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In lake Havasu they get giant from eating quagga and zebra mussels. Records keep falling from that body of water.

Congratulations ! I feel like I have a 100 years before I can think about retiring.

Just spoke to Phil Stone and he said there are massive schools of shad in the dam LongCreek area also. All sizes He said he has also found some really good September fishing with schools of bass following the shad schools in that dam area. Pretty similar to what we’re finding up here. Even with all those shad, the last few days the bass are simply full of small crayfish. Our forage base here with all the gills, shad of every size imaginable and fish that are bulging with bellies full of crawdads makes for lots of good times. I simply don’t know the feeding patterns, but we’re catching suspended fish at depth of 30’ to no bottom and yet they are spitting and pooping crawfish. I’ve had my dive buddies tell me they have seen crayfish all over the deep trees. I can’t believe these schools of deep fish are running to the bank to catch them. Be a good question for the Biologist. I’m guessing however they may not know.

Thanks - that makes sense.

Wrench would not have a rack full of Them Black Motors

The Greer gauge is useful in a very specific way, but not so much as a direct indicator. I've noticed the following pattern on the Eleven Point (Bardley) gauge after a big rain: 1. The initial rise, which hits the Bardley gauge some number of hours after the rain hits, depending on where exactly the highest rain concentration is. This rise is the result of runoff 2. The initial fall, which can take place over hours or days following the rise 3. A second, smaller, but often still pretty significant rise after the initial decline. Depending on the situation, this can be enough to turn the stream back to being muddy and blown out, or it can be barely noticeable except for maybe turning the water a darker shade of green. This can be as delayed as a few days later, and is the result of the event impacting the spring system. This is where the Greer gauge can be an advanced indicator of the river being blown out. Obviously it will eventually show on the Bardley gauge, but later. It's not unique for springs to be lagging indicators of precipitation events, but the Eleven Point is somewhat unusual in that it is so very reliant on one specific, very large spring. Rivers like the Current have similar trends, but it's muddied (some pun intended) because they are affected by many different spring systems that may behave differently. My source for this is that this concept once buggered up a would-be float trip for us on the Eleven Point. The initial crest and decline occurred, flows were fine, it was bright sunny in the whole aftermath, and then when we got there the river was muddy and blown out anyway. We ended up on the upper Jack's, which was a great outcome, but I still remember the initial disappointment keenly. I also really like looking at and analyzing river flow graphs, for some reason that I'd struggle to adequately explain.

Wrench, I am aware of your distaste for the "Black" motors but you have always been truthful and knowledgeable on such matters. I have a Ranger360V with an 87 Merc 175 that i have had for over 18 years and always run Quicksilver Oil in it through the oil system on the motor and tank in the bottom of boat. I have run 91 Premium Ethanol free fuel in this boat and never had problems. I am now the Proud owner of my 2nd Ranger Boat 2009 Z520 with an Optimax 250 that has 150 hours on the motor. This boat is equipped with a remote fill for the oil tank on the right rear corner close to the splash well to fill the tank in the bottom of the boat and fuel tank fills on the left side by passenger seat. for both tanks and a switch by the driver seat for switching fuel tanks. This is where my question comes in ( sorry for the long winded story ) What oil do I need for this Mercury motor and what fuel should I be running, I am hearing so many different things, IE no 91 octane it will blow up and run hot, run this oil, run that oil I do not have a good source for trustworthy information and I TRUST you because you are willing to help people for free even though you get a lot of crap on here. Thank you Wrench RANGER.pdf

Well, it should be tough on the Rock in September, always has been. Not so much this year. Surface temp at 6:30 at Shell Knob 82 degrees. Water clarity maybe 3’. Neighbor and I boated close to 70 this morning with a 1/2oz. Dixie Jet jigging spoon being the main culprit. 16 pounds best 5. We would still be catching but it just flat got to hot to be out there with no breeze. Lots of chasing but they didn’t want topwater or a swimbait. I used a white spoon and he used chrome. No difference. We casted it, fluttered it, jerked it and reeled it fast. Depending on where they were in the water column. Every presentation worked. We only fished 3 locations in 5 hours. In all my years I’ve never seen the amount of shad we were around today. Millions of them from dime size to 6” gizzards and every size threadfin in between. This has been by far the best September fishing I’ve ever had on the Rock.

It's when your friends are giving you smack and a ration of crap you know they like you. I never worry until that back and forth banter stops. It's then that something is wrong and you need to start worrying.

The first Jigfest I went to, you and Rick had some hilarious back and forth banter. I remember when Rick was scooting across the floor in his chair and you asked him - "Is that your walker?". One of those you had to be there deals, but it was hilarious and I'll always remember it when I see you two together.

oh I completely took it wrong lmao

Hey wait a minute I call you that with 100% love. It's a great character and a complementary nickname. But if it bothers you, no more buddy.

They eat snails throughout their range.

I caught a couple trout opposite side of the ramp off a stick up with a black twitch tail minnow on a dropshot one summer, the water was hot they were only about 12ft deep or so, must have been a spring there or something, they were completely silver.

I want to get over to that gill spot in Eagle Rock, maybe next week. Good luck with the bass!

Becky thought she had a bass when she caught it. Durn thing pulled drag. It was really thick, as big or bigger than 90% of the goggle eye I get lucky to catch. Getting ready to meet the neighbor for another morning of bass chasing. Hope they still like us.

That's what my Tennessee uncle calls them. He used to fish for them at Tunica Cutoff over in Mississippi every spring. They would dab crickets around cypress stumps. They would run in the 1-2 lb. range. That fishery was ruined by Asian carp. We've got some good ones here in Bella Vista. Here's one Ham caught a few years ago.

My nearest pond is in a city park. It currently looks like pea soup. I dont want to further stress the residents. I drive bybit multiple times daily. The bluegill herons are standing 10 to 15 feet further from the banks than they usually do. I even seen one standing in the water in the center of the lower Meramec River at hwy I-55 last week.

You are correct. That's the gauge for Greer Spring, and is pretty much useless in itself for gauging the river either above or below Greer. In times of low water like now, about the only thing you can possibly glean from it is to figure that the river above the spring is probably flowing less than 100 cfs, so if you take the flow of the spring (right now 411 cfs) and add 50-75 cfs to it, you'll get the flow of the river directly downstream from Hwy. 19.

yes

Are redear also called shell crackers?

Thats the one that monitors the spring, not the river. Not sure if that is a good indicator of flow. There used to be one on the Hwy 19 bridge, but it has been offline for years. Stuck with Bardley. That being said, caught a nice 20 inch walleye below the state line Saturday. Bass were slow and small. We went Myrtle down for the first time in the jet boat. Hot and bass were very picky. This link works to the monitor site https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-07071000/#dataTypeId=continuous-00065-0&period=P7D

'Don't judge a book by its cover.' -Mamma ness