Flatbottom Boy

Very nice deer Harps, congrats!

St. Charles county near Defiance

I took a week of vacation overlapping the start of the rifle season in hopes to kill a buck early and another when the rifle season begins. I scored early on my first day, yesterday. They were really working the does over pretty good, it was pretty crazy out there for a while. Had several shooters that I just couldn't stop to get a shot. He's a dandy for me, not sure on the measurments I dropped him off at the taxidermist already and butchering him up before I head out again on saturday to squeeze in between all the rifle hunters with my bow! Wish you all the best of luck this season.

I am no expert on whites anywhere..Fishinwrench had passed on some pretty good info a while back upon request. These whites seemed to be following the shad schools around a particular cove. The birds were also following so I would strongly recomend following the flocks of guls in the boat. The best lure I found for them at that particular time was the castmaster spoon in silver. Again I'm no expert on them... crappies on the other hand I can usually score on pretty regularly. This was a much better crappie bite than I had seen in a while, (as far as size goes). Good luck wish I was more help.

Ive been pretty successful with several does, just waiting for the rut to get fired up. Taking a week of vacation overlaping the rifle season and hoping to connect on something decent. Bucks were moving pretty hard last night on the way back from the lake. Hopefully this front gets them moving good.

Got out last night on the Glaize and walked some shorelines looking for shad from 4pm to midnight. They were everywhere and the fishing was pretty hot for crappies and a few bonus whites. We actually fished two locations the Glaize over by Mccubbins point and on the main lake off a couple resort docks. Both locations provided very good crappies (many over 11") and the Glaize is where we located most of the whites. The colors that seemed to work the best were blue/white and red/white tubes, the whites were hitting the cast master spoons cranked pretty fast. Seemed like most of the crappies were between 4FOW to 12FOW. We ended the night with 30 slabs and 9 decent whites. I was torn between fishing and sitting in the tree stand...glad I chose fishing. Good luck to all.

Scheels is a pretty good store, the have a very nice one up in Omaha near my mothers house. I bought a rod from them when I was a kid that was the scheels brand and still have it 16 years later and it's my favorite light action. They are similar to the other stores only they tend to carry more all around sports gear, like golf, rock climbing, running, soccer etc...

I agree with buying quality Brian, and I try my hardest to spend a little extra to buy equipment that will last. But I sure would get my 9 bucks out of one of those float tubes, regardless of brand! That's just crazy cheap.

Congrats, nice mess of crappies! Deer season has slowed me down I need to hang the bow up for a weekend and get out...your pics are definately motivation in that department.

The only place I'm not carrying is the shower...but that's my deal. those of you that are saying how hard it is to conceal your full size weapons check out the cross breed holsters. They are out of Republic MO. For under 70 bucks you get an inside the pant holster that is extremely comfortable and very concealed. I carry a double stack Para Ord 1911 with very few issues. My normal is a single stack Para 1911 but the high capacity is very doable with this holster. Just an idea.

The thing that will take the longest to figure out besides where the hell the fish are at is the speed of your "drift". There is no shortage of wind on Stockton, but trying this technique on different bodies of water I have had to use the trolling motor to speed things up a bit..or slow down depending on how fast you want to go.

I would think the same methods to target walleye. I became pretty fond of the slow death rig over at Stockton. It's pretty simple with a bottom bouncer, a couple feet of leader, and a slow death hook tipped with half a night crawler. I drift this rig at different depths mostly rock ledges until I find them. Some days they would be as shallow as 10 FOW all the way down to over 30 FOW. I add a float to mine right in front of the hook and change the length of my leaders to see how far off the bottom they are. The thing I really liked about this rig is we picked up a lot of bonus fish, such as big bluegils and catfish. There is some info on the worm harness on one of the forums here, I do not have any experience with those. Some guys troll cranks at different depths also. Check out the Stockton Lake thread on here and you can pick up some good info..Bull Shoals is another I get info from.

UnCivE, have you fished the highway 17 bridge in Waynesville much? I went out this morning and paddled in both directions for quite a ways and found very little water that looked promising. I'm wondering if I should have kept going but it just kept looking worse and I didn't have all day. The hole down from the bridge about 300 yards treated me well for the little time that I had though, I managed a couple really nice fish and quite a few smaller ones.

It's been a month since I've been out of the house since our 3rd baby girl was born, so I took a day with a friend out on the upper part of the river. Boy what a day it was. First off I have a question for those that care to share. I know you can float from 133 to 7, but where can you access the river near 133. We were planning to do a float from one bridge to the other but couldn't figure out where to put in without tresspassing. Anyway it all worked out we just ended up paddling up from the 7 bridge. We were on fish all day, from 6am to 7pm. The brush hog and fluke started the morning off and we ended up casting a little bit of everything in the heat of the day..I will say the Senko worm landed more fish today than anything though. Fish ranged from 10" to 17" (my personal best this year). It was a great day to be out. Hope you all got a chance to get out on the water this weekend. Tight lines to all.

The catfish were on the bottom in 30 fow. I tried to suspend some bait at 20ft in the same water for some blues but no luck. I think we will try the late afternoon-nite bite next time to see how much of a difference that is.

