Ham

It was my absolute pleasure to fish with Richard Button and BilletHead yesterday on Taneycomo. I swung by Lilley's Landing and got my trout stamp and a couple of OAF stickers. They have a really well stocked shop. i was sorely tempted to shop, but I had to meet the guys at the ramp. We launched at Cooper Creek. Very nice launch. It was pretty chilly 28 degrees or so. Billethead had gotten a tip or two from DuckyDoty so we headed up above Fall Creek and fished the deeper side of the river. Not surprisingly, I threw Zig Jigs. Richard and BilletHead started with fly rods. We all started with White jigs or flys, but I honestly think the bloom is off that rose. Judging by all the White Jigs I saw broken off in trees up and down the river, that was definitely the deal recently. It's always worth a try when they are generating, but we just did not catch that many on White. I broke off a White jig and switched to Tri Olive. I caught a fish almost immediately with it and stayed away from White most of the rest of the day. Brown/orange was also good for us. We caught a few, but curiosity got the best of me and I decided to run up close to the dam. We ran all the way to the cable. We spotted DD up river and watched one of his guys catch a nice fish on a fly drift rig on spinning. We started on a section of bank that Richard and BilletHead know well. We almost immediately started catching fish. Action was much better in that area. I know we could have put up huge numbers if the wind had been <10 mph. The wind was just a pain in the butt. It makes it tough to sling flys. It makes it tough to get a good drift and I really struggle to jig fish when the wind gets >10 mph. We were getting blown upstream against pretty decent generation. They had run about 7000 CFS and it dropped by dribs and drabs down to 5300 or so. Whenever I could get a good drift and the wind would slow just a tad, one of us would hook up. We also had a bunch of doubles, but we never got a triple. The fish were fat and happy. generation really helps those fish fatten up. Shad are a great food for the trout. I think the "extra" water helps the entire food chain. Billethead is a 99.44 % pure fly rod fisherman. He caught some on streamers and some beneath an indicator. Big San Juans, 1/32 oz Zig Jigs, and Y2K's all caught fish for him. He did sling a Zig Jig just for a minute to catch a couple of fish just to show me he could. I brought a couple of fly rods, but never strung one up. I did borrow Richard's fly rod for a few minutes and caught a small one and lost another drifting a 1/32 oz Zig. The wind soon irritated me too much to keep that up. Point made and back to Zig Jigs. Richard did better with jigs. He had a lot of fish hooked on the fly rod, but I'm not sure he got any to the boat with it. He had some real nice jig fish though. We all caught enough fish to keep us interested. The wind kept us cool, but the sunshine was good for the soul. I had such a good time with these two gentleman. The day flew by. Richard brought drinks and sandwiches. BilletHead brought some goose jerky that was as good as any jerky I've ever had. Makes me wish I hunted geese. You might think you know what goose tastes like, but if you haven't had it done right, you just don't know. i hope we can do it again soon. Here, there, or somewhere else ; I look forward to fishing with either or both of them again. BilletHead took a few pictures. Maybe he'll share.

I like biscuits.

Did I? My bad. Yep, I'll bend them down. I'll be by in the morning. Are you guys open before 0800?

I usually fish barbless. Barbless is required above where? Do you sell the trout stamps at your place Phil?

I'm going to drag my boat up to Taney in the morning and fish with Billethead and our buddy Richard. I am going to be strictly catch and release fishing. Do I need any additional license above my Missouri Annual Out of State Fishing License? I always want to fish legal.

Sounds like someone I know that struggled to be heard about a Midwest Finesse technique.

If at first you don't succeed, try try again. No worries, I still have all my limbs and digits.

I put in more sweat equity at the Bluff lot. I chain sawed down 4 trees and then cut them to manageable size. Burned up some wood. Came home and got some leaves up and later changed the oil in my truck. I'd rather have been with QB.

Don't look now! Bull Shoals in back in the 670's. In a few more weeks, I might be able to launch at Jimmy Creek again.

Let me know when you guys want to Nit Pick the GOP hopefuls. I've got some thoughts on that. Rest assured that there is NO WAY I'm ever going to vote for HRC for any elected office. I mean, I'd vote her off an island in a heartbeat, but I never want her making decisions that might affect me.

