Early September 2020

Not quite the success of the previous couple trips, but caught 10 species on one outing, probably a new record for me.

I caught:

Grass Carp, Shortnose Gar, Largemouth Bass, White Bass, Redear Sunfish, Bluegills, Longear Sunfish, Channel Catfish, Silver Carp, and Hybrid Sunfish.

Got up and close with a beaver.  See if you can spot it in each picture:

The following weekend I tried for bass.  Caught some...nothing big.

Late August 2020

 And....MORE of those OTHER fish!  I enjoyed my last outing, so I set out to see if I could reproduce similar results.

I used 2 separate fly patterns...an unweighted olive woolly bugger, and a beadhead black nymph with hackle collar and round rubber split tail (I still don't know the name of the fly).  Both were very effective.

I caught 8 species:  (7) Grass Carp, (7+) Shortnose Gar, (3) Bluegills, (1) White Bass, (1) Kentucky Spotted Bass, (1) Channel Catfish, (1) Bighead Carp(?), (2) Goldeye.

The Goldeye were a first for me, so that was pretty cool!

Once again, I really enjoyed the variety.

Those OTHER Fish

 Flyfished an urban creek.  Had a pretty decent day of it.  Caught a variety of fish, including:

3 Grass Carp to 31":

Shortnose Gar:

I caught 3 SMALL Common Carp (one was a Mirror Carp, but it didn't stick around for a picture):

I caught one White Bass:

And...as another couple of firsts, I incidentally foul-hooked a Silver Carp:

...then further downstream I actually caught a Silver Carp with the fly in its mouth!

Longear Sunfish!

 I had set a flyfishing goal for myself to try and catch Longear Sunfish and Kentucky Spotted Bass, since they are fairly common in Missouri, but not Iowa...and I had not caught either species before.  If you saw my last blog post, you know I did catch a Kentucky Spotted Bass.  So...Longear Sunfish were next on the agenda.

I got some helpful tips on where to go that weren't too far away from St. Louis.  Really appreciate the help!  I fished 2 creeks and caught Longears from both.  Beautiful little fish!

They were all very pretty, here's some of the more vibrant-colored ones I caught:

I caught other stuff while fishing for these...including this Common Shiner:

Mid-August 2020

 I finally flyfished some moving water, even if it wasn't very fast water.  The results were good.

I caught my first-ever Kentucky Spotted Bass on a Howitzer Popper:

And some White Bass:

Pretty fun.

Early August 2020

Redear Sunfish:

Golden Shiners:

Green Sunfish:

Late July Flyfishing in St. Louis, MO

We are here in St. Louis, MO!  Just in time for their annual 4 week ultra heatwave (or so we were told).

There's still unpacking, organizing, decorating....and getting "situated" to do.  I made a big dent in it, but the rest may get metered out over a longer period of time.  And those fish aren't going to catch themselves, so....I've gotta go introduce myself to some of the local finned residents.

Its all new to me.  I got some tips, and did some research.  I decided I want to try to catch a Longear Sunfish soon.  They seem to be abundant south of the Missouri River, and I've NEVER caught one, as far as I know.  They don't get very big, but can be really colorful when the males are spawning. Gotta start somewhere....gotta have a goal.  I've been doing some research on the Missouri Department of Conservation website too.  Lots of good info there.

In the meantime, I'm just trying to catch some fish here.  I visited a conservation area that has some ponds listed as "Catch & Release Only" and "Artificial lures only...no live bait or scented plastics".  Cool!

I didn't catch anything very big, but I caught some fish.  My first Missouri fish since moving here...a Redear Sunfish!  I think those are pretty cool fish, so I was VERY pleased to start my fish-catching here with one of them.

I caught at least one more Redear later, along with a few Largemouth Bass, some Bluegills, Green Sunfish, and Hybrid Sunfish (specifically Redear/Bluegill hybrids). 

I'd never seen a Redear with an orange eye:

These were some of the Redear/Bluegill hybrids:

This bass was very dark-colored:

I actually saw some Bluegills that are spawning...this is really late, so I assume this is their 2nd or 3rd spawn of the season?

Some of the Green Sunfish have been very colorful, and some have been pretty good-sized....some in the 8"-8.75" range!

I've fished at least 3 other bodies of water so far, and have caught Green Sunfish everywhere.  Most places also have bluegills and bass.  I've seen some Redears that I just couldn't get to strike (and missed the hookset when they did), and I've seen some decent catfish swim by.

I noticed the first couple Redears were really light-colored with no discernible cheek markings.  At another lake, I did catch a darker one:

Moving can be stressful.  Its nice that my wife lets me get away and enjoy being closer to water and nature.

2nd Week of July 2020

The sale of our house closes this coming week.  We've closed on the home we purchased in Missouri.  This is our last week in "Temporary Housing" in Iowa, before moving to St. Louis.

Lots of stuff to do, but I still managed to get out flyfishing a time or two more.

I caught one more big Goldfish, my 18th big Goldfish of the year.

Also caught more channel catfish and black bullheads.

I've lived in central Iowa for 45 of my nearly 52 years.  I'll miss it.

I'm looking forward to exploring the fishing near our new home.