Bill B.

I have not fished Bull Shoals a lot, especially in the last 15 years. But in 1968, when I was a kid, the water was way up into the willow trees in May and June. My dad took me to K Dock the day after Bobby Kennedy got shot, and we spent three days trolling for walleye, up and down the channel in an aluminum rental boat rigged with my dad's 5-horse motor. Way out from shore, you could look down into the clear water and see the tops of willow trees underwater. The hot lure was a shad-colored Thin Fin, which wiggled along just a couple or three feet under the surface. When you hung one in a willow, it was easy to retrieve. We caught walleyes, white bass and big crappie for three days, just doing that. I have no idea how high the lake actually was. Probably not much help 40 years later.

A friend of mine from Rocheport fished there yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, from about 4 p.m. until dark. He didn't catch a fish and said he saw very few caught by anybody else. I don't know which side he was fishing on.

Fished below the dam yesterday (3-25) morning. Lots of murky, 45-degree water coming over all four spillway gates. Fishing was tough. In four hours, I caught one decent white bass and lost a snagged spoonbill. In the four hours I was there, I counted three nice crappie, two small walleye and a couple of decent white bass caught by the 25 or so people who were lined up there. Plus, several buffalo. Watched half a dozen people fishing on the generator side during the early afternoon; after half an hour, no one had caught a fish.

Wait until the last part of April and fish the white bass run.

One Thanksgiving weekend in the middle 1960s, my dad took me white bass fishing at Lead Hill Boat Dock. We had fished the lake a couple of times before, always in the spring, when the whites were up in Swan Creek. In November, the big whites used to pile up on the channel break out in front of the Lead Hill dock, and people would just slay them on spoons. Anyway, the first night we were there, we noticed a bunch of cars parked at the heated dock, so we checked it out. The white bass fishing was even better off the dock in the middle of the night than it was on the lake in the daytime. They were stringing up big crappie, too, and even a few rainbow trout. I'll never forget that trip, or what Bull Shoals was like from about 1963 through the late 1970s.

I think I know why the Station hasn't changed its report since August. Until just the last couple of weeks, Truman has been several feet low. There hasn't been much water through the dam. Fishing directly downstream has been lousy, lousy, lousy. Later in the season, you can get an occasional upper-lake report at http://www.oldoarhouseinn.com/ But they probably won't start posting again until the start of spoonbill snagging in mid-March.

Hey, Bill B., Call the Kaseyville Store at 660-777-3525. The store is located at the northwest end of the lake. They sell a bit of bait & tackle, and serve breakfast to a lot of the locals who fish TH. They'll give you a conditions report. Bill B.

I agree with Bill Butts. TH is the only hot-water discharge on the Missouri side that's reasonably close to St. Louis. There's another power plant lake at Montrose, but that's 15 miles west of the west end of Truman Lake--a long drive for you. Besides, Montrose is not the lake it used to be. I fished there last week for bass, and we caught only a couple of small channel cats and flatheads. Water temp was 54 degrees in the canal. It was opening day, and the place was practically deserted. Once upon a time, Montrose was a terrific crappie lake, and winter was a great time to catch them. But I haven't caught a crappie at the Montrose discharge in at least 12 years.

I heard last week that the plant has been shut down for repairs. Don't know when it will fire back up, but that has pretty much killed the hot-water fishing, I think.

I do pretty well trolling a $50 bill down Independence Avenue. But Kansas City is a long way from Mountain Home. With all this nice weather, there should be some fish up toward the Arkansas line and even on the Missouri side.

Yes, you can fish at least part of the canal from the bank, unless the water's high. It shouldn't be, right now. You can fish at the very top and very bottom of the canal. A boat or canoe gets you over to the far side of the outlet, where bigger fish tend to feed. It also gets you up into the main length of the canal where there is no bank access. And, I forgot to add, it takes about an hour to get up there from downtown Columbia.

The Jacomo outlet is best right after hard rains in April or May, when water from Jacomo pours over the waterfalls into Blue Springs Lake. The first 30 minutes after daybreak can be a lot of fun. The easiest place to catch hybrids on a fly rod in Missouri right now would be Thomas Hill, hands down.

I've no doubt that prolonged low water has seriously affected the fishery. McManus, I was in the general vicinity of Barclay.

Made my first (and only) fall Niangua trip yesterday. The river is low and clear. The browns, which seem to get smaller every year, rather than bigger, were smaller this year than ever before. Where I used to catch fat, healthy 15-inch fish, this year I caught skinny, 10- to 12-inch fish. Pretty disappointing.

I know of some beautiful places to cast a streamer for white bass in the spring. The Little Niangua would be one of them, in the first mile above LOZ. Anytime in April, especially after a warm rain. Right now, you could easily catch them on streamers while wading the flats and shallow points at Truman or Smithville.

Nice fish. What state? Doesn't look like Misery or Arkansas.

That's not a blue. It's a wels catfish. From Europe. But that photo has been widely passed around on the Internet as taken in the U.S. Look closely at the tail.

I have done this the past two Tuesdays. Two weeks ago, I had a good trip. Caught 25-30 decent whites and quite a few small ones, and one 18-inch hybrid, all on top. The day was cloudy, with a moderate NE wind. I fished from 6:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Last Tuesday, there was a breeze out of the south, but the cloud cover broke up early. I only fished until 11 a.m. Caught two decent whites and several small ones. If Truman weren't two hours away from me, I'd fish it more often. Besides, the big hybrids at Thomas Hill are hungry.

Look for shallow gravel flats with the wind blowing straight onto them. The windier, the better. If the wind is blowing shad onto the banks, the white bass will follow. I fish mostly within the first few miles of the dam.

Florida crosses male stripers with female white bass, I think. They call that hybrid a "sunshine bass." Most hatcheries do it the other way around. Is that what you mean?

It's been a circus for a long time. When I think about how Taneycomo was in the 1960s and '70s, and then think about how it is now...

Order "A Paddlers Guide" from the MDC for $6. Actually, order two, one to keep at home and one to keep in the car. http://www.mdcnatureshop.com/mdc.cgi/01-0052.html

We're moving into my favorite time of the year to fish Truman. From the end of September through mid-November, you can catch nice white bass and hybrids just by walking the bank and throwing topwater lures or Roadrunners. I like that both because I don't have a boat and because I love to wade and fish. Does anybody else out there wade Truman in the fall?

I checked with the MDC a couple of weeks ago. They hadn't heard anything.

Josh, watch e-Bay. You might see your old lures show up there in the next few days. If they're distinctive enough, that might lead to a bust.