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Took the family down Branson to eat and decided to throw in the fly rod. We had a great time below the dam. Caught a dozen in 45 mins and left to eat dinner. My wife enjoyed taking pics of the twins fishing. One enjoyed catching trout with me, the other was obsessed with rescuing stranded sculpins from the water dropping and i was most excited about one catch in particular. Might even hang it in the wall, lol. I caught a famous Doty trout.

Fished a little tournament on the Osage Saturday and had this beast eat my little cricket !!

Took a little drive today just to get out and away for awhile... Cedar Ridge Maze Creek Ruark

Yes, only much bigger.😁

Here is my 2 cents worth on the shad kill --- from a totally different perspective than Babler. The older members here know that I'm a skinny-water guy (not to be mistaken with a skinny guy, which I'm not ). For years now, and for multiple reasons, Table Rock bass have been living more and more offshore. And why not? There have been shad by the truckload swimming around in the middle of the lake. The spots do this by nature, but I believe a lot of the LM have joined them. Smallmouth seem to be everywhere but they are their own species. With fewer shad out there to gorge on, my hope is that some of the green fish (LM) will go back to their former shallow, structure/cover type areas and get back to hunting perch and crawfish. And when I say shallow, I mean 25-30 feet and in. I doubt this shad kill will mean curtains for offshore fishing. You guys with live scope, spot lock and all the other toys will be fine ... plenty of fish left out there for you and I really doubt the shad population is going to take a long-term hit. But I do believe this could put some fish back in shallower areas where old dummies like me can catch one every now and then. I appreciate that we have all sorts of anglers here and some very good ones at every style of fishing. Best of luck of 2021!!!

SWPA ran a little water this morning but shut it down at 9:00 am. I headed to the dam C&R area and got there at 9:30. Water was already down and fishing was good with some nice size rainbows and a couple of cutthroats. Surprisingly I have yet to catch a brown up there since it reopened Feb 1. Now for the first... I was wading in the middle of the river and a guy in a kayak comes straight towards me. I am thinking WTH is he doing? Then I hear, Hi, State Game Warden. So I said cool, what do you want to see? He says license and wants to see my fly. I say great... glad to see you out here. Well I had a bit of trouble digging my wallet out of my back pocket in waist deep water, but finally got to it. I have a 65+ lifetime license for fishing and hunting and all the stamps. Fly was barbless and all went well. He did say he was checking the entire C&R area and said he saw some flies/lures with barbs😒. That is the first time I have seen a GW on the water since I started fishing up here 7 years ago. Glad to see them out there as I have picked up quite a few spinning lures with barbed treble hooks from the root wads up there. Also some heavy duty bait rigs with big hooks with barbs. Here's a couple of the nicer rainbows...

She keeps busy. She is going to help give a thousand vaccines today and thousand tomorrow. oneshot

Did see that the Jacks Fork/Current River as well as the 11 pt and other south flowing rivers in the southeast portion of the state are within the distribution range for redspotted sunfish. A couple of redspotted caught in Black river watershed area near Poplar Bluff. A couple from a Texas trip with @Ham

Yep, a "frost" colored sili-worm wrapped over red thread is a well known Trout Park and Tailwaters killer.

I'm not 100% certain, but I think it's a redspotted sunfish, Lepomis miniatus. A juvenile female, probably. Redspotted sunfish are found in the Jacks Fork, though I've never caught one.

Texas chickens.

Sunday chili. Ground beef, kidney bean, chili Pinto beans, onions, shallots, green peppers, garlic, tomato paste, diced tomato and green chili sauce, chicken stock, light and dark chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne, smoked paprika, and some time.

Guys, Everyone has now paid their entry fee. Thanks to all of you for quickly doing so and making things easy. Most appreciated! We have 21 participants which brings the prize pool to $210. I figured it would be fair to payout the top 4 finishers. If agreeable by the group the Tackle Warehouse Gift Card payout shall be: 1st = $100 2nd = $60 3rd = $30 4th = $20 Let me know if anyone has a problem with that scale. Thanks again guys!

Oh yeah!!!! 🤣😂😅

The armchair biologist says that red lips are from kissing bump boards. 😂

Many years ago...Granny had a beehive and horn rims.

Once you get over life making sense....It gets allot easier.

Congrats on that beast! That's a thick and healthy fish.

Yum! 😋

Bass eye's don't have a white part.....do they? It's been so long since I've caught one I forget what they look like. 🤔

Look at the top bar. See the square that kinda looks like a newspaper? That’s the “ new content” button.

I uninstalled Tapatalk along time ago. It didn’t work very well.

And nobody cares....Been that way forever.

The town nearest where my wife grew up is loaded with them. Olney IL. Home of the white squirrel. You rarely see them outside the city limits. If at all.

Interesting perspective. I hadn't thought about it this way, but it definitely makes sense

It's been a long time ago now but I still remember fishing grass beds in the James River arm with my dad in the 70's and early 80's. Used to have great success with Bagley's Killer B crankbaits in the fall. Baby Bass was a favorite color as was Tennessee Shad. Piney, Schoolhouse, Woolly and Buzzard were our best spots in those days. Especially Buzzard. Electric Blue Texas rigged Larew salt impregnated worms (used to buy 'em hot outta the molds direct from Gene while staying at his place at Shadrack) and Charlie Campbell's CC spinnerbaits worked too but those crankbaits ticking the tops of the grass beds for largemouth and the "occasional" Kentucky are what I'll always remember best. Good ol' days for sure.......☺️

I don't know why it wouldn't be.

Of course.

We had a flying squirrel get into our house when I was in high school. Seemed like my room was one of his favorite hangouts. MDC agent finally trapped him in the attic. Those things will keep you up at night.

