Backyard Critters, August 2012

I had only (finally) just recently spotted a single Praying Mantis in our backyard.  First Praying Mantis sighting of the year for me.  I had hoped to see some earlier in the season, because most of our flowering plants were getting POUNDED by an overabundance of Japanese Beetles.  The Japanese Beetles have become such a pest, I decided NOT to photograph them.  Take THAT!  :)

So, on a recent weekend day, I saw butterfly on one of the Butterfly Bushes, grabbed my camera and went out to take some "critter photos".  As has happened so many times in the past couple of years, I was holding the camera at chest level looking for a subject to capture, when a Hummingbird showed up about arms length in front and above me.  He (she?) just hovered there checking me out.  What a picture that could have been!  But any small movement from me would send the tiny bird quickly on its way.  So...again, no picture of the Hummingbird.

I did eventually spot at least 5 or 6 Praying Mantises in the backyard, and collected these photos of them and other "critters".

A Monarch Butterfly:

A huge Bumble Bee, with a Praying Mantis "on the side":

A couple more Bumble Bee pics....I feel safe when they are like this:

But they seem a little more scary when you see them "head-on":

One thing that NEVER seems scary are the various butterflies:

Some of the Dragonflies are pretty big.  It'd be fun to get a picture of one eating something it had caught.

Jumpy Jumpy Grasshopper:

The critters with the most interesting personalities has to be the Praying Mantises, though.  Something about the way they WATCH you:

...or how they like to hang around upside down:

The one was the only brown one I saw:

The rest were green:

The coolest thing is watching them HUNT.  Check out this series:

Butterfly lands on a flower stalk NEAR the Praying Mantis.  Mantis watches with wishful thoughts...

Butterfly lands on the same flower as the Praying Mantis.  See the Mantis??  He makes to stalk up the far side of the flower stalk:

Butterfly changes course.   Mantis re-evaluates situation:

Mantis makes a move..."Slow down, ya winged bag o' nectar!"

 No photos of the gory bloodbath of a successful kill this time. The butterfly flew off again to another flower stem, leaving the Mantis to reconsider its tactics.  "Phooey!"

I did watch another Mantis go after a wasp that landed on a flower.  The Mantis made the grab, but didn't have a good enough hold, and the wasp flew away, wondering about what it was that had just tried to grab it. 

Wipers and White Bass, 8-13-2012

After I got home from work, my buddy Jay called and said, "If you can get out, you've GOT to go fishing NOW!"  I knew where he was fishing.  I didn't know if I'd be able to get out, but after a call like that, my priorities quickly shifted and my son and I were soon headed out the door to meet up with Jay.

The action had slowed somewhat by the time we got there.  There were still occasional surface busts...small groups of fish attacking shad on the surface.  Some of these busts appeared to be LARGE fish!  My first 3 or 4 fish were all Wipers (Hybrids).  My biggest Wiper of the evening was maybe 15".  I also caught a few White Bass, with a couple of them measuring up to about 16.5".  NICE fish!

I caught fish on a Cicada blade bait, and on a TNT slab spoon.  Once again I brought both flyfishing gear and spinning gear.  And once again I didn't bother with the fly gear...the fish were just too far away.

The toughest part was waiting for fish to get within casting range.   Many of the bigger "busts" were in a certain area, and there were 4 to 8 guys fishing that area pretty hard.

Pretty exciting stuff though...When the wind is from the right direction, this shoreline can be VERY good fishing!

Fishing Report and Ramblings, 8-8-2012

Flyfished for a couple hours late yesterday evening after the storms passed. Landed 1 bass and 15 bluegills. The bluegills are still going bonkers for topwaters. I tried a nymph with no takers. A Chernobyl Ant/Hopper got the best action on top. Did catch a few fish on a yellow Boa Yarn Leech closer to dark.

A young teenager arrived at the pond as it was getting dark, and prepared to do some catfishing. He came over to ask how I was doing. He told me all the big fish are on the bottom. And that he had recently caught a couple nice catfish using grass frogs for bait.

