Bill B.

My favorite fishing-related sites (besided this one) include: www.crappie.com www.texasfishingforum.com www.bassresource.com www.ultimatebass.com www.paddling.net www.walleyecentral.com www.tackletour.com

Looks as if Norfork is getting a makeover, as well: http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/planning/wrminflow_pdf/DraftProjectRpt.pdf

I feel that way about some of the places that I DID get to see and fish. The riffles on the Osage near the Boy Scout camp, for example. The dam at Osceola. The stretch of the Sac that Stockton drowned. Taneycomo as it was in the 1960s. Truman Lake the first few years after it filled. We'll never see the likes of any of those again. Not in what's left of my lifetime, anyway.

H*ll, I get startled when herons fly out of the trees overhead at night below the hatchery at Taneycomo. Rawwwk! A beaver can really wake you up when it bumps into your legs while you are belly-boating in a strip pit at night. Or when a big ol' water snake wriggles through your legs while you are in a belly boat.

While fishing the flats one day last week for whites, I caught at least 10 largemouths, including two that would have measured. They were in four feet of water or less and were chasing shad.

Riversmallies published a heck of a lot of useful information over its run, especially prior to the last year or two. I will miss it.

Looks like Riversmallies has gone belly up. When you click on the site's "current" url, you get an "account suspended" message. Does anyone here have any more information about the site's demise?

For years, Frank Fensom had the generally acknowledged Table Rock record bass. I don't remember the details, other than that he caught it during cold weather, on a bank where he had seen some dead shad blown in by the wind. Frank owned a tackle store in Raytown during Truman Lake's early years. I have several books with photos of Sam Welch taken during the late '50s and early '60s. He caught some incredible strings of bass out of Bull Shoals when it was young. Take a look at this Web page and tell me what the photo implies: http://tablerocklake.us/index.html

I have a 14-foot Mad River Tahoe two-person canoe for sale in Columbia for $350. It's in decent condition, with skid plates. There's some scuffing on the gunwales and sun-bleaching of the hull. Otherwise, the hull is in good shape. I can send photos to anyone who wants to see them. Minus skid plates, the Tahoe officially weighs 55 pounds, so it's light enough for easy carrying.

Fox News said they were fishing in Columbia Bottom on the Missouri River. That's the MDC area right where the Missouri dumps into the Mississippi. Check out the video at Fox News in St Louis. Type catfish in the search bar: http://www.fox2now.com/ (For some reason, the commas in the link to the actual story are messing it up when I try to post it.)

That might not be a bad idea. Asian carp would be an inexpensive, renewable source of high-quality protein. We could can them and give them away as part of the commodities program.

Go up to "General Angling Discussion" and check out the story about the new Missouri state record striper caught there last week.

This thread from another board might interest you: http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5023974/8_pound_12_oz_hybrid_caught_on#Post5023974

I moved this to the Beaver Lake folder. My mistake.

Right. They generate during periods of peak demand, to supplement other power sources. Weekdays produce peak demand. It works the same way at Thomas Hill and Montrose. Catch your fish on weekdays during the winter. On weekends, shovel the walk.

You should be able to run from one end of the lake to the other in less than 20 minutes. It's not a very big lake.

You mentioned that bass caught on the Big Blue over by the Heart Drive-In. I found an old book once, at the K.C. Public Library, that had a photo of several guys in a flat-bottomed boat at a landing on the Big Blue in KC. I think the book was published about 1900. The guys were holding a string of bass, and the caption described a regular guided bass-fishing excursion that was available on the river. That was before the steel mill, auto plant and other industrial development that polluted the Big Blue so badly. The Little Blue is one heck of a lot cleaner now than it was when I was a kid, especially through Independence and on to the river.

The Little Blue has everything that swims in Jacomo, Blue Springs and Longview, including bass. Not in large numbers, maybe, but they are there. Plus, a lot of fish that come up from the Missouri River during high water. There are some nice ledges and riffles between Longview Dam and Blue Mills Road.

It's easy to keep fresh chicken liver on a single hook, using a trick I learned at James A. Reed in the 1960s. Just run the hook through the liver lobe a couple or three times. Then wrap the liver moderately tightly about a dozen times with sewing thread. Cut the thread, and you're ready to cast. You can toss the liver a country mile without throwing it off the hook. Catfish don't seem to notice the thread; if anything, the thread absorbs blood and juices and tastes as good as the liver. To rebait, just snip off the old thread with a pair of scissors. As for treble hooks, a single hook is usually one heck of a lot easier to remove from a catfish's throat. I've used the brown-sugar trick with livers before, and it's deadly.

I've floated from Turner Bend to just above the interstate highway. That can be a long, hot float in mid-summer, when the water's low. On the other hand, the long, green pools hold some nice largemouths and Kentuckies. You can pretty easily bypass most of the tricky places when the water's low, as long as you keep your eyes open for them. Take out above them and fish those runs before you take your canoes through them.

Rainbows and browns come down the Niangua in the winter. I've caught them below Tunnel Dam in the spring. It doesn't surprise me that a few spread on into the lake when the water is cold enough.

La Cygne is a lot closer to KC. Walk back to the hot-water discharge waterfall anytime in April and try in the current right below the cable at the crack of dawn.

I love fishing strip pits from a float tube. You can sneak right up on those big bassies. And when half a dozen of those yard-long water serpents slither off the bank all at once and start swimming towards you to check you out, it can really make your day.

I've been fishing from tubes for 30 years or more. They are a hoot. Right now, I have a Fat Cat and a set of dive fins for covering distance. If I'm fishing in a relatively small area such as a strip pit, then I don't use fins at all.

Better hurry--only seven hours left: http://cgi.ebay.com/Fishmaster-Paddle-Pushers-wader-float-accessories_W0QQitemZ250590093755QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a585561bb