Mid-September 2021

[FishnDave]

Flyfished on Saturday. Caught 17 Grass Carp, 1 Bluegill, 1 Common Carp, 1 Channel Catfish, and 1 White Bass:

[Rick Z]

Nice fish. Better than I did.
Rick

[FishnDave]

Thanks, Rick!

[FishnDave]

Got out flyfishing on Saturday. Caught a small Channel Catfish:


...and 18 Grass Carp. That is the most Grass Carp I've caught in one day. That puts me at 155 Grass Carp on the year so far. The biggest of the day measured 36.5", which ties my 2nd largest Grass Carp ever, and is the biggest I've caught in Missouri so far. Expected weight range would be 18-23 lbs....so....an average of that would give an approximate weight of 20.5 lbs.

[iaflyfisher]

Nice fish David! I recall how hard it was to catch them up here!

[FishnDave]

Nice fish David! I recall how hard it was to catch them up here!

Thanks Dale! Yes, super difficult to catch the pond-stocked fish in Iowa!
Part of the reason, I think, they are easier here is...in the creek and river, there is pretty much NO aquatic vegetation. So, all their food is drifting downstream or falling into it from above. Whenever anything hits the water, they rush to investigate and be the first to it. If they aren't quick, they go hungry.

[BadBug]

Are you gluing two or three fish together to make them look really big? Come on Dave, tell the truth.

Dennis

[FishnDave]

Are you gluing two or three fish together to make them look really big? Come on Dave, tell the truth.

Dennis

No horse hooves were harmed in the making of this photo.

Long-arming, certainly. Fishing solo, the only good way for me to get a picture of these large fish is to prop my cell phone on a large rock, select video, then pick the "selfie" camera...that way I can see what's on the screen as I'm taking video. In this case, I was too close to the camera initially, and stepped back on the very steep slope. Then I was too far away, so I held the fish toward the phone/camera so it nearly filled the screen. Because its all about the fish. Once I get home, then I review the video, pause it and screen capture frames that I think look best. So...that's what I do.

For the smaller fish, I'm either holding the fish in one hand and taking a photo, or I just take a picture of the fish in the net and call it good. Once I get home, I count the number of fish caught based on the time the pictures were taken. That way I don't mis-count while I'm fishing. Most fish I don't keep count of...like bass or bluegills, etc. But some species I want to know how many I've caught.

So, for example, by looking at the time stamps on the photos on my phone...I know that I had a really good span of 31 minutes on Saturday when I caught 8 Grass Carp and the little Channel Catfish. How fun is that?? 1 fish every 3.44 minutes on average.
I fished for 5 hours total, so it took 4.5 hours to catch the other 10 Grassies... or 1 fish every 27 minutes. Big difference!

[lee s]

WOW!
So technical Dave....and here I was merely deciding the validity of the catfish photo. The black outlines of the fins caught my eye....cut and paste? Surely not David!
Devious minds......
....lee s.
P.S. Keep up the good work!

[FishnDave]

WOW!
So technical Dave....and here I was merely deciding the validity of the catfish photo. The black outlines of the fins caught my eye....cut and paste? Surely not David!
Devious minds......
....lee s.
P.S. Keep up the good work!

Nothing nefarious going on here.
Small Channel Catfish do have the black edges to their fins, especially the tail fin. It seems to fade/disappear as they get bigger.
None of my pictures in this thread are showing up for me at the moment. Weird. Are they showing up for you guys?