top_dollar

So is there some open water up there now since you can see into the water? Last time i was up there, like you said, it was a putting green, there was no open water. Ive been meaning to go up there, but Ive been up at forest park mostly.

As a non native fish, he should have slit its gills and left it up on the bank to rot. That's what i was told to do when i caught an invasive fish. Actually...If i caught a state record, 1st.) Id change my underwear. 2.) Id get ahold of the conservation department. 3.) I would not be concerned with the welfare of the fish. In all seriousness....It is ironic to me that the same folks willing to drag a 40# trout around taneycomo all day on 4# line until it dies of exhaustion, are the same folks who will pitch a tantrum about someone killing a 15 inch spotted bass on table rock for a fish fry. Personally....I'd happily do both, but have only had the opportunity to do that latter. I totally agree that " Social Media can be a cesspool of hate, unfounded judgements and really stupid remarks " but dont exclude OAF from social media.

I noticed this too. It was completely choked out. That's pretty sad. Hopefully in a few years it will rebound. When I was up there a few weeks ago I saw crayfish by the 1000s all over the shallows picking through the vegetation right at the surface. I'd never seen anything like it.

You can access the upper big river at hwy 8 and mounts road. Mounts is a gravel road that takes you down to the river. Tdl= terre du lac. There is a makeshift gravel ramp there. Down another few miles is the leadwood access. That area is not the best fishing from my experience, but there are lots of dinks to be had. Nothing secret or special about it. It's just very convenient for me. They bite just about anything you wanna throw, just downsize baits and line.

Not bad. generally 5 feet of visibility or so in the summer time. Plenty of cows though.

Floated 8 to TDL this past weekend. First time in a month Typically I go down to Leadwood, but I was with my buddy, and we were going painfully slow, so we took out at TDL. Water was about normal for this time of year, maybe a touch up, and there was a bit of a stain (3-4 foot of visibility). Caught lots of fish, nothing big. They were eating whatever we threw except topwater baits. I was using a chompers worm and a jerkbait mostly, also caught a few on a wacky worm, and a few on keitech. He caught most of his on a jig, and a ned rig. It was a great day, they were really biting well. We each caught well over 30 fish, almost all of them were 8-12 inches. My biggest was just shy of 15.

Great advice, probably should have tried that. I'm not great at adapting. I have a tendency to catch fish my way or not at all. I actually went out of my wheelhouse with that drop shot and they bit it well. Typically I live or die by live bait and a jigging spoon.

Fished out of kimberling a few mornings this past week (6-10), as well as 2 afternoon trips. Wt was 82-84 degrees most of the week. It was largely slow, with the exception of a few flurries. Fished a drop shot and cc spoon. Also threw a small jig, and a keitech. Caught almost everything on a drop shot, the spoon also worked. My best bite was on gravel points and roll offs with a drop shot. Water depth was 25-60fow, but most of the fish were 25 to 30 feet down. Size was good with more than half being keepers, but was only averaging 2-3 fish/hr. Bait and fish were all over the graph, but I couldn't get many to bite.

When you're on lake Springfield, throw a weightless wacky rigged soft stick bait under the same overhangs and vegetation that you throw a crankbait. Just pitch it in there, let it sink 5 or 1p seconds. Then shake the tod tip just a bit, let sit another 5 or 10 seconds. Then reel in and repeat. Use a spinning rod. Put that worm under as many trees as you can. At lake Springfield youll generally catch a handful of small bass per hour, with an occasional fish bigger than 15inches. I suspect when you're on stockton you're fishing too shallow. Get out to about 20 foot of water off the end of a point. Use half of a nightcrawler (or less) on the back of an eighth oz jig. Just drag it around the bottom. If you dont have a fish finder on your yak, you'll wanna be moving around alpt until you get bit. Try right off the end of the point and along both sides.

Been out between 8 and leadwood the last few weeks. Same old same old. 3-5 foot of visibility. Nice and cool compared to any of the lakes around. Smallmouth, LM, crappie, longears, and various other sunfish species been biting well. Eating topwater baits, jerkbaits, plastic worms, and swimbaits. Mostly in and around riffles. Caught 1 LM out of a long slow pool on a worm that was about 16 inches long, everything else has been significantly smaller. Have yet to catch any decent smallmouth this year. That stretch never has very big fish, but typically i can find a few over 15 inches, this year its just been a ton of 8-12 inch fish. Wading/floating a cool creek is about the only kinda fishing i really enjoy when the temp gets so hot!

If it were me by myself id probably ask you to target walleye. If I had the boy, id wanna dunk crawlers and catch spotted bass. In terms of expectations for a guide trip i think it kind of depends on if the client frequently fishes or will be fishing the lake, or if the client is just in town once or twice. Personally, a guide trip at table rock or Stockton for me would be more of a learning experience. Id probably spend more time with a pen and notebook than a fishing pole, as i fish those lakes fairly often and would be looking to improve my skill set. Catching a bunch of fish would take a backseat. An out of towner might be more concerned with just catching fish. In terms of numbers of fish, I dunk crawlers, jig spoons and troll crankbaits in the summer and can catch maybe 5 or so fish per hour, so id hope that a guide would be significantly more successful than me. That said, I wouldn't be "expecting" any sort of results, because fishing just sucks sometimes. Yes Id be willing to start as early as the guide suggests for the best shot at a target species, and yes live bait is cool with me. I would assume for a shot at a topwater fish, getting out early is the only chance.

Brazilian drum are extremely rare at Stockton!