MOPanfisher

Unless we get some more rainstorms it ain't gonna happen. Likely will be sitting around 841 without rain.

I hve hauled them on top with foam blocks and shoved into the bed of a pickup and rachet strapped in but never really liked it. If for no other reason that it get to be a game to arrange all your stuff so it doesn't get broken or damaged. I grabbed a pile of 2x4's and simply built one to fit my previous truck. Nothing more than a 2x4 frame that would just fit in the bed of the truck, 4 uprights and plenty of angled braces later poof a canoe rack. Problems turned out to be, that even strapped down tight the canoe tended to want to slide just a little bit, solution was easy a couple small wooden blocks on the cross members that just fit inside the canoe stopped if from sliding. The biggest pain turned out to be when my buddy helped me load the canoe after a float, he is several inches under 6' tall and couldn't get it up high enough to slide on. Normal height folks don't have a problem with it. Being bored after that building operation I built a horizontal rod rack as part of the canoe rack, so I can put a couple rods in it and keep it up off the bed of my truck and then throw tackle bags into the floor of the bed. It was just supposed to be "trial" and the real one I would weld up out of square tube, but it has worked so well I never replaced it. But for $200 or so to buy a prebuilt one I would just buy it and forget about it, really like the one that comes apart and stores in toolbox.!!

All: Below is the latest forecast for Pomme's outflow and lake level. The reason we are having to release heavy and then shut down is that we have a periodic inspection schedule for the first week in April, the lake must be below 844 and have have a little freeboard so we can work at the control tower. During the inspection all outflows must be shut down to zero so we can enter the outlet structure by boat. The upshot of all that is, the lake will be falling pretty good for a week or so and then if the math is correct stabilize or rise slowly at about 841. All this is assuming that mother nature doesn't take a major hand and toss us a big storm!! Days Date Elev Stor Inflow Release 1 3/26/2012 843.97 278539 600 2800 2 3/27/2012 843.46 274162 300 2800 3 3/28/2012 842.88 269183 210 2800 4 3/29/2012 842.28 264033 158 2800 5 3/30/2012 841.65 258763 126 2800 6 3/31/2012 841.00 253439 113 50 7 4/1/2012 841.01 253521 102 25 8 4/2/2012 841.03 253685 97 0 9 4/3/2012 841.05 253849 92 0 10 4/4/2012 841.07 254012 88 0 Days Date Elev Stor Inflow Release 1 3/26/2012 843.97 278539 600 2800 2 3/27/2012 843.46 274162 300 2800 3 3/28/2012 842.88 269183 210 2800 4 3/29/2012 842.28 264033 158 2800 5 3/30/2012 841.65 258763 126 2800 6 3/31/2012 841.00 253439 113 50 7 4/1/2012 841.01 253521 102 25 8 4/2/2012 841.03 253685 97 0 9 4/3/2012 841.05 253849 92 0 10 4/4/2012 841.07 254012 88 0

Update for today, (Friday). We began stepping up the outflow from the dam, will be at 2000 CFS by end of day. Not much compared to what Truman is generating with but enough for us to begin to lower the lake. One last website for you. Shows the forecast for the lake levels for the Kansas City District and expected releases. http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/WaterManagement/ThreeDayLakeForecast.cfm

Since I am often in a canoe with limited room or at best a very small jon boat on creeks I stay with 6' and under rods. Spinning only for creeks. I always have one med./fast St. Croix with a Pfleuger President and the second rod varies depending on my mood or where we are fishing. Usually it is a med/hvy Fast. Bionic Blade or similar to work heavy cover. If wading I'll just take the one rod and a pocket full of plastics, a small original rapala, and a Rebel Craw. The St. Croix is fun enough with a decent smallmouth on it, and more than enough to pull out a goggle-eye.