Thanks for the input. When trying to do the right thing to help sustain our wild trout population (Blue Ribbon waters), I'm thinking our primary objective is to maximize probability of successful ''catch and RELEASE". Therefore, stuff more likely to mouth hook (less likely to be swallowed and gut hooked). So I'm sensing a thumbs up for my foam beetle and that I don't need to trim off my rubber legs. Many Thanks.

Foam and rubber legs are fine, just about any modern combination of materials are OK. No silly worms or silicon grub like baits. Bill

That is probably as good as you will find.

Wus!😂. Jump up, put your pants on and tell her to give you your allowance😁

Neat! 👍

You could also always swap out the rubber legs for hackle or other feather / fur fibers.

That's good to know! But why would guys from Minnesota...Land of 1,000 Lakes... be icefishing in MO? Even in central Iowa, the coming of open water has been, oddly, pretty consistent over that past decade. Spring Break when our kids were in high school and college was always the 2nd week of March. We'd usually take a trip somewhere warm. I'd be in contact with friends/anglers who would give me updates on the ice situation. The ice would almost always go out a day or two before we returned from our trip. It was great! The sun is getting pretty strong, now that we are 2 months past the shortest day of the year. 4" of ice can disappear very quickly when we get a couple days near 50 degrees. The ice around StL might be gone later this coming week. Sound optimistic? That's what anglers are, right?

Those are the rules. Used to be the purest of the purest fly fisher. Glad I gave that up.

Me and Duane were talking this morning about shad kill. There is a good population of threadfin shad living in Lake Taneycomo... we tend to forget about that. They live in the lower half of the lake where the water temp tends to be higher but I wonder how far up lake would you find them? Reason being... they should be dying on our lake like the other area lakes. Bass and trout should be feasting on them. We were also talking about below Powersite Dam - in Bull Shoals. If shad are dying above the dam and getting sucked through the turbines there, walleye and brown trout, among other fish, should be getting a good dose of shad. That sounds like fun!

Since our grid can't store a month's worth of juice, their statement could've been clearer. Better to say they powered >400,000 homes for the week that they ran. Still a great thing, even a 2hr blackout on Mon or Tues would've put me in a bind... thankfully, it never came. Prediction; In the last week, WR tailwaters have become the river they once were... The remaining real rivers will see some snowmelt influx, but nothing compared to the blast down the White. Roaming fish that spent the winter deep midlake have likely already made the choice of where to run for the year and are on their way to the party. The first flush of stored water in this deep freeze will be the warmest water around too. Perfect storm.

I ran across this jerkbait while sorting thru some of my addictions. Can anyone tell if this was a custom color? On the back of a plain package it said Jester.

in keeping with the getting older theme

1. When one door closes and another door opens, you may be in prison. 2. To me, "drink responsibly" means don't spill. 3. Age 60 might be the new 40, but 9:00 pm is the new midnight. 4. It's the start of a brand new day, and I'm off like a herd of turtles. 5. The older I get, the earlier it gets late. 6. When I say, "The other day," I could be referring to any time between yesterday and 15 years ago. 7. I remember being able to get up without making sound effects. 8. I had my patience tested. I'm negative. 9. Remember, if you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a Tupperware lid that doesn't fit any of your containers. 10. If you're sitting in public and a stranger takes the seat next to you, just stare straight ahead and say, "Did you bring the money?" 11. When you ask me what I am doing today, and I say "nothing," it does not mean I am free. It means I am doing nothing. 12. I run like the winded. 13. I hate when a couple argues in public, and I missed the beginning and don't know whose side I'm on. 14. When someone asks what I did over the weekend, I squint and ask, "Why, what did you hear?" 15. I don't mean to interrupt people. I just randomly remember things and get really excited. 16. Don't bother walking a mile in my shoes. That would be boring. Spend 30 seconds in my head. That'll really freak you out.

I just got it at the local store. I guess it's a national brand. https://richardscajunfoods.com/products/16oz-mild-andouille-smoked-sausage/

The melting is good. I don't want to take up ice fishing. Too much specialized gear to buy. Little poles, ice augur, little sled to put all your ice fishing gear in, snowmobile to pull it all - it ends up being as expensive as bass fishing.

I have a feeling the next tournament will be more difficult. Not much history at this location.

I guess I’m asking what is anything odd you have seen....personally I have seen a few weasels...once for the life of me a giant dove...seemed to be what was described as a passenger pigeon.....Chain pickerel in spring river near Carthage...even found a patch of American Chestnut that was planted in a mine land reclamation near mindenmines......back when I had my health I spent 300 days or more a year a field, hunting trapping fishing....even going on road trips to find odd plants ashes juniper or animals with a now deceased buddy Brian Hedgecorth ( miss you Buddy) saw a mountain lion coon hunting one night near baseline hwy jasper county, and the only cottonmouth I have seen was on north fork....look for and never found any lady slipper orchid, but many early springs looking for things like trilliums....taking a botany class opened my eyes a bit. Arrowhead hunting, exploring so many places....I fished a place were I saw king fishers often....not common most places...so much more to the outdoors than releasing into the grease types so much on the net anymore....get out and enjoy nature before you can’t....these crazy days we need release.

Those rivers in the southeast are on my to-do list. Topwater is a blast on moving water, and if given the opportunity, it's all I will throw. When they won't hit those, I will grab a Super Fluke or Jr, depending on the conditions. I've had great days on both.

I love to wet wade small creeks. I love repeatedly dropping lures into those small secret holes that nobody fishes. When floating given a chance I will beach my canoe and wade fish the heck out of a good looking spot. Usually there are a couple canoes of us and we will.leap from to next hole. Sure can turn a shorter float into one you are paddling like heck to find truck before dark when beaching and wading though.