IN does depend on the size of the boat. If it is a 14 foot jon boat with a 36 inch bottom, 6 rods is probably a little much. 17 foot and above glass boat, no problem.

The mix of winter baits I would throw gets pretty small. Float and Fly, Small skirted jig with trailer, Jerk baits. (100 size max), hair jig or in my case a Zig Jig, Ned Rig, tuibe or Ika, and a Hula Grub on a jig head. That's about it Most of those things are smallish, but more a reduced speed/activity level from warmer water periods than reduced size. I don't throw a lot of stuff larger than that when the water is warmer. If I had to do so, I could be pretty happy heading to the river when the water is cool/cold with one rod and a dozen 1/8 oz Zig Jigs.

1) National Defense. Russia and China are still not our friends. Don't look for that to change. ISIS is a threat, but still not on the same scale as the Rooskis. 2) National Identity and Border security. I can not think of any other nation that does as poor a job with border security as we do. It makes me wonder if changing the demographics to favor the party of entitlements is not part of a plan to permanently gerrymander. 3) Our economy. Assuming that people want to work, they need satisfying work to do. 4) Our environment. Clean air and water are basic needs and used to be a basic assumption. Proper environmental practices are part of ethical business behavior. Major corps become organized crime when they willfully choose to pollute and pay the fine when caught rather than operate in a cleaner fashion because increased operation costs. 5) Fixing our political process. We need qualified people going to Washington and the State houses to SERVE ; To give back for the opportunities they had. Go there for a term limited amount of time and work with others for the good of the country not the good of the party. I hate the term career politician. I hate the Golden parachutes they have legislated for themselves. All of the national level politicians leave office as millionaires. They spend millions to get a job that pays thousands. That's a Red Flag. The quasi legal perks and the bags of cash from lobbyists have to stop.

It looked like suicide by Policeman to me, but I'll be darn if I can understand why he would choose to act hat way.

Watched the video multiple times. Some versions are pretty hard to interpret, but it's clear that it did not have to end this way. They could have surrendered. Once you try to run a road block unsuccessfully and multiple guys are pointing firearms at you, that is a terrible time to reach into your jacket. It would have been a lot cleaner if the federal agents had let him get the gun out of his jacket before they fired. I'm sure they were pretty amped up too and did not want to get shot by this knucklehead.

I really believe that the DNC will do everything in their power to keep Bernie from being the democratic nominee. Both parties get way too much soft money from Wall Street for either party to run a person that plans to destroy Wall Street. But besides that, your man Bernie doesn't understand the difference between a secured loan and an unsecured loan and why most lenders require a higher interest rate on the unsecured loan. He also has some really wacky ideas about why people are in jails. Hint: He believes its because they want to have a high occupancy rate in the prisons. I get the desire to break the wheel and start over, but check your man Sanders out top to bottom before you swing that lever.

Given the high number of sailboat on Stockton, I have no doubt it gets windy. I'm sure it gets rough, but you have to see Rayburn on a bad day to understand.

J-Doc, when you get a minute, look at google earth or another mappng site and look at how Rayburn lays out Unlike the lakes up here, there aren't any twists and turns to hamper wave development. The waves grow and grow and grow as they roll down lake. The small craft advisories mean something down there. I've fished BSL when the wind was 30 mph and gusting to 45 mph and we caught fish. It wasn't the most fun I ever had, but I never felt like my life was in danger. No way I'm trying to fish Rayburn or Toledo Bend under those conditions.

That's what I was struggling to understand. Why does a guy with 11 kids and 19 grandkids throw his life away over something as stupid as this?

Go check out Sam Rayburn when there is a 20 MPH wind from the NW. It's more likely that the Coast Guard is going to save you day than a spinnerbait. You absolutely cant imagine how bad it is until you experience it first hand. Never again for me.

I've never been on it during the summer. My understanding is that rec traffic is heavy. I try to limit my trips on those type rivers to the "off season". Spring before school is out and fall when school is back in. Better weather for camping anyway.

Nope

Ned Rig worked REAL well at Toledo Bend. Really well. Inside edge of weedline. Deadly. Around bridges, Boat docks. Points. I would expect the same at Fork.

OK, Now you've gotten my attention.