I may be the oddball in that I really like braid. Most of my spinning outfits are spooled with 6# braid usually either fireline or spiderwire. I also have a couple that are spooled with 8# for rougher cover. I generally target Goggle-eye with bass as a bonus or when I find a really "bassy" spot I will fish it hard also. There are some things you have to get used to with braid. It casts like a bullet, along a small creek its easy to over cast and hang up in a bush, log etc. if you don't pay attention or fall back into your old casting style. Drags, they need to be set looser than with mono due to the non-stretch of braid, my drags are all set to go "eeek" when I hook set, and I have yet to break off on a hook set. If a quick hard fight requires a little more drag, then I am just used to using my index finger to lay alongside the spool and add pressure. Rods, you can use a slower action rod tip which give you a little move "give" during the fight. Braid doesn't get the memory in it that I have fought so many times on a float. And for panfish you can really really feel the "tap" with braid. My single least favorite thing about braid is that it does not like to be dragged against the rocks, it has very little abraision resistance and if you catch a good fish and fight him out of the woolies then you better just plan on re-tying, not altogether a bad thing. I did have to learn a new knot for braid as my old standby knots just werent staying. I certainly agree with several that the heavier line weights don't generally affect your catch rate, but I like the lighter stuff and that it reallys lets a jig, rapala or rebel crawdad work.

For some reason, and even the guys in our water control section didn't know why, but most of the lake sites were down and not reporting, the rivers sites were but not the lakes. This morning it looks like they are transmitting intermittently, last one on Pomme this morning at 0530 showed us at 844.10 I haven't looked at Trumans crest prediction but yeah they will be making the electricity and sending it down to LoZ to make more with at at pretty rapid pace to try to catch up. One of the guys checked the upper Pomme side yesterday, PP Bridge access was chocolate milk, Bolivar Landing was dingy but fishable, lightfoot was fine. That water will move down slowly and often makes it as far as Lightfoot. depends on wind, additional inflow, how much we release etc. etc. etc.

I will give you a little more information on Pomme. Currently the sattelite link that give the lake level in real-time (updates every 15 minutes I believe) is down. Don't know what exactly is wrong with it, maybe just that I touched it! Current lake level appears to be about 843.8 as of 2:30 p.m. today. The temperature is updated every Monday and Friday morning and just carried over during the week. Also it is taken at the dam and river below the dam. So while it will give you a general idea of lake temperature trends you can certain find warmer or cooler water depending upon where on the lake you are. Finally I know several will be wanting to know when Pomme will begin releasing more water. Currently our Resevoir Control Center folks are trying to catch up with and stabilize Truman Lake, once they are able to do that we will be told to begin staging up our outflows. I will do my best to keep up and post that information as it becomes available. Finally if you want to track it yourself here is a link that shows on one page the inflows to Pomme from Lindley Creek, Pomme River, the Pomme River below the dam and even Truman Lake. It is long but you can bookmark it and go to it anytime. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv?multiple_site_no=06921070%0D%0A06921200%0D%0A06921325%0D%0A06921350%0D%0A06922440%0D%0A&index_pmcode_00062=1&index_pmcode_00060=1&index_pmcode_00045=1&sort_key=site_no&group_key=NONE&sitefile_output_format=html_table&column_name=agency_cd&column_name=site_no&column_name=station_nm&range_selection=days&period=7&begin_date=&end_date=&format=gif_stats&date_format=YYYY-MM-DD&rdb_compression=file&survey_email_address=&list_of_search_criteria=multiple_site_no%2Crealtime_parameter_selection

Well as the old saying goes ya shoulda been here last week. If you could dodge the wind last week was a sack em up week for crappie. Anywhere from 2-10 FOW on the upper Pomme arm, from Bolivar Landing down to Lightfoot. Spawning banks with cover out in the water was golden. Honestly I haven't heard a peep from the Lindley side. As for white bass yes there was a die off a few years ago, but last spring the MDC did some shocking up the rivers and found a suprisingly high number of small whites, 6" or so. With the shad/prey base in Pomme they should be doing well. Next spring they should be back in good numbers. I suspect the rain and cold front this week is gonna put the brakes on the crappie. They were definitely in a pre-spawn pattern but cleaning them neither the males nor females were quite ready yet, give them a couple weeks and be sure your fillet knives are sharp. Also talked to some bass fishermen, they seem to have been doing fairly well on jerk baits. Pomme bass are not monsters normally but the ones I've caught are fat, and full of fight (course they were on an ultra-lite crappie rod). Another 24-48 hours will tell the tale on how much rain we get and how much inflow, right now we have only gotten back to the "normal" spring flow in the Pomme de Terre River of about 250-300 so major flood not yet.

