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A group of us had our 11th annual trip to the Niangua river to fish, have bonfires and eat like Ozark kings (fish fries and the like). The river is in great shape and fished well. Spin fishing was good with crawdad crankbaits. Fly fishing was fantastic with leeches and pheasant tail nymphs. But there is some wierd stuff going on. Good wierd stuff. Rising fish. Not occassional risers but fish that are systematically taking mayflies, caddis and midges off of the surface throughout the day. I fished a size 18 crackleback all afternoon on friday and had 6 fish (most 15 inches or larger) and multiple other missed strikes (cuz i suk). It was fantastic. I've fished the river a long time and haven't seen sustained rising before. Has anyone? A few of the victims

Thanks Dave. We just had a very fortunate and blessed day on the water. We've all had those days where nothing can absolutely go right and then there are those that go almost perfect. My partner likes to fish the state park area. We did start the tournament there with out a bite. I did hear that some had good luck in the discolor water. We did make a little run to water I'm a little more familiar with. We were fishing out of his boat and he wanted me to run the trolling motor because he didn't know the area. I was hoping for a nice relaxing day from the back of the boat. I know that some will want more specific details. I will give as much as I can, but my partner has the CPA this weekend at TR. The fish came in about 20' of water. They were all caught on a bait like a jig, or worm that was in contact with the bottom. The first cast my partner made he caught the five pounder. His 7.02 was the fourth keeper of the day. He ended up kicking their teeth in from the back of the boat. I told him keep catching them I will set here eat my potato chips, drink a Pepsi and net your fish. Some people try to out fish each other even in a team tournament. I could careless who put the five in the boat. We ended up catching 9 keepers in total. We didn't catch a lot of fish total maybe 20. I am a spot fisherman. I might fish just a rock, stump, ledge, one log etc. I can't hardly make myself just start going down a bank casting. I figure if I have several little "confident" spots and hit most I have better chance than spending time going down a whole bank. You have to understand that I have spent hours upon hours fishing those whole banks to find that sweet 10 foot stretch, or that log, ledge or what ever it might be. The fish did come from steeper banks with rocks. You don't under stand how hard it is to write this and give good detail, but not get criticized for not enough. Trust me, I'm on here daily and see some of the post. I fish a few tournaments, but now days I just take my son to his tournaments. I consider myself as a recreational fisherman. Champ188 to ease your mind not a single fish was caught on a bed. Truthfully, I think they have all spawned. Where, I don't know. I haven't seen many beds in my area all year. I kinda think maybe some spawned a little deeper this year. That's just my opinion. I have little cabin in the James river arm so I spend a lot of time there. So if you and see a dark gray Nitro Z8 with a 16 old boy up front and an old man sitting in the back stop and say Hi. My son Dalton and Darren Combs. As always hope the next time you go fishing you catch the biggest fish of your life and take a kid fishing.

I was in Kimberling playing Pickle Ball and on my way home i stopped over to a parked rig in the Harter House lot. Just wanted to admire his rig and I asked him how the fishing was and we started talking.What a great guy,that was the first time that I ever had a chance to meet him and talk alittle fishing.Great Guy!

Johnsfolly, yes the weather impacts were worth it. We caught fish thurs and friday in weather that felt like a Missouri April. Saturday, by 9am the wind was too strong to stand up much less cast a flyrod, so we drove 50 miles south to the Arkansas and caught 13 inch browns on caddis dries. Pretty nice compromise. I went with 3 good friends and we made some serious memories. And photos... Here's a pic of us hiking out on thursday at sunset. The setting and fishing was unreal.

While length and weight are both time honored descriptions of "trophy" fish, I personally think we as anglers put way too much emphasis on the size of our fish. maybe its because I am not that good of a fisherman but I seldom have "trophy" fish, I catch some nice ones, but mostly I have trophy trips or trophy memories. multi day floats on Crooked creek with friends catch lots of 12-15 inch smallies, gogglers etc. meant MUCH more to me than catching a couple big uns. Not saying I wouldn't love to catch them big uns but for me the trip is about way more than the size/length of the fish. To each his own. I would rather have a relaxing day on the creek with smaller fish and numbers than have to approach fishing like it was a job. I want to enjoy a beer at a campfire on a gravel bar, eat some steaks etc. the rest is just extras.

Me and a buddy brought our kayaks up for 2 days. Heard the fishing was slow with the clear water and lower flows but we still had a great time and caught some nice fish. Camped at Sunburst and like others have said Justin and Amy are exceptional hosts. Had a copperhead crawl under my seat the 2nd night (relocated unharmed). Didn't see it until I got up to move from the smoke...seeing it recoil got the blood pumping. Full write up on my blog http://looknfishy.blogspot.com/2016/04/weekend-shenanigans.htm Short video of our trip.

