Scott C

Bill- Forgot to ask what would be best option for fishing crawlers. Mainly jig tipped with a crawler? Slip bobber? Drop Shot? Because of how much I fish up north I do a lot of jig and slip bobber fishing for eyes but am open to try anything. Thanks

Thanks Bill- I am kind of preparing myself for what Shell Knob looks like now. Not even sure I want to go see my grandparents old house looks like now either, hate to ruin my view of the house. I have heard that it has changed tons, i'm assuming the old ice cream shop is gone as well as the restaurant that always had seafood buffets on weekends, can't remember their names but we went there a lot. Appreciate the fishing advice. Will give those tips a shot. Going to be bringing down my own electronics so hopefully I can find the fish. Unfortunately everyone has decided we need a big 25 foot luxury pontoon even though there is only four of us, so keeping that thing positioned should be interesting. Really looking forward to trying the electronics on TR (even though they are my cheaper portable ones). Spent a week three weeks ago chasing suspended walleye in 60-70 feet of water and catching bass off deep water humps in Minnesota that you wouldn't have found without electronics. Looking forward to see if I can find fish in a large reservoir.

Greetings from Iowa. Been awhile since I posted on here. My wife, sister in-law and brother in-law are coming to TR for a quick trip without the kids next Wednesday the 27th to Saturday the 30th)for my wifes 32nd birthday. I am wanting to do some serious fishing while there but the wives won't let us bring the boat down and my wife is pregnant which means we will most likely end up renting a pontoon and cruising while I try to get some fishing in while I can. Planning on going out in the Shell Knob area as my grandparents used to live there and wanted to see the area again (I haven't been back since we moved my grandpa back up to Iowa a couple years after my grandma died in 1992). I have lots of great memories of fishing that area with my grandpa but couldn't tell you a darn thing about what to do. I understand the lake changes all the time and this year appears to be off a little. I am just mainly looking to catch anything while there, wouldn't mind getting into some bass but am mainly more concerned about getting into enough fish to keep the wives entertained in between floating in the lake etc. As you can see this is not the ideal trip for fishing but it's the best I can do until next year when I will bring my then 6 year old son down for a trip. My wife's theory is that I just spent 9 days fishing in northern Minnesota so that this trip should be about spending time with her (whatever you say dear!!!). Once again I don't really care what we catch, just looking to catch something whether it be bass, crappies, gills, or whatever comes our way. Thanks and looking forward to a fun trip and finally getting back to an area that was a huge part of my childhood.

Being a farmer in Iowa means that most of the time fall and spring are pretty tough times to get fishing with harvest and planting seasons in full swing but I get out fishing during those seasons whenever i can. Lately my favorite season for fishing has been winter. It's no secret here in Iowa that we get some pretty cold long winters but that also makes for a great ice fishing season. It's a time of year that we really have not much else going on so I fish more in the winter than any of the other seasons. But if I had to rank them it would be this. 1 Winter (ice fishing) 2 Fall 3 Spring 4 Summer

I'm not going to be any help but I can't believe that you can't find any live leeches around there. My family has some cabins in Northern Minnesota and that is all we use up there. Buy all different types, huge ones for walleyes, and then buy the tiny ones and they are killers on bluegill, rock bass (goggle eye to you guys) and yellow perch. They are sold everywhere here in Iowa as well. When things get tough leeches are one of my go to baits. Plus I like them because they are easier to keep alive then minnows. On a side note at our cabins in Minnesota it is not uncommon to see them swimming by the dock on a regular basis. It's even better if a bluegill or a bass is hanging out under the diving raft and watch them come bolting over to get it.

