Ranger Dave

I had one of those LG fridges. Mine looked identical to yours and mine failed too. Turns out there was a class action law suit against them. Every fridge they sold failed. It is due to holes developing in the evaporator section letting the refrigerant out and air in. Causes the linear compressor to overwork and eventually fail. The fridge came with a 10 year warranty on the compressor and the sealed refrigerant system. Failed in 3 years. They worked on it 5 times and finally gave up and told me to buy a new fridge. They would not honor their warranty. I had to get the Attorney General in Jefferson City involved. Finally got a new fridge. I was without a fridge for 7 months.

I have a lifetime permit that I purchased around 2003 for $275. Bought one for me and one for my wife. It has paid for itself many times now.

I went last weekend (September 10/11). I did not do real well. I was in a group of 4 people. We fished for whites and crappie from Friday evening to Saturday evening. There was a ton of fish on the graph along with hundreds of schools of shad but we could hardly get a fish to bite. I talked to several others and they were experiencing the same thing. One guy I talked to had a Live Scope and he said he could see a ton of fish but he had to get the jig 6" in front of their nose to get them to bite. I talked to the Striper Fever Guide and he even said it was tough. It was very frustrating. Last year at this time I was catching a lot of white bass.

What part of the lake are you going to be at. Truman is a big lake and depending on your location you may want to stay near Warsaw or Clinton. I think Bucksaw Point (near Clinton) used to have a floating bunkhouse. There are several motels near Clinton and Warsaw and several on Highway 7 between Warsaw and Tightwad.

When you reference the bridge piers, do you mean the bridge on Hwy 10? If yes, how do you get above the first shoal north of the Hwy 10 bridge? Once I get to the shoal, I can't figure out how to get past it. I have tried going up the west side but ran into too many obstacles to pass.

I fished Spring River today (Tuesday). I did not go above the floating cabins. We caught about 70 whites and kept 40. Most were around 13" to 15". We had 4 fat ones that were 16". I am glad we only kept 40. I got very tired of cleaning fish.

With all the rain we have had and all the rain that is expected, I figure the muddy water will hinder the fishing for at least 10 to 14 days. I just hope we don't keep getting a significant rain every week since the ground is saturated and also any water is going to muddy the water.

I went fishing on Tuesday, March 9. We did really well. We caught about 45 but only kept 34. They were really nice size. The largest was 17" but most were around 15". The ones we threw back were about 10". I normally would have kept the smaller ones but the 10 inch fish look rather small when you are catching 15 inchers. We tried jigs but did the best on flicker shads. Most people were going way up river and there were about 6 boats just north of the floating docks. I don't know why they were there. I didn't catch much in this area and I didn't see anyone else catching there either. We fished from the irrigation pump all the way to the floating cabins. We never found any one place that had them really stacked up.

How close to Truman do they need to be? I have used Aurora Canvas in Battlefield, MO which is a suburb of Springfield, MO. I don't know how competitively they are priced but they do excellent work. They have a web page you can google.

I guess I just don't know any better. Both boats were stationary and vertically gigging. My lines never got near them. I have had countless others troll a lot closer to me than that.

I have been doing quite a bit of trolling around KK island. I have made about 4 trips over the last 2 weeks. I have had the pleasure of meeting up with some very rude fisherman on each trip. On the first trip, a guy in his boat was sitting still and appeared to be packing up to leave. I trolled on past him about 35 feet east of him. I had about 100 feet of line out and was very obviously trolling, one rod was sticking out on each side and I was going 2.75 mph. When I got about 30 feet past him, he hammered down with his outboard crossing both my lines. One line was cut and the other hung on his boat and emptied my reel in a matter of seconds. I lost two $8 Shap Raps. On another trip, another guy in a fairly new, blue colored, Ranger with a 200 hp Mercury trolled up behind me between my lines. He got within 18 feet of me and then veered to my left and came up beside me about 18 feet away. How he missed my lines I will never know. Then while next to me on my left, still about 18 feet from me, he reeled in and hammered his 200 hp Merc. The resulting wake nearly knocked me and my 81 year old fishing partner out of my boat. He disappeared within seconds and within 30 minutes he was back next to me and started trolling again. On another trip, a guy came trolling into the area and headed right toward me. I had been trolling back and forth in the same area for several hours. When he was about 20 feet in front of me, he finally veered to the right and drug his trolling lines right in front of me. I had no where to go. It was too shallow to go right and he was on my left. Of course he got tangled in my lines. Then yesterday, I was trolling toward the south side of the island and came up on 2 boats about 70 feet apart. I didn't want to troll my lines around them and get tangled so I figured the best course of action was to go straight through between them. Both boats were anchored and there was approximately 30 to 35 feet between me and either boat. Both boats were vertically fishing spoons so I figured there would be no problem. As I got closer, the guy on my right, a hybrid fishing guide in a black colored boat with large letters (SKEETER) started telling me that I was crossing his lines. Really? Am I going to cross his vertical gigging lines while trolling 30 feet away? I didn't want to make a scene so I said fine and stopped my boat and reeled in. At least he told me in a nice voice. I still don't know what I harm I was doing trolling through. Then as a going away present, I had a guy back down the ramp at Osage Bluff boat ramp between me and the loading dock. He was so close to my truck that he could not open his driver's door. Granted, I probably should not have taken the whole ramp but since the ramp was not crowded and there were only about 6 trailers in the parking lot, I pressed the easy button and backed down in the center of the ramp. I would have been out of his way in less than 5 minutes if he had waited. I had to get back into my truck and move my truck over so he could open his door. On a good note, the fishing was excellent and I brought home 30 hybrids and/or whites on each trip. The trips would have just been a little more enjoyable if it hadn't been for all the rude fisherman. Why can't we all just get along?

There are several places to stay around the Warsaw area. Sterret Creek and Osage Bluff have motels. Not sure of their pricing but you can check online. There is also a motel in Warsaw that is somewhat reasonable. It is called Lakes Inn (previously Truman Lodge). It is next door to Sonic close to Hwy 7 and 65. Just a little south of Warsaw at the Hwy 83 exit (White Branch area) there are a few reasonable motels. Headwaters is the cheapest around $50 a night. It is older but relatively clean. There is Rivers End at $56 per night but I think they charge $5 person above that price. Hidden Lake is about 8 miles west of Warsaw on Hwy 7 around $55 per night.

It depends on what part of the lake you are wanting to fish.

I am not sure about Nemo, but I just stayed at Osage Bluff Campground on Truman. Walk-ins were not allowed due to the COVID factor. I don't understand why but that was the rule. Weekends required a 2 night reservation. Every site had to be reserved on-line. My experience with Nemo is that even without the COVID factor it is always booked on weekends all summer long. You might be able to get some of the non-electrical sites but I doubt too many of the electrical sites will be available with only a week or two notice.

I prefer the Dam, Sterrett Creek, and the Osage Bluff areas. Too many trees, stumps, and fence rows near Buck Saw and Sparrow Foot. I just came back from a weekend fishing at the Dam area. Caught 30 fish per night, 2 nights in a row. Also caught 15 white bass.