I wanted to explain to him that baitfishing isn't fun for me. I'd rather actively pursue fish with artificials than to sit and wait for a fish to wander by a stationary bait. Plus the whole advanced skill requirements when choosing the "fooling fish vs. feeding fish" thing. And how I'd caught EVERY species of fish in the pond (Largemouth Bass, Bluegills, Crappies, Hybrid Sunfish, Green Sunfish, Grass Carp, Channel Catfish, Bullheads) on flies, and all but one species had been caught at least once on topwater flies. And how I've caught a fair number of larger specimens on the fly gear (bass to 19", catfish to 27" (same fish multiple times even), crappies to 13", grass carp to 29".

But I didn't say ANY of that. I could have expounded on how he is likely fishing below the thermocline much of the time, and how most of the food in the pond will be in the shallows and along the weedline drop-off.

Instead, I decided that we were obviously both quite happy to be fishing and catching in our own ways. I just acted impressed and thankful for his information, and he left me to go chase down some more grass frogs to use for bait.

Would any of you have handled that situation differently? I keep thinking about it, but keep concluding it was best to hold my tongue because I probably would have come across as too serious, or a "know-it-all", or elitist, or preachy.  I may have missed an opportunity to share a lot of good information, but I strongly suspect this fellow wasn't ready to hear all that, and doubt he could conceive the of the massive amount of experience behind my observations.  In the end, these are just my opinions, and we all have the right to have our own.

Evening Fishing Report, 8-7-2012

I went to the Marina Tower.   I did a drive-by on the road above the spot first, to see if there was anybody else fishing.  I didn’t see anybody.  When I got to the Prairie Flower Campground parking lot, there were 3 cars there.  My heart sank.  I walked down the trail anyway…2 older guys and a woman were fishing.  They were sitting in chairs with their backs to the tower, which is why I didn’t see them when I drove by.  They were fishing for cats.  That had 2 stringers loaded with NICE cats!!  By loaded….I should say there were probably around 7 or 8 on each stringer. 

I had a fly rod and 2 spinning rods with me.  Uncharacteristically, I didn't use the fly gear at all this night.  Since those folks were fishing around the “boil” area, I stayed near the point on the south side of that area and fancast with a Cicada or Mepps.  Caught one nice 15” White Bass and a small Freshwater Drum.

Another fellow came down to catfish and set up just west of me.  Nice guy.

The first 3 picked up their stuff to leave, so I picked up my stuff to claim their spot.  The last guy moved in a bit, and I waved him over, told him I’d split the “boil” with him.  Shad were THICK, stuff what smacking them on the surface all night, but I couldn’t really say for sure WHAT was smacking them.

I cast around, fished high and low.  Nothing.   I lost 2 or 3 lures.

Then I started vertical jigging spoons, hair jigs, or 3” Ripple Shad jigs along the wall in front of me.  Lost the hair jig in a really big fish…catfish I’m pretty sure.  Broke the Nanofil line about 5 seconds into the fight.

Caught a 24” Mirror Carp…it swallowed the Ripple Shad.

Next, I hooked a big fish, but it was snagged just under the tail.  Long long fight, with me running along the shorelines trying to get back some of the line it had peeled out.  31.5” Carp.  2^nd biggest one I’ve ever caught!  ½” away from a Master Angler fish…DANG!

It was getting dark, and there were lightning flashes.  I hooked another good fish that again sent me running along the shoreline trying to find a good spot to land it.  This one was a FAT 25” Channel Catfish.  Its head and body were so big, I was really thinking it would be close to 30” (Master Angler size)…but it wasn’t.

Although this fish was a good fighter, it was clear the fish that broke my line was MUCH bigger.

Sunday Evening Fly-Fishing, 8-5-2012

Fly-fished a local public pond from about 7:45pm-10pm.
Some young kids were trying to terrorize the ducks when the ducks would climb onto the shore.  It seems poor sport to chase after such wild animals...but the ducks just hop in the water and swim away.  Small price to pay for the free bread snacks they often get fed.  Folks feeding ducks are doing them a disservice, as studies have shown these hand-fed ducks tend to hold off migrating much longer, and often get caught in early-season snow storms and don't survive as well in the wild away from their summer "vacation" ponds.  I'm sure I've mentioned all this before.  It is what it is.

