Ham

Yesterday afternoon would have been an excellent time to go fish. Glad you got out. There are a ton of quality fish on Bull right now. I hope it stays that way.

I feel like Phil sells the combo he uses at his place on Taneycomo. He's a great jig fisherman and I assume he wouldn't handcuff himself using gear that is a poor fit for the job. I'm using Dorber OMT 84 UL rods. I consider it more of a Light action rod. Not the typical buggy whip UL rod. Richard Cross sells his rod. Crossfire. Throws trout jigs very well. It has give to protect light line, but enough umph to catch big trout. I'm also used mine on the creeks for smallies. I have of course caught a pile of trout on it as well. Most recently I've gotten a Fenwick Elite-tech River Runner Rod. Much slower action than my Dorbers, but I like it a bunch too. It isn't a dead stick, but you sense the rod loading with a fish more than feel every bite. Very light in hand. Very comfortable to fish with too. I have the ERR69L-FS-2. Light action 6'9" 2 piece rod. "Fast" action. rated for 1/32 to 1/8 oz. I'm using Pfulger President spinning reels. I think I am using the 2500 size reel. It isn't that typical tiny little spinning reel. I'm using 6 and 8 lb Nanofil with 6 lb P- line CX Premium in a moss green. I don't fish Taneycomo very often, but when I do this set up catches them just fine. Most of the time I trout fish the White River below BSL.

It is sort of a Sweet and Sour day. It really bummed me out that i couldn't make the Wart work, bum sweet that I had em going my way on the other deal. Amazing numbers of smallies. Just stunning.

FNF, your trust was violated. I'd feel the same way and react the same way. I havent been burned on a hunting spot, but I have been burned multiple times on fishing stuff. I'm a little more careful about what I share and what I keep to myself. Hunting really requires more of that than fishing does. He should have known better and he should have behaved better.

Between work, family and the weather my trips for the rest of the calander year will be limited. I hope to trout fish a half dozen times and "warm water" fish another 3 or 4 days. I'll let the Bass Cat slumber for a month or so starting mid Janurary. I HOPE the water temp will stay > 40 degrees that long. If I was retired, I'd pick my days to be sure, but I would try to fish 3-4 days a week. These are VERY good days to fish.

You had more keepers even though neither one of us kept any fish.

I think you can throw the Ned in more wind than you imagine and wind was not required for my fish. I don't think the fish go anywhere. They just hunker down a little tighter to cover and are less willing to move. They'll still eat a little. I lost a couple of jigs to zebra mussels. I saw lots and lots and lots of them in Music creek area. Not gonna be as easy to fish jigs anymore and any fish that wraps you on wood is GONE.

Good job man. I couldn't get it done with the wart today.

I had a pile of Smallies. I had a lot of pullers, but none would have been legal keepers.

. I had a limit of Table Rock style spots

. My best LMB , a little over 17 inches

Mixermaekb had a great day yesterday and was kind enough to share details. He all but gift wrapped a nice day with warts and jerkbaits for me. I put the boat in the water a few minutes after 7AM looking to duplicate his day I launched at Oakland looking for chunk rock and bluff points. I found plenty of both, but hours of cranking and jerking yielded zero bites. I was curious to know if there were fish where I was fishing. Tossed a Ned and caught a keeper spot on the first cast with it. I moved to additional areas cranking. Nada. Rained hit much earlier than I expected and never really quit. I have good raingear. I stayed dry and warm. Water temp was 53-43 degrees. Wind was variable. At times it was over 10 mph, but never bad. EVERYTIME I threw the Ned I caught fish. EVERYTIME I tried jerkbaits or crankbaits I went fishless. I tried 4 different color warts. I tried multiple jerkbaits just in case it was a color thing. At some point, I decided to catch fish instead of throwing a wart some more. I ended up catching 65 fish. 63 of which were bass. I lost two BIG fish that I really couldn't control. I'm not sure what they were, but both fought the same. Big slow head shakes , stayed down, pulled a lot of drag, and then just GONE. I put the boat back on the trailer at 5 pm. I wish the day could have lasted longer. I just ran out of daylight. I have a few pics. I could take a picture of my 17 inch spot. It was raining too hard. I had two giant bluegill, but opted not to photograph them.

