Greasy B

Bronze on Grumman. Fantastic fish!

I'm in Tri Stste Trolling Motor in north St Louis county a couple of times a year. They sell some high end batteries. I have always wondered if they're worth the extra money??

I think Cedar Creek offers some bass fishing, I'm not sure about access but it's in the 200 S.A. book. Cedar creek is just south east of Columbia. There is some National Forest land in the area but I'll bet it's all uplands.

Well now they often call me Greasy but my real name is Mr Earl

The trick with spending a weekend on the Slabtown Ross float is to put in at Slabtown early afternoon sat. then fish hard and float slow so your behind the crowd. You want to get to 6x late afternoon Sun. and take out at dusk. You'll swear the river was empty when in reality everyone was ahead of you.

While I have seen a fair number of fish in the 20" class most all were when I spooked them in the open and they fled for cover. I only held one in my hands about 20 years ago. Another was when I friend caught one within site of a very popular boat ramp. He had only been Smallmouth fishing for a year or so, I'd hate to think he'll never get another.

Yea I would also go with Slabtown to Ross but you'll want to camp on a gravel bar along the way. A one day float in that area would have you floating 6 crossing to Ross, a beautiful part if the river but not the high quality experience you would have coming down from Slabtown.

Thanks for the Montana update Al, I was also wondering about the snow pack? Have you spent much time fishing the lower river between Livingston and Big Timber? That area strikes me as way to avoid the parade of boats in Paradise Valley, I'm not sure if battling the wind down there is worth it.

That last half hour of daylight is magic this time of year.

Yea, slowing down your casting stroke is the key to throwing the heavier lines. Your really don’t want to slow down the part of the cast where you are driving the rod forward or backward loading the rod just when you hesitate between each stroke. Try standing sideways and turn around to watch your line unroll behind you on the back cast, start your forward stroke just as the line has completely unrolled.

Welcome Prestone, This forum is a great place to learn the ropes of enjoying the Ozarks and its wonderful fishing opportunities.

I don’t know much about catching Google Eye but I have learned how to not catch them by up sizing my baits and especially hooks. So I guess the inverse would be true, down size your baits and hooks. Probably a 4” grub on a hook no bigger than # 2 would be as good as anything. Fish tree roots both standing and the root wads of downed trees. Older downed trees are always better than newer ones that have a lot of twigs. Throw into shaded areas.

Good fish, i came across a similar fish the first time i fished River King, neat place. Lately i have been fishing the older strip pits, they seem to have much better shallow water habitat. Did you see any Bluegill of size?

Whenever a fishing partner answers their phone when we're on the water I give them a look of contemptuous disdain and tell them it's no different than answering the phone in church.

"What were the streams like then?" I think there is very little documentation on what the streams were like prior to settlement. Few early explorers and settlers were educated enough. I recall comments by one explorer named schoolcraft describing bedding down along rivers in pine beds under huge trees for lack of anywhere open enough to set up camp. Examples of what they looked like are the middle 11pt and the gasconade between nebo and hazelgreen, a stable substrate and very few gravel bars. An example of what they have become would be the Black around Lesterville where the river flows through huge beds of loose gravel.

Ouch, are you talking about the occasional gulp of air that causes a momentary red line. Or did this happen from something more constant?

That was cool! Good sounds too.

yep, it the same principle that applies when selecting leaders and tippet when fly fishing.

I guess that axiom begs for an answer to, how many people are too many? How many jet boats are too many? On some very special water I get all upset if I see I single person in a day. On other waters I can put up with one jet boat an hour or one group of noisy floaters an hour, any more than that I question why did come to this godforsaken place. Being limited to nothing but weekends on the water the quest for peace and quiet is a challenge.

I think the pump water displaced is less apparent because it's path is to the rear. When a hull is plowing it does push more water to the side.

So is more water displaced by the pump than the hull?

A River Pro or River Pro type boat on a stream the size of Big River is just the kind absurd mismatch that's hard to put up with. Barring some horrible accident or a string of horrible accidents this type of activity won't get the attention of enough folk to make change possible.

“We have met the enemy and he is us”. I own a jet boat and have cringed at times when I needed to be on plane and found myself in proximity to other river users. When the rivers are peopled I try to park the big boat and float creeks.

Al Agnew said "I would have gone for a ban on all gas engines on the Meramec in a heartbeat back in the 1980s when jets first came into popularity. Now, unfortunately, the genie is out of the bottle. Way too many people who own jetboats, including me. It's just a symptom of the fact that we are using these rivers to death, whether it be jetboats or rental canoes, kayaks, and rafts. But I still wish that somebody would have been proactive back when the first jetboats were appearing on these streams and done something THEN to control their use. It could have been done then, before many people owned them. And the rivers would have been a lot better for it” Al has made this point several times. If you substitute White River for Meramec this statement reflects the current situation on the Arkansas tailwater. The 1980’s is the same as pre-minimum flow on the White. Since the dam has been in place the use of high powered boats has been self regulated by the unpredictable and reoccurring low water. Once minimum flow is in place the river may only drop below 800 cfs during drought. 800 cfs is enough water to run a high powered boat through all but a few shoals. Once people invest in high power, high speed boats and the dealers are in place you will never get this “genie back in the bottle”. Now is the time for the people of Arkansas to be proactive, don’t let White River become what the Meramec and Gasconade are. Gone will the idyllic days of quaint traditional boats puttering around. The boats will be replaced by water craft that travel at such speeds they nearly fly and have a roar more akin to an airplane than a boat. Al, Sorry for stealing your quote from a different thread. I’m not sure of the protocol but it makes the point better than I could have.

Turn off your television, open your eyes to the world that surrounds you. Live your life in your world not the pretend world that hucksters are trying to sell us. The last TV I owned was thrown in the garbage about 1992, I have never missed it.