A couple of the kids walked around the pond, and saw me catch a few fish on a small foam Gurgler I had made.  They ran over.  At first they were concerned, but apparently I looked harmless or friendly enough.  Their attending adults were within view, after all.  I talked to the kids, showed them the fish as I caught them, told them what speceis of fish they were, and tossed them in the grass for them to inspect before they released it back to them water.

HORRORS!  You wouldn't toss trout up in the grass if you weren't planning to keep them!  Fear not...these bluegills are stout creatures.  Every one of them swam off strongly once returned to the water.  Plus, this pond could use some "thinning out", so if some died it wouldn't be the end of the world.  This sounds horrible, coming from a guy that is very big on Catch & Release.  I know my local fish and lakes...no harm done and it was worth it to see these kids (eventually there were at least 6 gathered around me, all clamoring to get to hold the next fish) enjoying a little nature close-up.

They were astounded at how fast I was catching fish.  So was I, to a degree, but I tried to act cool. :)
They asked me how I did it.  I told them I was just really lucky.  To my dismay, they didn't try to argue instead that I must be an extremely skilled and knowledgable angler.  They just agreed that I was indeed very lucky.  Ah, youth.

A group of 5 or 6 teenage boys came down to the pond and fished not far away (but far enough...they weren't crowding me by any means).  So impressive was my fish-after-fish-after-fish catching, the most hardcore angler of the group came over to inquire as to my method and lure (fly).

I wouldn't be truthful if I said I kept an accurate count of all the bluegills I caught, but I feel very confident in saying it was well in excess of 40 fish.

After it started getting darker, the younger group of kids left, and half of the teenagers left.  In addition to a couple more bluegills, I also caught a largemouth bass and 3 crappies.

Pressure waves.  Most anglers have seen these.  They often mark the presence (movement) of a large fish under the water...one that doesn't break the water's surface.  Its the sort of thing that, even after all these years of fishing, still makes my eyes open wide and I can't help but exhale a stretched-out "WHOA!".  I saw quite a few of these last night once it got fairly dark.  The big fish were certainly around and within casting distance.  I tied on a #6 white Woolly Bugger, but didn't hook into any of these bigger fish.  Its the kind of thing that keeps me wanting to go fishing again and again.

I took no pictures this time.  Should have taken pictures of all the kids waiting for the next fish...it was rather endearing.  But, their accompanying adults, who did eventually walk over and chat for a bit, might have thought that it would be weird for a stranger to be taking their kids pictures.  This is the sorry age we live in, but then wariness of strangers is nothing new.

At least my entertaining the kids gave the ducks a welcome break.

Saylorville Lake, Evening 8-3-2012

Jay and I fished Saylorville from shore Friday evening.  Fishing was poor (I caught a largemouth bass), until Jay spotted some surface activity.  He caught 5 before I could get over to where he was.  He'd already caught a nice White Bass and some 10-12-inchers.

Then he caught a big fat White Bass that fought really well.  I was sure it was going to be a 24" Wiper!  I think it was more like 15", but it was REALLY fat and sure looked a LOT bigger than that!  Didn't get a picture of that one, but did get a picture of a 16-incher he caught after that:

While he was fighting that one, I hooked a nice fish that turned out to be a 23" Channel Catfish:

It hit a slab spoon:

I also caught White Bass (no big ones, though) on both the slab spoon and a Pop-R topwater.
The White Bass seemed to be working down the shore away from us, so we walked down past them to intercept them and set up for them to arrive...but they never did.  I caught maybe 5 more small White Bass, but they were scattered.  In short, we left fish to find fish.  Earlier, though, it was pretty cool to see the fish blowing up on the surface...you could tell where the bigger fish were by the size/sound of the explosions!

Carp for Lunch....8-2-2012

No...its not what I ATE....its what I CAUGHT!

In order to diminish the chances of ruining a potentially good fishing spot by publicly NAMING it, lets just say I did my research and determined there would be current in a certain area, despite the very dry conditions we've had all summer.

