Thunderin Gobbler

Good report Bob. I think I got the main idea of your translated report. Teh best one is "wall i are hitting kids".

I haven't been in a couple weeks either. Too hot, and working too much. Looks like a slight break in the heat for the weekend but I'm stuck working a 70 hour week. No fishing for me. Glad to see that I'm not missing much, but I wish you guys were having better luck. Good luck with the boat Walcrabass. I look forward to seeing some good reports soon.

Just a bit of added question on the kentuckies....I've always heard that Kentucky bass have a rough patch on their tongue too, along with all the other traits you guys have mentioned. I've never really tried to confirm this, but can anyone out there verify that? I've found that probably 2/3 of my small fish have the rough patch, but I really don't pay much attention to the fins/broken stripe/ etc. And of course most of these fish are caught in the channels on bluffs with standing timber.

Good report Hammer time. Looks like I need to make a trip to Bass Pro and get some bigger worms. Were the other boats bass fishing or crappie? Or could you tell? I don't normally see very many bass boats out that late either, especially on weeknights. I'm looking at trying to get up there tomorrow night, if i can get a fishing partner quick enough. I really want to hit the full moon with some buzzbaits and spinners, so we'll see. I'll be at either Old State Park or Roark Bluff probably.

I definitely agree with you. Big bass are going to exert the least amount of energy possibly to get their meals, and that does mean bigger baits. As a matter of fact, my biggest bass on Stockton was caught right across from the CC ramp last summer on a 10" worm-just over 6lbs. They are definitely all over the lake, but I would thing the best odds of catching multiple big fish would be the northern half of the lake though.

I'm right there with ya. I would take the night time bass fishing with a black light over the sweltering hot days anytime. I do most of my fishing with 8-10" worms and can usually catch a ton of short bass. I think the difference is the part of the lake I usually end up fishing. Most of the time I'm fishing Son's Creek or the CC area. I don't think the larger bass are quite as common as they are from Mutton on up. I'm hoping to get back up there either tomorrow night or saturday night and will probably go to the old state park or Roark Bluff to put in. Good luck to ya.

sounds like a pretty good weekend for you Kwall. I didn't have anywhere near that kind of success, guess I need to work more towards Mutton and north next time I go out. Seems like that's where those better reports are coming from.

I fished pretty much the same areas as you did Walcrabass. We started out in Birch branch bass and crappie fishing. Caught one small bass on plastic worm (junebug color), no crappie. Moved to a nice deep point with lots of timber a little further down the Sac arm. I thought I'd try the Strike King sexy shad crankbait that I had around the trees. NO LUCK!!! Started fishing plastic worms again, caught a few more small ones on the same color. As it started getting dark I switched to the Berkley powerbait 10" black and blue worm. Caught one more on that and lost a really nice one under the boat. We decided to more out of the timber about dark and motored over to Greaser creek to crappie fish. Caught 2 small ones in 2 hours. Not a good night, but fun anyway. That's the first time I've fished that part of the Sac arm before. Think I'll go there more often.

We used one of those green lights last summer in Greaser Creek around some of the timber. It worked pretty well I thought. Didn't seem to be as many bugs around as with the floating headlights or lantern. Caught several fish, and it really pulled the minnows in.

Has anyone started fishing for these crappie under lights yet? I usually do pretty well with the floating light around brush, but haven't even taken them out of the storage box yet this year. Thought about giving them a try this weekend though.

Thanks Kevin, I am planning to fish the area from CC toward Roark Bluff tomorrow evening and will definitely try out the brush hog and more craws/lizards than normal.Maybe I can finally find something with decent size to it. The last good one I caught was a 6lb last summer on a 10" watermelon seed worm.

What's you suggestion on brush hog and worm colors? I've been catching a lot of 14"-15" LMs on junebug(purple) worms. Nothing with any size yet though.

Thanks Straw Hat. That's where I thought it was. I always see it when fishing the bluff just north of Springfield Landing, and keep telling myself to go up there, but never do. May have to try it out now, probably bass fishing tomorrow though. I'll leave them crappie to you.

