Flatbottom Boy

The Gnade is up and probably still rising. Im not sure its going to look all that great by friday and probably wouldnt plan a trip for this weekend on it. However if you end up going and need some help with a shuddle back to your put in let me know, Im just up the road from the 7 bridge and would be happy to help out if Im around.

I took all my girls (4 total including my wife) up to Shortys for lunch today. Figured it would be a good day for a boat ride. I finally found a good concentration of 10" bluegills on LOZ....just have to figure out how to tie a fly that resembles that fish food they sell there at the restaurant...and how to keep the ducks off! After lunch we motored to the back of the cove and started drowning some crawlers. My oldest caught a nice 12" crappie right off the bat. I switched her to a red/white jig and she put the whoopin on some decent crappies. They were right up on the bank and cooperating pretty good. When we got done and motored back to the Glaize state park area we started fishing a cove adjacent to the boat ramp. Huge schools of 6-8" shad all over. I see these every year but Im curious, are these the same schools I see in the fall all grown up? Do they grow that fast, or are they an older class of shad?

I havnt been down to the 133 since early last fall so Im no help there. Usually I paddle upstream from there to the fork.

I believe you can still get to the access from the west....do not try from the east though, I found that out the other day.

I fish quite a bit from Rich's down stream to the Fort. If I was taking my six year old daughter with me I would rig up a Ned on a 1/16 head in PB/J or water melon. I have caught tons of goggle eye and nice crappie through that stretch of the river. The slower pools we pick up a bunch of largemouth too. Im not sure what the smallies are doing but have to assume on the beds. We went up river the other day with my buddies 4yo son and tied on a homemade hair jig, like a real small one 1/80 oz head, under a bobber. He absolutely laid waste to some very nice gills and crappie. Everywhere there was slower water and grass emerging from the bottom they seemed to be stacked in there. Im sure you guys will have a great time!

Ok thats it....Wrench needs his own forum!

Took a friends dad out tonight for some crappie fishing after everyone pulled off the water from the BBB. Fished from 5pm till dark. We caught two limits without much trouble. I was throwing a bobby garlin fire cracker color but honestly it didnt seem to matter much as he was throwing everything under the sun and seemed to catch them. There was no consistant pattern as far as their location as long as you were near spawning banks. I only caught a couple tight to the rocks the rest seemed to be 5-10 ft down just out from the bank. Managed a few nice catfish too. In one cove we pulled 4 fish suspended in 20 fow out of one school. These 4 were the biggest in the livewell by far. Im guessing they are just at all stages of the spawn? Anyway it was an awesome night to be out there, I was a little jealous of the campers that get to wake up and do it again tomorrow.

Awesome! A couple questions, do the floats you have strapped onto your rods remain on while in use or do you take them off? If they stay on how does that affect your sensitivity? And that measuring devise looks like it has some curviture to kinda craddle the fish? I bet that works good. Or is that just the angle of the photo?

So are you holding and releasing the actual trigger, or just stopping the line with your finger over the hole? I bet that little settup would work good.

One thing Ive learned over the past few weeks is to use a tube jig with the head actually inserted into the body. I like fishing the slab busters and the bobby garlands usually but the body slips off the jighead too much. I have heard of guys superglueing the bodies to the jig head but have not tried that. Once that jig slips on the jig head it gets pretty frustrating with it slipping on almost every shot. This technique is extremely effective getting into all those small holes and in between the floats. Also make sure your reel has a full spool of line, you will be able to shoot better.

The glaize has been on fire. They are way up under the dock floats. Im just starting to learn the whole "shooting" game and its a blast! I got my 15 off 3 different docks within a couole hours yesterday. Best was a pair of 13" out of the same hole. Many of them were full of eggs.

He is talking about the access in Gravois Mills

Read through some of the past posts I think Wrench put out a warning on that ramp eating trailers if you arent carefull

I was up there back in February and they had the ramp closed off and were doing construction in the parking lot. I parked and walked down, the ramp had an enourmous sand drift covering it from the flooding. I hope someone that has been there recently can give you a more up to date status on it. I may take a drive out there this week to kill some time. Ill let you know if I do.

I was out middle of last week on the Glaize for a couple hours. We casted to some of the usual spots on rock banks and deeper brush that we find crappie on typically. We had pretty poor luck until we moved to some docks. They seemed to be way up under the floats as far as you could shoot the jig. Depth varied and we caught them at various depths as the jig was falling. I used a blue/silver bobby garland and by buddy used a black/chart slab buster. Both produced equally well.

Holy crap!

Awesome fish Duane!

Think about all that good crappie cover!

Good deal sounds like a good weekend!

I assumed there was some kind of tournament happening, every piece of semi-clear water was a parking lot! How did you end up in your tourney Warrior?

I fished the upper Glaize yesterday from 9:30 to noon. The boat traffic was crazy and I normally don't get fired up with rude people, but they were plentiful. I'm not sure if they were tournament fisherman or just people itching to get bit. I got cut off by three different boats, one of those boats twice in two completely different spots. I know I don't have a 20' glass boat and I probably don't appear to be taking it serious but darn pulling up 50' to the nose of my boat is really pushing it. Ok so on to the fishing. Bass seemed to be cooperating on the jig pretty well. I was casting a brown/red 3/8 finesse jig tipped with a havoc pit boss. I started out hopping the jig on the bottom and didn't do well. Once I started to pull/drag the bait along the bottom the bites came pretty regularly. When I got hung up on a rock a few times and pulled free they seemed to attack the bait right away. I did cast a wart for a while with no luck, but it wasn't a very committed try with the jig doing well. After getting beat up by the wind and other boats I moved into a couple coves and tried some docks that usually produce crappie. They were biting good yesterday with a lot of short fish. I was fishing a blue/silver bobby garland shad and it had to be way up under the docks or no bites. I was able to weed through the little ones and did manage several very fat healthy 12". They have evidently been feeding well with this dirty water and lack of pressure. I was having motor issues and had to leave a little early but I think a limit of crappies would have been manageable. Not wanting to waste the day I loaded up the kayak at home and headed to the Piney till dark. I've never really found a big school of winter smallmouth before, but I did last night. I have been practicing with the NED quite a bit trying to find a head that doesn't get snagged up every cast or is too light for the current. Last night I used some cheap Archie heads from Walmart that I typically throw with the chompers. They worked! It was a fish every couple minutes for quite a while. If it wasn't a smallmouth it was an angry little goggle eye. A couple of the fish were very healthy and gave me some pretty good runs on a 7' light action with 4lb line! Awesome day for sure. Here are a few pics from the river, I was busy battling wind and the BASS elites at the lake to get any photos there.

What are you guys throwing at them with the fly rod? Just streamers and clousers or something different?

Awesome! How far back in the cove were they?

Awesome! Ive been waiting for some reports to come out, just trying to live vicariously through those lucky enough to get out. Did you throw any jigs at all? I think that crazy wind is supposed to die off this evening some.

There are very few tailraces that dont hold fish....there now all the tailraces in the US are no longer a secret! Come on I understand a secret spot on a little stream, or ponds tucked way back in the woods but the tailrace below a massive reservoir is not a secret to anyone that has fished for more than a day.