April 22-24, 2024

 I don't often fish during the work-week anymore, but my wife is out-of-town for her work.  So.....

Monday evening, I went to an urban creek above a lake to try for Orangespotted Sunfish.  I did not see nor catch any.  I did catch a bunch of Green Sunfish (including some rather tiny ones! Very cute.), a few Bluegills and Hybrid Sunfish, a Black Crappie, and a Grass Carp.  I lost a Shortnose Gar and another Grass Carp broke my line.

After work on Tuesday, I did some errands, and then fished for a bit after the rain passed.  Saw a big fat Redear, but it swam away when I put my fly near it.  I managed to catch another Redear, though.  And a Largemouth Bass, and a couple Hybrid Sunfish.

Wednesday after work, I visited an urban creek, it was still a bit stained from Tuesday's rain, but otherwise was nearly normal.

I caught 2 Hybrid Sunfish, 1 Shortnose Gar, and 2 Grass Carp.  The larger Grass Carp measured 31".

I took pics of both sides of this Grass Carp.... it only had one eye, and appeared to have been born that way.  Cyclops!

Deer in the Creek:

April 21, 2024

 Didn't have a lot of time... got out fishing around mid-afternoon.  Air temp upper 50's.  Wind speed @ 15mph.

Caught 7 fish, 6 species.  Cool, but also was unable to string together successful patterns for anything. So, how good am I really?  Most times, I just feel like I'm plucking the low-hanging fruits. 😉

I ended with 1 Common Carp, 1 Black Crappie, 1 Largemouth Bass, 2 Green Sunfish, 1 Eyetail Bowfin, and 1 Spotted Gar.  I missed/lost a number of other gar and bowfin.  I call it "charity". 

ok.  Pics!

Spotted Gar

Spotted Gar

Spotted Gar

Common Carp

Eyetail Bowfin

Black Crappie

a couple of Green Sunfish

April 14, 2024

Temps in the 80's, rather windy much of the time (like 15mph).  Went to two fishing spots, racked up well over 10,000 steps on the day, and caught a couple species to add to the 2024 Flyfishing Fish List.  Now at 33 species for the year on fly.

First spot, I managed to catch a Grass Carp.  I missed at least one other, and also missed a 3rd really good strike from something.  Tried a bit for some topminnows and mosquitofish with micro flies, but did not hook any that were biting the flies.

Next spot, I missed and lost a number of Bowfin and Shortnose Gar... but managed to catch 4 of the Bowfin and 3 Gar.  Also caught 2 Green Sunfish while trying unsuccessfully for Warmouth.

The gar above was the largest landed of the day, at 25" long.

April 6, 2024

 A flyfishing buddy and his flyfishing wife, from Iowa, both of whom I've fished with before, came down to the Saint Louis area for a weekend of fishing before staying to glimpse the Eclipse in that path of totality a bit further south.

Like me, they are adding species to their flyfishing lists.  Both have more than I do.  They are just getting into micro flyfishing as well, so we visited a creek I've hit a time or two this year.  It was pretty fun introducing them to this creek!

As for what I personally caught... I did manage 10 species on the afternoon, including one new-to-me species.  The new species was an Emerald Shiner:  (This is one fish...I usually take multiple pics of a suspected new fish, because each pic may offer a different clue that helps identify these small critters.)

I also caught...

Bleeding Shiners:

Blackspotted Topminnows:

Northern Studfish:

Creek Chubs:

Striped Shiners:

Longear Sunfish:

Green Sunfish:

Bluegill:

Hybrid Sunfish:

March 30, 2024

 Nice warm day in the mid-70's.... kinda windy.  Had a good outing, lots of walking.... I need better shoes.

I caught 7 Bowfin, and lost a number of others.  I got to sight-fish some of them, which the water clarity doesn't usually permit.  It was interesting to learn that when the fish would hit and not get hooked, even if I tugged on them for a bit, they didn't go far once the fly escaped them.  The just pretty much settled back to the bottom, and I was able to get repeated strikes from several, and eventually caught a couple of those fish.

 The male Eyetail Bowfin (Amia ocellicauda) are already sporting good spawning colors, and a couple of the females had very interesting markings!

The gents:

The ladies:

I had tied a fly with a Cohen's CGH Swim Tail, size Small.  It didn't have the swim action I was looking for, nor vibration... (I'm sure it was because it was poorly tied by me...first time using these!), but the bowfin seem to really like it all the same.

I caught 3 Common Carp:

There were some large schools of Mosquitofish / Gambusia, so I switched to micro flies to try for them.  They'd hit, but couldn't even get hooked on the tiny Tanago fly!

I caught some Green Sunfish, tiny Bluegills, and a couple other fish, which I think are probably both Golden Shiners, which I've caught before..so they weren't something new.  I like new. :)

Some other things seen while out.... a Bald Eagle carrying a fish:

I rescued a Red-eared Slider turtle that got high-centered on a stick:

I saw a number of different kinds of ducks and geese...Wood Ducks, Canadian Geese, a Greater White-fronted Goose, Mallards, some other kind of duck...possibly Common Goldeneye(?).

Also saw a number of different kinds of snakes...pretty cool.  Turned over 2 rotted logs next to the creek, one had nothing under it, the other had a snake tucked up in it, which I coaxed out for a photo op.