August 18, 2024

 Got out on a beautiful day for some flyfishing.  Hoped for Bowfin.... I needed 9 more for a lifetime benchmark of 200 bowfin on fly.  I managed to add 3 more.  So, 6 to go!  

Caught a variety of fish, Bowfin, Shortnose Gar, Largemouth Bass, Freshwater Drum, White Crappie, Bluegill, Warmouth, Green Sunfish.... good day. :) 

Warmouth

Largemouth Bass

Shortnose Gar

Shortnose Gar

Shortnose Gar

Freshwater Drum

Very tiny White Crappie!

Eyetail Bowfin

Eyetail Bowfin

Eyetail Bowfin

Saw quite a variety of butterflies this day, plus other wildlife.  Got pics of a few organisms.

Common Buckeye

Comma

Fiery Skipper

Red Admiral

Red Admiral

Common Whitetail Dragonfly

Six-Spotted Fishing Spider

American Lotus

Mid-August 2024

To complete the Lepomis sunfish list above, on fly, I still needed Northern Sunfish.  That was a goal for this year.  With some help, I was able to find a location near Chicago that was a 4 hour drive away from Saint Louis.  I made it a day trip....there and back.  I was successful!  I caught around a dozen of the little beauties! They really look like sort of an intermediary between Longear Sunfish and Pumpkinseed Sunfish.  Very cool!

Northern Sunfish

While there, I also caught Green Sunfish, Striped Shiners, Creek Chubs, and a Yellow Bullhead.

I saw this Doe and her fawns in the creek.  The doe didn't like me there.  She was stomping and blowing at me.  I told her she was safe from me.  She wasn't convinced.  So I made a blowing noise back at her, and then she took off up the bank after her fawns.

That got me to Flyrod species #79 for the year, 140 on the Fly Lifelist (120 Freshwater).

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The next day after that 8 hr drive, I slept in, then decided to go chase some bigger fish.  Why not Grass Carp?

I had a good day at that.... I caught 10 Grass Carp! I haven't caught double-digit numbers of Grass Carp in one day since 2021!  There was one stretch in the afternoon that I caught 6 Grass Carp in a span of just 43 minutes!  That kind of action is awesome!

I also caught 3 Largemouth Bass, 2 White Bass, 3 Freshwater Drum, a Bluegill, Hybrid Sunfish, and Green Sunfish.  A couple Shortnose Gar shook free.

Early August, 2024

Went to a new-to-me creek looking for darters.  Made 2 trips.

First trip I caught 9 species of fish: Ozark Logperch, Walleye, Longear Sunfish, Northern Studfish, Blackstriped Topminnow, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Hybrid Sunfish, and Striped Shiner.

The most interesting were an Ozark Logperch, and a small walleye.

Ozark Logperch

Walleye

Blackstriped Topminnow

Striped Shiner

Longear Sunfish

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Second trip I caught 11 species of fish: Orangethroat Darter, Bigeye Shiner, Ozark Minnow, Sand Shiner, Creek Chub, Bluegill, Longear Sunfish, Green Sunfish, Hybrid Sunfish, Bleeding Shiner, and Emerald Shiner.

A few were new-to-me species.  The most interesting was that I finally caught an adult darter species (not including the Logperch, which is actually a darter).... an Orangethroat Darter.

Orangethroat Darter

Bleeding Shiner

Creek Chub

Longear Sunfish

Bigeye Shiner

Ozark Minnow

Sand Shiner

South Louisiana Flyfishing, July 21-27, 2024

Did another flyfishing trip with my buddy Hamilton Bell.

On Sunday morning, I set out from Saint Louis, MO, travelled south into Arkansas, crossed the river into Memphis, Tennesee, then we met up in Horn Lake, Mississippi.  From there we rode together to the first destination of our trip, which was about an hour south of New Orleans, Louisiana.  I'd never been to MS or LA before.

We spent 2 full days at this spot.  They were sunny, warm, and very humid.  Lots of sweating.  Hamilton brought his boat.  We used it to fish the marsh for Redfish and whatnot.  We also fished from it under dock lights in the evening. We sometimes got off the water during the middle part of the day and fished either urban creeks in New Orleans, or brackish ditches/creeks near where we were staying.

Under the dock lights at night, we caught Spotted Seatrout, Sand Seatrout, and Gafftopsail Catfish.

Spotted Seatrout

Sand Seatrout

Sand Seatrout

Gafftopsail Catfish

In the marsh and main channel during the day, I caught Hardhead Catfish, Gafftopsail Catfish, Ladyfish, Redfish, Atlantic Croaker, and a large Black Drum.

Hardhead Catfish

Ladyfish

Redfish

Spotted Seatrout

Redfish

Black Drum

In the roadside ditches/creeks, I caught Redfish, Ladyfish, Gulf Killifish, Spotted Gar, and Atlantic Croaker:

Redfish

Gulf Killifish (above and below)

Ladyfish above, Spotted Gar below:

Atlantic Croakers (both) below:

In the freshwater urban creeks in New Orleans, I caught Rio Grande Cichlids, Green Sunfish, Bluegill, and Largemouth Bass.

The 4 pics below are Rio Grande Cichlids.  They are native to Texas, but not native to Louisiana.

We next made our way to the west side of Calcasieu Lake, about 30 miles east of the Texas border.  On the way, we made a small detour to try for Bantam Sunfish.  We didn't catch any, but I did catch several Hybrid Sunfish and Warmouth.

Below is a Warmouth:

It was here that I saw a couple large Golden Orb Weaver spiders.  Beautiful!  One accidentally ended up on my rod.  I eased it onto a small tree branch.  Some of its web was stuck to my flyfishing rod.  As I removed it, I was suprised at how spongy and very strong it was!

Over the next few days, my main goal was to catch an Alligator Gar.  Any size.  I have caught the other 4 U.S. gar species on fly (Spotted, Shortnose, Longnose, and Florida), and Alligator Gar would be the 5th and final one.  We fished creeks, ditches, channels.  Brackish or salty.

I caught more Redfish, Black Drum, Ladyfish, a Spotted Gar...even crabs!  Finally, after missing/losing well over a dozen small Alligator Gar, I finally landed one!  Goal accomplished!

Spotted Gar (above)
Accidentally foul-hooked a number of (striped?) mullet (below)

Redfish (above)

puppy Black Drum (below)

Redfish (above and below)

Alligator Gar!

Good trip!  Saw many herons, egrets, bitterns, pelicans, osprey, marsh hens, seagulls, etc. Also many crabs, toads, frogs, Mediterranean Geckos, shrimp, as well as some sort of whales/porpoises and alligators.

Mediterranean Gecko (above and below)

Shrimp:

Blue Crab:

The trip home was fairly smooth.  Back thru 5 states.  We went from Lafayette, to Baton Rouge, north of New Orleans, and thru Jackson, Mississippi.  After arriving back at my car, we went our separate ways home.  I drove from Horn Lake, Mississippi, then thru Memphis, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and then on back to St Louis, Missouri.