All he needs to do is cut those hooks off and replace them with Daiichi Death Traps and he'll be good to go.

Fly rod fishing is tremendously fun. I love lifting up and feeling the fsh load on the rod. I tend to really enjoy drifting midges under indicators. I know I'm not supposed to like it, but I do. BUT I agree completely with you that it takes longer to land them. My hookup ration is poor and my hook up to land ratio isn't much better. I think the best day with a flyrod for trout was 78 fish. I may be forced to try to get 100 trout on a flyrod next year. I've had warm water fishing days were I've caught way over 100 fish, but that's falling ff a log easy to do. Sooo we might not be able to top your best day ever, but still in all you should enjoy yourself.

Well Pete, How many fish would be required for you to reach that number? Conditions have to be right and it can take a litle while to get started catching them sometimes, but I'd be surprised if you don't get 30 or so the first day and 50 or so on the second day IF we have decent water levels and OK weather. So far, my best numbers day on the river was 137 trout with a total number of fish at 161 or so (going by memory so...). I think if everything was right and I got an early start that 200 fish is possible. NOT easy, but possible. 5 fish an hour is a slow bite. 10 fish an hour is just ok. 20 fish or more and hour is a pretty good bite. Not everyone believes me when I talk numbers like that. Most everyone that has fished with me believes it though.

Much better day of fishing than I had at work. I'm glad you were able to get after them and I certainly wish I had been able to do so.. I'm sure that taking out at Ackemann seemed like a good idea. Lol. Maybe you could have largely emptied the boats and them drug them up the hill easier with a rope from the top? Sorry the numbers were down. I'd love to do that float again.

It would be vital to be able to look back at the data in a variety of searchable modes. Looking back at your trips based on month or current water temps, water level, CFS where applicable, by weather trends, by body of water. It would help you refine patterns or decide where your best oppurtuntities lie for the next trip.

What up? Did you do a little Breaking and Entering over the last few months? I must have missed the "I rule on Ebay" thread. They look nice. Catch a ton.

I guess the one question I would ask Ned first would be how cold does the water have to be before the Ned Rig quits working?. I'll do a little experimenting on my own this fall/early winter.

I've tried to tell people how effective a Zig Jig was for cool to cold water bass. I haven't added a trailer to it, but that aint hard.

No worries Pete. I just feel like I've typed that paragraph out about a 1000 times. Come down and have a good time. You'll catch dozens of trout, buy lots of Zig Jigs, and negelect your fly fishing gear in 2015. I'll be as helpful as I can be. I want you to catch more trout in a day than you ever have before.

I disagree. The gar have no minimum length nor creek limits. The gar can fish 24 / 365. I'm not overly concerned about gar eating adult bass, but I do believe gar impact crappie numbers more than rec anglers. I'll leave regulations and possible changes up to the biologist though.

No way man, I want you fishing 15 lb Big Game on a Ugly Stik spinning rod. I need some advantages after all.

*sigh* The three colors I always recommend to start with are Brown/Orange, Triple Olive, and Olive/Ginger. I fish 1/32 oz jigs, but rarely. Water has to be at minimum flow to 1000 CFS. I fish 1/16 oz jigs a fa1r amount when water is < 2000 CFS. You really get hung up on the rocky botttom a LOT LESS when they are running < 2000 CFS than you would if you were using the 1/8 oz jig. I fish 1/8 oz jigs when water is > 2000 CFS Richard sells a 3/16 oz jig now and I should really look into buying some of those in the basic colors, but some far I haven't got any of those. I carry more colors than I should, but you don't have to do that. There are times they can REALLY be hot for one color over another so it does pay to play with color some.