Devan S.

If your 1/4 done with an Mechanical Engineering degree I would focus on a degree like manufacturing technologies that isn't full blown engineering. My experience only but lots of rural America manufacturing facilities look for people with engineering qualities + real world knowledge without a degree that they can avoid paying engineering wages too. Its not right but its the reality. Those people are few and far between, most degreed engineers cannot weld or work on production equipment or want to in a work environment. Most maintenance guys cannot or do not want to do things like prep power points for cost savings or design manufacturing fixtures. Most companies don't want to pay for a manufacturing engineer(60k+) but would gladly pay 45k and benefits for someone that can handle both maintenance and engineering. Lots of these positions exist and are taken by guys that are 55+ without a degree and they "worked" up through the company to their position. When they replace them they look for degrees but they don't really want those people if they can find someone who fits the bill. I know Sedalia has several places like this at a minimum.

I would like to upgrade to a 3/4 ton or bigger but just cant handle the prices. I need to haul cattle 2-3 times a year(think 20+ 6 wt calves), ability to haul 10-15k tractors and equipment, and hay. Its got me seriously considering a larger series trucks(450,550) or a day cab semi. You want a no frills work truck for actual work and start shopping for semi's and you suddenly realize what the US truck market is.

Bummer on the striper....I'm still seeing reports on FB of people finding top water fish but I think these reports are happening father down lake than the dam area. Most of the time they are guides too so it helps to spend every day on the water. Did you see many guide boats in the area? I may give it a whirl Sunday.......going to the hatchery in Centerton Saturday morning so Sunday will be my first shot in awhile.

I did not although I wanted to try. Rumor has it there is pretty good catfishing there too.

I threw drop shot with worm on it some and nothing(not vertical just casting and working back slowly). We had 2 other boats ask how we were catching fish because they weren't and we determined they were fishing worms and us crickets. One thing I noticed.....the lake was very dirty. Like I couldn't see my trolling motor head 8" under the surface. I don't know if that's normal but I figure it means you really got to bang em right in the head with your bait. Also we never fished in a spot much deeper than 6ft.

Only caught the one red ear everything else was a gill. We got there early and caught lots of fish the first 2 hours....after all the other boats started pan fishing it really slowed down.

Drove down to Bob Kid on my panfish quest. Water temp was 72-75 everywhere we saw. Spent the whole day throwing crickets about 3' below a float basically running the weed line or spawning cuts. Ended the day with about 80 bream.....biggest fish was a 3/4lb red ear. Lots of 7-8" gills which run between .4-.6lbs. Just an insane amount of pressure for such a small body of water. We saw at one point 14 boats not counting kayaks/paddle johns(people constantly coming and going). There was 5-6 boats doing exactly what we were doing.

How big were the bream? Were they up shallow or deeper?

Thanks for the update. I fished Saturday/Sunday and blanked both days and never saw anything. Saturday the wind made it difficult to spot anything. I put in @ Indian Creek but ran nearly to Rocky.

I knew Swepco would be bad but a buddy said it generally gets that way when I'm thinking about trout/walleye(late fall into early spring). If I get to Bob Kidd and the parking lot is full can you park in the grassy area around the parking lot? I just dont want to drive 1.5hrs to not be able to find a parking spot.

Man a trip to the SW part of the state and you should be able to easily get a brown, mccloud rainbow @ crane creek, a goggleye/ozark bass, maybe toss in a black crappie?

Its not done with trucks because despite what you guys think that market doesn't exist to offset a higher end truck. Every single person that says I want a plain jane truck, no bells and whistles, is already driving a 20 y/o truck and consistently buys on the used market, not the new market(FWIW I'm right in the middle of this market with you guys). Even if a mfg brought out a truck like we want it wouldn't be the mass seller you think it would year over year. It might crush sales 1 or 2 years but guys like us aren't swapping for new trucks every 3 or 4 years(heck even fleet trucks are getting away from this). There's far too many people running around in 3/4 ton, 1 ton, and diesels without gooseneck hitches and without trailers hooked on. That right there should tell you all you need to know about the "truck market".

