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My heart just has not been into it the last three years. I still buy a archery license and go. Never been a trophy hunter going for meat. In the 48 years bowhunting I have taken some good ones but never took it to the limit hunters do now. I finally got the urge and Pat and I did some trail prepping and even put up another stand yesterday. I was going to start this evening but got short stopped. We got up early and ate breakfast and had coffee. I took my plate to the kitchen and Pat said the buck she seen yesterday was behind the house again. She says get your crossbow cocked. I laughed watching him nose into the air traveling with a purpose looking for a girlfriend. Deer have been going nuts here for over a week. No way he's going to stop. Well he did taking a break eating locust pods. It's like candy for deer. I got the bow and cranked it up, put the arrow on the rail. Window open I pushed the chair out of the way while the buck munched away. I guessed 35 yards a let one fly. In an instant I seen it hit the spot. Off he bolted. We started laughing out loud until tears rolled. This is my first one out the window, Pat shot a doe out the bedroom window that was eating crabapples once. We had not even been outside yet. Shoes and boots on. A very short blood trail like in less than 40 yards. It even died in the trail we mowed. LoL, My blind 🤣. Where the deer was, Where it ended up, Getting ready to grill the tenderloins.

Pat and I hit our favorite pond today. After three Windy warm days the wind gave up some but changed to out of the north eastern direction. Not a good fishing direction IMO but we went anyway. Walking the bank we fancasted covering water from each spot we tried leapfrogging each other. While we each caught lots of fish Pat caught way more and with the biggest bass. I caught the two biggest crappie and bluegill. We both used the same basic fly. The rust colored Grinch bug. We wore hip boots and walked out a few feet to knee deep. This let us cast to the drop offs on the pond although we caught fish from a foot deep to six feet. We kept five bass and two crappie. The two smaller bass and crappie were sprinkled with Old Bay and sauteed in butter. Reminded me of boiled butter shrimp. Pat's biggest bass we did not weigh but I'm thinking 3.5 to 4 pounds. Nothing as pretty to me than a hip boosted gal working a fly rod. VID_20251119_122231762.mp4

Started at Roundhouse Shoals on Saturday morning around 8AM....I fished an area less than 200 yards long and had 14 rainbows & 1 very small brown (7 or 8 inches long). The biggest rainbow at Roundhouse 14 inches. Moved up to the Cotter walk in access and caught my personal best rainbow 17/18 incher. 18 fish total between both locations. Needless to say, it was an amazing day on the White River. All fish were caught on an olive green Wooly Bugger.

Now that the weather has cooled off, I like to get out now and then and walk the bank and fish. With the water level at 1120 there are miles of bank around the lower lake you can walk and fish. No boat to tow and mess with, just need one rod and some ned baits. I banked a couple of keeper sized smallies on the ned and had a couple get off. They were off the bank a bit in 15 FOW or so. Hard fighters on the light rod. Pulling drag and jumping. Should get better as things get colder.

Enjoyable day out on the water yesterday chasing some bronze against a backdrop of burnished amber and gold. Didn’t catch a lot of fish, but enough to keep things interesting. My buddies new drifter is super sweet.

Waded at the C&R area this morning and had a good morning. Lots of guide boats up there the last few days as they are getting their licks in before the area closes for 3 months for the brown trout spawn starting Nov 1. I have been seeing some redds with rainbows active on them, but no browns yet. Best flies today were a tandem egg rig and then a single grey scud in size 16. Here are the 2 best ones from this morning.

With the BS Dam area closed until Feb 1, I have been fishing both the Cotter and Rim Shoals accesses this week. The good news is there are still plenty of fish to be caught. I would say it is currently as good as it was before the hatchery problems, so the C&R regulations appear to be working. I have noticed a reduction in the number of bait guides out, but the usual number of fly-fishing guides. Best flies for me this week have been cracklebacks, eggs and midges. I did see the Jim Hinkle stocking truck dumping some fish at the Cotter boat ramp when I left this morning. Here is a decent brown that took a crackleback at Cotter this morning.