Put in at 4pm and fished till dark around the cedar ridge area, water temp range from 63 to 66. Water clarity on main lake is unreal like 8 ft or more, highpoint area is a little dingier which is what I like. Was able to piece together a small pattern for bass throwing carolina rig. Wife was crappie fishing at same time and hooked into this nice walleye in around 14ft pea gravel bank on blue and chartreuse triple ripple. Right at 4 pounds.

I don't see why you would even have to bother downsizing it even more. I'm not sure how many bluegill and sunfish we caught on the NED Monday and Tuesday on Table Rock, but it was quite a few. It's a dink magnet! With that said, we did finally catch a smallmouth that was pushing 19" on it. I think that makes two bass that we've caught on the NED that broke the two pound mark. The less than two pound totals have to be pushing about 2,000 though.

I miss several things from when we lived in London, although I was very glad to come home. One of the things I miss the most is the twice per week open air market at the Burrough tube stop (basically on the opposite bank of the Thames from the Bank district of London). The best produce from the UK and Europe, fresh caught fish and shell fish, grass fed beef and pork, Gressingham ducks, French wines, berries, and a mushroom vendor who featured the finest varieties of champignon (French for mushrooms). Chantrelles appeared frequently. They have a rich taste hard to beat.

Bill is the Chuck Norris of table rock! He doesn't use a rod and reel, just stares in the water and the fish get scared and jump in the boat.

I was down last week Mike with the boy, we went up little niangua, had two limits and 2 eyes, one 21.5 and another 19. All trolling out in 25 foot of water suspended 15 foot. All crappie were packed with eggs, walleye were spawned out but had bellies full of shad. All crappie were 11-13 inches. Very fun trip. Flicker shads any color at 1.8mph Now on to sturgeon bay this weekend ?.

200 boats in the derby today. 19.97 was the big bag anchored by a 7 pounder. We got 15th with 13.58 and won free entry for next year. Lots of fish weighed today. Dozens of 11-12 pound limits. We fished around Kimberling throwing finesse baits and caught 11 keepers and probably around 30 shorts. All fish came from the 4-8 ft range back in pockets. We had a tough time culling, lots of twinkies. I would guess our second 5 fish limit would of weighed 12.5. Congrats to the winners and thanks for a great run tournament.

Took Willie, a Louisiana turkey hunter in Missouri for the season, on a guided trip Thursday. The river has been fishing poorly for trout most of the spring, with a few exceptions. Our day was hopefully a good sign of things to come. Willie landed over 20 fish and lost around 10 more. We had to get about a mile from the access points to do much good and we had to really take our time to find hotspots, but when we did, we were rewarded. We had our best luck on Pat's rubber legged golden stone and prince nymphs fished deep. Willie's biggest fish landed was a 17.5 inch fatty. A number of smaller, probably 1-2 year old wild fish were caught as well. Also, we lost another fish in the 17-18 inch range. Good day. I was supposed to be on the water today, but we are expecting over 2 inches of rain in the form of thunderstorms today, so I had to cancel. Rain expected to start around 10 am here.

Hola Amigos! Got an early start, found schooling fish chasing shad outside of a cove mouth over 30-50 FOW. Caught 10 of them on a Yellow Magic Havana, mostly 10-15" spots, with one 2 lb. Largemouth. Lots of action for about an hour. Once the sun popped over the hill the TW bite slowed considerably, even thought there were occasional bass chasing shad that would pop up every once in awhile, until the wind started howling. Went to the bottom dragging stuff, got a lot of bites on the wobblehead with a creature, but mostly those squirrely protect the nest type bites. I could not see any beds because of the murky water and the fish seem to be spawning deeper this year, but by the way they were biting - thunk it and drop it - I believe they were bedding fish. Had to swing on them as they would drop it if I tried to let them take it. Caught 8 or so on the wobbler, 3 keepers. Fished the Ned for a bit, I could not get anything going with it, had a decent Kentuck that got off halfway to the boat, and caught a couple of micro-dink smallies on the Ned, but that was about it. Water temps 63-66, water is stained green, 3-4 feet of visibility.

Fished yesterday with bud of mine out of Indian point. Fished from 6-2:30 and was a tough day for us. Had 3 or 4 keepers and maybe 20 bass. Did miss several chances but they just weren't real aggressive. Ned was best bait but threw it all at them it seemed. Fished main lake points, gravel, chunk rock, backs of pockets, shallow and deep. Just couldn't put anything together. Did find a few bedding fish and did alright on those for a little bit but can't see much due to the water color right now...now I know what you guys have been saying about that. Definitely not normal for the area of the lake. Hope someone found them yesterday in that wind!