I arrived during my lunch hour, air temp in the 90's, dressed in my casual dress slacks, casual dress shoes, and button-up short-sleeve casual dress shirt.  In short, a rather dapper fella, given the circumstances.  At least I threw on a ball cap before I left my car.  It was a fair 10-minute walk to get to the spot I wanted to fish.  When I finally got there, there was abundant evidence of schools of shad throughout the area.  In fact, it was pretty much PACKED with shad!  I could see backs of carp along the shoreline.  Big sucking, smacking sounds and splashes in one particular area.  Many large fish vacuuming up shad.  As I walked closer to that area, I could see many of them were nice catfish.  That would slowly rise mouth up beneath the schools of shad, then suck them in near the surface, before splashing and rolling on the surface to disappear back below the shad.  Looking back...I should have gotten that on video...it was pretty cool to watch!

The shad were in at least 3 distinct sizes.  6"-7",  3"-4", and 2" +/-.

I had both spinning and fly rods with me.  One spinning rod had a topwater lure on it.  I made a few casts, but it wasn't what I wanted, and I didn't really give the fish a chance to chase it.

I switched to the fly rod and tied on a Ward Bean's Jointed Baitfish in a shad color that I had tied up.  I had two VERY LARGE fish  on it.  One got free before I saw it, the other broke my 12 lb test tippet.

Next I tied on a gray-over-white Clouser Deep Minnow.  I caught an 11" White Bass on that, and then lost the fly to a big fish.

I tied on a #6 White Woolly Bugger, and stuck it under an indicator.  I brought in a carp that was hooked in a pelvic fin.  Had another fish on I think may have been a large catfish.  It also broke my line.  DARN IT!

The catfish seemed to stop coming to the surface so obviously as they had been, but the carp were still there.    Even though the carp were clearly targeting shad, I replaced my tippet with fresh 12 lb mono, and tied on an egg pattern under the indicator.  There was some waiting involved, and probably a few subtle strikes I chose to ignore, but I was eventually rewarded with a 26.5" Carp.  After that, my fishing time was up and I had to hurry back to to the office!  It was tough to leave a feeding frenzy like that!

While I was there, I knew there were probably plenty of catfish deeper, plus a Freshwater Drum had recently beached itself and was still barely alive.  Who knows what else may have been prowling the bottom of the area looking for an easy meal.  Maybe I should have keep fishing with Clousers or other fast-sinking fly patterns, but I mostly chose to target the fish that were feeding on the shad near the surface.  My decision was based on several thoughts.  First, there was so many shad in the area, bumping into my line all the time, it would have been very difficult to get a sinking pattern down, and also difficult to detect strikes properly.  As it was, I was snagging a LOT of shad unintentionally, just in trying to move my fly pattern around.  Second, I just didn't have a lot of time to spend fishing today.  The driving and walking each way took up 2/3 of my lunch hour.  Third, its more fun and easy presenting the fly to/near visible fish.

Evening Flyfishing Report, 7-29-2012

Excuses, excuses...I didn't get out fishing until really late last night (after 8:30pm)...not much light left, the sun had already set.  And then for the past few months I've been spending a LOT of largely fruitless time chasing after catfish and grass carp with the fly rod.  So, my catch rates and fish totals have severly plummeted.  Average size is up, however.  Definitely a trade-off.

Last night I tried some white bunny leeches and caught just 3 fish, one Bluegill, one Crappie, and one 17" Largemouth Bass:

Thursday Evening Fly-Fishing, 7-26-2012

I had about 45 minutes to kill while waiting for my son's activity to finish, so I stopped by a public pond in Urbandale, Iowa.  Surprise!  The City had rip-rapped the entire shoreline, and also did some minor grading work.  I couldn't tell for sure if they had also dug out some of the shallow areas along the shoreline or not, since the water was rather murky.
I tried a microjig under an indicator.  Had some strikes, but nothing hooked.  Switched to a mohair leech with a tiny beadhead.  Caught 2 bass and 1 bluegill on that.

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After we got home, I went flyfishing at a public pond not far from my house.  It had rained 3/4" the previous night...the first decent rain we've had in nearly 2 months!  I wanted to see how much the fish activity had picked up.  I found a small group of large fish working the shallows.  I assume they were grass carp, but could have been catfish...or both.