Well I am starting to scope out either Elmdale, Bob Kid, or Swepco for my next trips. I expect that Swepco will be a fight for a parking spot on a weekend day if I haul over my bass boat. Will I be fighting for parking at Elmdale or Bob Kid if I drag the bass boat over on a weekend? Are any of these lakes covered in vegetation like Leatherwood?

If you could possibly find 1 or 2 nefarious users you could make an example of them.....then you would at least have a possible court record indicating you attempted to enforce no trespassing.

I would think if its posted no trespassing(regardless of if you enforce it or not). Then it would absolve you of some level of liability?

Bass are money fish.....therefore most of the run and guns would be all for it. Least likely fish to be filleted yet the loudest people when it comes to wanting fish stocked to protect their play toy. These people don't care about your white bass problems.

I'm strictly looking for active top water fish. I'm looking for splashes/swirls and hoping I'm close enough to toss to them or that its sustained long enough I can sneak up to them. I'm certain someone could fish subsurface and catch fish and I saw multiple boats with planer boards out. I like the fact that I can be back home by 830 or 9am. Don't have to fight the crowds and still have the whole rest of the day.

Saturday we just weren't in the spot....just too far away for the brief window we had. Then we took off looking and saw nothing. Sunday was just terrible....except for this.

Saturday we had a very, very brief 10 minute opportunity for top water. I thought for sure the cloudy rainy day would mean maybe 2 hours of fishing top water but we ran down all my honey holes between Indian creek and point 6 and only had a handful of activity. Sunday I thought with the change maybe it might be "normal" but it was not. I am not sure I saw any activity. I avoided any major runs and staying right between Indian Creek and the Dam just watching. Since I didn't have anyone with me, I took the fly rod hoping to catch something and spent a lot of time casting spots I've had luck before with no results.

Headed over to leatherwood looking for panfish. I was over there about this time last year and the lower end was relatively free of grass....that is not the case now. As far as I could tell the (hydrilla)? now extends the entire bank. I'm sure this is just a killer amount of cover for fish to hide in but its impossible for me to fish effectively. We did catch some fish, several redear(small), small bass, and one 8" crappie. The redear were in the back of a cove almost bedded up and they wouldn't take live bait at all. Would ignore a crawler dropped right in the bed. I didn't see any jumbo panfish so I highly doubt I will go back as its somewhat out of the way and just crazy difficult to fish with all the grass.

My Xi5 does nearly the exact same thing and its not connected to anything.....

I will have to defer to someone else on the smallies on flat creek. I've never been there myself but have heard from several people there is some decent options in the area. My guess is that a canoe or kayak will be needed but not 100% sure on that.

I don't think you will find smallies. Also you are highly likely to find a pissed off gun toting redneck that believes he owns the banks, river, and road through. He will call and have you towed if you park. Personally I would avoid anything terribly far below the conservation area. He had put up fencing all along through muncie down by the bridge crossings but I believe it all washed out a couple weeks ago. IF smallies are on your list, head to lower flat creek, james river, or Kings river locally.

My boat will run mid 40's and I'm not fast by any means and find myself cutting back into the high 20's and 30's just for cruising. I think the concern is legitimate and even when I am at Taney and have to slow down and zig zag through the kayaks I cuss and get upset....but ironically I don't have any problem with doing the same for boats drifting in the middle fishing but the action I have to take to avoid is exactly the same. FWIW when I floated the MR340...my biggest concerns wasn't barges, wing dikes, or the river. It was buoys being pulled under and popping back up and power boats. Everything else I could see and prepare to avoid but power boats travel fast enough and unpredictable enough that I alone cannot out maneuver them. It would be the exact same on any lake or river in a Kayak.

In the past, I was using a medium action bait cast setup with 10lb mono and it works. You just have to play the fish a bit. Yesterday I was using a big swimbait rod with 20lb mono. I was pretty well horsing them the best I could.