Southern Illinois & Missouri

[BenCantrell]

Did two weekend road trips recently, one to southern Illinois and the other to southeastern Missouri.  A friend of a friend wanted to catch gar, bowfin, and sturgeon, the prehistoric fish of the Mississippi.  He flew in to the St. Louis airport, and I picked him up. I was able to deliver on the first two, but the Mississippi itself was 10 feet above normal levels so we weren't able to fish my go-to spot for sturgeon.

Gar and bowfin habitat.


My shortnose gar.


My Bowfin - and my first on a lure!




Gabrielle's Bowfin - note the lucky t-shirt.




My spotted gar.




My first spinner-caught freshwater drum.




Bighead carp - foul hooked, they weren't actively feeding.


Silver carp - also foul hooked.


Second trip was with Steve Wozniak, the guy who has ~1600 species on his lifelist.  He roped me into going down to SE Missouri to go after a few tough species.  I did the trip hobo style, sleeping in my car next to a spillway.

Shortnose gar.




Green sunfish.


Warmouth.




Rattletrap flathead.




Creek chubsucker - a very tough new lifer!




Another one, just to show off.




Underwater shot of the release.


Gilt darter - second new lifer.


Ozark chub - third new lifer.


Rainbow darter.


Logperch.


Northern Hogsucker.


Under water shot.

[xjchad]

I love reading your posts Ben!  The variety always blows me away!
Those gar are beautiful!
Is there a website/forum for "life list fishing"?

[Latimeria]

Well, there are Big Prehistoric Souls and small Prehistoric Souls...

You my friend, catch some of the coolest prehistoric critters in fresh water!

Amia calva have always been some of my favorite since my Ichthyology days of stream, river  and pond collecting in the dark waters of the South!

Well done boss, well done.  Too bad you couldn't get him a sturgeon.  I'd like to get one sooner than later myself.

[BenCantrell]

Any of you guys are welcome to fly to St. Louis for a weekend trip to fish these spots with me.  I'll drive down Friday after work, pick you up at the airport, and then drop you off Sunday for your return flight.  Only expenses besides the flight are gas, food & drinks, and 1-day fishing licenses, which are very cheap in IL and MO.

Gar and bowfin are good May through Oct.  Water levels do not matter.

Shovelnose sturgeon are good when the USGS gage for the Mississippi is 10 feet or lower.  This has not been a good year for being able to fish the sandbars on the river unfortunately.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?07010000

[BenCantrell]

Is there a website/forum for "life list fishing"?

Here are the sites I've been involved with:

http://specieshunters.com/
Pros - A lot of lifelist focused people, everyone is very friendly, not biased towards the U.S.  Ridiculous stuff like microfishing is highly encouraged.
Cons - Website looks like it was created in the 90's.  Forum gets zero use.

http://roughfish.com/
Pros - A lot of U.S. anglers, and a lot of incredibly good anglers.  User friendly lifelist feature.
Cons - Owner of the site is an ass towards people who are focused on lifelisting or microfishing.  I eventually got tired of him and deleted my account. Bias towards the upper midwest because that's where the majority of the users are from (they absolutely love redhorse for some reason).

http://bencantrellfish.blogspot.com/
Pros - Best blog ever!  In the non-mobile version on the right hand side I have a long list of other blogs I follow.  It seems like lifelisting attracts a lot of lone wolf type people, so you have to follow what they're doing individually.
Cons - No one reads blogs any more.

https://www.facebook.com/speciesfishing/
Pros - All species treated equally.
Cons - Facebook page, so limited involvement from fans.  The owners of your page have to share your content for it to show up in anyone's newsfeed.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1689771801258464/
Pros - Used to be a page, but we changed it to a group so users can post.
Cons - No lifelist feature.

[xjchad]

Bookmarked them! Thanks Ben!

[Latimeria]

I've fished 35 of the 50 states and never fished Missouri before!  If the wife gets a job and you haven't moved out here yet, then you might just see me.   

[mdcesq]

Oh man, that's an awesome assortment of fish.  I don't think I've caught any of those species, except maybe the sunfish.  Great pictures too.