You won't be catching the smallmouth on Pomme like you can on Table Rock on Stockton, there are a few but far between. largemouth are doing well, they are very healthy and feisty. Right now there is a pretty good jerk bite on. Crappie well Pomme can be dynamite or dud. Last night it started out as a dud, but after a few hourse it picked up and 2 of us limited out. They crappie are in a prespawn mode even as early as it is. About half our fish were female full of eggs in about 8 feet of water. Now having said that I don't believe like some that they are going to spawn just yet. The eggs in the females just weren't "ripe" and the males had small gonads still, but give them a couple weeks and its gonna hit hard and fast unless they weather changes quickly. Pomme also has a good population of Muskie but I have never pursued them just cussed em whey they remove a jerkbait or crankbait from me occasionally. Also decent numbers of catfish, tons of bluegill and a healthy and growing population of walleye. In late april don't pass up an opportunity in late evening to stop on the back side of a windy main lake point and bounce a shad rap or something similar along the bottom from the waters edge back to the boat. White bass, we had a very large white bass kill a few years ago, but the MDC ran a shock boat up the rivers last spring and found a good number of 6-8" whites so they should be doing well on the large population of shad, hopefully they will come back strong. If you are staying at Nemo Bridge Resort the Husby's will take care of you they are great folks.

That surface temp is taken at the dam on monday and fridays. I was near lightfoot today and had a lot of 53 degree water. Found one small cover with the wind pushing into it, and the back end had 60 degree water (and crappie).

It is almost always clearest near the dam. Today I was on the lake and water at mid lake had that slight green tinge common in spring. The dam area was very clear yesterday.

I'll take the 20 smaller fish also, plust the shorter float. I like to beach a canoe or boat and really work the better holes, sometimes you can pick up that 20" fish by doing that.

We don't gig with a group waiting at the take out, but have seen it on the Gasconade before, sometimes multiple groups and yes it does make enforcement difficult but not impossible. I am not talking about giving anyone a "bye", simply that bright lights and a little experience makes for much better fish ID. Often times gigging is a quick ID and strike, it doesn't take too long to figure out the difference between a sluggish bass and a sucker, besides the suckers are much better eating.

Brighter lights do indeed aid with identification of fish species when gigging. What looks like a slow moving dark colored fish with weak lights is obviously a bass with bright lights. Yes most "enforcement" happens at the boat ramps when they are taking out, have seen agents there checking the catch and writing tickets. Bad eggs (poachers or those who intentionally gig bass) doesn't make for a bad sport or group of sportsmen.

Yes Bolivar landing has a courtesy dock, on the right side if you are looking down the ramp. Generally when fishing for crappie this time of year we target the brushpiles in 15-25 FOW, will hit them at various depths until we find fish. Sometimes the fish are right on top of the brush sometimes inside it. Sometimes you have to change piles to get better fish. Won't be long until they will start moving toward the shallower piles in a pre-spawn pattern. I say not long, but generally late march early april on Pomme. A little later than on other lakes for some reason.