My wife and I are looking at buying an 06 Bass Buggy. I got rid of my fishing boat so we can get a pontoon that we can use to take the whole family out since we had our second kid a year ago. We will be using this on trips down to Table Rock as well as just on some state park lakes and resivoirs here in Iowa. My only problem is that it only has a 25 horse outboard on it. The boat is in great enough shape and quite a deal to put up with it for a while. I have two questions. First, for the time being (next two years) would a 25 horse be enough to push it around on normal days on Table Rock with no concern, obviously not the windiest days. Second, what are guys' experience about either trading an outboard or selling an outboard to upgrade to a new one. Would i be better off waiting for a pontoon with a larger outboard or is the process of changing outboards not that big of a deal. the one currently on it is a 25 hp 4 stroke with less then 30 hours on it. thanks for any advice.

Need a little advice on a trip down to Table Rock this summer. My wife and I's 5 year anniversary trip by ourselves has now turned into bringing the kids with us. Need some advice on a good resort to stay at as well as what areas would be best. We will be bringing our pontoon down so will need a place to keep it. Would like take my 4 year old son on a half day guided fishing trip so would like some ideas on that as far as if it would be best to take him on Taneycomo, or try Crappie or something on Table Rock. Will also be doing some fishing as a whole family out of the pontoon so I am assuming our best bets will be blue gill for that. Grandparents lived in Shell Knob when I was a kid so I have great memories of that area but don't know if staying closer to Kimberling City area or Indian Creek area would be better to keep whole family happy. Our son will be 4 by then and our daughter will be 1.5 years so will need stuff to keep them occupied as well. Just wanting everyone to have fun but would also like to get in some decent fishing as well. Thanks for any advice.

Not an insult, I get exactly what your saying there. Also I am well aware of the tough conditions in the heat of the summer and are definitely planning on getting a guide for our first day there. May even look into fishing tanneycomo instead of Table Rock with the guide instead to get the wife on some fish. Since starting reading this site I have actually started an Excel spreadsheet with a tab for each type of bait. In that spreadsheet I will just type in the brand, model, size, and color that someone will recommend. That way I can pull it up later and have all types recommended in front of me and start doing a little research on all of them. Since posting the original question i have started reading the comments on BPS website about both BPS brand and "name" brand lures and you can definitely tell which ones stack up and which don't. I then have been putting alot of the comment summaries in the spreadsheet about each lure. It has really been helping me understand each lure better as well as retaining the differences better. Who would have thought I would be using old college studying tricks to learn more about lures. Once again thanks for the info guys.

Was just wondering how the Bass Pro branded lures stack up compared to the individual brands. I am trying to get stocked up to fish Table Rock more as we are taking a trip down this summer with the hopes of finding a small vacation property in the next couple of years. I have been reading a lot of posts about essential lures for table rock and think I am getting an idea of what i need, stickbaits, drop shots, football jigs, etc. Here in Iowa we are not lucky enough to have lots of options for buying gear, there are very few privately owned tackle shops here. My main choices are Bass Pro, Scheels (very expensive), and Sportsman Warehouse (always out of everything). The reason I ask about the Bass Pro brand is that it seems for me it would be easier to remember everything if I could just get the Bass Pro version of the lures needed for Table Rock. The reason I say it would be easier is that I won't have to remember brand A for stickbaits, brand B for spinnerbaits, brand C for Jigs, brand X for inline spinners, etc. I know it may sound stupid but I think it would be easier and faster for me to just go find the bass pro version of these and go with it. I have also noticed that the Bass Pro brand is normally cheaper than the "name" brands as well. I am a huge fan of Rapala's and some others and will always use their products as well. I have been thinking about just using the Bass Pro brand for a while but have noticed on here that very seldom do Bass Pro lures get brought up on here. Just was wanting everyone's experiences with their lures and if they are decent or if I would be better off to just start learning the recommended brands for each lure that are talked about on this site. Maybe my yearly trips from Shell Knob to Springfield with my Grandpa just to visit BPS as a kid are making me think that their stuff is better than it actually is. Haven't really fished with any BPS branded lures as our store just opened up in September and I had to get to combining instead of fishing. Hopefully this all makes sense and I didn't confuse too many. Only been on here for about a month and love it due to all of the good honest feedback people get. Just thinking about warm weather fishing on another cold, snowy, windy day here in Iowa. Over 54 inches of snow for the winter so far!!!!!!