Me and the wifey made it over to Hochatown for a date night, and i got a little fishing in this afternoon. Super windy, but managed to catch a few on black and olive woolly buggers. Got one little guy on a crackleback after reading some of netboy’s White River reports.😁👍

SWPA is finally giving us some minimum flows which leads to some great wading opportunities. I fished Rim Shoals yesterday morning and had a good day. I walked down the new trail to an area with some shallow shoal water. Ended the morning with lots of rainbows, a couple browns and 1 small cuttie. I hooked a really nice rainbow that looked to be around the 20" mark but lost him to a pulled hook after a good fight. Best flies were a purple crackleback, eggs and scuds. Here's a couple of the better ones.

I made a long overdue visit to the Billethead Compound on Thursday. Of course, I try to do too much in too little time. It’s not my best quality. It’s super fun to roam the grounds and try to count all the beehives, see all the amazing toys that I didn’t know where there, and remind myself about stuff I had forgotten about. After a little bit, Marty and I hopped into his ride and went to a pond that has (had?) a good population of bullhead. Maybe Yellow Bullhead? Maybe Black Bullhead? We have to catch one to find out. I had my fingers crossed for a Black, but I just had to roll the dice. It’s a Fun drive through the farmland. The terrain is so different from my stomping grounds. Watching for all kinds of predators and prey scampering around. These ponds are kept for irrigation of crops and livestock. The fish populations are often Happy accidents. Because Marty is a Good neighbor and all around good guy, he has access to many of the ponds around him. Over the years, he’s gotten dialed in on many of them. The first pond we went to was a little low. This was good, the fish would be super concentrated. I don’t think Marty had fished this one very much. We started out on the deepest side and kind of leap frogged along. I was using my TFO 8’ “5 weight”. I started with a 1/32 oz zig jig, but switched to a size 10 black pistol Pete. I felt like the jig was too heavy and I wanted the prop to put out some flash and vibration. With the water being cooler, the bites were a little delicate. The fly needed to be moving slowly and very close to bottom. I caught quite a few green sunfish or green sunfish hybrids. we gave it a good shot, but no bullhead wanted to play. So, Marty got on the horn and made sure we were ok to go play at another pond. The next pond was larger. The level was also lower than full, but it still had plenty of water. Marty was happy that the water was more clear than dingy. I went with my 6 weight rod because we were more exposed to the wind. I tried a gold /chartreuse micro jig for a few casts, but I wasn’t feeling it. Marty rigs up and catches a beautiful Black crappie that would have been perfect keeper size. Like 12 inches. Then he catches a chunky Largemouth. Like 14 inches. (I’m trying to tie on a different fly which is made more difficult by him catching fish after fish after fish). He got a couple more crappie before moving along a bit. I had put on a size 8 Chartreuse/White craft fur Clouser. This little guy catches everything and crappie really seem to like it. I adjusted my retrieve to try to mirror what Marty was doing..beautiful sunny day with geese flying. The sounds of livestock were carried on the wind. Hawks worked the thermals. Good day to be fishing, but I really wanted a bite. I gave it a good try, but I had to switch to a different fly. I tried Marty’s Tutti Fruity Wooly Bugger. Some panfish were eating bugs coming off on the surface. Obviously there were bass and crappie. Something had to eat it right. Ehhh no. Marty moved around catching a fish every now and then. I moved around catching nothing. I felt a little better that Marty wasn’t catching them every cast while I caught nothing. I couldn’t believe I could not get a crappie on a baitfish fly or any sort. I was starting to get short on time. I decided to focus on catching a bass. I put on a Pearl Sparkle Minnow. I played around with retrieves and a small bass rushed in and ate at my feet. I didn’t catch that one, but that was a start. I eventually dialed in and caught a chunky one. Marty found a group of fish in the other side of the pond and was stroking them. I ended up catching a half dozen bass. We headed back and said our Goodbye’s. I got sent home with bbq sauce, honey, and a sourdough starter. Then the long drive home. I got home, had a sandwich, and hit the sack. It was a Good day. Thanks @BilletHead It was a Good Day!