Wow sorry I have missed out so far on this topic. Gigging is a viable and very fun sport. I like gigging, but don't get to do it very often. Do bas get gigged, yes, is it more pervasive on some rivers than other, almost assuredly so. It is fairly easy to identify the fish species at night with a good light, in good water conditions with a little experience. Some folks don't try to make much of an identification whether by choice or ignorance. Bass would be fairly easy to gig as they are very slow and sluggish in cold water, much more so than suckers. Gigging and snagger are both sports worth having, both are targeted at a species that is difficult to harvest in any other way, the paddlefish are almost non catchable except for snagging. To condem an entire sport or group of people for the wrongdoings of some is always wrong. It we hold that standard we should ban all canoing after witnessing some of the events I have seen on the Niangua River, or ban soccer after some of the riots and fights in Europe and other places. Heck I have caught quite a few smallmouth on the various rivers and creeks with hook marks in their mouth, and largemouth on the lakes in large numbers with "tournament disease". Gigging is pretty easy to know it is happening, bright lights in the middle of a dark river valley is pretty obvious and around here you are quite likely to get checked at the ramp when you take out. Its a good fun sport with good folks doing, and bad apples also.

Rangerz71, I just got home from fishing below Truman Dam, caught 5 whites and saw couple of wallys caught, can only get better from now on. As for things like annual passes, they are a bit of a sore spot for me as I know for a fact that the money doesn't go to the corps it goes to the general treasury of the united states, not one penny of it goes to the lake to pay for things like paving, painting lines, maintaining courtesy docks etc. The reason most lakes are low right now is that we simply haven't had the rain/snow we usally get, so far we are down on precipitation, and even with the mild winter we still need electricity for our homes and businesses. MDC does work with the COE to do things like drop cedar trees into lakes for fish habitat, not sure if they do any in Truman or not though, haven't seen them doing it there, also they work to develop a lake level management plan but on a lake with the capability of massive inflows like truman it is almost imossible to follow that plan, get a 6" rain in western missouri and see how much rolls down the osage! The flood control and hydropower are always going to be the front runners over fish and wildlife not always popular but that is how congress mandated it to be. It does always seem to be a see saw lake level during the crappie spawn but still I have never noticed any damage to the crappie populations seems they always get a spawn off somehow. Other lakes you can notice missing year classes with say many large keeper crappie and lots of 6-7" shorts but few 9" keepers and I never have understood why, unless the sheer amount of cover and size of the lake ensure that there will always be a decent spawn. Yeah I am due to buy my annual pass too!! I've had long conversations with COE folks about the fees and where it goes, did you know that even the camping fees don't go back to the lake? nope again back to the general treasury for congress to dole back out. Even if ti did go back to the lakes the concensus then is that like the MO lottery money and schools congess would simply reduce the budgets by that amount, so no net gain. If you get the chance talk to a few of the COE guys, Park Rangers, Maintenance etc. they are really a good bunch of guys (and gals) who want to do the right thing. I feel for the businesses who are essentially dependent upon the lake for their livelihood, on a good year they can do OK, but a bad year with low water, or long high lake levels, a bad storm , or even high gasoline prices make staying in business very tough, while a few miles downstream LOZ sets protected by Truman Dam from lake levels that would ruin billions in condo's and private homes so the lake seldom fluctuates more than a few feet. At least the fishing on LOZ can be pretty good in the spring too.