One thing to be prepared for when visiting RMNP in September is the traffic jams. When living in Golden right out of college a couple of buddies thought it would be cool to go up there and see the elk bugle, apparently so did everyone else in the entire front range. The rush hour traffic in Denver was nothing compared to parts of the park that had elk moving around in it. Don't know the park all that well so don't have any advice on areas to avoid during bugling season.

Parshall is the name of the town I was thinking of that I fished nearby on the Colorado, we spent alot of time on a place they call the hole. It was ridiculous how many fish we caught without having to move 50 yards. Apparently we were lucky to have it to ourselves. You could tell how much pressure it gets due to the amount of leaders hanging from the power lines that were literally only 15 feet off the water. Also I guess if your not stuck on sticking around RMNP i would look into a float trip down the Arkansas. Wife and I did a one day white water rafting trip on it followed by a one day float fishing trip on it and loved it. That was the definition of fly fishing big western water. It was well worth it.

That's why I like the Blue River through silverthorne, I can go fishing and my wife can go shopping at the outlet malls right there. One of the biggest rainbows I have ever caught was caught right in the outlet mall below the bridge. Plus that area has great bars etc. Tons of things to do around there. Here is a link to Cutthroats fishing reports as well, I check them off and on throughout the year to see if it is worth making a trip out sometime. http://www.fishcolorado.com/reports I am taking the family skiing to Breck and Keystone in March and may try to fit in a day of fishing while there.

i fished just outside the west edge of the park in the headwaters of the colorado river (West of the Cont divide). Used a guide out of Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, fished in a blizzard in February and caught easily over 50 fish that day including some 20+ in rainbows. Was by far the best day of fishing i have every had. Basically just drug nymphs all day. The guide was great wish i could remember his name, after a couple of hours of fishing I told him that i was fine that he didn't need to baby sit me and to go ahead and start fishing with me. We had a blast, he wouldn't accept me giving a tip because he said the fact that I let him fish as well was tip enough for him. All in all a blast. Plus the fact that i was wading a river in the mountains during a blizzard made me feel like i was in a Coors commercial. I know in Idaho springs there are some guides out of there that focus more on the front range but not sure how fishing Clear Creek and some of those other areas are in the fall. If your wanting to go on your own I would just go across the divide and go to silverthorne and talk to the guys at Cutthroat, they can tell you where to go and what to use on the blue river below the dillon dam area. I have done that a couple of times and have always had good luck. Most shops and guide services out there are more than willing to share secrets with ya.

Their place is in between Hackensack and Walker on Ten Mile Lake, crazy how clear of a lake that is. Internaional Falls is a great place been there only once but loved the area, just not sure I could handle the winters, Iowa winters are bad enough but up there is a whole new meaning to cold.

Found this site and so far love it, just wanted to say hi. I am 31 and a farmer in Iowa, my wife and I have two kids (3yrs and 10 mos.). My grandparents used to live in Shell Knob and I would spend a month there every summer until I was 14 when we had to move grandpa back up to Iowa for health reasons and haven't been back since. Taking my wife down this summer for our 5 year anniversary and can't wait to get back. She wants to see the area because of all the great stories of summers, Christmas, and white bass fishing in the spring that I had there. Already have her talked in to looking into buying a small vacation property without even seeing the area with the hopes of being able to live part time on Table Rock down the road when we become empty nesters (would still need to spend spring and fall in Iowa for planting and harvest seasons). Grew up fishing farm ponds and small lakes around Iowa. My other grandparents have a place in Northern Minnesota so have gotten to fish a lot of great places with my family. However nothing compared to the times fishing on Table Rock and definitely want my kids to have those experiences. Anyways looking forward to learning how to fish the lake again as well as fishing other area bodies of water as i have already found great info on my couple of days on this site.