Don't blame you for being a tad tight lipped with his derby coming up. Sounds like a magical day when it all just comes together. If it's anything like my fishing having a day like that every now and then makes the much more common tough days a lot more bearable. Congrats!

TEAM ( BOAT # 144 ) won the boat. Some of our other guests that were staying with us & fishing the tournament told me that " THE GUY'S STAYING IN UNIT # 2 WON THE BOAT " !!!!!!! At the time they returned after the weigh-in my wife happened to be out in our parking lot & said by the way they were " WALKING ON AIR " it was apparent something big had happened.

Had a enjoyable day with my great friend champ 188. We would have liked a few more keeps but that's fishing. He also put me on the smallmouth of a life time. I'm grateful.

Put in at Mutton with my son at 7 and started crappie fishing caught 4 between us one keeper and one keeper eye. All on mainlake points, with 1/8oz red head and crystal shad jig. Switched over to bass at 10 and caught 8 between us with no keeps on c-rig lizard and baby brush hog in spawning pockets 8-15 fow.Loaded up at 1. Tuff day fishing but still had fun on the water with my son! Tight lines and CPR

I hardly saw any fish on beds. I think most are done, and the water at least around the dam was too dingy to see any on beds deeper than 3 feet. We caught most of ours in 20 to 30ft. Had 13.26. Had fish on for 15.5 maybe, but who doesn't have that story.

One of our own OAF members won it.

We weighed four largemouth for 10.68. Two were decent 3 and 3.5 pounders and and two were squeakers. A faulty knot cost me a good fish that morning that I guessed around 3 pounds. A trick worm on shallow wood produced our first two keeper bites (one about 3# and the one I btroke off) and that pattern died once the sun popped out, or so we thought anyways. Since we weren't doing well on the shallow fish, we decided to go fish some main lake gravel points that produced some keeper smallies for us the day before, but it only produced shorts today. With only 1 keeper in the boat at 2oclock, we decided to run back to the cove we started in, set the troller to 100 and beat the banks with spinnerbaits and cover as much water as possible. We managed to catch three more keeper largemouth in that time and lost another keeper on a crankbait. I was kicking myself for not sticking with the power fishing game, but I truly thought that sun would have jacked up the shallow pattern for us so we went out to fish points. This was our first time bass fishing on Tablerock and we had a ton of fun. We boated 11 keepers and around that many shorts on Monday while prefishing. Today was actually better for us from a number standpoint, but lacked the number of quality fish that we had the day before.

Thought I'd try a thread where folks post funny stuff... So I always liked Gary Mule Deer, a comedian that used to show up on Carson and later Letterman. Loved his dry sense of humor and twisty-turny stories. Thought of him the other day and Googled. Found a couple videos that I thought I'd share.

Last week, I checked off one on the bucket list when I fished the spring ice off in central Colorado. The high country reservoirs sit unfished all winter while covered in ice then the insects in the shallow water come alive when the ice melts. The result? Big trout come up and cruise the warming shallow water to feed on the insects. In two days, 4 of us landed 50+ rainbows and cutthroat rainbow hybrids over 20 inches. Trip of a lifetime, but had to brave the "Spring" weather which featured gale force winds and snow at times.

now that made me chuckle! BB would be my first choice for a guide trip on TR or Taney. I have recommended him a couple of times.

If the regular cut stick isn't working, try a tiny brush hog (the 15pk one), half of a 4" lizard, or the finesse Shadz. There's usually a little window during the spawn when they want a different look. Ned has written about it quite a bit. The Gene Larew hoodaddy in the smallest size is really good, but hard to find.

Played with it a little. I get the look Chief's talking about too.

yep. Iphone shot while doing a 2 mile hike at 8600 feet a vigorous pace after 7 hours fishing in a blazing sun and cutting wind leads one to not hold the camera so straight

Straighten that horizon first...

Here's a pic of the other direction (East) opposite of the sunset....

Hard to beat some high range fishing. Even if you ain't fishing and just taking it all in.

Well she has a really nice beard.

Who cares???......I want more 18+ fish

That's more than we should have expected folks. I didn't press Darren at all because I figured there was more fishing to be done. Think a lot of the fish spawned in dirty water, and guys just never saw them. There have been periods where the bite was just "odd", not off, just quirky. That tends to happen when they are really bedding. No doubt there are some more that will spawn, especially from 13 to the dam. Deep spawners, ledge fish, just plain late fish. I completely agree with his assessment on the importance of having key spots, and learning at least a few areas inside and out.