Took advantage of the nice warm Sunday afternoon to do some numbers fishing. Went to a local lake and spillway. We started up at the lake throwing Mepps spinners for pickerel. Spent twenty to thirty mins and no bites or follows. Went down to the spillway.for some sunfish fun. Switched to trout magnet jigs and fished pieces of red worm. Livie was up six bluegill by the time I put away the net and pickerel rod and got started on the sunfish slayfest. It was Livie 14 bluegill to my 9 and I caught a redear sunfish. Then a small largemouth. I got two more readear and another small bass. Livie caught a redear as well. We ended up with thirty bluegill each before we left for home. Can't beat a quick successful Sunday sunfish fishing trip😉😁

I'd originally planned to go camping and fishing on the Current River today and tomorrow, but life just kept getting progressively more in the way, and by this morning, my timeline had been compressed to the point where it was pretty much going to be a quick trip to Maramec Springs or nothing. I'll admit, I was originally quite disappointed...but then I got there and remembered how gorgeous this place was and how nice it could be if you didn't take the fishing too seriously. With the fall colors pretty much at their peak and the weather perfect, you just could not ask for a prettier backdrop. And yes, I did manage to catch a couple fish too. What started off as something I had expected to be a disappointing outing ended up being a great few hours.

The wife and I got a chance to get away again, so we bolted to Hochatown. Had a fun day on the river and caught 10 or so. This one chose the iron lotus over the prince nymph on a double nymph rig. Actually got to wet wade today… in November.😎

Fished 7 to 12 today with Phil Stone. Good guy, good guide. First we established the Rockcrawler bite was not happening. Next we fished a long gravel run out in Long Creek. 20 plus fish on a 7/16 pumpkin jig with a crawdad style trailer. A very slow, scrub the bottom retrieve was the ticket. Caught another two or three on a gravel flat, then brought it in. Nothing large, but a great outing. Thanks Phil.

Doesn't seem like November out there, mid 70's when I left the lot around 1:30. Water temp is hanging in there at 64. Good day to fish, but not a lot of catching, I caught a little over 20 bass. 4 were keepers. They are biting the ned on chunky rock banks in 15-25 FOW. I did catch one on the Plopper, and a couple on swimbaits. Almost all spots except for a couple of sub-legal smallies. Lots of boats out there today, quite a few with power poles which usually indicates a tourney on the weekend.

It's been a while that I took this trip (Oct 19th) but too busy to post after I got back. I went up to NJ to fish with Mark and his friend Steve, another life lister from NC. We were going to fish the Passaic River for Northern Pike. This river gets stocked with young pike and does have some natural reproduction. I haven't caught a pike and was excited of the prospect in landing my first. There was also discussion about some lifer shiners and maybe some night fishing as well. The objective was to try for pike with lures and them switch to bait, i.e., creek chubs, fallfish, etc., if needed. I left the house just after 6 am to meet with Mark and Steve by 9:30. I had inline spinners with swim baits, big Mepps spinners, Whopper ploppers, super flukes, etc. for these pike. I had my tanagos, UL rod, worms, etc. for the micros. I started fishing the big bladed inline spinner with a white paddletail swimbait. I tossed it behind, in front, along, deadfalls, brushpiles, drop offs, etc. I had one small tug on the tail by a small bass or sunfish. I switched to the whopper plopper and again fished all around the cover. Still no bites. Put on the #5 Mepps and again no bites or follows. After a few hours of this we put on the live bait. I had on a 4-5 inch creek chub and tossed it up into the back end of a brushpile that I thought I spooked a fish on my first cast in the morning. As the bait drifted I got a strong hit. I gave it some time and then set the hook to nothing😒. The bait was still lively and did not have any teeth marks. Seemed like a bass hit it. I tossed it back out and let it drift in the current. Didn't take long and the bait started moving back upstream and in a circle. Set the hook again and landed a decent bass. The bait had a little life left and I caught a smaller bass. We soaked baits for another hour or so hitting more of the cover. While we soaked baits Mark was catching crappie after crappie on a white marabou/flashabou jig under a float. I couldn't take it anymore and took his rod. My first fish on my first cast wasn't a crappie, but a decent bluegill. I caught another bluegill then it was onto crappie. I stopped fishing for them after landing a dozen. If the river was not contaminated these guys would have made a nice fish fry. Then again if folks kept all of the them we wouldn't have caught them one after another 😉 It was now 3 pm. We left the Passaic. After a 45 min drive we had lunch and then drove another ten mins to fish for the shiners. This spot has both ironcolor and bridle shiners. Both would be lifers for me. Steve needed just the bridle for his life list. As I was getting my microrod out of the car and baited, Steve found an active school and landed his bridle shiner on the first drop. Mark mentioned that the bridles are a vulnerable species since the are losing habitat across the state. He mentioned that I should not be satisfied catching the more common ironcolor and try for the bridles. After catching his bridle, Steve was done fishing. No need to just catch numbers if they weren't going to contribute to his lifelist. I saw fish and caught my first fish. It turned out to be a bridle! As I was taking photos Mark foul hooked a bridle and landed an ironcolor using's Steve 8 ft extendable tenkara rod. I could see the groups of fish that Steve and Mark were fishing but could not reach them with my 6 ft Airstream rod. I took over fishing with the tenkara rod. I was in the zone. I caught one fish after another. The big difference between the two species is the ironolor shiner has a darker lateral line stripe that extends to the front of the face and lips of the fish. The bridle has a white chin and lower lip. The problem was that I could tell that they were bridle shiners only. Mark was playing the guide. Each fish I would pass back to him to remove the hook, id and release the fish😉😁. Afer catching 19 bridle shiners, I found a small group of four or five darker fish. They were not as aggressive as the bridles. While trying to get one to bite the wind would gust and I would lose sight of the group or they would move off the sand patch. I did finally get one to bite and it was my lifer ironcolor shiner! Here you can see into its mouth and see the black lips. After catching that fish we headed another 50 mins to get a Steve a slimy sculpin. I went along to try for longnose dace. Mark helped my by headlamping a much bigger are with his lamp (1080 lumens) than I could with mine (325 lumens). Longnose dace live in the current. We targeted the tail water just below the riffles at the head of the pools. It took me ten to fifteen minutes to position a bait right in front of the first dace. He bit and I lifted him out of the water and lost it. I tried for a couple more. One dace I just couldn't get the bait in front of it before it moved on and the other was another lift and loss. I did catch one Eastern blacknose dace but no photo. I caught two of the four targets for the trip. I pulled into the house just after midnight, tired but satisfied!

