Mid-February 2022

 Fished 2 days with my buddy Hamilton, an outstanding angler from Arkansas.  Both days were low 60-degrees F....beautiful for this time of year!  Kinda breezy one afternoon.

First day...goal was to get me my first ever Chain Pickerel.  Hamilton put me in the right places, I just couldn't get bites.  He caught a couple pretty quickly.  I begrudging used his gear and fly....at his strong suggestion.  It worked!  I lost one that jumped and threw the fly, then finally caught one!  A small one, but it counts!  Very happy to finally get this species added to my flyrod list!

And that was all I caught the entire day.  Hamilton had a stellar day, though, catching 9 species and somewhere over 25 fish total for the day.  The struggle...for me....was real!

Next day, we waded a couple places we'd fished together before.  I struggled less...and had a pretty decent day, catching 7 species, including 2 more new-to-me species.

The new ones were Knobfin Sculpin:

...and a Largescale Stoneroller!  The 3 pictures below are all of the single specimen I caught.

In addition to a few Green Sunfish and a Hybrid Sunfish, I also caught a nice river Largemouth Bass and a feisty Smallmouth Bass:

And a bunch of Rainbow Trout...guesstimating @ 30 or so.

I also accidentally foul-hooked this fish.  Kind of neat looking, so I took a couple pics of it:

And just for fun, I put these two pictures together, to show the difference in markings between a Chain Pickerel (left), and a Grass Pickerel (right).  Both very cool fish!

I've also caught Northern Pike on flies.  I have caught muskies and a tiger musky, but NOT on flies.  So...technically I've caught all the Esox species.  However....Grass Pickerel and Redfin Pickerel are both SUBSPECIES of Esox americanus.  I haven't caught a Redfin Pickerel yet.

Late January 2022

 Barely squeaked in a fishing trip before the end of January!  A buddy introduced me to a new-to-me location and a new-to-me species....Ozark Sculpins!  Caught at least 10 sculpins...not sure if they are all Ozarks or not. The location we fished has Banded and Mottled Sculpins as well.

Also caught some Rainbow Trout, 3 Smallmouth Bass, 1 Striped Shiner, 1 bluegill, and one green sunfish.

2021 Flyfishing Summary

 I didn't fish as much as in previous years.  Generally just once/week.  Once again, I used flyfishing gear ONLY.

I fished in MO, IA, and AR.  I fished a few times with a couple new fishing friends.

A creek I like to fish flooded and was pretty much unfishable for a month during prime-time early summer.

I had my best year for number of species.  I caught 36 species in Missouri this year, plus 8 additional species in Iowa, and 2 in Arkansas... for a total of 46 species on flies in 2021.

I caught 12 species that were firsts on fly gear for me:  Koi, Saugeye, Meanmouth Bass (Kentucky Spotted Bass Hybrid), Redspotted Sunfish, Warmouth, Dollar Sunfish, Bantam Sunfish, Longnose Gar, Skipjack Herring, Bleeding Shiner, Carmine Shiner, and Grass Pickerel.

My all-time flyfishing species list is now up to 70.  4 are Saltwater fish, 66 are Freshwater fish.

In 16 years of flyfishing in Iowa, I'd caught 39 species.  In 1.5 years of flyfishing in Missouri, I've caught 41 species so far.

I don't know my overall fish numbers, but I did keep track of 3 species.  This year I caught:

- 167 Grass Carp on flies

- 100 Koi on flies

- 87 Goldfish on flies

I caught 3 Iowa Master Angler Bluegills (10" minimum length) this year, and 1 Missouri Master Angler Bluegill (10" Min.).

Koi and Goldfish are SO colorful and interesting...I have a lot of "favorite fish" this year.  Below is a very trimmed down list of favorite fish from 2021:

Grass Carp:

Freshwater Drum:

Koi:

Redspotted Sunfish (top), and 10" Bluegill (below):

Longear Sunfish (top), and Warmouth (below):

a RED Goldfish, and a Grass Pickerel:

Goldfish:

Pretty amazing year.  I wish even better fishing/catching in 2022 for all of us! 

December 31, 2021

 One last flyfishing outing in 2021.  68 degrees F in Saint Louis, MO.

Lots of folks fishing.  Nobody catching.  Managed a White Crappie and 2 Rainbow Trout.  A muskrat also kept swimming back and forth in front of me at one spot.

Late December 2021

 Xmas Eve.  Flyfished for Goldfish and Koi.

A chartreuse microjig under an indicator caught most of the fish.  A few others were caught on off-white.

Caught 16 Koi (exactly 100 for the year!):

(the fish bottom fish above is a recapture).

(below is 2 sides of the same fish, a recapture...originally caught July 28):

...and caught 8 Goldfish (87 for the year):

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: