Mid-December 2021

[FishnDave]

Took some days off work this week and headed several hours south to do some flyfishing with a friend.
Rained a good portion of the time, and temperatures ranged from mid-60's to 40 degrees F.
Fished 3 different streams. Caught 11 different species of fish:
-Rainbow Trout
-Brown Trout
-Smallmouth Bass
-Largemouth Bass
-Grass Pickerel
-Northern Rock Bass
-Longear Sunfish
-Green Sunfish
-Creek Chub
-Bleeding Shiner
-Striped Shiner

Striped Shiner and Grass Pickerel were firsts for me. I saw a Palomino/Golden Trout swimming around, but didn't catch it. Saw a few Chain Pickerel...but they usually saw me first and apparently didn't like what they saw. Oddly, I also saw a KOI swim almost right up to me in the river!!

Here's some of the fish pics:
Grass Pickerel:


Northern Rock Bass:


Bleeding Shiner (caught just one...3 pics of the same individual):


Creek Chub - Longear Sunfish - Smallmouth Bass:


Largemouth Bass:


Striped Shiners:




Brown Trout:


Rainbow Trout:

[Rick Z]

I think you had to much fun.
Rick

[BadBug]

Wow, what an assortment of fish! That had to be a fun trip even with the rain.

Dennis

[iaflyfisher]

Nice fishing David! Great pix

[lee s]

You always amaze me David! Your posts are soooooo appreciated....
....lee s.

[FishnDave]

It was fun! Thanks, fellas!

[jdfog2]

Nice post !
I live in Indiana and a large percentage of my trout experiences are " a few hours south(west)" of the St. Louis area.
I lived in Oklahoma for about ten years on two separate tours of duty while in the Air Force. I met my wife there.
And, I met my "best friend of a lifetime" there who was her brother in law (we ended up considering each other to be brothers).
We loved to fish together. Sadly, he passed away at the end of August from Covid complications.

I'll be hitting Roaring River and Montauk as well as Beaver's Bend in Oklahoma in a few months.
He'd be pretty upset if I didn't carry on. He'll be with me if only in spirit.

Thanks again for sharing this!
JD

[FishnDave]

JD,
Sorry to hear of the loss of your friend/brother. That has got to really hurt.
Carrying on is the right thing to do, and yes...he will likely be there with you.

I've been in StL about 1.5 years so far, but haven't fished the trout parks in MO yet. The two you mentioned seem to be the favorites of many of the trout anglers here. I'm sure I'll visit them at some point.
Best of luck to you and your family!