught a few more Green Sunfish, a Banded Sculpin (Flyfer!), 3 Redspotted Sunfish, 7 Grass Pickerel, and a Knobfin Sculpin.

Banded Sculpin

Banded Sculpin

Redspotted Sunfish

Grass Pickerel

Grass Pickerel

Knobfin Sculpin

As we headed to another location, we made a quick stop at a small creek, hoping for chances at some Darter species.  We didn't manage any darters, but I did get a Flyfer (fly-lifer) of a Redfin Shiner.  Also caught some Bloody Shiners.

Redfin Shiner

Bloody Shiners

 

At our last spot, we fished a swamp that was flooded and muddied up from recent rains.  I beached but lost a Spotted Gar, but caught a Warmouth and 2 Fliers.

Warmouth

Flier

Flier

Zebra Swallowtail

I ended the day by 12:30pm (to start my drive home), with 11 species, 27 fish.  I've now so far caught 51 fish species in 2024.

June 12, 2023

 Exhausted from the 2-day flyfishing tournament, I took the afternoon off  to rest and relax, checked into a hotel, and took it easy. 

But the next day I hit a few spots on the way home from Arkansas to Saint Louis, MO.

I hit one of the spots we tried for Grass Pickerel during the tournament (...and we didn't manage to get any), and caught 3!  Darn fish.

I also caught Redspotted Sunfish, Green Sunfish (not shown), Creek Chub, and Hornyhead Chub.

Also some small Longear Sunfish:

And a Knobfin Sculpin:

The fish from this trip brought me up to 66 fish species on flyrod in 2023, and up to 108 Lifetime Flyrod Species.

Here's a few other things seen:

Mid-December 2021

 Took some days off work this week and headed several hours south to do some flyfishing with a friend.  

Rained a good portion of the time, and temperatures ranged from mid-60's to 40 degrees F.
Fished 3 different streams. Caught 11 different species of fish:
-Rainbow Trout
-Brown Trout
-Smallmouth Bass
-Largemouth Bass
-Grass Pickerel
-Northern Rock Bass
-Longear Sunfish
-Green Sunfish
-Creek Chub
-Bleeding Shiner
-Striped Shiner

Striped Shiner and Grass Pickerel were firsts for me. I saw a Palomino/Golden Trout swimming around, but didn't catch it. Saw a few Chain Pickerel...but they usually saw me first and apparently didn't like what they saw. Oddly, I also saw a KOI swim almost right up to me in the river!!

Here's some of the fish/location pics:

Grass Pickerel:

Northern Rock Bass:

Rainbow Trout:

Largemouth Bass:

Creek Chub - Longear Sunfish - Smallmouth Bass:

Striped Shiner:

Bleeding Shiner (one fish, 3 pics of same individual):

Rainbow Trout:

Brown Trout:

Striped Shiners: