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Well, I told ya’ll. Becky and I launched at Eagle Rock at 9:30 this morning after breakfast at the Depot Diner. They were right where I left them last week. Becky loves BG filets so I told her she had to come catch her own. She did and then some. I’ve been around the block more than once and I have never and I mean never seen BG like this. BIG-GIANTS I baited the hook and extracted the prizes and she hauled them in. We decided to keep 12 but ended up with 15. Could have just kept 4 as they were that big. There are 100’s there. 25’ right on the channel edge. We just drop shot 1/3 crawler. Amazing. I’ll never forget this day with my lovely wife. She just had a ball. They filleted like crappie and I never messed up one fillet. How often does that happen with BG.

So, I quit a little early or at least a little earlier than I thought I would, but it was time. I saw where a pro athlete said that if you were thinking about retiring, it was time to retire. I always hated missing great fishing conditions when I had to work, but I did not mind going to work. Well, work got more and more demanding and complicated and I would guess me getting older made it a little harder to adapt to the constant changing work landscape. There was no single event that had me thinking about leaving, but an almost daily dose of unpleasantness made me longing to get OUT. So, I looked at everything and decided I could quit. I quit. I’m done. Mostly. I might work a couple days a month for gas money. here’s an official notice to fishing buddies that my schedule is a lot more open these days. Keep in mind that I am retired, but not divorced. I don’t want to become divorced either so I can’t just do everything I want any time I want. Just saying. it’s only been a little while, but Man, this feels Great. I freaking love this. I will miss my work friends. I will not see them very often and that will gradually erode those relationships. I’ll drown that sorrow by strengthening relationships with fishing friends.

Took the boat up to the dam special reg.drift & on the second run got onto a brown trout of a lifetime on a shad imitation 1/4 ounce spoon on a Ultralight spin rig on 6 pound mono. He pinged the drag out 4 times and refused to w himself until he finally allowed us to net him. Man, what a beauty. 30" LENGTH.

SWPA reduced the flows to 1 unit starting this morning, which opens many wading opportunities. I went to the state park had a good morning with lots of rainbows, a few brookies, 1 cutthroat and a couple browns. A purple crackleback worked early and then I switched to a grey scud under an indicator and started getting some larger trout. There were lots of boats out today and a few other waders. Here's the best ones this morning...

Last Week I was back down in Texas for a business conference in Houston. I added a couple of days to the trip to get back out for new fish species that I was not able to fish or catch on my last trip back in Nov. I had planned for some freshwater and saltwater fishing. The first afternoon found me trying to find fishable access to the White Oak Bayou. I headed to Woodland park just north of downtown Houston. The creek banks in most spots had 4 to 10 ft drops down to the water. Most of the walking trail looked like this between the trail and the water ... I did find three access points, but still needed some mountain goat footing to fish the bank in the one access point. Fortunately the banks were sand which provided some grip. My targets were grass carp and spotted gar. Long story short, I saw both but they stayed out of casting range or on the down stream side of deadfalls that I could not get below and cast back upstream. I did have one gar that was tight up under some brush upstream of me. I made a cast and hung in the brush and a small sunfish grabbed the cutbait. That got me unhung and the gar came out and chased the sunfish. It ignored the cutbait and didn't respond to any of my other casts. I tried chumming for the carp using bread and strawberry dough baits. I just ended up feeding the turtles. I even landed one🙄. I saw a decent mirror pearl colored koi but it dissappeared quickly. I did catch a couple of sunfish and a Texas cichlid, all on bait. I did see a bunch of established exotic finches, scaly breasted munias. Bluegill Plains longear TX Cichlid The next morning had me running an hour down to Galveston Island. I felt certain that the small inlet to the East End Lagoon off of the shipping channel would be my best shot at catching some lifers. I had been in contact with one of the Houston area INAT folks for the past year and they have caught at least four species from that area that would be lifers for me. I typically don't like blind casting for micros, but on my first cast into the current I landed the first of my targets, a flagfin mojarra! I caught several of these guys. I also fished the schools of minnows looking for longnose and/or diamond killifish. I caught a bunch of the longnose killies, another lifer😉. I didn't find or have any luck on diamond killies. I tied on a larger hook and tossed out my shrimp. I would get bit as soon as I came tight. Nearly all of those fish were pinfish. I did land a small gray snapper and a cool looking pigfish. Redfish and gulf/southern flounder were also targets for this trip. That afternoon I headed to Sea Wolf Park to try for any of those species. The fish report board at the park had folks catching croakers, sand weakfish, ladyfish and kingfish. I still hadn't caught a ladyfish or a gulf kingfish. I fished a variety of baits and setups, high low rigs with shrimp or fishbites, fish finding rigs with cutbaits or tadem jig rigs with gulp minnows or swimming mullets. I caught a lot of croakers on the high low rigs with shrimp and the fishbites. I did land a couple of lifer ladyfish and a bunch of sand weakfish (aka sand trout), Even a southern kingfish - but not a Gulf king😒. Photos of the park. After dark I headed back to East end lagoon to do some night fishing. I was hoping to find some small flounder species or another target - the darter goby. Even with my brightest light setting I could only see about 12 to 16 inches deep and my red light setting was not useful at all. I saw a bunch of mullets that spooked at every opportunity. I saw more longnose killifish that refused to bite my shrimp. I also found what I thought must be the darter gobies and they also did not bite. I only caught one frillfin goby. Saturday was either going to be another saltwater or freshwater trip. Since I saw the possible darter gobies and still wanted to try and catch a redfish or gulf kingfish, I went back down to the Gulf to fish. I should have predicted that the beaches would be crowded since it was a decent Saturday. The first couple of spots were too crowded for me to feel comfortable fishing. Lost me a lot of fishing time. I ended up in Galveston Island State Park. There was a decent sized lagoon with a couple of folks already fishing. I started by microfishing a small outlet channel. Only bites were crabs. I saw two of the other folks catch puppy redfish on shrimp in the lagoon. I put on a tandem jig rig and fished 1.5 inch Gulp minnows and 1 inch pearl swimming mullets. I would get bites on each cast. No hook ups and often the tails would be bitten off the baits. Switched up to a high low rig with smaller hooks and caught a couple of pinfish, the likely culprits biting off the tails. I switched back to the tandem jig rig with a 3 inch chartruese swimming mullet and the pearl mullet bait. I got a decent bite that wasn't fighting like a pinfish. The body shape was right for a redfish, but instead it was a croaker😒. With the diamond killifish and the possible darter goby targets I headed back to the East End lagoon. The diamond killifish has a shorter body length like a sheepshead minnow but with a deeper body. I had on my tanago hook with shrimp and casted out to a school of fish that did not look like longnose killies. Turns out they were more flagfin mojarras. I caught a bunch before moving on. Close to where I saw them the night before I found about 6 or so gobies that could be the darter goby. They were only about 1.5 to 2 inches in length. They were agressive but since they were so small it was hard to get a hook set. I did lift one and finally got the largest one into the photo bag! Turned out to be the darter goby and the fourth lifer of my trip (would be my last as well). I had a great trip. I suspect that I will be back in TX in the near future and hope to get back after those targets that I didn't catch and maybe a few others as well.

Flows have been less than 1 unit until early afternoon giving us lots of wading opportunities. Fishing has been good with lots of rainbows, a few cutties and more brookies than I have ever seen. They are almost a nuisance as they are pretty aggressive and sometimes beat the bigger fish to the fly. That was the case this morning when I was trying to sight cast to a nice cuttie, but 2 different brookies beat him to the fly. I finally got him to take the fly and got him to the net. Best flies today were brown soft hackles rigged in tandem.

Down for a short trip and found them shallower than expected. Caught one early yesterday on a whopper plopper but that was it. Started throwing the glide bait. Other than a few jig fish in the laydowns along the way, most were glide bait fish in less then 5’. On or near points with steeper banks or a decent drop off. Tried drop shot and jig head minnow with ffs but just a few short spotted bass.

I fished vicariously through Field and Stream/Outdoor Life as soon as I could read. Asked for and got a spincast outfit for Christmas when I was nine. Rode my bike down to a little creek on the edge of town. Caught two bullheads. Took them back home and my grandmother helped me clean them and cooked them for my lunch. I don't think I have a sweeter fishing memory - and after searching the memory banks I'm sure. Thanks for a good topic Mr. Ness.

Have not been out on the lake for a while. Nice cool morning so it was time to give it a shot. Cool, heck - it was COLD early. 54 degrees, but my body is still adjusted for 94. September on this lake has always been a tough month for me. It wasn't bad today, but I had to work for my fish. I caught 13 bass, 2 were keepers. About an even split between catching them on a jig and on the c-rig. I beat the banks, my deepest fish might have been 15 feet. I did not go out deep and look for electronic fish, I'm sure there are some out there. Very little bass top water activity, lots of carp and gar flopping around, but few bass. There are little half inch shad everywhere. Rec boats are gone, at least today. Not a lot of fishermen either. I hear there are some Facebook reports of quite a few walleyes being caught. Surface water temp is 78.

Bull Shoals Lake reached power pool level earlier this week and SWPA reduced the flows to 1 unit until noon the last couple of days. Fishing has been good with lots of options for wading. Had a good day yesterday and again today with lots of rainbows, a few browns, some brookies and 2 cutthroats. Best flies have been cracklebacks, scuds and eggs. Here are a couple of nicely colored trout from this morning...

I was thinking about my first time fishing today, and thought I'd share the story. Like most of us, it was on a farm pond. But not just any farm pond... My great great great grandfather Samuel arrived in Johnson County, KS around 1868 and started an 80 acre farm. That farm stayed in the family through at least WWII, but then was sold. My uncle repurchased the farm in the 1960s and that's where I fished for the first time. I don't remember a lot about that trip or the fish, but I'm sure it was a little bluegill that I caught. We stayed there a few times, and us kids really loved it. Mom not so much. Here's a Google Earth of the farm and pond today: That square white building is the barn we all played in, and that was a ton of fun for us city kids. My uncle kept the farm for several years, but it was eventually sold. At some point the old farmhouse burned and now it's a hodgepodge of metal buildings. But the barn looks the same, except for having a little tilt to it. SO...what's the story on YOUR first fish?

10-4-25 Son Steve and I fished the HSD out of Campbell Point it is the longest running Bass Tournament in the country. This was its 57 th. Consecutive year. 39 boats this year. We came in 5 th. Stringer 10.14 and 5th. Big bass 3.9. 15.02 won the derby and 3.14 was big bass. It’s 6 fish so that’s why it didn’t take a kicker. There is absolutely no more fun I could possibly have than fishing with Steven in this event that helps the SK Chamber. Fantastic steak dinner afterwards and thousands of dollars in donated giveaways. I probably blew it for us as far as winning by just watching Steve catch fish. We stayed on our first location for 2.5 hours as I netted 24 fish for Steven and not a single keeper. The channel Swings up the Kings River are simply loaded with fish and I’ve been catching some nice 15” to 17” on them but yesterday they just would not hit the mark on the board. No dad is leaving a location when their kid is catching fish like that no matter what the size. He was having a BLAST. Surface temp when we started was 79 and at 4 when we weighed in it was 83. That’s warm water and there were boats everywhere. The wake boats ran us off the deep bite as we were taking waves over the side, glad it did as we didn’t have a fish in the livewell. At 9:45 Steve put the 3.9 in the boat on a Texas rig worm out of a brush pike and we did that the rest of the day to catch our 5. We each lost 2 keepers so we easily could have had our 6. Steve had a really nice LM jump twice and go back down in a pile and we lost it. Probably just about like his 3.9 and I did not fish clean at all. I back lashed 2 reels spooning deep fish and accidentally hit the release button TWICE. If you say you haven’t done that I don’t believe you. But twice in one day SHEEEE! I also had 2 solid keeps jump off so totally my fault. We caught in excess of 50 fish yesterday and if it had been Father’s Day I could not have had a better present. Homer Sloan Bass Buddy Tournament is always the first Saturday in October. It is FUN. If there is anyway you can come next year with a family member or a good buddy, you will make memories. Please join us for this wonderful Table Rock, Shell Knob event. Good Luck.

I don't know if these were my first fish but I do remember catching bluegill and small bass from a.community pond at my aunt's place in Fishkill NY. We would only get out there once or twice every couple of years. That pond had the most aggressive bass. So much so that I would go thru my tackle box and try lures that I hadn't caught fish. If I couldn't get a bite in the pond I would just toss those lures🤔😉. In the late summer trips the bats would be thick and they would dive bomb our baits. I do remember catching my first brown trout in CT on a rooster tail when I was 10 or 11. I know that I have told this story before. My first fly caught fish was a fallfish from a creek in the Poconos when I was 21. I was fishing a Caddis and lost sight of my bait. I made my back cast and the fish went sailing past my head and landed on the bank behind me🤣.

I don't remember the first fish I landed and touched. I do remember the first fish I was supposed to catch. My brothers took over the fight. It was on my Zebco 202 combo in Boathouse Lake at Carondalet Park in St Louis City. I baited it with corn, casted it, and failed to pay attention. A guy that was older than us saw the take, and frustratingly alerted us. I started to reel it in, my brothers forced their way to take over. I may have been 8 or 9. It was a common carp. We took it home. That's about 45 minutes to an hour walk through the city. Then our parents wanted nothing to do with it. LOL. We were told to cook it on the barbecue pit. 3 boys who probably never started a (controlled) fire at this point. We (they) butchered that fish. Still had random scales and bones when it was placed over the fire. I cant remember the taste. But the texture was not for me. LOL. I've had carp since, and it was good.

I can't tell you which one was my first. I do have memories of fishing or being with my dad or grandad. My dad got out of the navy, went to school at Wichita State, and worked nights at the post office. He'd fish every once in a while, no boat, so local rivers and streams. He'd drag me along, I wanted to go and mom was probably happy to see us both out of the house to give her some peace and quiet. Once he was fishing the Arkansas river with me in tow. I wasn't fishing, but was there with him. The Arkansas was low at the time, lots of braids with some pools and generally a sandy river bottom and banks. I remember he was fishing a pool on a side channel that had a steep bank on the other side. That steep bank had some small holes in it. All of a sudden out of one those holes a snake shot out like an arrow right at us. I was maybe 4 years old at the time and that snake looked pretty big to me. I took off running and so did my dad. That's about all I remember, but I'll never forget it. I have never seen a snake do that again to this day.

You could take all I know about fishing Table Rock, put it in a 1 gallon milk jug and still have room for the gallon of milk. Yesterday was a good example. I’m looking for a few bigger fish than I’m currently catching on channel swings, so I started checking deep trees, docks and conservation piles The fish were set up so differently than I had ever seen. Piles, multiple limbed cedars held crappie and gills. The gills were in the piles or inside the limbs of the cedars and the crappie were sitting directly on top, or on the up stream top sides of the cover. If crappie or gills were present there were no bass You saw my pictures of the gills Becky caught a couple of weeks ago, these were just as big as those. Caught 4 on an A-rig Caught 6 crappie, they were just giants also on an A-rig. Most all at 15’ to 22’ suspended over depth. Bass were on either pole timber or sparsely limbed big trees, locked right on the limbs or trunks at that same 15’ to 22’ range over depth. You could count everyone of them on LiveScope and if there were multiple fish they would bite. If they were singles nada. I had never seen this type of separation between the species before or how different they were relating to structure. As far as the docks, there were smaller gills stacked under the docks I checked. Not many crappie and very few bass. The bass mostly were suspended on the dock anchor cables and again if there were just one or two they had no appetite. If there were several I could trick one or two. They were not schooled on the cable they were stair stepped along it No biggins but I learn something new every time I turn on the LiveScope.

We have had good wading water of 1 unit for the past couple of weeks. I fished the Cotter access this morning and had a good trip with lots of rainbows, 2 browns and this nice cuttie. Best fly today was a purple body crackleback stripped in the surface film. I have some freinds that just got back from a trip to the Green River at Flaming Gorge and that was the hot fly up there, so I tied a couple up and found out our trout like them as well.

Grass Pickerel: Shadow Bass: I saw another carp, cast the fly just past it, brought it over its head, then let it drop down right in front of it. As the fly sank, the carp followed it down. I guessed it had eaten it, and set the hook. Yep! What a fight on 6 lb tippet! There were 2-3 kayak anglers that stopped and watched for the entire long battle! 27" Mirror Carp! What a beautiful fish! @Ham behind the lens on this one as well.

Had a good morning with lots of rainbows, 4 brookies and 1 average size brown. I hooked this nice male rainbow in 1 foot of water and had quite a time getting him into the net on 6x tippet. At one point he ran under a downed tree and I could see him on the other side. I kept steady pressure on him and finally worked the line from under the tree and got him out. He hit a size 14 scud. Also caught a few on a crackleback and some on egg patterns. Here is the rainbow and a pretty male brookie...

That's right. Forest Park has a stream that most wouldn't consider capable of being fished. I only caught green sunfish ans a couple times bluegill, but it was a great way to spend the day. The foam fly is one I tied and have had tremendous luck with. The spinner was just a fun creation that has done well. Literally a piece of stainless wire trying to mimic a mini rooster tail. The crick hopper is a temu special. I got a multi pack for less than a single at Walmart. I caught many more, but took pictures of these. I had a ton of snips, that I just coukd not get fast enough reaction time to set the hook. It got almost frustrating. LOL.

My first was in the womb when my mom’s water broke. Still prefer river fishing today 😆

I have been fishing or going along on trips since I was 3, so my memory is pretty foggy. I remember a few fish I caught that would have to be quite close to the beginning, but it's unclear which is actually the first. I can tell you the exact moment I got hopelessly hooked on fishing. It wasn't even a fish I caught. My brother had been watching a fishing show, and told my dad that the weeds along the bank are where the pike lived. My dad said that this was a trout lake, and he'd do better casting out deeper past the drop-off. My brother cast his spinner along the weedline anyway and caught what was probably a tiny pike, but looked huge to us. Something about the big scary teeth and the fish not being where the Grown Ups said they would be captured my imagination. The sense of mystery that moment left me with has stayed with me more or less ever since.

Had another good day with lots of nice rainbows and a few brookies. No cutties or browns this morning. Caught a few on the purple crackleback early and then switched to a scud. When the scud slowed down, I tied on an egg pattern and did pretty good with that. Here's a few of the better ones... biggest was 23".

No, thought about it but it was so durn hot with zero breeze my fair haired wife just wanted to get her gill fillets and get out of that heat. As you can see from the fillets they were just Monsters. I had 4 fillets and she only had 3 for supper, along with homemade 3 cheese broccoli casserole with bacon topping and cornbread.

Trout fishing on Lake Taneycomo has been pretty good the last few weeks. About six weeks ago, a big number of rainbow trout were stocked in short order. My understanding was that our hatcheries were over crowded, and officials had to reduce numbers. These rainbows were a little on the small side, and most were stocked well below Branson, but they've made their way up lake. Catching trout has been good lately! Newly stocked trout are generally easy to catch. They're not very smart. They've been hand fed all their lives, so they're going to eat or chase about anything they see for a while. So spinners and spoons, flies and baits under floats and bait on the bottom -- all are effective for these fish. Generation has been consistent with no water running at night and in the morning. Then early to mid-afternoon, operators are running as little as one unit and up to all four units, most of the time until dark or after. It's September, and our water flowing from Table Rock Lake is low in oxygen. This is seasonal and not surprising. When they run water, liquid oxygen is injected into the turbines, and that keeps lake water safe for our fish. I personally have not seen the trout lethargic, lacking fight. On the contrary, they have been fighting pretty hard. But you do need to keep this in mind when you catch and release. Land them as quickly as you can, keep them in the water while unhooking them and ideally release without taking them out of the water. If you want pictures, take them quickly! Article: Seasonal Oxygen Issues & Handling Trout, Lake Taneycomo As I reported, fish have been chasing spoons, especially when the water is running. Also jerk baits late in the evening and past dark with the water running have worked fairly well. Black jigs have been the best after dark for catching bigger trout. Throwing jigs (without a float) has also been good. I'm using two-pound line most of the time now except when four units are running and I'm throwing 1/8th ounce jigs -- then I'm using four-pound line. Best colors have been brown, sculpin, black, white and sculpin/ginger. Under a float, we're using jigs, mega worm, beaded scud, zebra midges and pink Powerworm. Best jig color for me has been the sculpin jig with an indy-orange head. I'm using two-pound line. Find the chop on the water for the best fishing. Wind helps! Baits - night crawlers are still the best bait, although Powerbaits are catching those stocker rainbows. Use two- or four-pound line. When the water is running, drift flies or bait on the bottom. Again, worms are the best, but drifting scuds is pretty good, too. Try a #12 gray scud or an egg fly, both in the trophy are and below it. Fly fishing - the trophy area still is the best place to fly fish, although you can do well below the line fishing flies under an indicator. In the mornings, fish a zebra midge under a float using 6 or 7x tippet, #16 or #18 black, red or olive midge. Fish a scud under an indicator close to the bottom. Try a #14 to #18 gray or olive scud using 6 or 7x tippet. If you're in choppy water, strip a wooly bugger, crackleback, sculpin or other medium-to-small streamer. View full article

I commented on Travis' post but figured I'd start a new one. Me, John and my grandpa Bob stayed at Phil's Friday-Monday and fished a few hours each day. The weather was amazing and overall was just a great trip. It's the first time my grandpa, who will be 83 in November, has been able to get down in a couple years. He was feeling poor and has an older vehicle. He's been drinking beet juice and taking magnesium and says it's made a major difference in his soreness, energy and overall health. Figured I'd share that for the chronologically gifted here. So, Friday morning I drove to his house in St. Louis and we headed down to Taneycomo. John and I fished for an hour Friday evening as a front was moving in. I had five fish rise on the hopper I've been tying, but they either missed or refused it at the last second. Some nice fish, too. John caught five on a 110+1 jerkbait, biggest being a 19.5" rainbow. After about 25 min of fishing, it all went kaput. We were just a little late with the timing of the front I figure. Saturday morning we fished 8-10am from Lookout to the Narrows. We caught them on 1/25-ounce black and sculpin/ginger jigs. The lighter the jig, the better. They really wanted a slow fall. Sun got high so we went in and I started making a dark roux for venison sauce piquante. It turned out amazing. My grandpa said it was the best deer dish he's ever had. And @gotmuddy I didn't forget the garlic! Saturday evening it was just bad fishing for us. That's just the way it goes at times. We caught two on a jig and decided to call it. We ate dinner and watched the Mizzou beating KU highlights. Sunday morning I took a little jaunt to the White to fish with my buddy Stephen Balogh, who owns part of the White River Trout Club. We threw big psycho ants and landed six fish in a few hours. Nothing big, but hopper eats, no matter the species or size, are the best! Sunday evening was the best fishing by far. We crushed them on 1/8-ounce black and sculpin/black jigs. There were only two units running but they seemed to want a faster fall. And color mattered big time. Had to have black in it. John threw a 110+1 jerkbait as it got later and had four fish on that were 20+ inches, but for some reason they all came off as I was about to net them. They were crushing it, he said. I didn't catch a single fish on a jerkbait this trip. First time in a long time. Now to the fun part. I love to throw hoppers for trout. I have been tying one that takes after the Hippie Stomper. I changed three materials/details about it and it seems to be the best one I've thrown on Taneycomo. Black/green and Black/purple have been the ticket. With John and my grandpa in the boat, I didn't do it a ton, but did a few drifts Sunday evening and had four eats. One was a hook-jawed 21-inch male who crushed it about 20-ft off the bank in a seam. With the water moving, all I could see was his big, white mouth coming up from the depths. Sucked it in, waited 3 seconds, and let him have it. Such an epic eat. Eats like that make me so happy I could just put the rod down and be happy for the evening. Here's how I rig/fish the hopper for anybody wondering. -6 ft of 2x to a tippet ring, then 12-14" of 3x to the fly. The tippet ring prevents the hopper from spinning, and the shorter the tippet from fly line to fly is paramount. You could easily use 8-lb and 6-lb test line as well if you're not into the tippet deal. I generally don't like tippet rings, but it sure helps throwing a hopper. -Fish it with water off and on. Shade is your friend. With the water off, point your nose downstream and use your trolling motor to cover water. Water running, nose upstream and control your position. I stay 30-40-feet off the bank. Always cast forward (downstream) so you have a longer, effective drift. -I gink it once on a drift, as I use Widow's Web for the wing and it can hold water. If it starts to sit too low, just rip a few false casts to dry it out. Hit the banks--and I mean 1-footor less from the bank. But do not neglect seams and structure off the bank (see above). Cast forward, mend, and let it ride for 10-15 sec. If I don't get an eat, I skate it a bit. Just twitch your rod tip or pull on your slack fly line to do this. Still nothing? Pick up and fire at your next spot. It's fast and furious. You are going to get bit quickly 99% of the time. Don't focus on working the hopper longer than 20-30 seconds per cast. -Make sure your loop is tight on your cast, too. You will need to bang the hopper under limbs and be as accurate as possible. A tighter loop gets you both. A tip--put your thumb on top of the handle, push down, and stop your cast at 12 o'clock. Using a heavier line and slower rod also helps. I learned both of these from Stephen over the years. This is not throwing a size 18 sulphur, which is a completely different game. -If it starts sinking, it's not the end of the world. I have had them eat it as it sinks and drags below the surface. Movement is not a bad thing at ALL with hoppers. In fact, it often triggers the eat. Hoppers are not something a lot of folks do on Taneycomo, but it's productive and fun as can be. Hopefully that helps if you want to give it a try! Phil has two dozen of my hoppers at his shop if you're down and want to try it. If you have any questions, shoot me a message.

My last day was 9/4/25. I’ve only caught 228 fish since then

Well - I think my Smallmouth season is over. It was a good one, being my first full year of fishing Ozark streams semi-consistently. I didn’t complete all my goals… No 18 incher, but I did have some really solid days on numbers. Was happy to burn a bunch of gas cash to see a ton of new beautiful country. As follows is a report from the last couple months. The first week of August I spent near Wentzville visiting family. For most of the week, I didn’t get the chance to do a lot of fishing, and rightfully so. However, I had made my plans to fish some of the Ozark streams near St. Louis, and I had cut out my last full day (First Tuesday of August) to do so. I would take 47 down to the Mineral Fork, fish it at Kingston, then cut over on 8 to the Huzzah and fish Huzzah Valley and the CA. I had one rod, and a bag of very basic tackle. Unfortunately only plastics and jigs. I woke up at 6 AM and began my heavily foggy drive, enjoying Bluegrass music and the new scenery. I got to Kingston around 7. I got there around the exact same time as an older gentleman who would also be wading. He reported that years ago, his buddy caught what would’ve been the state record Smallmouth Bass upstream around Hwy 47 bridge out of season. Seems crazy, but I was almost inclined to believe him. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about. I spent maybe an hour and a half there. I began by wading up stream through the long, shallow pool. I was looking for any little deep place with cover, and found some spots where trees provided just that. I threw my Finesse Jig and Craw over there and I felt a little tap. I set the hook and immediately saw a nice size Smallmouth dart out at me, putting slack in my line. I reeled in quick and it took me for a ride all over the place. Finally got it landed and it went for my new PB. A 16 inch Smallmouth for my first fish of the day. I continued throwing the pool and pulled out a big Sunfish and one other tiny Smallmouth. Continued downstream and fished the obvious fast moving pools with downed trees for a second, surprisingly to no fish. I didn’t fish them hard as I wanted to keep moving, but I wish I had a Spook, as that has become really one of my favorite lures for that situation. I drove over to Huzzah Valley and made arrangements to wade their property. By this time, the sun had began to really show and floaters were showing up. I was surprised by how packed it was on a Tuesday. I honestly was not impressed by the majority of water I waded. Largely shallow pools. The fish were where I thought they would be though, and I had no trouble catching 4 or 5 Smallmouth on a Nikko Hellgrammite. I spent probably an hour doing this but the floaters got a little too thick for my liking so I decided to leave and try out the Huzzah CA. I wondered if Bass River Resort would be similar. At this point, I was kinda running out of time (I didn’t have ALL day, I left so early because I had to be back by 3 or 4 to spend time with family). Huzzah CA was a really cool spot, but again, it was packed! Crazy for a Tuesday. Talked to a kid probably 5 years younger than me that worked Ozark Outdoors. He said he’s seen some people catch some quality fish. I waded right around where the Huzzah and Courtois met, and somehow, caught zero fish! I was perplexed because this WAS good looking water, the best I had seen all day. To be fair, I didn’t spend too much time at this location. Floaters came in hoards and I decided to continue. I stopped to check out Onondaga Cave park. Didn’t even get my rod out but it was pretty cool. Got home satisfied. It was a fun day. Here’s the cool part. I go home Wednesday and immediately meet up with a buddy of mine and take off south to Galena for a Thursday float on the James River. Talk about some pretty country. We got a nice cabin in Galena right on the James and were going to float with JRO from Kerr to Galena. Our place was just below the Y bridge, and we had a good time wading the property. There were truly good holes to fish and we caught tons of Tubes, Neds and Spooks. My buddy caught a 16. Just wading the property that evening, I was able to complete the black bass slam. The float itself was slightly less great, due to the mild misfortune of choosing a float day with a massive, 100+ people, family reunion. You could not escape the people, it felt like a parade at times. Because of this, we didn’t fish hard and floated fairly fast. We finished the 6 mile float in only 4 hours or so. Regardless, we all caught fish. I primarily fished my Finesse Jig and Craw and did well. I didn’t catch many, maybe 6, but was impressed with the average size of the fish on the James. Seems like every fish I caught was around 14 inches, which is by no means giant, but definitely better than the consistent 8-12 inch fish you see a lot in the Ozarks. The next day, before we headed home, we stopped and checked out Flat Creek for a little Wade fishing. First stop was at EE bridge. I waded up stream and had no trouble catching 6 Smallmouth out of one little pool in 20 minutes. All on the Ned. Biggest went for 14 inches. We drove down to Stubblefield. This place was really cool. It was also pretty busy. We waded downstream this time and Smallmouth were harder to come by, I did however, catch a TROPHY Ozark bass. I mean, it may have been 10 inches. It was incredible, but like a fool, I couldn’t take a picture because my phone had overheated baking on the gravel bar. After swimming below the water fall and inquiring with locals about their Crawdad hunt, we decided to call it and take it home. I could continue to ramble about my other journeys early in the summer on Big Sugar, the Gasconade and the Lil Niangua, or my adventure last week on the Upper Niangua and Osage Fork, but my fingers are getting tired and they’re probably not worth a report. Yep, it was a fun week.

The first "fishing trip" I remember wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. My Gpa Tom was raised north of what is now Johnson's Shut -Ins so we would go there on occasion. The men were talking going fishing and me being a 6-7 year old kid thought that we'd get our limited fishing gear at the time and enjoy a family outing. This is going back several years ,but I remember it was strange that nobody had any fishing equipment but had gigs and 22 rifles. I don't recall anyone "catching" anything but do recall one black snake that caught my attention. At that age , the snake looked like a anaconda as it was laying on a limb right above where I was supposed to follow the men on the trail . I hit the brakes only to be questioned by Grandpa as to why I was stopping. I pointed to the snake and he reached up and grabbed the snake and threw it off in the brush. I pretty much stayed in his hip pocket the rest of the day.

Like many, I can't remember my first one caught, but being with family when it happened. My dad was always buying the Fishing Facts magazine, so he was hooked and sold on nightcrawlers. I can vividly remember by uncle fishing with us though and he always out caught my dad and us. He always fished artificial lures. As a kid I couldn't understand why we didn't fish that way until I got older. Found out it was much cheaper to keep us kids fishing with worms than losing lures since we didn't really know what we were doing. That and I can remember being dragged out of bed around 5 in the morning to go fishing on the weekends. And if we hadn't caught our limit by noon, we were still out there till dark. As a kid I thought that sucked since I could see other kids out there water skiing and playing the water. We were just hot, miserable and not catching anything! It wasn't until I got older did I really get into fishing like I am now.

Surgically removed followed by radiation treatment to assure remission.

Decided to come down for the YETI Open last weekend. I dont have much experience on table rock in the fall other than one trip back in college in 2019 and the OMTT Championship in 2023. The OMTT championship is at the rock in 2026 so this is my "pre-practice" I guess. In my limited experience there had been a strong jig bite deep for smallmouth and on docks for largemouth and a decent swimbait/topwater bite. Friday we put in at Mill Creek ad started the day flipping docks. Saw some bigger ones follow the jig to the bottom on scope but only caught small keepers. Looked for fish on bait but never found it. Finished the day fishing a jig deep and catching a smallie a little over 3 lbs which may have been a small check but not worth the run back to long creek for maybe $100. Had 13-14 lbs for our best 5 but no ones big enough for a big bass event. Saturday put in at Eagle Rock as I'd never been that far up the white. Found a bunch of fish on bait and caught em. Probably 30 keepers. Again biggest 3 lbs and just not worth going and weighing. Caught a couple flipping but no bigs both bushes and docks. In the afternoon found fish on bait and threw the kitchen sink at em and literally caught 1. They would race up to the bait and not bite. Tried a swimbait, damiki, spoon, topwater. They would interact with all the baits and just not bite. Multiple big fish too. Tail between our legs put in at Mill Creek and stuck a jig in our hands all day. Dragging points and flipping docks. Caught a 2.84 smallmouth and I weighed at 10:05 which got nothing in the 10-11 slot but would've got a check in the 9-10 slot. Broke one off on a dock cable that was well over 4 probably in the 5 lb range. Disappointed in the results but definitely learned alot. I think all the rain and run off hurt my planned deep bite and I did not pivot near quick enough. I started a youtube channel the beginning of this fishing season and the like to the 3 days of fishing is below. If you like that kind of content I'd appreciate a subscription. Its free and helps me grow. I post a lake of the ozarks fishing report every week and try to have another fishing vid up every week as well and its mostly local adventures. https://youtu.be/GhX6KGIkaYA?si=o7MG6TIAFf3qQ80z

After about 6 weeks of conditions decidedly not suited to chasing wild trout, a little rain earlier in the week, a cool morning, and a day off led to me getting on a couple spring creeks today. The first creek I fished is one of the larger ones of its kind in Missouri. It has both wild trout and stocked trout in various sections, and is generally my old reliable. I started the day off in the wild trout water, and after one glance at the creek, I put away my spinning rod and got out my 3 weight. One of the more impressive mayfly hatches I've seen in Missouri was coming off, and the fish were rising like crazy. I'd love to tell you I caught trout hand over fist, but that wasn't quite true. I didn't have the right fly pattern in the box, I experienced some of what you'd have to call operational challenges, and generally did not get mixed up with Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It. Still, small, stupid trout exist, and I caught a few of them. My own struggles aside, it was lovely. I then went a few miles downstream to another access. This isn't really wild trout water, and doesn't have blue ribbon protections, but the stocked trout were still fun to catch. It still looked awfully trouty down there (see above), but naturally there were far fewer fish. I finally left when I went back to the car to get a drink of water, and an unmarked white van pulled up. We were pretty far down a real secluded Forest Service road, and it might have been just fine (people are allowed to go fishing in unmarked white vans) but it still felt like my cue to move on. Next up was a smaller creek a few miles away. As soon as I found the creek and spring that fed it (and that took some doing, as it turned out; always a great sign), I caught little rainbows more or less effortlessly on a little Panther Martin spinner. I called it a day when I caught a "good one" which on this creek was an 8 incher. Wild trout and spring fed creeks are good for the soul.

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.

All that is in love! He's a good guy, just don't tell him I said that.

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.

Dear Ham: You've told me more than once about how I earned my retirement and that I should enjoy it to the fullest. You were right. Now it's time for you to follow your own advice. You're smart enough that I do not doubt that you will. I wish you and your family the absolute very best for every day in every way. I trust you remember that we met at Jigfest # 1. I'll never forget it. Wrecked shoulder, no hat without Quillback's most welcome assistance and Fat Bastard dancing around on the deck. 🤪 Is there any way you can show up this year? Same time, same place. Your Friend, Rick

No clue. Nobody in my family likes to fish. I had to teach myself completely in the last few years. My kids (God willing) WILL be fishing. I'm sure I caught some bluegill somewhere when I was little. Fun topic.

This is probably more appropriate for the food forum,

I’ve been frustrated by trying to fly fish from my yak. I feel like I am too low to the water and I struggle to make a decent cast. I wanted a way to fly fish waters without boat ramps. Sometimes from shore is too limiting. I started looking a Stand Up Paddleboards. Of course, I always get attracted to the Belle of the Ball. In the case, BOTE. I really wanted a Bote Rackem Inflatable. I think it has the best features, but the $2200 price tag was holding me back. I stumbled across Glide boats. It had many of the same features and was 1/3 the price. Since my first experience on a hard board SUP didn’t go so well, I had more than a little concern about this idea. My reasoning was that it came with an inflatable chair and worse case scenario it becomes a hybrid “yak”. My boat came in last Friday. It came with everything you need, but I did buy a rechargeable air pump to take the work out of inflating it. Pump can be set to your desired pressure and turned on. 6 minutes later, you’re good to go. I need more than 6 minutes to get everything else ready to go. My plan was to use my Yeti cooler as a seat with a standard boat cushion on top. I would move the boat from that position and (carefully) stand up to cast if I saw a good target. I decided Monday was the day that I would take it out and I wanted to target an area that was very frustrating to try and fish on foot. after a slow rigging process (that will improve), I got on the board. Some wobbles, but I stayed dry. Fairly quickly, I was on the board on the board. First fish on the Glide. well, The wind got up and really pushed me around. I was getting blown so fast that I was spooking fish as soon as I would spot them. I did manage to hook one Black Buffalo on fly, but I was using an 8 foot 5 weight and the fish was behind me when everything came tight. I lost it too quickly. Frustrated in that spot, I fought the wind for 45 minutes to get back to my launch site. I loaded up and moved to a less windy spot. Things came Back together much more quickly this time. I foolishly failed to spray on deet. The mosquitos waited until I pushed off and then swarmed me. If they had bit me at the truck I would have sprayed up. I will coat myself no matter what next time. Between swatting mosquitos and watching time fly by, I did manage to get a good take from a Bowfin. Nice strip set and then a long sleigh ride. I wore that sucker down before I attempted to net that fish. Really nice fight. I had survived my first encounter with a strong fish. I stayed dry and everything. I felt a lot more stable at the end of the day than I had at first. I think I will continue to improve. I have to work out some more details, but It was much nicer for the fly fisherman. Less line tangles. Better casting etc. I think this is gonna work out.

And here was an orange Crappie": And an orange Bowfin: Orange gar: trout: Disclaimer: None of the above photos are mine... I found them on the web.

Was at Buccee’s last night and saw a coffee mug/water bowl set. The mug said “I’m a dog person” and the water bowls said “I’m a people dog”. This however is a dog that thinks she’s a person. Side note. That’s a tiny creek. Crystal clear water even if there is more dry stream bed as there is water right now. But it holds the most beautiful spotted bass that I have ever seen. Always has. Not a place worth fishing but I saw a couple of them today and they are gorgeous. Looks like we have identified the next photography target.

I took this iPhone shot last night of my favorite human.

Randy I did, but really didn’t need to. She also caught several really nice K’s and I caught a beautiful 22” walleye. It was his lucky day as we were just after the gills and I won’t freeze fish. Next man up can catch him. Or, maybe her. No LiveScope required. Table Rock Bass Report 9-17-25 Surface temp 80 degree 3’ visibility in the Shell Knob area On another note while we were on the gills, good buddy was just hammering the bass. He had over 60 with 20 keeps. No monsters best 5 14 pounds I went and checked out his spot this morning and he was not blowing smoke, it was a total slugfest. Hooked one on top and it spit a shad forward. Fish came off and grabbed the shad on the way back down. I’ve never had that happen. I’ve had others grab it but never the one I had hooked. I about fell out of the boat laughing. That fish was HUNGRY. Caught this short walleye on a spoon but another crazy deal. There were fish chasing on top in 50’. I saw a bust and heaved the Dixie Jet jigging spoon at the circle. It didn’t drop a foot and a fish hammered it. You guessed it, it was this 16” walleye. I’m pretty sure it was lost or just trying to get a tan. They’re biting guys.

We recently like in a couple weeks ago made a fishing trip west.(Need to report on that) Of course we camped and take all the food we can fresh and frozen. I have been told and heard these things work very well. We bit the bullet and bought a 30 quart version. Can do down to -8 on up to well above freezing. Use for a fresh food fridge or freezer. This we bought for 100 bucks less than a yes Yeti 45 quart cooler. We got that cooler several years ago for a good price. Still like it and will keep using it at times. This 12 volt cooler will hold more stuff because you don't have to use ice in the available space. Very little draw. Has a cable for 120 volt use and a cigarette lighter adapter. We have a 120 plug in our truck plus we are on the lithium battery bandwagon. Two in the truck camper parallel and an extra for trolling motor we also use in the back seat of the truck next to the cooler when truck not running. It didn't matter what temperature we set it at it doesn't deviate a couple of degrees. Starts cooling fast in mere minutes. This unit ran constantly for over two weeks. I know a person wants ice for drinks. No problem had some covered ice cube trays for covering that. To another deal. Some of you with campers know about three way fridge/ freezers. We have one in the pickup camper. We drove through some hot temperatures. The camper fridge struggled and even when stopped overnight it struggled to catch back up for what it lost traveling. We are seriously considering eventually taking it out and getting another one of these. Dedicating one for fresh and one for frozen stuff. Note for more money you can get one unit dual zone for both fresh and frozen. Bigger unit. I would rather have two smaller ones for moving around. Since we live rural we used reusable ice packs when going to the store. No more this goes with us.

I have not been bored one minute. I stayed busy and when Pat retired it got double busy.

I abused the dopey Rainbows. It was oddly easy. I’m pretty sure that’s the most Rainbows in a day on fly rod for me. Dave absolutely knocked it put of the park for species and good size on top of that. The two carp were really impressive. He did a great job getting the eats and a perfect job fighting those fish. Well Done!

I sincerely Hope that I am never bored nor depressed. I’m (so far) staying pretty busy and I have so much more fishing that I want to do than I have time for. already, I can feel myself relaxing and taking more time with a project because I have MORE time to get things done. as it cools off a little and becomes more comfortable to be in the boat barn, I really want to go through and organize my fishing gear. I know I have too much. Like waaaaaay too much. Maybe by realizing how silly I was to buy so much stuff before, I will buy less going forward. I will give some stuff away. Sell some stuff. And hopefully use some stuff up. One idea I have is to have some grab and go bags. Trying to have stuff ready to go without the mad scramble the day before a trip. For example: My Ned stuff would be gathered and enough in a bag to run to the creek. A bag for 4 inch ochos and squirrel heads ready to go to the lake. A bag of zoom super flukes and the hooks that I like for them. a bowfin bag. A catfish/ sucker bag. then there is the fly fishing stuff to work through. Every time I tie. I get organized a little bet so that less time is spend looking and setting up. I don’t have a full time designated area to tie and probably won’t ever. I want to have a tote of all the fly related stuff. When I tie something that I know I like, I will often tie up more than I plan to take with me on any given trip. I’d like a tote to put ziplocks of completed flys in so I can restock quickly. Heck, I could put smaller ziplocks into gallon bags. A trout bag, panfish bag, bowfin bag, etc. I have a bunch of 3600’s and 3700’s. I can spend some winter days sorting through those. A keep pile and a go away pile. Then organize the sorted boxes in a yet to be fully thought out way that lets me find what I am looking for more quickly. I am trying to fish about three days a week. It might be a little more at times and maybe a little less at times. Fishing 175 days a year seems about right. A part time fisherman as it were. I am catching up on home projects and getting more into meal prep and cooking. I have books to read, playlist to make, and podcasts to listen to. It’s been really Fun so far.

I know your feelings. So does my wife. By 2000, I disliked being a professional $$$hole. Same year, wife became tired of superiors who did not know what they were doing and were killing the company for whom they worked. (BTW, they were successful. The company filed for bankruptcy less than a year after she left.) That is when we decided to run away to Arkansas. To explain the state I had reached, I found eighth graders easier to deal with than lawyers.