You could tell where the fish were from the surface disturbances, but could only see the fish if they stuck a fin above water.  For some reason, they seem to be able to see me MUCH better than I can see them!  I stayed about 30'+ away, and made long casts to these fish.

Bill Trussel at "Fishing Through Life" (blog entry here: http://btrussell-fishingthroughlife.blogspot.com/2012/07/experimenting-with-scent-attractors-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FishingThroughLife+%28Fishing+Through+Life%29 ) recently posted about using fish attractants for flyfishing.  I wanted to see if adding scent to the fly would make any difference in my success on either Grass Carp or Channel Catfish.  I had 2 old bottles of fish attractant...one was Chompers G garlic-scented attractant that I had bought years ago.  I have a buddy that has excellent success using Chompers plastics for Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass.  Not sure if there is a shelf life on this stuff?  The other bottle was just called "Bass", and supposedly had pheromones in it.  One of my Sisters-in-Law had bought this for me a number of years ago for my birthday.  Never tried it before.  I put a little of each in separate small spray bottles that our optometrist gives us eyeglass cleaner in.  These were compact and fit nicely in my fanny pack along with all the usual stuff I carry with me when flyfishing in the evenings.

I started out with a deer hair pellet fly.  I had some good takes, but didn't set the hook on any of them.  I couldn't tell WHAT was taking the fly.  The fish were around, but it was starting to get dark.  I chummed with some bread (the good, healthy multi-grain stuff!) to get the fish to feed near me.  Several nice fish eventually worked the bread.  I switched to a large white woolly bugger and swam it through the area.  I caught one nice WIDE-BODIED 23" Channel Catfish on that (pictures below), and lost 2 more really nice fish that hit.  Also caught 3 Bluegills and a Crappie.

I couldn't reach across this fish's back to lift it from the water.  I had to use 2 hands!  It seemed oddly short for its width....or oddly wide for its length.  Healthy fish!!

It was a really strange fight with this catfish.  It went on a couple very good runs, but then always came back to the surface.  It didn't seem to want to stay deep.  Very unusual.  Normally its a big struggle to get them to come up!

My preliminary assessment of using scent/fish attractant while flyfishing for catfish and grass carp is this:  It bothers the "purist" in me.  I don't enjoy using bait or live bait for fishing.  In this situtation, I'm using artificial flies that I have personally tied, but they have a taste or smell to them.  The distinctions are certainly debatable, but debating is not my goal here.  I've caught catfish and grass carp on flies without using scent.  I've seen what appears to be fish shunning my fly after getting close to it.  What is putting the fish off?  Could be my scent, so it is smart to try and conceal or cover that scent.

When I catch a grass carp or catfish from this pond, it is nearly always just ONE large specimen on a given evening.  From the one evening's experience using scent/attractant, I'm not sure there is a lot of difference in my success.  I landed one and had 2 others on the line, which would seem to be a bit of an improvement.  I'll probably try it again and see what happens.

7-19-2012 Evening Report

Fly-fished a local public pond last night.  The temperatures have been in the mid 90's to mid 100s (that is Fahrenheit of course, for my international visitors).  Today, the wind changed to out of the North, and the high air temps cooled into the low 90's.

The past few trips to this pond didn't yield any Crappies at all.  I figured the tepid water would have driven the crappies deeper in search of cooler water.  So, I set a Springbrook Wunder microjig about 4.5' under an indicator and tossed that out beyond the shoreline dropoff.  I had to work this very slowly with lots of pauses to keep the microjig almost vertical beneath the indicator.

Success!  I ended up landing at least 10 Crappies, along with 6 Bluegills, 4 Largemouth Bass, and a 10" Yellow Bullhead.

Most of the bass and about 1/2 of the bluegills hit a deer hair pellet fly that was on/near the surface.  I also had a nice fish hit that fly, and broke my line when I set the hook.  It was fresh 9 lb tippet I had tied on earlier that evening!  I suspect it was a nice bass, but it could have been a catfish or grass carp.  I hate not knowing!

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I continue to have line problems.  The previous evening to this report, I went fishing with Jay again.  We fished Saylorville Lake from shore.  Part of the time, I was pursuing carp with the fly rod.  Had one carp strike an egg pattern, and once again I broke my line on the hookset!  I wondered if maybe my hooksets with the 8wt rod I was using were just too strong for the 9 or 10 lb tippet I was using?