I took my 5 year old daughter out to the crappie dock today. We found plenty of crappied without much effort and a few catfish were willing to play also. Crappies were tight to cover early in 20 FOW, suspended over the cover as the morning moved on. The catfish were hitting cut bluegill pretty good. I became a fan of the circle hooks today, having my daughter out there I didn't have time to just sit and stare at the rods all morning so I put on some circles, casted my bait out and left them there. I caught four that just hooked themselves and were waiting for me to real them in, kinda nice. It was a blast and much needed one on one time with my oldest.

Ollie I'm not sure which model your buddy bought but the 10' Ascend sit in comes with adjustable foot pegs that run along the side. They are fully adjustable and actually can be removed. If these were removed by accident prior to purchase he should get with BPS and see if they can make it right. If he bought the yak from someone on CL or the sort then he is kinda screwed but I would guess they can be purchased or fabricate some.

JD I have a 10' sit in Ascend that I purchased a while back. I am new to the kayaking world and thought I would try this one out. I fish out of it a couple days a week out on the piney and gasconade here close to home. I even had it out on LOZ this spring before all the boats started piling in there. I've been told by others that the kayak is heavy for it's size, but I don't carry it more than a few feet usually. It's very easy for me to load up on my tahoe, so not sure what everyone is talking about with the weight. It seems like this sport has more snobs than golf..but whatever. The yak tracks much better than I ever expected and is stable, but I wouldn't recommend standing. A few days ago a buddy of mine rented a 12 foot sit on top tarpon and floated around the piney with me for the day. I was able maneuver better and faster than he was, however he could easily stand to fish, his yak was much more stable. I did a two day float a while back and had enough room for all my gear over the two days, but I'm able to compromise and pack light. I haven't had it out duck hunting yet, but that was my main purpose for purchasing this craft. I have missed out on the last few duck seasons with deployments, and after my wife got rid of my bird dog my interest kinda went through the floor..(started bow hunting more). I hope this helps a little, I'm no kayak expert by any means but I have gotten my money out of this little boat.

I've been floating in and around the fort for the last couple weeks. It seems there are a bunch of people breaking the law, some very uneducated and some just flat out poaching. I've corrected every one that I have actually seen and most seem to appreciate the info, but two days ago this gentlemen had a bunch of goggle eye and 2 smallish smallmouth on his stringer. When I asked him if he was aware of the regulations on black bass in flowing waters he just asked if I was a game warden. I told him no and he shrugs me off. I made a phone call but I'm sure he was long gone by the time they made it. I hope he had 3 flat tires when he got back to the truck. Caught this one on my lunch break the other day. I've been doing really well on the baby brush hog and the white fluke. This one fell for the fluke.

I love when people post things and expect everyone that might be interested to be experts on the item they are selling...and when someone asks a perfectly reasonable question they become the worlds biggest smarta##. I wouldn't buy this thing out of principle because of your attitude.

Thanks guys I appreciate the responses. Brian, is there a benifit to launching a kayak when the water is turned off? I have only been down there once but I remember how many fisherman use that area when the water is off. Seems like I would be dodging wooly buggers all day.

I had a couple questions for you guys and was need a little help. I wanted to make a trip down there on Thursday. After my last trip I learned that the generation can be quite unpredictable. I would mostly like to wade fish, but as my last trip showed me that can be quite difficult with heavy generation. I do own a 10' kayak and was wondering if down river this would be a feasable craft to navigate the river and maybe do a little jig fishing. I'm able to paddle upstream rather well in the smaller rivers around here like the Piney, but I'm not familiar with this river when it comes to this. I would be by myself so I wouldn't want to do a traditional float from a put in location to a take out miles down stream. Is there a location on the upper to mid sections of the river to put the kayak in and paddle around when the generation is heavy? Or does anyone have any suggestions on where I can fish from the kayak while waiting out the heavy flow? Thanks in advance for any help.

Nice fish Billethead. I remember last year when I was crappie fishing trying to keep the catfish off the tube jig was a challenge. This is my first year trying to fish mostly with fly tackle and I have to say those catfish were as fun as anything. Now I just have to get wrench to show me where his white bass honey holes are, I hear those are a hoot on the fly tackle also.

I've had the last couple days off so decided to try some of the lakes here locally and hit up the Rubidoux with my daughter here in Waynesville. The trout fishing didn't last long, we ended up leaving an hour after we got there with our 4. She was all smiles though and managed to reel in all 4 on my 8wt. The other pictures are over the last few days in my Kayak on one of the small lakes on post. Managed a few catfish on the fly also which was quite a surprise to be. (never caught a cat on the flyrod before) Overall ended up with 25 bluegills 10 crappies and 4 catfish. Not as good of numbers as some of you but it was a good week for my daughter and I.

I fished this way a lot when I was younger out in Wyoming in the high mountain lakes and streams. Like flyrodman said the fly totally depends on the water and time of year you are fishing. Do your research on earlier threads in this forum and it will not take long to figure the fly to use. We would take a larger spooled reel and fill it completely full with light line. This would allow us to really launch this setup very far out into a lake. In lakes I would almost alway just do a slow retrieve. In the creeks it was a little more difficult but still doable. It's not like a fly rod where you can constantly mend line, so that is a challenge just keeping the fly in a good drift. Just match the hatch and use a clear bubble so you don't spook fish. Presentation will probably never be as good as the guy with the flyrod but it can be productive.