South Farm R-1 Lake, Boone Co.

The best place I know of to catch big Bluegill around Columbia, Missouri is my farm pond! This pond sits just southeast of where we planted our research fields every summer, so I was able to visit it frequently over the years. If you head to the dam on the south side and throw flies or little rooster tails about 30-40 feet from shore you'll start catching ~8" Bluegills left and right. I feel like there should be some monsters in there, but the best I ever managed was a 9 1/16" individual in June 2012.

Still, with my time here winding down I decided to visit 12 June before we planted the corn field. It started slow, but once I figured out the fish were hitting surface flies (a little foam and feather "ant" pattern I tied worked best) I did alright.

I only photographed the first fish (a bit over 8"):

I love how these guys fight like they're about four times their size. This one only weighed 5 oz.!

Whetstone Creek CA, Callaway Co.

Back on 04 June I decided to stop at Whetstone Creek Conservation Area in Callaway County on my way home from St. Louis. I hadn't really gone fishing at all since May 2013, and I hadn't gone microfishing since early April 2013! Whetstone Creek CA has a nice stream (Whetstone Creek) flowing through it, so I thought I'd stop there and see what I might turn up.

Unfortunately, Missouri was just starting its rainy period that week and Whetstone Creek was a raging flow of very muddy water. I had to abandon my microfishing hopes and instead focus on trying to catch a few fish in Horseshoe Lake, one of the small lakes in the area.

I pulled out the fly rod Diana's uncle gave me last Christmas and started throwing surface flies into the wind. I had a few hits on the fly right away, but nothing was really grabbing it. After about 20 minutes I switched to a smaller fly and landed a small Bluegill, my first fish in over a year!

I forget what this fly is called, but it works with sunfish whenever I'm getting skunked on everything else!

Mint Spring Access, Bourbeuse River

A couple weekends ago I made my last outing of 2013 in the kayak. Matt and I visited Mint Spring Access on the Bourbeuse River in Gasconade/Crawford Cos.

Water levels were very low, so we knew that this would be a lake-like situation on the river. This part of the river was known to hold Grass Pickerel (our target) in the early 2000s, but we were unable to locate any on this trip.

This part of the river had no perceptible flow.

I really wanted to fly fish (I'd been tying flies for a couple months with no chance to use them), so I threw out a jug and then started tossing the flies around. I didn't have much luck on the downstream side of the bridge, so I eventually meandered upstream.

Matt flew out of sight, looking for pickerel, and I didn't see him for a couple hours. I never made it more than 100m past the bridge while I methodically probed for fish with my fly rod. Unfortunately, I wasn't having much luck.

I  pulled my fly away from a few sunfish (they're a pain to deal with, especially in the kayak), but I also accidentally pulled a wooly bugger away from a 12-15" Smallmouth Bass! I was able to get the fly to him again, and he charged it, but pulled away at the last second. Other than that, the fish weren't into my flies.

My jug (upper right) had a few tugs, but all I ever pulled up was an empty hook.

After losing a couple flies, and a couple regular lures on my spinning rod, I opted to head downstream from the launch point and see what I could find.

I should have spent all my time downstream! The river really narrowed (to the point we had to get out of the kayaks after about 100m), and it started to get some current. One nice stretch was about 30-40m long, 1m wide, and probably only 0.5m deep. What I would have given to have had a seine!

That stretch eventually gave way to a much wider, very shallow run (with limited current) that went on for as far as we could see. It was time to set up shop for microfishing!

We only had ~1 hour left at this point, and I spent most of my time trying to catch my first member of Family Percidae.

I saw several Meramec Saddled Darters, but they were not interested in the pieces of worm I was offering. I was really struck by how large they were...a couple were as large or larger than the sculpin in my aquarium!

I was able to bring in several minnows (I could have had many, many more, but I got tired of catching them), and I succeeded in avoided all sunfish. Darters were, by far, my main target. We saw many Orangethroated, and a few Gilt, that were interested in the worm, but I wasn't having a lot of luck hooking them.

Lifer #42: Bigeye Shiner!

Striped Shiner. This was the most abundant minnow in the stream, and they got to be rather large. 

Unidentified minnow

Another minnow I'll never identify.

It didn't take long for me to learn that I need not jerk the hook as hard as possible when I had a bite. Once I got my worm piece small enough (using Owner New Half Moon tanago hooks), I started to get regular hook-ups.

At first, I was getting them just out of the water. Then I got one a bit farther out. Then, I had a Gilt Darter almost over land when....it fell off the hook only ~6" from dry land and disappeared into the rocks.

My time was almost up....actually, it was past my turn-around time...when I finally hooked a Rainbow Darter and managed to grab it in my hand before it could fall off. My first darter!

Finally!

Lifer #43: Rainbow Darter

I ended the day with a pair of lifers: Bigeye Shiner and Rainbow Darter. I can't say I'll ever go out of my way to revisit this spot, but I certainly wouldn't pass it up if I were in the neighborhood.

Species encountered (visual or caught):

1. Smallmouth Bass
2. Bluegill
3. Green Sunfish
4. Longear Sunfish
5. Striped Shiner
6. Orangethroat Darter
7. Rainbow Darter
8. Gilt Darter
9. Logperch
10. Meramec Saddled Darter
11. Banded Darter
12. Fantail Darter
13. Bigeye Shiner
14. Sand Shiner
15. Blackspotted Topminnow
16. Blackstripe Topminnow

I had to take a photo of the sign for my son, Owen.

Northern Ozarks

Yesterday, I visited several northern Ozarks streams with my friends Matt and Nick. We started the morning on Little Piney Creek, ended the morning on Big Piney River, began the afternoon on Meramec River, and wrapped up the evening on Osage River.

Little Piney Creek is home to some Rainbow Trout, so it's fairly cool, especially in the morning. We were fairly far downstream (Milldam Hollow Access), but still in a Blue Ribbon Trout Area, which meant we were restricted to artificial flies and lures; no plastics or live bait.

Heading upstream on Little Piney Creek.

We saw lots of Northern Hogsuckers and Redhorse (no clue as to which species). I netted an Orangethroat Darter with my hand net. Fishing was pretty slow. Matt caught Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass. I caught a Creek Chub, Longear Sunfish, Bluegill, and a hybrid sunfish with my fly rod.

Creek Chub

Sunfish hybrid? ~5" long

Eventually, we came to a side pool that had some Northern Studfish. I quickly tied a size 20 fly onto the end of my fly rod, and soon had my lifer studfish!

Lifer #36: Northern Studfish!

We saw a lot of fish on the Little Piney, and we caught almost none of them. This would end up being a recurring theme through the day. We wanted to seine, but we were unsure if it was legal in a Blue Ribbon Trout Area, so we headed on to the Big Piney.

I took us to a Forest Service access point that had always been empty in the past. Not yesterday! There were about a dozen people there, but they left us alone and weren't fishing. Unfortunately for us, ~0.4" of rain the previous night left the river a little dingy and slightly higher than we were hoping for. Still, the river was only about waist deep in that area.

We immediately headed upstream and set up shop in some emergent vegetation. I threw out a nightcrawler for suckers (never detected a bite, but I had three worms stripped off the hook), then focused on microfishing.

I opted to use a pink PowerBait worm on a tanago hook so I could see where my bait was. Almost immediately I started getting bites from some little minnows. Some were Bleeding Shiners, but most were what we've tentatively ID'd as Bigeye Shiners.

Lifer 37(?): Bigeye Shiner!

There is a small island a few hundred yards upstream from the access point. I've never gone far enough to peak around it, so I was determined to give it a try. Along the way, I noticed some small (40-50mm) Blackspotted Topminnows. They were eager to hit my hook. I lifted four or five out of the water and had them splash back before I finally landed one. Another lifer!

Lifer 38: Blackspotted Topminnow!

