West Fork Jason

Dylan- Did you make it over to the mouth of the Montreal? What a beautiful spot, and some good fishing to boot. How was the rest of your trip? You'll never know what you'll catch there. Warm water and cold water species, just depending on conditions. Got this chunky small mouth swinging a white fat head streamer a few years back. Only bad thing about this spot, the bucket brigade seems to do a good job extracting fish from it. Saw a kid with a stringer full of 15-20 year old smallies...

Just finished up my dads fathers day gift, look out Sugar Creek! It's a prototype one off size 2 "tree frog" version of my bullfrog that I tie on a 6/0 for musky. Cheers!

The Sconnie bass sure are looking up right now. A lot more activity with surface flies than streamers over the last two days. Water temps have sky rocketed into the 70's recently.

But we lost one smallie even bigger....one of these came up and ate it!

Awesome, nice looking water

I've probably made thousands of errant casts that put the fly up in the trees over the years. But this smallie didn't mind at all. Probably cleared two vertical feet to eat this musky fly dangling from a branch.... Cheers!

Stopped at the dam on the way down to NWA yesterday, after catching many many browns in the Wisconsin and Iowa Driftless Region. The troot streams were high and off color, and small streamers were the ticket. But back to the Salt... The MO dnr website boasts of carp, SM bass, sheepshead, and the "occasional" walter. Sold, I had to stop. Plus it's Sam Clemons's local. There was one fellow leaving as I pulled up. His boat was in the shop, and he was twitchy to go fishing. He claimed he had caught two species of carp. One put up quite the battle, and he had the stink on his net to prove it. I was ill prepared, but will be next time I pass through. Have any of you Ozarkians had any experience with the salt? Cheers, JS

they're hard on the brookies, can't affirm woodpeckers.

Today was early season trout catch and release opener, the first time in a several years I've missed it. -20/-30 wind chills. Hid inside a pop up shack with a heater instead....;(

Are those the cheeks on the far left of the picture? yum.

I think i heard him say Milwaukee Harbor.

Haris- glad to hear you had success! What did you catch your largemouth on? Today, I caught bluegill, yellow perch, pike, and bass all on the same northland tackle forage minnow jig tipped with waxies. The bass was a challenge with the 2lb. test, thought I lost 'er a few times when it seemed stuck to the bottom of the ice. Luckily hooked the pike in the lip... Kept a few for eats, let the bass go.

Nice. Think more along the lines of glorified buzzard.

Name that bird track. Ended up keeping 2 for myself and giving this bird 4.

All you need to do is- Buy a snowmobile, sled, pop up shack, ice auger, portable heater, vexlar, short little rods, tiny jigs, maggots, tiny minnows....

I can't believe any of you couldn't add to this! Don't ever go to to Grand Isle. The oil spill and the hurricanes have made it terrible. No fish here.

We have snowmobiles here, the fish has been fresh the last two nights;) Don't be one of those "my 4x4 can drive through anything" guys. The ice can support the truck (and a train), but the snow is a bit deep. I was scouting for a tourny today- http://members.haywardareachamber.com/Events/details/2nd-annual-freeze-your-buns-off-crappie-ice-fishing-tournament-8111

Perch and bluegill were on the menu last night, and tonight it was gills and crappie. Cooking method- Drag the fillets in flour, eggs, than panko. Fry Daddy. Garnish with lime and tartar sauce. My personal opinion- Crappie taste like dirty bass, and perch are mmmmmmyyyy little tiny walleye.

" that is a prescription for ripping dock right off there moorings and a lot of other damage as well. make me real nervous." That's why we take out our docks up here...

if you want to wade fish, the Brule is pretty darn good! Miles of river, and it's all public with lots of parking/access areas.

I tied this one with a specific lake in mind, that's full of bluegills and muskies. The CCG sets up that bucktail nicely so that it swims like a flat fish. I tie lots of 'em with out the goo for the dark tannin stained rivers so they push water though.

A little break from musky fishing and hucking giant flies with the ten weight. I haven't seen the numbers yet on how many fish have run up from the lake, but it sure seems like there are lots of fish around this fall. Cheers!

I'm headed for Grand Isle for a week at Christmas. Any experiences and advice you can share would be great. Can't wait to get down there! Cheers!

I have that same line mainly for wisco's late winter/early spring catch and release season. Love it, but it doesn't like to be dry and hot.