Sounds like a nice trip Straw hat. I'm gonna try to get up there tomorrow afternoon. Question for you though...talking about Shaw's bluff, where exactly is that bluff? I've heard a lot of talk about it in the past, but I don't think I've ever fished it. I know it's between Roark and CC. Can you help me without giving away you secret spots...unless you want to? Jason

I keep telling him that I'm gonna book a trip with him. Guess I'd better do that now. Going out with a guide and catching fish would sure be nice, can't seem to find them on my own.

Hey Zac, all tickets are $1 each or $20 for 40 tickets. Except for on the hunts. The hog hunt is $5 each, and the WY turkey hunt is $20 each(only selling max of 150). It's a $1200 value. We are also raffling (2) 1/2 hogs processed and a camo gun dip too. Gilly, the straps are the good quality velcro. The pink hats are actually a BIG hit. We've sold several of them already.

Hey guys I just wanted to mention a few of the other fundraisers we are running right now in case anyone is interested. We have 3 different designs of Camo hats that we are selling. We are doing raffles for several things too. One is a Mossberg .308 rifle with scope and bipod, a Mossberg 835 Ulti-mag 12ga Camo, Summit climbing stand, a TX hog hunt, and a Wyoming Turkey hunt, there are a few others too. You can see these things on our website at My link or contact me on here and I can give you the details. Remember, this is for the kids!!!!

Thanks Dennis and Straw. The weather channel is calling for winds 10-15mph tomorrow, so that is about the limit for me. My v-bottom isn't very good in the wind.

I'm planning on making a trip up to the lake tomorrow afternoon after work to do a little bass fishing. I'll probably go to CC, as that's about the closest and easiest place to go if I'm by myself. Has anyone been doing much fishing in that area? I'll probably head up the lake and fish the timber and bluffs. Last time I was up there they were hitting worms really good, hopefully it's still the same. Thought I may try out the crankbait method on crappie a little too. I've never trolled for them before, so I don't expect much. If I don't get stormed out, I'll post how good (or bad!) I do.

Probably a dumb question, but how can you tell your speed when trolling? I'm pretty sure my graphs don't show mph on them? Do I just set the trolling motor at the lowest setting?

Yeah Gilly, they found him about 5 hours later. I know what you mean though, last year when the father/son drowned up there we tried our best to stay away from the Cedar Ridge area. Part of me didn't want to take the chance of finding them, but at the same time, I felt like someone needed to, for the family. Luckily they were all found and I wasn't the one to find any of them.

Yeah, the 25th, at SOMO.

Just thought it was worth mentioning on here: My NWTF chapter out of Willard is having a bake sale/raffle/ fun day at SoMO farm supply on west Kearney in Springfield this Saturday. It will be one of our major fundraising events for the year. We'll raffle off a new game camera/deer supplements, guns, St Louis Cardinal apparel, hog hunts, Wyoming turkey hunt. We'll also have hot dogs and drinks, as well as a dunk tank and more games for the kids. Come on out Saturday from 10:00-2:00. The money we raise helps us put on safe youth deer and turkey hunts, assists local food pantries, helps with the KTTS Christmas Crusade and Shoebox for Soldiers campaigns, as well as helps families in need after the Joplin tornado. There will be all kids of stuff going on so bring the family. Jason Bussard Ozark Greenway Thunderin Gobblers Willard, MO

We overheard a family member or something saying he was trying to be macho and swam out to undo his girlfriend's fishing line that got hung up. I don't know how true that is, but anymore I wouldn't be surprised.

Hey Straw Hat, I went up there to CC and did some bass and crappie fishing Saturday afternoon. The water is starting to turn pretty green up there, but it's not real bad yet. Water levels are about back to normal now, most all the bushes are out of the water again. My graph was showing 80 degrees throughout the channel, and 83 in some of the smaller coves. Don't know how accurate it is though, water didn't feel that warm. Crappie didn't do very good for us at all, only caught 4 with 1 keeper. Bass fishing was a lot better. I probably caught 25-30 on plastic worms. No keepers though. We also had to watch the water patrol drag for a body right next to the ramp all evening. Apparently some kid(21) decided to swim across between the ramp and old bridge and didn't make it. We got there the same time as water patrol did so we unfortunately got to see most of the recovery. Not Good!