In a few words that 1 foot plus of water is a lot of Megawatts of electricity waiting to be generated. Normally on a COE Lake with electrical generation capability, SWPA (Southwest Power Administration) has "control" over water say from slightly below normal pool to a few feet above normal, they determine when and how much water is needed to generate electricity. Above that level the COE must determine how much water can be released to facilitate flood control. Things that must be taken into consideration are conditions downstream from LOZ all the way down to New Orleans. If the MO River is at flood stage the order comes down not to add water to the MO, so it gets held until the river drops below flood stage, then it is released in a controlled fashion. When all the parameters are followed by nature (rainfall, temps etc) it works great. Toss in a 10" rain or worse like hit the white river system last spring and put Table Rock at more than 100% or it rated capacity, or a long hot dry summer like last year where the electrical needs were high to air condition our homes and no rain coming in to keep the lake full and you get low conditions. I know the COE staff pretty well and to a person they are NOT "Oh well our paychecks will still come in, we don't care what happens to the lake level) guys. They hunt, fish and live around the lakes just like we do and would love to have it perfect all the time, but it just doesn't work that way most of the time. At around 704 I believe one of the marinas on Truman begins to have problems and several boat ramps as well. Highwater they are pretty familiar with, as Truman seems to hit its 50 year level every 5 years or so, but it is doing its job of flood control and hydropower generation. The COE employees do work with MDC, and other agencies to do the best they can for fish and wildlife but the flood control and hydro power will always come first, since that is the primary reason that congress authorized it. Keep in mind that the COE can't just do some things like change the lake level management plan, that comes from WAY up the line down to the local offices. Also SWPA doesn't just decide when to generate electricity, they pay for the right to have some generation capability just waiting to be called upon when needed, and return some significant dollars back to the COE to provide repairs to the generators etc. Money that otherwise would be coming from our tax dollars. The COE cooperates with MDC to provide a steady release of water for a period of time during the walleye spawn, so it doesn't act in a complete vaccuum, it is a balancing act to try to achieve as many of the goals as possible, unfortunately it isn't possible to please everyone. A few years ago two different states sued the COE at the same time, memory is fuzzy but I think South Dakota filed suit because it claimed the COE was releasing too much water from the upper mainstem of the MO lakes to keep barge traffic moving, and one of the lower states (don't remember), filed suit because it believed the COE wasn't releasing enough water to keep recreation opportunities available, hard to win in a situation like that. I will admit that I don't necessarily agree with how the levee sytems are operated but that comes sometimes from congressional mandates not COE. Personally I think it would be cheaper and better to not have levees that are not protecting population centers and allow the low lying ground along the river to flood when needed, and provide the farmers there a guarantee of crop insurance if crops are lost. But that is another topic entirely.

Truman lake has many purposes. First and foremost is flood control, secondary is hydropower all else falls well below those. SWPA has control over a certain elevation to determine when they generate and when they don't based upon needs. I've Truman go extremely high and water levels dropping during the spawn, but never really noticed any bad hatches on teh crappie spawn. They also do coordinate with MDC to release water during the nomal walleye runs. Do you REALLY want it operated strictly for flood control, if so then it would be nearly dry all winter so that spring rains can fill it up, then released until nearly dry again. All the COE lakes are operated with multiple uses but the number one will always be flood control. What really messed things up last year was the super high MO and MS rivers due to in large part to a massive snow pack melt out west that limited the outflow from most lakes and a couple of large rain events and the system got overwhemed. As for the levee's and repairs talk to congress who provides the money and gave the order to build them to begin with. There a lot of things that go into deciding if and how much water can be released or generated with. System doesn't always work but most times it does. The Corps of Engineers does plenty of things that make you scratch your heads but a lot of it comes from much higher up the food chain than the local offices.

I've been hearing and seeing lots of good crappie reports on Pomme. I haven't had the chance for quite a while, but nearly everyone who is fishing is doing well, from Bolivar all the way to the dam. I know they have been catching some limits from the fishing docks at Bolivar Landing as well, and talked to some near the dam fishing from those docks doing well. By the time I get off work these days its nearly dark, and it doesn't take much wind to make the docks by the dam tough to fish, but they are there.

Fishing reports on Pomme lately have been kind of slow how about a little information. How deep? Around trees or brushpiles, color jigs, or minners. I can see it from my window but haven't got to fish it much this year, I think my boat is starting to make rude comments when I walk by it.

Anglers may or may not be helping to spread them but when they do spread guess who will get the blame. We as anglers need to do our part and encourage others to do their part as well.

Thought I would post some quick information about a recent test done to detect the presence of zebra mussell in Pomme de Terre, Truman, and Smithville Lakes. The results were negative!!! Which means that no larval stages of Zebra Mussells (veligers) were found during the sampling. Obviously since Lake of the Ozarks still has a healthy population it is imperative that as anglers we all take precautions to prevent their spread.

Again not being a very good bass fisherman my favorite jig has always been a brown jig with a green pork chunk. Since pork chunks aren't as common anymore a greenish plastic trailer, but I always had a soft spot for the real pork trailers. Also like a dark green or brown 4-5" tube or chomper.