MOPanfisher

I like it when the whites and hybrids converge on stretches of windy rock banks between stretches of docks, crappie fishing slows down move over and throw a white jig along the windy bank and hang on, sometimes you get a nice hybrid and it takes a while to bring it in on crappie gear. Personally I like to eat the hybrids better than the whites but either way they ain't bad. Fillet them like normal then carefully slice off the layer of red that was next to the skin and the strip down the middle. When you have a pile paint them with melted butter and put them on a foil lined sheet cake pan on the grill, season them fairly heavy with some cajun seasoning, (I like slap ya mamma), and cook until they flake. Let them cool off and break the fish up somewhat. Mix up a batch of sauce heavy on greek yogurt, garlic, lime juice and dill, slather it on a soft tortilla and put in a good layer of fish, add a few cilantro leaves chopped up and some more sauce if you wish and eat. I know fish taco sounds terrible, but done right they are delicious. Dang now I gotta go home and see how much work I have to do before I can even see if the boat is still where I parked it.

About now you will almost certainly pick up some hybrids and whites mixed together. Sometimes you will pick up a straggler on a crappie jig, other times you may see a school of whites & hybrids busting up a school of shad. I always keep a blue chrome rattle trap on a rod just for such occasions, or a white curly tail grub will work also. We usually have good luck on crappie along the creek channels and standing timber. Some days are better than others and if you find a pattern ride it hard until the weather changes.

There is nothing wrong with gigging, spearfishing or snagging if done within the laws of whatever state its in. When gigging we have had the opportunity to take many non-target fish such as walleye or bass knowing nobody would ever catch us, but we don't and I don't believe we are in the minority of the giggers either. If the state say Arkansas believe spearfishing walleye or catfish to be a problem then they can set restrictions such as missouri has.

You are correct, the sampling point PT19 is not a point/mile marker, it is a sampling point, 19 just happened to be the number assigned to it. The sample location for PT19 is above the Nemo Bridge, in the channell where the power line crosses.

You never know when you get roused awaked by your dog and go outside just what you might end up chasing or doing. Might find yourself in a fight with a possum, while naked. Just sayin. Or happily watering a spot in the grass when a big white horse walks by on the other side of the fence, only a surprise when you don't own a big white horse, in the moonlight they become monsters in your mind.

Nothing brings out coons and skunks like folks having a good time, so in a effort to help surely we could get a few of us together to drink beer, cook hot dogs over a fire and roast marshmellows, toss some fried chicken bones around. Of course the property owner would have to provide all the groceries since its "his" skunk/coon. Hey we are all here to help. I used to have a mixed breed mutt of a dog that absolutely hated skunks, I swear he would go out hunting them, would take the spray and kill the skunk. Handy to have to thin out the skunk population, but sure was stinky to hve around the yard as sometimes he liked to drag them back to chew on.

That sampling point is just above Hwy 83 Marina, just below the P10 in the river channel. I am guessing that the reason is was not stratified at that location is because of the fairly shallow water at the sampling point. Just over 20' is about the norm for that spot. Honestly I haven't heard much in the way of fishing reports from Pomme lately, hot weather and too many other things happening for me to get a chance to try it out. Were I crappie fishing I would be trying in the coves, around trees on the edge of the creek channels. The last time I went up to Bolivar Landing there were little shad everywhere, so fish may well be relating more to the schools of shad than anything else, I don't know. I am not a bass fisherman but several years ago about this time of year an old bass fishing friend said when the lake was full of shad throw something that doesn't look like a shad, the next trip consisted of throwing crawdad colored cranks around logs in shallow water and made for a good day of fishing.

Got this reply back regarding thermocline information. Apparently I am not smart enough to post the graphic he provided me but stragely the sample location on the Pomme arm above Hwy 83 marina did not show stratification. In August, the lake was stratified in the lower end at 21ft, at the Lindley Creek site around 12ft, but not up at the upper end of the Pomme Arm. We will try to have this and the other data for the year posted this month.

OK I tried to read some of this thread, but did the skunk get caught or not? All the rest is just blah blah blah to me. Around my house there are 2 critters that get no quarter, skunks and armadillos, and have no second thoughts about it. I had a skunk curled up in front of my door one morning. Dang thing didn't want to move, so being a quick thinker I up ended a trash can over it. Gotcha, then the issue of what to do with a skunk that has a trashcan over it, finally involved a large scoop shovel, a bag, some quick footwork and a load of #6's. I used to eliminate skunks with a .22 rifle and CB's, short range shot behind front leg and wait about 10 minutes they would die and not spray, shot in the head they would spray. I had heard the low velocity impact and chest/lung hit didn't scare them enough to spray, maybe so maybe not but it worked.

There should most definitely be a thermocline set up. I am including (I think) a link to the Kansas City District Water Quality Reports. Unfortunately the sampling from last week have not yet been uploaded. Keep checking it and you should find some more recent information soon. I will try to get an updated one if I can. http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/Locations/WaterQuality.aspx

Bring an old alaskan cannery ship up the river and use it to clean them and make the meat into Surimi, add some coloring etc. and have a new source for imitation crab meat, make the rest into fish meal for feed. Glad to see them at least trying to make use of them, we aren't going to get rid of the various carps so finding a way to utilize them im is a good thing. I've eaten a lot of common ocarp over the years but not had a chance to try the big heads or silvers, thankfully they don't live where I fish. (Yet)

Well rats. Guess I'l go crappie fishing again in early rifle deer season. Sure isn't much traffic at the ramp I use at LOZ but plenty of fat crappie to be had.