Last night I was using a 5wt rod, and had tied on a fresh length of tippet for the evening.  Still broke the line when I set the hook on the nice fish that hit the deer hair fly.  Since I leave my rods strung up in my car ready to go all the time, it is easy to believe that the sun and heat deteriorate line that has been on the rod a few days.  But that was fresh tippet!  I also leave my fanny pack in my car all day, which carries my spools of tippet.  Sun damage is out of the question, but HEAT damage could be the culprit?  That line is easily a year old, and possible several years old.  Maybe I just need to toss all my old tippet and replace with new?  The line LOOKS good and feels strong, and the knots all seem really good (I use the Trilene knot, which I feel is a very strong knot since the line passes through the hook eyelet TWICE).  It really seems like the line should NOT be breaking like it has been...and spooled tippet being deteriorated by heat and time is the only explanation I can come up with at this time.

New Fly Rod "First":...the Smallmouth Buffalo!

I decided to head back to the little backwater area along the Des Moines River below Saylorville Lake...just downstream of the Cottonwood fishing pier.  The river is so low, there is a huge sandbar that separates a narrow water-filled channel near shore from the main river channel that is flowing near the opposite shoreline.    This narrow channel is pretty much "cut off" from the rest of the river right now.

During my last trip here this past weekend, I saw plenty of Carp, and suspected I was hearing Freshwater Drum.  I wanted to target both species, with special emphasis on the Drum since I haven't yet caught one on fly gear.  I read that black leech patterns, crayfish patterns, and white minnow patterns all catch Freshwater Drum, especially if you can keep them on/near the bottom.

I got on the sandbar near its downstream end, and started walking upstream along this stagnant channel.  I wasn't hearing the "drum" sound I'd heard last time.  Bummer.  I saw some Carp working the shallows.  I tossed an egg pattern to one.  It took the egg, I set the hook, and the line broke.  This was new line!  For some reason, I've been breaking a lot of the egg patterns off on carp during the hookset.

Next, I tied on a Mr. P's Carp Carrot and started working the deeper water of the channel, blind casting for Drum or whatever would hit.  I did get some strikes, but nothing hooked up.

Then I saw a small carp in the shallows working its way towards me, nosing into the bottom.  A dozen bad casts, and a couple good ones...I finally got the strike.  I set the hook, and had a good battle for a few minutes.  I discovered this was not a carp, but a Black (?) Buffalo (edit:  I've since learned that these are SMALLMOUTH BUFFALO)!  This is a new flyrod species for me, which is...AWESOME!  This one, 19.5" long, was caught on the Carp Carrot.

There were some Carp (or maybe Bigmouth Buffalo?) mouthing near the surface, so I switched my fly to a Blind Squirrel.  Eventually spotted another fish in the shallows and numerous casts finally got the fly where I wanted it.  The fish took it.  This was another Black (?) Buffalo (edit: SMALLMOUTH BUFFALO).  22.5" long.

I also caught a Bluegill on the egg pattern, a Hybrid Sunfish on the Carp Carrot, and 6 Green Sunfish on the Blind Squirrel.

Now... I need help figuring this out.  When I caught them, I assumed these two Buffalo were Smallmouth Buffalo.  But they really might be Black Buffalo.  I looked them both up online, studied descriptions and pictures...and I'm still not sure.  Lateral line scale counts and the habitat where these were feeding were slightly more suggestive of Black Buffalo.  But there is overlap on the scale counts between the two species.  Without a side-by-side comparison, I can't definitively tell by the other descriptive characteristics.  The Black Buffalo is typically darker in coloration, often with a bluish color on the sides.  Well, as you can tell from the first two pics, these certainly had some bluish tinting on the sides above their bellies, which was even more noticeable in person. The Smallmouth Buffalo has a larger eye, and is supposed to have lighter coloration (but this can depend on the waters where it is found, and they get darker during the breeding season...but that was several months ago).  There is a difference in mouth placement...and some have suggested the Black Buffalo has thicker lips.