I waded at the dam C&R area today after the water went down and had a good afternoon. Caught lots of rainbows, a nice cuttie, a few brookies and one tiger, so I guess that would be considered a slam as the tiger is part brown. Best flies were eggs and scuds. I hooked this nice rainbow in some fast water and had to chase him about 50 yards downstream to find some calm water to get him in the net. Tomorrow is the last day to fish up there as it will be closed until Feb 1 for the brown trout spawn. Here's some pics...

If it’s OK with you guys, we’re gonna go ahead and design the shirts and put our logo on it as a sponsor and then give the shirts away to you guys. No charge. Let me know if that’s OK.

Beaver Tailwater 2025 Sampling The Trout Management Program recently completed the annual sample of Beaver Tailwater. The 2025 sample was comprised of 43% Brown Trout, 54% Rainbow Trout, and a large (16 inch) Cutthroat Trout, a fish accidentally stocked by the Norfork National Fish Hatchery. The largest trout collected was a 30-inch, 15-pound Brown Trout! Several large Rainbows were also collected, with the largest measuring 19 inches. Visit our website for more information about fishing Beaver Tailwater. Large Beaver Tailwater Brown Trout A beautiful Beaver Tailwater Rainbow Trout! Cutthroat Trout Brown Trout

Took a friend down to Rim this morning and we had a good day. Fish were a bit picky, but we ended up with some nice ones. Lots of rainbows and a few browns. He caught his Personal Best brown on an orange slush egg. Eggs and midges worked best today. Here is his best one.

My grandson got a new drone yesterday and did some filming. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FGmAVnPLA/

We could donate to CAM. Home | CAM - Taney County

And I caught what I was after.... Hybrid Striped Bass! Those dudes are STRONG! Every one seemed to fight the same way. I'd feel the pressure, like I'd snagged something. It wouldn't move. Then I'd notice it was moving slowing, so then I'd set the hook harder, and the fish would take off on a blistering run straight downstream, although one or two ran upstream. Then they'd park in the middle of the fastest water, and just sit there. I'd put a LOT of pressure on them with a 9 wt fly rod, with 12 lb tippet, and still often couldn't move them. But, I'd persist, and put even more pressure on them, and eventually get them to move. Then they do some shorter runs, and eventually I'd get them to the net and land them. Pretty cool stuff! I caught some on Clouser Minnows and variants, and some flyrod jigs I'd tied up. I landed 11 of them, including a new PB Hybrid Striped Bass... 25"! The 3 pics above are all of the 25-incher. Below are some of the others.

Hope this worked. Thanks for the tip Quil!

