sms_alum

Also, be ready to stumble across a few water moccasins this time of year.

Just upgraded from the old tracker. We will be down at Stockton in July and August. Had to go with a fish n' ski to keep the wife happy.

On Stockton I assume, 1) 6 or 8 " Red Shad Berkley Powerbait worm 2) 3 " smoke grub (lots of choices) 3) Chompers 4" french fry in green pumpkin with red flake 4) Pearl white super fluke 5) 4 " brown Berkley powerbait worm

Save your money because your going to need it. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have graduated if I had a boat and vehicle to pull it in college.

We used cut shad he had gotten from the day before and took off out of Flamm City. I have tried fishing out of Columbia Bottoms for whites, but never found them. I need to give that another try some time.

I can't tell you the last time I targeted catfish and I definitely am not an expert regarding them, but I got an invite to go an guided blue cat trip on the Mississippi. We went with Captain Ryan Casey of Show Me Catfish. He knows his stuff and has all the best electronics, boat, and gear to put you on them. It was a great time and I would definitely recommend booking him if you get the chance and have the cash. We did a 6 hour trip on Saturday and caught probably 15 fish. The two biggest were a 57.7 lbs and a 25 lbs. All the rest in the 7-15 lbs range. This a serious change from the trout, crappie, and bass fishing I am used to.

Don't forget single hook and no soft plastics in the park. Below the park is also a restricted area, so no soft plastics.

Yeah, I haven't pushed it much because we have a nice lease I can hunt on the weekends in Lewis county. I have an insurance policy that covers me but when I read through all the rules for Ballwin and Sunset Hills it really seemed ridiculous. If I remember correctly you have to have written permission from each connecting neighbor and let the police department know every time you will be out hunting. I have a place I can hunt in wildwood, but it's pretty close to Clayton road and I can only imagine what would happen if I had to drag a deer off in front of some of those people. My wife thinks I'm a little crazy to drive 2 1/2 hours to hunt deer when we can see them from our deck most mornings, but I guess that's life in the suburbs.

Sugar creek has a managed hunt you can put in for, but I think they only give out a few spots. The closest public land for you would probably be Howell Island in the valley.

I live in Ballwin and have a bigger buck in the neighborhood along with a ton of does. Can't seem to get the neighborhood association to budge on letting me hunt though. How did you get access to hunt that much in Ballwin?

Deer Ridge?

I have a Yeti. Was it worth the money, probably not but I don't plan on buying a new cooler anytime soon. Regardless of what cooler you use things like what kind ice, pre-cooling, how often you open it, and if what you load in is cold (warm beer hurts) all have an effect on how long the ice lasts. The big reason I got one was how if fit in my boat and the fact that it can take dry ice for our annual trip back from Florida with fish/scrimp. Plus if it gets attacked by a bear it is guaranteed. If you are looking at getting one, I highly suggest ordering it. They pack the cooler full of free gear.

Fishing was tough this weekend. Ended up finding a few nice largemouths in the backs of coves and far up creeks but you had to work for them. Tons of small bass fry everywhere and a few nice keepers. We found a few whites and kentuckies around the bridges deep. Also, tried trolling some and picked up a pretty mixed bag of fish but never got into them very consistently. Definitely tons of shad everywhere and millions of fry in shallow so there is plenty of food out there.

I am heading to Stockton this weekend for the first time this year. Not the best timing I know but it was the only weekend that would work. Anyone have any ideas what the lake level being 10 feet high will do to fishing? I assume this will move some of the blackbass up into the bushes but I was not sure what kind of affect it would have on the walleye and whites. I will be fishing out of the twin birdges/mutton creek area. Thanks in advance. Jason

I believe MDC requires you to post the GPS coordinates on the ozarkanglers Stockton Lake forum.

Thanks for the help, I will take a look at those.

I have downloaded a few different apps for my iphone and I have not been real happy so far with what is available. I assume there is not something available that would replace a GPS on my boat with hotspots loaded on it, but I was curious if anyone had found anything Apps they liked. I have an older boat that I don't plan on keeping for much longer so spending money to update the electronics is not really priority, especially since the depth finders work well enough for my fishing styles. Any body found any they like on their phone?

Playoff hockey has to be the one of the most exciting sports to watch. Hopefully Elliot can keep this up and the Blues will make a nice run this year. You got to love how the 4th line is dominating right now.

We had similar results on Friday afternoon and Saturday. We were targeting crappie, but they were slim. We ended up with 2 keeper crappie. I was fishing the the front of the boat with crappie jigs and was doing pretty well on bass and drum. Not really the target species of the day but it kept things interesting. If we had been fishing one of the tournaments Saturday we probably would have done pretty well. Ended up with a 5 and two more that were pushing 4lbs. Also had a 9lb drum, but all that did was stink up the boat. Everything went back since the crappie were slow and we got out of town pretty quickly Saturday night with the storm coming.

joeD, I was a little surprised with your take on Bob McCormack. I'm not sure if you ever had the pleasure of meeting Bobby Mac, but he really embraced that culture and made a lot of promises to players he couldn't keep. Channel 5 sure made it sound like he is a great guy but like anything else I think there was alot more there. He did have a successful career with CBC, but really hasn't gotten far since Larry Hughes graduated. Maybe if he would have landed Tatum's son (he is a freshman at Chaminade) he would still be coaching there. I'm sure he will land on his feet at another highschool, and for now he is still teaching at CBC. sms_alum (and CBC alum)

You have never been deer hunting have you? Shooting light is 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset. We used to have pretty good luck throwing black spinnerbaits at night in the winter near the warmer water from the plant. Hung into a few nice bass but that has been probably ten years ago.

This tournament is always a good time even if the weather does not cooperate. We are looking forward to it this weekend and hopefully will put up some good numbers. Are you planning on doing the dinner after the tournament like you have in the past?

Might want to re-think throwing tubes in the future on that part of the Meramec there are restrictions on soft pastics.

Just wanted to thank you guys again for the info on Columbia Bottoms area. Went out on Saturday and checked it out. Did not have much luck fishing, but did more boating than fishing. Pretty cool area that I had never checked out. I will have to try it again sometime and try the fishing a little closer to chain of rocks. Did see several eagles and had no idea there were such nice houses on the Missouri up that way. It was good to get the boat running since it will have to sit in garage till after the holidays. This brings up my question for fishinwrench, If I use my boat all year and store it in a garage is there ever a reason to winterize it? I am always a little scared headed back from a trip in Jan/Feb if the temps are dropping on the drive home.

Trolling rogues? Shh...