Although I'm truly unsure (which is strange...I'm generally quite good with fish identification), I think for now I will go with Black Buffalo on these.  If there's anyone that has more experience with both of these species and thinks they can accurately tell which species this is based on my pictures, I'd LOVE to know!

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Addendum:  I changed the title to this post to accurately reflect the new information I received regarding the species identification.  I had posed the question and pictures to my friend Ben, who is a Fisheries Biologist with the IDNR for our area.  Here is his response:
"It’s always tough when you are trying to ID from a photo, rather than having the fish in your hand.  These two species are tough to tell apart, so don’t feel bad! 

However, I believe that you caught 2 smallmouth buffalo.  There are some body measurement ratios that the professionals use to separate these two species.  I analyzed these ratios from your photos and both fish fall out as smallmouth buffs.  In addition, and this is probably the best method, the smallmouth buff will have a keel in front of their dorsal fin.  Unfortunately, I don’t have top-down photos to tell.

Hope that helps Dave and congrats on the catch!"

That is good enough for me!  These shall henceforth be known as Smallmouth Buffalo, and in the future I will check for the presence of the keel in front of the dorsal fin.

Fishin' with Jay, 7-16-2012

After I got off work, I called Jay, and we went fishing at Saylorville Lake.  I took a couple spinning rods and one fly rod.
It was pretty slow, not many carp along the shoreline (but there was SOME), and almost NO surface activity that would suggest gamefish attacking shad.

On the spinning gear, I caught a few smallish Largemouth Bass, and at least a 1/2 dozen White Bass on Reef Runner Cicadas and Pop-R's.  Biggest White Bass was maybe 12".  Most were 10-inchers.  And then there was this one, which may be the smallest I've ever caught.  I didn't measure it, but I'm guessing it was about 2.5" long.  It was hooked in the mouth.  In the picture I had already unhooked it and then it flopped around some in the sand before I could get the camera out.

With the fly gear I was targeting carp.  I used an egg pattern under an indicator in the shallows.  I landed one smaller carp that measured 20", and had a much bigger carp on that took off on a blazing run straight away from me down the shoreline and then broke my line.  Unfortunately I didn't realize it had broken my line until I was done fishing...(I just thought the fish threw the hook...hey, it was getting pretty dark, and my indicator somehow managed to stay on the line so I never bothered to check further)...so I fished the last 20+ minutes with no fly on my line.  The 20-incher was a good-looking fish, unfortunately it also managed to roll in the sand while I was getting my camera ready.

I also caught a nice bluegill on the egg pattern.

Jay caught White Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Channel Catfish.  One bass hit a swimbait and got off near shore after a great fight.  I got a good look at it...I would say it was at least 4 lbs, and probably closer to 5.  Really nice fish!
The Catfish hit a Mepps spinner and also fought really well:

It was a nice warm evening, boat traffic wasn't horrible, but there were still plenty of big wakes when they did go by.  There was also a really LOUD noisy airboat that went by a couple times...unusual to see those around here.
A beaver swam by about 40' in front of me as the sky started getting dark.

Evening River Fishing, 7-14-2012

Fished the Des Moines River near Cottonwood Saturday evening.  Crowded...could see at least a dozen anglers in the area. I'm sure there were more I could not see.

I fished a large shallow area almost cut off from the main river.  It was marginal habitat, but I could see carp feeding.  I started with the spinning rod with a Cicada blade bait.  Caught a small crappie.  Switched to the fly rod for carp.  First, a dad and son walked along and threw rocks at the visible carp.  The fish disappeared until they left, then started feeding on the surface.  I was casting to these when another kid with his dog walked along the shoreline and put the fish down again.  I was standing at the base of the steep shoreline and had a tough time casting without snagging brush at the top of the drop off.  Lost some line and flies and indicators.  Hooked into a nice carp that immediately broke my line.

Switched back to spinning gear for a few casts before I left and caught a small walleye.

Saw deer, had an owl fly right over my head from across the river, and had a mink slink right up to my shoes before changing direction.

Also could hear what sounded like distant rocks tapping together.  Is this what Freshwater Drum sound like underwater?  It sounded like it was coming from the water all around me.