Nick pulled a small Map Turtle out of the river while he was in pursuit of his lifer topminnow (no luck for him). Next, we decided to pull out Nick's 20' seine. This ended up being a bad idea. We probably should've brought his 6' seine, as the strong, deep current made it almost impossible to seine. We managed a couple decent pulls, but nothing like we had on Saline Creek a couple months ago. Most seine pulls yielded Bigeye Shiners and Bleeding Shiners, some added some 2-3" Smallmouth Bass and Blackspotted Topminnows. Almost no darters.

Nick's Map Turtle

This brute was seined in a quieter part of the stream. One of the most gorgeous Longear Sunfish I've ever encountered.

Missouri Saddled Darter. We saw many of them in a riffle, but this was the only individual we were able to net. It was huge compared to the Orangethroat Darters.

After the Big Piney, we went to Woods Memorial Conservation Area to try the Meramec River. This was another Trout Area, so our lure options were restricted. I tried an ultralight spinning outfit and caught almost nothing. We wanted to try this area for Grass Pickerel (habitat looked decent, but we didn't even see one) and trout (didn't see one).

Matt caught a Hornyhead Chub, a Shortnose Gar, and some Smallmouth Bass. Nick destroyed the Longear Sunfish. I managed a Largemouth Bass, some Striped Shiners, Bigeye Shiners, and Northern Studfish on a teeny tiny fly.

 I jigged a Rat-L-Trap in front of a Shortnose Gar that was 3' from me in some lily pads. It looked uninterested, then slowly turned toward it. It eventually put its snout parallel to the lure, then snapped. I was so surprised that I missed the hook set and my chance at a gar.

Matt and his Shortnose Gar

My 11 7/8" Largemouth Bass

After two mostly fruitless hours, we headed a couple miles downstream to Scotts Ford Access on the Meramec. Downstream of the bridge we were able to use live bait, so we all threw in for suckers again. Matt immediately caught another Smallmouth and Hornyhead Chub. I lucked into a Freshwater Drum and Longear Sunfish. Nick did not do so well. I also caught our only Bluntnose Minnow of the day while microfishing. We didn't bring the seine due to limited time, but we definitely saw several Meramac Saddled Darters at this location. I was busy trying to catch suckers and never went over to try to catch them on hook-and-line.

Dobsonfly (dead)

At 14 1/2", this is the largest Freshwater Drum I've reeled in.

Around 6:30pm, Nick and I split from Matt to try our hand at Mari-Osa Access on the Osage River. We'd heard this was a good place to try for catfish and sturgeon. It may be, but it wasn't for us! In ~2 hours (nightcrawlers and dead minnows as bait) I had two light hits on my rods, but nothing was ever hooked.

Set up beneath US63 just before sunset.

In the end, I brought in ~25-30 fish of 11 species. I think Matt added another three on the day, and Nick added a single species (Green Sunfish). I'm trying to recreate everything we saw/caught mostly from memory due to poor record keeping on my part, so some species may be missing. The following list is in no particular order and excludes the Osage since we saw nothing there. Rock Bass was a big, unexpected miss on the day.

Species caught, netted only(^) or seen only(*):

1. Creek Chub (Little Piney)
2. Smallmouth Bass (all)
3. Largemouth Bass (Little Piney, Meramec)
4. Bluegill (Little Piney)
5. Longear Sunfish (all)
1. Hybrid Sunfish (Little Piney)
6. Orangethroat Darter^ (all)
7. Missouri Saddled Darter^ (Big Piney)
8. Meramec Saddled Darter* (Meramec)
9. Rainbow Darter^ (Big Piney)
10. Bluntnose Minnow (Big Piney, Meramec)
11. Freshwater Drum (Meramec)
12. Bigeye Shiner (all)
13. Bleeding Shiner (all)
14. Blackstripe Topminnow (Little and Big Piney)
15. Northern Studfish (all)
16. Striped Shiner (Meramec)
17. Ozark Minnow^ (Big Piney)
18. Shortnose Gar (all)
19. Hornyhead Chub (Meramec)
20. Green Sunfish (Little Piney)
21. Northern Hogsucker* (all)
22. Redhorse sp.* (all)