I have fished several mornings this November and the deep bite is pretty good. I normally keep the boat in 30-60 FOW and the best baits have been a 2.75 Damiki style bait and a 2.8 Keitech. I look for areas with trees and shad. The fish do not seem to be interested in a spoon or ice jig, but the water temperature probably needs to drop several degrees (currently 60-62). Right at daylight, the main activity is near the surface (3-15ft down) and once the sun gets high the bite is closer to the bottom. The fish suspended halfway down the water column are tough to catch because they do not seem to be interested in feeding. The Damiki and Keitech can both be worked horizontal and vertical, one of my best trips involved jigging the Keitech with 3/8oz jig head in 30-40ft where large schools were postured near the bottom. Drop speed can be the ticket that triggers bites, so I use jig heads in 3/8 to 5/8 range. There is an abundance of 8-13" fish so that looks good for the future keeper stock. Most trips produce a high percentage of K's but this morning included a few good LM.

Got on the water early, very little wind, a little chilly to start, around 50 degrees. Did some bank beating to start, threw a Rock Crawler, dragged a jig - caught 4 smallmouth, one was a keeper. Decided to go up Indian, but on the way there saw some stripers breaking and ended up pursuing them. They were all around, but finicky. Got one that went around 8 lbs. on a 3.3 Keitech, had one other on briefly. There were a few smallmouth that were near the stripers except closer to the bank, and I also caught 4 more of them, 3 were keepers. The stripers were chasing small shad, I did not have anything to match those little one inch shad and they were ignoring anything else I threw at them. I might go back for them this weekend and I'll be a little better prepared - small spoons ought to work. Might bring some marabou jigs too. WT 62-64

I do use livescope, but 2D is excellent option for deep fall/winter fishing. I started to take a 2D picture this morning to prove the point....here is the scoop. I normally go to spots where I keep my boat in a 1 or 2 acre boundary. I will move around and eventually almost every 'deep' fish in the area will be seen under the boat because they are also attracted to boat. The fish near the surface are chasing shad so I see those without the need for any graph. If your in an area with lots of fish you have a better chance of triggering a bite fishing vertical under the boat because fish like to be triggered with up/down bait movement and a group of fish will react to aggressive vertical jigging and one of those fish will normally grab the bait. This morning I was probably around a few hundred fish. If you want to fish deep in the fall/winter and you have 2D, then consider thinking about the spawn. From November thru March, the deep fish will setup in areas that are tailored made for staging for the spawn.....just keep in mind you need food, trees, and spawning habitat.

I couldn't not see anything wirh the naked eye. This was what my phone produced.

I hope you are able to read this article regarding one of the 14 cemeteries throughout Europe that hold the remains of US soldiers killed in WWII. It's amazing the gratitude the locals have, even 80 years later. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/opinion/veterans-day-world-war-ii.html I mentioned before that on our trip to Normandy last summer it was really moving to see the remembrances, and there were as many US flags and French around Utah and Omaha beaches. They truly appreciate what the Allies did for them. Let me know if you can't get to the article and I'll try to cut/paste some of it.

We went on a river cruise on the Seine River from Paris to Normandy a few years ago during the Veteran's Day holiday. We visited the Normandy American Cemetery, and it was pretty impressive and moving to imagine the bravery of our troops. Also visited the Omaha beach landing site and the WW2 Museum in Caen. I would recommend this trip to anyone interested in the history of WW2. Here's a few pics... One is from the inside of a Nazi bunker at Omaha beach.

Ahhh but we aren't done yet. Eating those tenderloins on the back porch with the gut pile in the background. Pat made some mushroom sauce from some of the hen of the woods we found. Life really is good in BilletHeadVille.

I will say that I feel that I got the short end on this deal. Instead of sending me to a conference in Okinawa Japan (where I could have fished for lifers), I got to participate in this webinar🤔🙄. This gives you some insight as to what I do for a living. At least you get to see me with a coat and tie😂😉. I'm at 27:10

Nothing crazy to report. Its been a bit since I've been out. 11" and 13" Crappie. And a couple walleye 20" and 21". Just pulling cranks. Water Temp 55. They were all in 16ft or less. Trolled in the 20ft range and never had a bite

10 years ago today, I was diagnosed with the cancer. One little hiccup this year in Sept, new sore popped up behind the graft on tongue. CT and biopsy was all clear, no cancer cells. Happy Halloween!