We were up last Saturday, Mainly bass fishing until about 4 pm and started crappie fishing we ended up with 12 crappie by 7 pm, We found that they were in 6 to 12 ftw water temp 63 to 67 degress Chicken rock area. But the thing I saw was I would pull up in my normal spots and catch 3 to 4 right of the bat and then wouldn't get a bite go to next spot and same thing happened. Did lose about 7 right at the boat and they were the bigger fish. Should have got the net out after the first one!!!!!

I'm one happy,happy, happy Pens fan. Very impressed with the effort that the Pens dialed up tonight. Murray frequently lets in a soft goal early and then shuts the door pretty hard. I never would have expected him to be the hot goalie that stole a series for his team, but he's been key. If he had played this well in Game One, the series would be over. it takes four wins to move on and getting #4 may prove very difficult, but I love their chances. Look forward to seeing Letang back on the ice. I hope he has the best game of his career.

Congrats to Darren and his partner. That was no mean feat given the heavy hitters in the standings.

Going to OT, it's a toss up at this point Ham. Good luck.

Most folks on these forums key in on the spawning times for crappies, white bass, walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass. However when spring is in the air some of the fishes rival even birds in their breeding colors and their physical changes during the spawn. Darters are well known for their breeding colors Like these rainbow and orangthroat darters. Not be outdone, even minnows get colorful during their spawn. A bleeding shiner from Spring creek. A rosyface shiner from Spring creek. A common shiner caught in grindstone creek. The common shiner also gets nuptial tubercles on it's head like many other minnow species like this creek chub. This largescale stoneroller gets tubercles all along its body as well. If you fish any of the high gradient or headwater streams be on the look out for these spring beauties.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/weird/loud-sex-finally-too-much-for-cancer-stricken-neighbors/169932681

This sounds like a good deal, but if I got it, it would just sit and only be used almost never. It'd be handy though.

Definitely a well-run tournament by people who know how to run one. Far as that winning bag goes, not saying they did or didn't BUT conditions were perfect for sight fishing yesterday. Just hope not too many of them got yanked off the beds. Myself and ranger185 took it on the chin with just a couple of nice LM keepers that he expertly brought to boatside. Yours truly contributed nothing but a complete lack of ability to adjust to changing weather conditions. Practiced too many days not to have a good backup pattern in place. This sport is really frustrating at times.

Looks like a saugeye too me, blotches and all

I did make these tonight and they are pretty unbelievably great! Flemings Restaurant Au Graten potatoes...I would recommend cooking the potatoes for about 30 minutes longer than the recipe calls for. http://www.food.com/recipe/flemmings-steakhouse-scalloped-potatoes-84816

For once I gotta disagree with Siusaluki...in the Ozarks, cottonmouths have an affinity to springs and heavily spring fed creeks. I learned this back when I was a kid (but could already ID cottonmouths because my dad taught me what to look for and I also studied snakes a lot), we fished Wappapello Lake a lot, and there was a backwater with a good sized spring feeding it, making a little bay about the size of a living room in the long, winding backwater channel. The whole channel looked like a place to see cottonmouths, but we ALWAYS saw a couple in that little bay, and seldom anywhere else in the backwater. And that was almost the only place we ever saw cottonmouths on the lake. The upper Jacks Fork is full of cottonmouths, too...not super cold spring water but certainly not what you'd picture these southern snakes liking. However...one thing I've noticed is that cottonmouths shy away from high traffic areas. In the book "The Reptiles and Amphibians of Missouri", Tom Johnson says,"In the Ozarks, this species occurs in scattered populations in cool, spring-fed, rocky creeks and rivers. In that habitat, cottonmouths are highly nocturnal and secretive." Having said all that, I'll add my two cents worth on whether they should be killed...Whenever somebody brings up the "Oh my god, a kid could get bitten" card, respect for nature for what it is goes out the window. No kids have been bitten at RR. If you're worried about kids getting bitten, keep them away from places where you can't see if there are any snakes or not. Teach them to avoid snakes. Don't kill every snake you see just in case it might, at some nebulous future date, run afoul of a child. Like I said in my first post, this is nature. You can't remove all the risks.

Disagree on cottonmouths not being in springfed watersheds . They are at crane and all over the niangua around Bennett. The creek that runs in right there where they saw said snake is a warmer creek anyway so it s definitely a possibility. I've personally never seen cottonmouths at roaring though.

Thanks for the report bassfisher! We had a front come through up here. Nice attempt to get the train back on the track . From what I saw in the weather reports it is suppose to get stable after Wednesday and temps are coming up. And yes ramman 123 your right.

Good job on 2 old gobblers. Man what hooks on those birds. Congrats.

That things got a head like my ex mother-in-law?