Ham

Pretty country. I NEED to go catch some SHOAL BASS REAL BAD. Maybe next year.

I enjoyed the pictures. Cajunangler and I are still having good success when we go, but the river trips are drawing to a close for the year. Between work and the cooling temps, I might get another 3 or 4 days on the creeks this year. We put in long, hard days that usually involve a fair amount of driving and gas money. That level of effort and expense isn't justified UNLESS you're catching a BUNCH of fish. ie I won't do those trips for a handful of bites/fish. I am of good cheer though. The White river is fishing great and BSL/Norfork will get hot and stay fishable until the water hits 40 degreees.

It's a tool like any other lure. I like it better down south where there are lots of flats with aquatic vegetation.

Or you could just turn the fish loose quickly and and not worry about it. If I ever get tired of catching > 14 inch smallies from an Ozark Creek, somebody needs to shoot me.

I try egg patterns October thru March. I haven't used my flyrod for trout lately, but if and when I get to wade again, I'll give egg patterns a try. I tend to start with a Y2K.

Lower water, but not easy wading yet. You use a boat to get to spots you could wade. Fishing is pretty good. I'm getting around 10-15 fish to hand per hour.

6 foot Browning Medallion GT Medium. Thie rod has a short grip and a little shofter action. I'm good with throwing up to 1/2 oz lures on it. You can go custom and get a beautiful heirloom rod, but you can do a LOT worse than this rod For actual fishing quality and spend a lot more on the other rods. Pick a nice high speed bait caster of your choice. I'm partial to Shimanos and Diawas. Minimum of 6:1, but I'd look at the 7:1's too. spool that puppy up with 10, 12, or 14 lb Silver Thread and get after it. Pick your price breakpoint, but I would guess you should be real happy with a reel costing btw $150-$250. Put the left over in a savings acct and add a little to it every month and you'll have a fishing account that you can get an upgrade on a fishing combo every year.

Points, 45 degree banks, and bluff banks mostly.

You can't wind a bait faster than a bass can swim.

Great story bro.

I'd love to see one in the wild, but I spend too much time in smallie water and not enough time in hellie water.

I'm more of a 2A and 6A guy myself. I did have a lot of luck on the original 5A's where the line tine goes straight into the bait not into the bill.

are you wearing neo's already?

I've been fishing for roughly 45 years and i have NEVER caught a Logperch. You catch two in one day and have the audacity to act as if catching them is common place. I am offically jealous. Nice walleye too, but I catch a few of them every year since I've moved up here.

TR can treat you much worse than that. 13 fish even with no "keepers" ain't a bad day on the rock.

I wouldn't be unhappy with a SHawnee, Top Water, Supreme, or "#1" boat. All four are very good boats. The basic design is wonderfully spartan. Durable and low maintainence. I have a 2002 Supreme with a Merc 20 HP Jet. I'm very happy with my boat. I've fished in three states with it so far and caught literally thousands of fish out of it. Good Luck and Good Fishing!

The normal courtesy dock had been pulled. It has been damaged somehow and is considered unsafe. Makes it tough to launch/load a glass boat by yourself. Hopefully, someone can post when this dock gets replaced. I'll be heading to other launches til then.

Have you called Bass Pro Shops and voiced your concerns? What about MDC? Did they have run flat tires on the truck? That type stuff is typical behavior of Marine Shops, but I would have called Bass Pro and MDC about it.

I don't know where you are driving from to start your trip, but the Current river near Van Buren is a great float camp river. Better rivers for fishing, but GREAT river for a float/camp.

You need to get some Zig Jigs.

the Top Dollar should look like something in distress. It looks like a shad having a seizure. It isn't hard to walk, it's impossible to walk for the whole cast and it will have you cussing yourself for being a bad caster. That **** bait has a mind of it's own. The flat sides catch air and it becomes a knuckleball.

Bummer

We started on JAck's Fork and floated down below Log Yard. Nice float just not as many fish as it looked like it should have.

Cajun Angler and I did a three day trip on the Current last week. The river is beautiful with steady flow and plenty of gravel bars to camp on along the way. We sure didn't get hot as the weather had turned cooler and we wet waded in those cool spring waters. Lots of stuff looked perfect for smallies, but the river was tougher than I expected it to be. I really thought we would do better on topwaters than we did. It was pretty high skies the first two days and the fish did bite better in the afternoons. Does the Current normally give up big numbers of fish like the Buffalo or Gasconade? We noticed lots of guys with minnow traps. Are folks primarily live bait fishing for smaliles or is there a different fish they are gathering bait for? We caught a few Chain Pickeral along the way. Are they in most of the eastern MO river systems?

I have 2 Sammy 85's I'd like to sell (Ghost Minnow and Ayu) and 2 Sammy 65's. (one is Aurora Black Back and the other is a Black with some sheen to it. like Black Laser or something like that). All four are in like new shape, but are out of their original packaging. I'd like to sell the 85's as a set and the 65's as a set. Or all four at an even better deal. $15 (plus $2.50 for shipping) for 2 or $25 for all four and I'll cover shipping.