A friend of mine works in bull shoals dam as an electrical engineer. The generators are one off built, and every part has to be made. bull shoals has a machine shop. When the generators needed rebuilt, they have to be hand wound.

Nice smallies. I got out yesterday, last trip for the year. Put in at prairie Creek. Found them schooled up on main lake structure. Spot locked and got about 30. Mix of smaller striper, LM and spots. Didn't move the boat. Here was the graph. Fun day

That'd be great. Donate to my polar plunge in January!

Hey Cody, well I spoke with @Phil Lilley and @WoundedOne a bit yesterday. I am kicking it around, if the weather is too bad for me I can hang at the lodge? @Terrierman and I are pretty efficient eating pizza and watching football if it is cold and rainy....

Neighbor and I launched at Viola at 0700 to surface temps of 61 degrees. Found but a smattering of shad and less than a smattering of fish. We basically couldn’t catch a cold in an Elementary School. Fished the Kings till 11 am and ended with less than a dozen with one solid keep. All out of piles. Where in the Beggebers 10 million shad went I have no idea. He had to go in and I was not about taking defeat lightly so I relaunched at H. Took about an hour but I lucked into the mama load of pig K’s. Just wolf pack after wolf pack. Top of the water column right under shad schools. Yep I found the buffet and it was open. Don’t know that I had over 1/2 dozen shorts and to many keeps to count without a clicker. 1/2 oz. Dixie Jet and 2.8” Keitech did the deed. Biggest at a modest 2.29 but action was Smokin Hot. Thumb took a real beating. Surface temps at Baxter to Campbell Pt. 63.5.

First, I have not been out. Going tomorrow but from what I’m hearing from folks that are out everyday there are several good ways to capture them. Most reports on surface temps in the mid to upper White River are running from lows of 63 to highs of 67 degrees. The lake is so full of forage ie shad its incredible. Flutter spoon, jigging spoon, 2.8” Keitech and of course the dreaded jighead minnow for the deep fish. Dock totally nailed it in his report. There is bait in the main lake and also at the mouth of the major creeks. The shad have not moved into the backs of the creek guts yet. Dock nailed it with his pre and post spawn locations along with the channels. Crappie fishing seems to be very good around docks and over the tops of piles. Eric Olliverson is pounding them along with bass. That dude has been on them all year. Lots of happy clients. Neighbor is just hammering the bass up the King’s near the surface early and then 30’ on the big run outs. His best bait by far has been a spin bait early or the white 1/2 oz. Dixie Jet jigging spoon later or just to throw at chasers. Last year the guides at the dam were using a Berkley Finisher. It was the first strong year here for that bait. From what I’m hearing they are on it again. I’ll try it tomorrow if I get out. I just totally hammered them at Eagle Rock last Winter on this bait. It’s bad the bone. My neighbor is extremely conservative on his fish counts and he is catching 50 plus a morning from 7 till noon. Mostly K’s. There is however a jig bite shallow if you want to go that route. On the jig he has been catching LM not big but solid 2 plus pounders. He is like me and prefers looking at them so he is staying out off the bank with the deep junk. Hope to have a first hand report soon.

Susie and I left out Thursday morning for our annual opening of the winter C&R trout park fishing. We started with a quick stop at Maramec Springs figuring we'd take a quick stroll thru the park to check if they had stocked . The lady collecting at the front gate said they hadn't stocked since the derby which would have been the last Saturday in October. Not sure if she was accurate as that meant people fished the last 6 days of October with nothing stocked. So off to Bennett Springs to check their water and fish stocked. We went to zone 1 across form the rest room and saw tons of fish. And it would take 2000 fish to weigh that ton. We headed down to zone 2 and didn't see as many in our short walk there. Our next stop and planned first day of fishing Friday was Roaring River. Again we saw lots of fish but we also saw a half a dozen " lunkers". We started in the deep pool with the two outlets we call the "Twin Falls " Friday morning and it was pretty much non stop for the first couple hours or so. Did manage to catch one during that morning rush that would have weighed in the 3.5# range. Saw some old friends and visited almost as much as we fished for a while. Back to fishing and it was getting mid afternoon and finally connected on a 6.5-7# rainbow on a size 18 peach fur bug. Fish fought well and swam away after some reviving . We were meeting the youngest daughter and her family in Branson so we headed East to meet the kids. Fishing was on hold Saturday with shopping and a not so wonderful trip to SDC. There was way to many people which we expected ahead of time but our daughter and husband could only get off on the weekend. After breakfast on Sunday, we headed back East to Bennett. All those little fish were still swimming and still hungry so we pounded them for several hours. Most were in the 10-12" range with most on the smaller size. Susie did see a couple fish see figured were 17-18'. We left after catching all we wanted to catch and drove to Salem to finish our trip at Montauk. We got a late start as my fishing buddy was tired and didn't get started till 09:30. We started in the campground and again caught stockers in the size stocked at Bennett and Roaring. As we got down near the 200 campsites we started picking up a few 13-14" fish. I did misfire on a 20" rainbow and saw another brown trout near that size. It was a lot of driving and I wished we had found better sized fish but that's the "state of our state trout parks". The water was clear and the weather was beautiful and the fish fought hard for the most part on the little 6'6" 3 weights we were using. And there was the bonus of those 2 big fish at Roaring.

