Devan S.

I meandered down last night right at dark driving through. I was hoping they would dump out the golden trout they received but looks like there still in the raceway at the hatchery. Also one raceway has quite a few good sized fish nothing huge but lots of nicer fish. Hoping they stock those goldens soon as thats on my list.

Woah woah woah.....you hire someone directly on payroll to clean the bathroom? I thought everyone outsourced that job at 3-5X the cost?

I've been put off by the debris mat more times than I can count up Kings fishing for crappie. Also caught some nice ones in the cuts in the debris.

I think they are in a lose/lose situation either way. If they say you cant go to the polls and vote, someone, somewhere WILL construe what they said into they are taking away my "right" and it would be possible that someone can and would be used in a lawsuit to contest an election.

Agreed.....but I don't want willy nilly Joe blow behind me in line coughing. I hope that people are using common sense in that case and seeking out the appropriate path to still exercise their right.

Here's what I don't understand from the hard anti mask crowd. Why not....what do you lose or give up by wearing it? Even if the effectiveness were shown to be a minimal 5% isn't that something better than nothing when compared to the potential downsides? Most of us live in a state where state government hasn't mandated mask but have advised and promoted the wearing of them(at least via lip service). I don't understand how that can be construed as giving up freedom. If the answer is I don't like the government telling me what to do. Then why is this the mole hill you want to take a stand on? Surely you refused to wear seat belts by the same token or refuse to follow basic traffic laws? Refuse to file income taxes? Refuse to purchase guns via background checks? Refused to comply with the ACA mandate when it was required? It just in the grand scheme of things seems so minor to me in the risk vs. reward sense. Especially when you add in the fact that in a lot of cases employers are requiring them but people aren't quitting jobs over masks in any significant numbers. It's almost like if it was mandated suddenly en masse people would be on board but when its advisable suddenly everyone wants to take a stand because there's no "penalty"

I'm not in the medical field and certainly not in a government organization. Just thought I would offer a different perspective. We all get zoned into on what we think is right or wrong and sometimes to look at it in another perspective offers up how bias we all really are.

By the same token, try being a government run health agency and advise risk rates and transmission rates when the data(by your own account) is being padded by FOR PROFIT healthcare providers who are trying to boost/misallocate numbers. I firmly believe the government can/does screw up 99.9% of the things it does but in this case, the best crap they have is still crap and a lot of what they are getting comes from the private sector.

I don't disagree with you. Missouri's largest problem by far is the multispecies thing. We don't put singular focus on any single species on a specific lake. Missouri is good at being jack of all trades and master of none. Yet we have the potential to have specific lakes be really, really good at certain things. BTW I have scoured and scoured MDC and AGFC websites and am struggling to find anything relating to sampling at Stockton lake or Beaver tailwaters. I know they get posted here from time to time as attached PDF's but I cant find them stored historically on their websites. Do you have link for any of them?

The growth rates from the Grenada study are measured directly from the fish from Grenada. The colored maps are USDA hardiness zone maps. They are really in effect just a comparison of the average minimum winter temperature which should at least in some sense corelate to minimum water temperature as an average across the area. I don't know of any study specifically related to the growth of crappie at Stockton lake. It probably doesn't exist. I do however think its a stretch to say growth rates are comparable between Stockton and Grenada. If the growth rate for a white crappie at Grenada is 3.7"/year and Stockton is 3.3"/year(a number I just pulled out of thin air to come up with a 10" LL in year 3) then sure they appear close as absolute numbers however the percent difference ends up being 10% difference in growth rates per year which is sizeable when you start talking about 3-4 years compounded. Walcrabass's concept is that Crappie fisheries in themselves are generally catch and keep, not catch and release like bass. In effect his theory is that the biggest contributor to size structure is the LL. Which is probably correct and IF the growth rate is 3.3"/year then adding a year to go from 3 years age class to 4 year age class to harvest is likely not a big deal. However the danger in doing that is that you in effect add an age class of fish to the lake that has to have the food resource available to survive. If you do this with Crappie the effect may be minimal, add in changing bass, walleye, catfish, and the concern is a situation where your add a significant strain on the food resource in a lake that is designed and managed as a multispecies destination. In my opinion this is the biggest difference between Grenada and Stockton all other things considered. Grenada is managed as a trophy crappie lake to the detriment of all other species(as evidenced by their regulations). Their focus is 99% Crappie for that lake and it works and works well. It is a premier Crappie destination that people travel from all over to visit for one thing and one thing only. They aren't attempting to have significant amounts of "other" species" there in any quality or quantity.

