A couple of weekends ago me and a couple of buddies decided to try our luck at rough fishing Missouri, we were not dissapointed. The night we came down there was a big ass thunder storm that brought with it 3 inches of rain in a matter of 2 hours. So needless to say when we went to try and fish the missouri river that morning it was completely tossed. We located a nice a current break for cats later that night and decided to try our luck on some smaller less angry waters. The spot we ended up fishing was on a gravel road we got detoured on. The was a small lake that drained into a smaller lake via a small dam.

Right away we started catching eater sized channel cats which would be supper that night...

There were also tons of minnows on the downstream side of the dam so I decided to try and hook one even though they were tiny as hell. I lost about a dozen of these tiny fish on a size 24 hook and crawler thread but finally I landed what I believe to be a eastern mosquito fish.

And then this guy decided to make an appearance....
When I was micro fishing I noticed that there were some larger taller bodied minnow cruising just a little lower than the rest and they were not interested in my bait so I decided to dip net a couple. They turned out to be gizzard shad.
After netting enough shad for catfishing that night we headed back to camp for some venison and channel cat supper. Night came and we went back to out current break we had found during the day on the missouri river only to find it occupied by a local cat guy named Jesse. He was a real nice guy and pointed us toward a couple other spots we could try south of there "A couple of hellacious holes down there, call em the twins. Be careful though the roads rougher than a cats back." In case you don't speak missourian like I didnt rougher than a cats back means closed to any traffic that isnt a monster truck. After wasting a good hour trying to find a decent spot to fish we came back to the original spot and set up shop. We threw fresh shad and crawlers and didnt even get so much as a tap. Such is fishing. On our way home that night I fandangled greeny and blue eye to stop at the spit we fished earlier. right away we were able to cast net a few small carp and I hooked up a couple live. About a half hour and a couple bowls\beers later I spiked this guy, a fish I have dreamed of catching for so long. I have hooked close to 30 of these fish without landing one,I finally caught a short nose gar!

The next day I Managed to find a free dime dime bag while micro fishing in the morning and added 2 new lifers,
The white perch....

and the Redear sunfish...


All in all it was a sweet trip that I can't wait to repeat in the next couple weeks...

Dood, we each got a white perch lifer the same weekend in different states. I had no idea you guys were headed south. good looking red ear too.

Cool road trip. Your keeping it hardcore! Sounds like high water is everywhere. Way to adjust and put some fish on the list.

i am insanely jealous of the gar, ive been trying to get one for ages.

Jealous of the gar man, soon..
Redears are cool, one of my favorite sunfish. I'm lucky enough to have learned to fish in the only lake in PA with Redears in it, caught plenty of 10+ inches in my younger ears, they're real bruisers.
Awesome man!!
Also I had the displeasure of fishing for "Dogfish" with 2 guys from Missouri this year.. wasn't fans, but I'm sure there's cool guys down there (-;
First time I've ever heard someone say "Jigaboo" in a serious, non-redneck mocking sentence.

Big congrats on the lifelisters! And good job working around the high water. That shortnose gar is awesome!

Awesome, congrats on the gar Moose!

That looks to be one of those infamous "suicide trips". I was crazy enough to tag along on one and I must say....I'm itching for another. Nice job man and congrats on the lifers!

Good to see the Moose on the prowl!!

Sweet trip, and big congrats on the Shortnose Gar. An awesome fish for sure. Next time, I'll get mine. Maybe...

Congrats on the lifers, especially that cool shortnose! Sorry to hear the rain/high water followed you down that way, but it sounds like you made the best of it.

For trip #2 do you have some more species goals to go after, or are you just looking for big cats?

Nice work on the lifers! The shortnose looks awesome! Glad you finally landed one!

Now that's what I call livin and bein free. Great story Moose! I miss those days sometimes.

Awesome Shortnose man. Spur of the moment species drives like that are always cool. Did you get the Gar on live or cut bait?

i had the same net and when i tried to catch bait with it it snapped in half.....

good work on the lifers. that shortnose is awesome

That's my dimebag, dude. Yeah, that darn thunderstorm musta blew it over into Missouri. Hope you enjoyed...and if you didn't, well then it certainly wasn't mine:)

Sounds like a fun excursion with plenty of variety. I dig that suspected Eastern Mosquito pic, I see something like that around here on the Wabash but have yet to catch one. They hang around the rocks and are very spooky, darting into the chunk limestone every time I try for them.

Livebearers I think, at least they look like a big ol' guppy from above. Thanks for reminding me to root through the flybox for something smaller than a #16 hook, that mouth is tiny in the pic. Be interesting to see what the heck they actually are, I seem to be the only one aware of them around here.

Looks like a fun road trip. Congrats on all the lifers.

Oh and blue eye that is an awesome sublime tattoo you got there.

You boys just be careful you don't get like an 88 year prison sentence for them herbs and spices! Which you can buy over the counter in the shops over here, by the way...

AvidFly wrote:

QUOTE:
Congrats on the lifers, especially that cool shortnose! Sorry to hear the rain/high water followed you down that way, but it sounds like you made the best of it.

For trip #2 do you have some more species goals to go after, or are you just looking for big cats?

Thanks man, trip 2 we will have more time and plan to target, yellow and spotted bass, grass and chain pickerel, long ear sunfish, pallid sturgeon AND gargantuan Blues and flatheads...


And as far as getting busted with herbs and spices I already did a year and a day in state prison and don't plan on going back, soooooo Im extra sneaky and have a 6th sense when red neck sheriffs are around.......

Btw Dutchman someday Im coming over there to catch wels and smoke bubble hash till my brain explodes!

Moose439 wrote:

QUOTE:
Btw Dutchman someday Im coming over there to catch wels and smoke bubble hash till my brain explodes!

That mental picture just made my funniest shit top ten list. Right on Moose! Save a seat for me.