I think the problem with stocking redears or shell crackers to control the Zebra's is that once attached the zebras would be very difficult for a fish to get loose from a structure. They could handily eat if they did get it loose but they do attach pretty well.

OH and I am also a SMS Alumni, does that help my application. I am sure I could use an assistant, someone to help me fillet fish, make sure we have plenty of taters and of course to taste test the "finished product", sort of a vice president of Quality Control.

I am concerned that you may be biting off more than you can chew, so to speak. Since I am a Missouri resident I would be happy to help you out by catching crappie for you while you deer hunt, I would even help you recover deer and I'm a pretty good tracker. Provide the beer and I'll throw in a fish fry. Just looking out for you.

I understand Oneshot, whenever I see someone catfishing off one of the fishing docks I usually mention to them that there are a lot of brushpiles in front of them, they usually find the piles anyway. Unfortunately the vast majority of the the fishing dock users are after crappie, we do try to keep some shoreline areas mowed or with paths to the water for shoreline fishermen though.

Pomme used to have some extensive coontail beds. Multiple attempts to re-establish some aquatic vegetation have been for the most part unsuccessful. Not all aquatic plants are created equal, hydrilla does indeed benefit the fish initially by providing cover and shade, however as it becomes the dominant plant growth it slowly chokes out the diversity and as the zooplankton, and minners leave it, so do the larger fish. Not to mention it can and is a major headache in many southern lakes to maintain boat ramps and travel lanes through shallow areas when they are choked with hydrilla. Hopefully we will never have to find out what affect it might have here. Old Plug we have been pleasantly surprised that the zebra mussles have not been transported to Pomme by boats livewells. And I believe that at least one occurence of transplanting them occurred in Smithville lake when a slip renter in one of the marinas bout a used boat lift from LOZ and installed it there, it had adult zebras on it, which promptly did what critters do and reproduced. We do have folks who buy docks or dock parts from LOZ to use on Pomme but we have a policy on how long they have to sit out and dry/cook in the sun, there is a website that gives times depending upon temp and location, (100th meridian or something like that). IF there are visable adult zebra shells on it, its a no-go period. I also work with other employees around the district and we are required to sanitize out boats each and every time we move from one body of water to another, regardless of whether that lake has any known invasives or not. The theory being, it ain't going to hunrt a thing for us to take precautions, hot water, pressure washer, bleach, and time in the sun works wonders. There are no invasives that will completely destroy the lake per se, but any one of them has the capability to effect some serious changes, some might even be better, but it would be a big risk to take. Most such things have not been to the overall benefit of the environment.

Like many invasives the only "treatment" or "cure" that works is prevention, so the concept of doing everythin we can to not help them spread is useful. With them in LOZ I am truly surprised they have turned up in Pomme yet. There are others out there on the horizon things like Hydrilla. Once established in a larger body of water they are essentially impossible to eliminate, the old "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is still a good tactic.

One of the best skinny water uses I have found is to simply twist off the curly tail so nothing is left of it and fish it sort of like a ned rig. Don't know why but can often increase number of hits that way. I like the brown and green pepper flakes. Also have caught fish burning it pretty fast is shallow water when fish are pretty active.

I saw that sign when we floated it earlier in the year. We interpreted it to mean keep off the river banks, and don't camp on private property. Even though I don't own property along river I can certainly feel empathy for those that do. I know if I owned a chucnk of land that had a nice little gravel bar on the river I would spend a lot of time there enjoying it, and to so people who trash it, leave piles of feces, chop down trees and damage others etc. would certainly make me view all floaters with a jaundiced eye. Thus the reason that when I do on occasion have contact with a property owner I go out of my way to be polite and respectful and to keep a neat clean tidy camp. Some landowners you are not going to win with, all you can do is move on, others quickly realize that you are not one of the problem ones and often set down to talk or drink a cup of coffee.

Especially on a small impoundment like Pomme de Terre Lake, increasing the number of privately owned facilities on the shoreline (i.e. boat docks) does nothing to promote the health and stability of the shoreline. In order to have docks you need access, meaning roads, and thus create more opportunities for shoreline erosion etc. Private docks benefit a few individuals and homeowners but do little or nothing to benefit the using public at large.

Honestly I would say that expanding the number of dock zones is very unlikely.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a news release reference the updat/revision of the 1988 Pomme de Terre Lake Master Plan. The public is invited to e-mail or otherwise submit comments. Primarily it will bring our Master Plan into compliance with regard to format and content, however since it had not been updated since 1988 there is certainly room for updating. This will be a process i.e. it won't be done this week, hopefully we will receive funding to complete it next year. Here is the link from which you can navigate to a copy of the existing master plan. If you have problems let me know and I will send the link directly to you. http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/Media/NewsReleases/tabid/2710/Article/486813/corps-seeking-comments-on-master-plan-revision.aspx

Awesome, I like the one with the sun sinking into the lake. I used to have a similar one that included the bow/trolling motor of the boat. Everytime I looked at it I could feel and remember the trip and heading back to the ramp after a day of fishing.

I have seen old and young alike do some of the same stuff. Mostly its out of ignorance, they simply don't know, some simply don't care. It is some fantastic entertainment to sit at a boat ramp the first major holiday of the summer and the last. The first holiday weekend you get to see the one who haven't done anything to their boat since last fall, those who have forgotten or never knew how to back a trailer, or have just purchased a boat/jet ski. A cooler of beverages and a little shade can make it into an enjoyable episode of Jerry Springer. I think I could even make money by keeping a handful of cards for the local boat dealer motor repair guy and handing them out to the ones who have left ethanol fuel in all winter, bent a trailer tongue, and maybe a few cards for divorce lawyers.