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When I first realized I would have today off, it looked like a washout. But a weather window opened up late morning/early afternoon. The river was empty, and while the bite wasn't exactly fast and furious, it was good enough. Lost the best fish of the day. Thought I was a snagged on the bottom, which had been happening a lot. I started wading out to get it loose, and then "the bottom" started shaking it's head and had a rainbow stripe down it's side. It wasn't a monster, but probably around 18-19 inches. Made one good run down stream, I failed to maintain tension and that was the end of that. Ah well. Plenty of regular sized rainbows were landed to make it a good day. The only other fisherman pulled in right as I was wading out of the river. Pretty decent timing for both of us.

The wife and I fished 3 days and went to a few bluffs where we often get into some wintering cats and a few crappie. Two of the bluffs had nothing. On the last two bluffs we caught 1 cat that weighted 1 1/2lbs. On the last bluff we caught a total of 16 cats. All between 2 and 5 lbs except for two smaller ones. We also managed a few keeper crappie there as well. Water conditions varied a lot from place to place. Some areas were relatively clear but had a tannic acid appearance. Others were sort of dingy with limited visibility. Water temps varied from 55 to 67 F.

Well now I can focus on the fowl. I have been shooting them on the lake on the property. After I shot this guy, I watched 15 mallards light into the lake. It was like a flip switched. Heard a ton of specks again, too.

Another warm November day, when I hit the road in the afternoon it was 72 degrees. If you like to fish in the dirt, you can take a left out of Big M, head down lake a few miles and you've got brown water. Stay around Big M or head upriver and it is relatively clear. The fish are biting if you can find them. I caught a few spots in the Big M cove on a top water before I launched the boat. Once in the water, found a good-sized school of spots on some flats, caught some there on small swimbaits, Ned rig, and jig. Called some friends of mine that were on the water, they came over and caught close to 50 of them on spoons and jigs. All spots with a few keepers mixed in. I had some fun with that school but wanted to try some other places to see if they were holding fish. Found a few here and there on the crank bait and finesse jigs. Caught my best bass of the day, a 3 lb. LM, on the crank bait. One of those days where I got a lot of bites but had trouble hooking them or keeping them on once hooked. Can't explain it, it wasn't like they were hard bites to detect but just could not turn them into fish in the boat. I bet I missed 20-30 bites. Had fish chase baits back to the boat, had one that came out of the water after a ned right as I lifted it out of the water. caught it out of the corner of my eye, so didn't get a good look, but it was a smallmouth, crazy fish they are at times. One of the crank bait fish had 3 of his buddies follow him to the boat, had that happen a few times when fishing the spotted bass school. Fun day, lots of action, put 22 with 4 keepers in the boat, but should've boated more. WT 63-64

97) Ozark Sculpin BSSP Catch and Release i tied up some flys for em. And they worked. Well.

Salmon Stromboli done the right way could set a new high bar.

Couple of items I made for deer camp. Duck gravy (Woodies and GWT) was superb with cheddar biscuits. Also made another loaf of meat from deer and pork. Added cheese this time. Fantastic!

it just needs to be non-mammal meat.

Got to the ramp at 7. Wat 52 everywhere. Nice green color. Overcast skies. Went to a different area today than 2 days ago. Drove the struggle bus for 5 hours. 2 smallies and a fat spot. Fugitive Swim bait caught em all. Cranked em mid and deep. Nothing. Little guy was in a slump too. Oh well. I’ll try again in a few days. Pic of 17”s for @Johnsfolly 😁

Possibly Guadalupe😉

All of the boys around there, that I'm aware of, are livescoping schools of shad, and throwing jerk baits, swimbaits, ect.. Not a very productive way to catch big ones, but it's a consistent way to fill a limit.

Thanks John, We appreciate that. For the first time I put some on Facebook marketplace for sale. Really did not have a bite for a purchase. Was a bit surprised. @curtisce seen it and said to keep a jar for him. I don't feel right about selling to friends and he will just get a jar like the rest. My sisters get a jar each for Christmas and one wants to buy a couple. I told her no and she got kind of loud like Those are going for Christmas presents and I will buy them. Whatever. I am not off on my pricing. Honey is sold by the pound and comes in pound sized jars from most. I am using pint jars, and they hold a pound and a quarter to a pound and a half net weight depending on how quick I turned off the gate valve while filling. Like JD once said a hobby beekeeper will probably never get his investment back. I'm just wanting to make a little dent in mine. 🤣 One thing about it I have enjoyed working with bees and giving them homes.

Speaking of honey, I’ve got 5 containers of honey on the shelf. One from the grocery store, two from small-time local producers, one from a friend who keeps bees and one from @BilletHead We did a taste test a while back and it was really interesting the differences. Store bought was fine and what we’re used to. My friend’s was light in color and kinda thin. One of the locals was dark and a little bitter. But, and I’m not just sucking up here, the best was Marty’s. I guess I’d say fuller bodied.

The Mill pond is fishable and they used to stock it, but I know they haven't stocked that in a long time and I think last year it was drained if I remember correctly. Above that first bridge on the pond is private property and I'm pretty sure you will get into trouble trying to fish up there. I was told that before at least.

Walked a long way for 1 brown on a streamer but Im happy considering how low it was, and he went to swim another day

@Phil Lilley Here is the most updated list. Per the recent comments @Terrierman and @fmcbrandon will be attending with 2 sons. @Ryan Miloshewski and Steinman are still deciding.

I’ve been using the crazy Alberto for several years now. No knot failures at all. In fact, it holds when I snag up and have to break something off.

Mine’s in full swing😀

I haven’t posted much because most everything I’m doing lately I’ve shared before. This one has been too, but I figgered I’d post because it’s so dang good. Apple fritter pancakes.

I'll be down Friday a.m and will fish and stay for dinner, but will head back to my place in Branson after dinner, should be able to be back for Saturday too. I can take two folks fishing in my Towee, if anyone wants to fly fish and does not have gear, let me know I have plenty. I'll bring a desert for Friday night dinner.

My wife took me to the river. I was using Nightcrawlers. Caught my 4 Rainbows and a keeper Goggle Eye told my wife they had to be 7 inches long. She says you don't have anything to measure it so she turns it loose. 😮 Also my wife went to see about a Job how about $25 an hour? My wife says oh that is too much. How about $20 an hour. Ok! oneshot

96) Threadfin Shad i caught this one a while back and the photo has hidden from me for a bit. I consulted @FishnDave. He confirmed the Threadfin ID so I’ll add it after the fact. It was caught 8/20/24

Spent the weekend on the river with a couple of great friends. My first time actually floating the river and I do believe I fell in love with it. It could have used a little more water to cut out the dragging we did, which was very easy. It could have also been a little nicer weekend. Hasn't rained in like 17 years but you can gaurantee it will rain when I float. It was off and on all day Friday and Saturday. It was also very friendly to us when we camped. It even let us get everything loaded up Sunday morning before it rained. And that was the worst day for rain. But with only a couple miles to go to take out, it wasn't that bad. The fishing was good. We had a hard time figuring out what they wanted and struggled until we did. By evening of the first day everyone was soley using a Zara spook of some kind. We caught fish on other things but the spooks produced at least 95% of the fish with both of those guys landing a 16+ inch fish on one. I caught a bunch of fish but only got my heart broke by the river mosters. It was a beautiful place that I can't wait to get back to. Pics were a little limited since it was so wet most of the time but I managed to squeeze out a few between showers.