Ranger Dave

If you put in at Connors Bridge, can you navigate downstream on the Neosho River to reach Twin Bridges? Does it have a loading dock there?

I received an email from GRDA (Justin Alberty). Justin said the log jam at Twin Bridges is not their responsibility. He said it was the responsibility of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT). I also talked to the Assistant Director of the Oklahoma State Parks (Bobby Braly). Bobby said the State Parks system would not install a $40K loading dock at Twin Bridges since the Log Jam was still present. They didn't want a section of the log jam to break off and destroy a new loading dock. I can understand that. I wouldn't want to invest $40K on a dock when the log jam was still present either. I then sent an email to several people at ODOT, District 8. A gentleman from ODOT called me (I did not catch his name). He confirmed that it was ODOT's responsibility to remove the log jam and that they were close to signing a contract with someone in Texas to remove the log jam but he said it was not urgent to remove the log jam since it wasn't causing any problems. He also said that ODOT had been completely transparent with the State Parks system letting them know it was not urgent to remove the log jam. Apparently he has not talked to the Director or the Assistant Director of the State Parks system because I did not get the impression from the Assistant Director (Bobby Braly) that it wasn't that big of a problem. Bobby flat out said he would not authorize a new loading dock until the log jam is removed. The gentleman from ODOT basically said he did not care if the State Park built a new loading dock or not. He was only concerned with the Bridge. So basically the Boat Ramp and the fishermen that utilize it are getting screwed. Based on the trend of the last 9 months, the work on the log jam will not start until the Summer of 2025 and by then there will be a larger log jam because new debris floating down the river in the Spring rains will be caught by the existing log jam and just get bigger. Perhaps by the end of summer 2025, the log jam will be removed and then the State Parks system will authorize the rebuilding of the loading dock. So keep paying that $10 parking fee so the State Parks can pad their pockets. I recommend everyone that can, to utilize the boat ramp under Hwy 10 bridge and cut off their revenue stream. Why should we pay an extra $10 to park at Twin Bridges when it doesn't have any more amenities than the Hwy 10 bridge access. If you have experienced what I have experienced, many times you still have to park in mud at Twin Bridges because they won't put down some additional gravel. I suggested to the Assistant State Parks director that the State Parks system install the loading dock on the Spring River side where the fishing dock used to be. There is not as much danger of being wiped out from floating debris. I park my truck in the parking lot. It is the same distance to walk to the East side as it is on the West side. He did not like the idea. If this makes you as mad as it makes me, do something about it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If we keep silent, then nothing happens. Please email, call, send letters, etc to the State Parks director, ODOT, and the Oklahoma Governor. You can get the contact information for the governor on his web page and you can get the contact information for the State Parks Director on their web page. Contact information for ODOT can be found at https://oklahoma.gov/odot/about-us/field-districts/district-8.html. Do your part and voice your opinion.

I have sent emails to the Oklahoma Governor, the Oklahoma State Parks, and to GRDA. If anyone know of any other places to contact please let me know. I urge each and every one of you that utilize this boat ramp to contact these departments. It only takes a few minutes to send them an email. If the State of Oklahoma is going to charge us $10 to use the boat ramps then they have the obligation to keep the boat ramps, the loading dock, and the parking lot is good condition.

I talked to the Twin Bridges Park Manager (Chad McCall) today about the Twin Bridges Boat Ramp. I initially called to complain that after 5 years of charging a $10 parking permit, the boat ramp was in poor repair and I wanted to know why some of the parking money was not being utilized to repair the ramp. He told me the ramp had actually been repaired. He said they poured a lot of concrete into the ramp recently to fill the holes and repair the leaning ramp. However, I was a little disappointed to learn that there will be NO loading dock this year. The log jam from last spring wiped out the loading dock and they won't replace it until the log jam is removed. According to Chad, a big percentage of the log jam still exists and is stacked up against the Neosho River bridge. According to Chad no one has made any effort to remove these logs. He said GRDA and the Highway department are arguing over whose responsibility it is. Meanwhile, he said logs are continually breaking off and filling in the boat ramp area and he has to pull trees out weekly so that boaters can unload their boat. This is ridiculous! Over the last 5 years, I estimate (conservatively) that between $200,000 and $250,000 has been collected from the $10 parking fee but the State of Oklahoma can't seem to find the funds to repair this situation. I urge everyone that has utilized this ramp and plans to utilize this ramp this year and years to come, to contact the Governor of Oklahoma, the director of the Oklahoma State Parks, GRDA, and any other government office that you can think of and let them know our dissatisfaction with their lack of maintenance at this boat ramp. I am appalled that they would collect this amount of money and virtually not make any repairs or maintenance at the boat ramp.