Really want to go down there when the lakes are high and in the woods. Jig pole and waders up in the brush.

Half throttle and trim up high. Really put off some rollers.

My biggest pet peeve on Taney is the guys that come down off plane about 85% and plow until they are by you and then back up.

You get on a couple 16-17 inch smallies every time out it seems. Just pretty fish.

Maybe the LL should be increased on Stockton(I'd personally be okay with it across Missouri)....but comparing Stockton to Grenada is impossible. I follow half a dozen guides, have family down there, and have fished down there. The amount of fish removed daily from those lakes make Stockton look like a catch and release lake. It just doesn't compare. These guides are day in and day out pulling multiple limits out of those lakes. 24/7/365. Our guide always talked about "other" fish as trash fish. You want catfish you go to the river. Despite what the usda grow season maps show....Grenada is 250 miles plus south of Stockton and coincidentally about the same distance to Lake Fork(another area with significant crappie populations and size). Plus gators pretty common around there and never show up at Stockton(despite the Taney gator this year). Not to mention the Delta has some of the most fertile dirt in the county. Tons of timber, fairly shallow, muddy water, lots of "flats", tons of flooded timber in the springs, fertile inflows.

I would offer up the fact that 2 state records in recent years(neither caught wading at the outlets), multiple guides, outfitters, resorts along the lake, and readily located in a "tourist" hotspot all contribute magnitudes more. Not saying OA isn't a significant source but I firmly believe people would be stacked along the Taney banks without this site. Heck look at the trout parks which are shoulder to shoulder most of the year too(they don't get near the big fish publicity either) . Personally standing at the outlets isn't much different than the trout parks. Where else can you go, have a place to take the family, and go fish in the mornings/evenings with multiple options(Taney, BS, TRL) all within minutes drive? It's literally the perfect storm and its so easy literally anyone can try it without much $$. Ever try to take a family vacation to Lake Fork with a wife and kids that can't fish all day? Sure a secret out of the way smallmouth streams....probably an OA issue but Taney has a lot of other things working against it besides OA.

I assume the spot at RR was down by the cemetery. Contrary to popular belief its been private and the owners have been running people off for years and years. I grew up my whole life in that area knowing it was only a matter of time until I got "caught" and run off. Between the parties, trash, and constant barrage of 4 wheeling in that area I'm surprised it took them this long to put up actual fences.

And yet people still buy them, spend hundreds trying to get 1 or 2 mph via propping and run all out everywhere they go. Its effectively planned obsolescence.

I've been looking for gar.......Arkansas Master Angler is 10lb.....I thought it would be the easiest to do as I knew a pretty good spot. Been twice and nothing. Seems like if your looking for em.....I cant find them.....otherwise....their there.

take a bigger net. Chances are high you will run into stripers that are much larger than your trout net.

Or you have to be willing to harvest ALOT of them at small sizes. Catfish are pretty common in ponds. I have a half acre pond that once had channel cat(probably still has some) but we don't ever catch any. I thought I read somewhere that Catfish were actually bad about the amount of waste produced compared to other game fish. Have seriously done some investigation and when the time comes and I spend the money to clean out the pond. I will in all likely hood stock hybrid striper in a limited number in the pond.

Mr. Giggles is right. In fact most really big crappie from southern states come from ponds instead of lakes. The lakes pump out quantity of 3 lb fish but small ponds are usually the ones responsible for the 4-5lb crappie.

Thought I would follow this up. We went out Saturday and ran all the way to pt. 6. Awfully hard to drive around and see topwater fish when the wind is really blowing. We ran back and bass fished. Zero fish all day.

I found NFOW and Eleven Point both much more difficult than expected for the "Wild" trout streams. In both cases, I caught my fish just covering water with a jig like I would at Taneycomo out of a boat. I fished both in the early summer in higher water levels but in both cases I used a 1/8 oz jig as I just felt I wasn't getting deep enough with smaller jigs.

You don't expect them to slow down when BS reaches 659? Will probably drop below 662 today so my assumption is that slower days are ahead maybe as soon as this week? I'm concerned because I'm coming down on the 24th and would like to wade fish if possible.