Thought that this is appropriate 😉

Tied up some of these: Caught one of these: And one of these: And 19 of these!

Not wanting to fish early with the first frost of the year, I did not launch until almost 10 AM. Fished until 5 PM. Had to work to catch 10 bass, 3 of which were better than 15". Never found any consistent pattern, fished the Ned rig and a Rock Crawler and picked up a bite every now and then. Most of the fish came on the Ned. Had one keeper smallie on the Crawler and had another hard puller on it that came off. Biggest fish was a 3.25, 18 inch smallie. Had a heckuva fight from that fish. Hooked it on a Ned reg, near the bank back in a cove where there quite a few submerged trees. From the get-go that fish pulled hard, never jumped so I had no idea what I had on, it took me from the front of the boat to the back and then got caught on a tree. I gave that fish slack a few times and it would pull a couple of feet of line and then stop. Finally, it was just stuck, did not know if the fish was still on and thinking it was a goner, I took the boat to the other side of the tree and darned if that fish was not only still on, but if came off the tree. It still had some fight, ran under the boat, pulled drag, and all that, but it finally tired and I netted it. Glad it stayed on as if it had broken off on that tree, I would have not known what species it was and it would've bugged me all day. That smallie had a craw claw sticking out of its throat that looked to be at least 2 inches long. It was a big craw. One of the biggest I have seen in a bass throat. WT 67.

Always a fun trip with you rps!! Here are some pics from today, see you next time Randy!

Growing up with parents who didn't fish, I was a recipient of the opportunity to fish for trout. There are many who get to experience the option to catch trout in those ponds. Many city folks dont have quality transportation to leave their 1 county area, much less travel within 5 counties. Side note, St Louis City is not within any county. While the expenses are tough to justify especially when you are not on the receiving end, I can tell you from personal experience it is a great positive to the residents who fish. You may have heard all of the negative about the bucket brigade, and I won't try to act like it doesn't exist. But there are many many more who do adhere to the laws. Them same city people buy licenses and trout stamps for the same price as the country people. I would tend to believe the country people benefit more per dollar spent as they have more options than ~20 or so stocked ponds within area of city residents. Truth be told most fish less than 5 ponds. Luckily for me, I found this forum. Honestly. I've learned much more and had many more experiences, and new waters that I would never considered. All for the same cost as the limited city kid who modifies his bike to hold 2 rods and carries his takle box on the handlebars to ride 2-3 miles to the nearest pond in December.

89) Hybrid Striped Bass I had been told there was a chance for a hybrids there and then I had HOT intell that they were there and catchable. I got the Buffalo. I got the Silver carp. I tried for other Buffalo and a Bighead Carp for a while. As my time quickly disappeared, I had to go try for a Wiper. I went downstream to my target area and missed a take on my second cast. I was looking at the area and trying to make sure I covered all the prime spots. . I lost my fly and tied on some big goofy articulated sparkle minnows that I had bought. a few casts in with that one I got a big tug and the fight was on. I played the fish carefully and soon saw that I had a Wiper! I played it down and worked it close and as I reached for the net, it flopped and came off. I was so bummed out. I took a minute and checked my leader and the hooks. It was all good and I just had to hope that I would get another bite. I did. I ended up catching three and missing a few other takes. Big Fun!