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.

It really didn't matter this year for me. My employer would let me travel anywhere in Missouri (St. Louis, KC, Branson, etc) without even telling HR where I had been but they would NOT allow me to travel 10 nines past the State Line to fish on Spring River even if I was by myself, without having a mandatory 2 week quarantine (without pay because of willful travel). That travel restriction had a lot of forethought. I tried to get them to change it to a 100 mile radius which would have done a lot more to contain the virus but they would't even consider it. Go figure.

I guess I just have a different opinion that most of you. I think I have less a chance of contacting or spreading the virus at a boat ramp than I do at Wal-mart. One of the posters indicated it was just common sense to stay away from boat ramps because of all the people. Seriously? I guess you must be going to a different type of boat ramp than I do. Most of the ramps I go to have one or two, sometimes 3 lanes to back your boat. Each boat is more than 6 foot away from each other and the loading dock only has people on it for loading. If other people are on the dock then the authorities should enforce the law and remove them from the loading dock. I don't touch anything except my truck and my boat and I always have more than 6 foot of clearance. On the lake I have considerably more than 6 feet. Let's compare this to Wal-marts or other retail stores that are now funneling all store shoppers into one entrance so an infected person now has the capability of infecting everyone that enters the store. I went to Home Depot today. They were limiting access and keeping the customers separated by 6 feet outside the store while waiting to enter. While standing in line, I noticed an employee in the parking lot collecting carts. He pushed them all up to the main door for the entering shoppers to use. No wipe down, no disinfecting wipes. Personally I think I have a better chance of contacting the virus from holding on the cart handle after someone sneezed in their hand and held onto the cart than I do at a boat ramp. My daughter is an RN at Mercy. They have a welcoming committee meet everyone entering the hospital to check their temperature and wipe them down. Last week they sent a guy through that had a 102 degree temperature. She asked the guy if someone had checked his temperature when he entered. He said yes, that is how he knew he had a 102 degree temp. So let's check him and let him go in the hospital anyway even though he has a fever but don't let anybody use the boat ramps. As of last week, Mercy had 2 infected nurses. They didn't get sick at their jobs. Both of them traveled to St. Louis over their weekend. If we truly have a stay at home order, then why does the order suggest that you go outside and do various forms of outdoor recreation and why is the State giving free fishing permits but closing the boat ramps.

They have closed Drake Harbor ramp in Warsaw as of 4/4/2020. I guess they don't want anyone fishing below the dam. You know how those viruses like to hang out at boat ramps and dams.

The problem is they are shutting down many of the boat ramps. The ramp below Warsaw Dam (Bledsoe Ferry) has been closed for a couple of weeks. Last night they closed Drake Harbor ramp in Warsaw. I suspect many other boat ramps will soon be closed.

We can still go to Walmart but heaven forbid we go to a boat ramp. You know those viruses hang out at the boat ramps just waiting to jump in your boat.

are you limited to the State Line as well? I am. I think it is ridiculous. I can travel anywhere I want to go inside the State of Missouri. I can drive over 317 miles and go to the hottest Covid-19 places and I am not even required to tell my supervisor or anyone else at work. But if I drive 90 miles west of here and cross the State line, then I am quarantined from work for 14 days. Several co-workers went to Branson over Spring Break along with travelers from all over the state and didn't even say a word. You know those virus' are just waiting at the state line to jump all over you.