Flatbottom Boy

Me too Wrench, I will definitely be looking into this when I get back.

If I have the option to pick I would..but my options are pretty limited to just taking whatever day I get. Im sure when I retire in some of that lakefront property Glen has been showing me Ill be drinking coffee looking out my window laughing at those poor souls that are forced to fish in the blizzards. But most likely Ill still be suckered into fishing the blizzards waiting for that thump I love so much. Good luck gents gotta board a plane in a few hours...wish you all the best and hope to see you out on the water in the spring.

I brought the family down there for a couple days. I didn't get the chance to fish but we did walk along the lake some. What is going on with all the vegetation growing down at the landing? I don't remember all those weeds last year and they appear to be covering most of the crappie cover we fished.

I am Duane but just on leave. I will be back for good the first week of April. Maybe we can link up and chase some of those elusive crappies down there when I get back.

Awesome Duane...and I agree with Billethead that hat has got to keep you busy beating off all the Taney girls.

I havnt gotten to installing electronics yet but I would say 15-20 fow suspended down about 8ft. They wanted blue and white tube moving pretty slow. I got the girls some minnows and they managed quite a few but there were a lot of small ones hitting them and dink bass. Sucks I couldnt get up your way this time Wrench but Ill hit you up for sure in April. It was hard to pull away from the family.

I got back out with my oldest two to chase some crappies on Wednesday. Before the high winds and rain we were able to get a dozen really nice ones. We hunkered down on some docks for a few hours when the weather got bad. Mostly dinks in the docks...but the girls toughed it out better than some grown men I know.

Just till the 3rd of December Wrench, I'll be back permanently in April. Let me know if you want to take a break working on motors...I have a few mid week days I can break away from the family.

I got home for a little vacation last week and I've been chomping at the bit to get the boat in the water after being gone for 7 months. I got to the boat ramp around 8am and it took some serious convincing to back it into the water. The temp in the truck was 23 degrees and the wind was blowing pretty good. After getting all the normal problems taken care of...leaking plug..cobwebs out of the motor, I was well on my way. I stuck to the windy banks in and around McCubbins and right off the bat found a decent bank full of whites. I couldn't believe how aggressively they were feeding. I was casting a purple blue fox spinner and honestly I didn't really get to try much else the first hour. The crappies seemed kinda slow but I did manage a couple really nice ones and a couple brush piles held hungry schools of dinks. The black bass started blasting the spinner later in the morning so I transitioned over to a suspending jerk bait and picked up numerous keeps and more than enough bucks to keep me smiling. It's great to be back home I hope this crappie bite fires up soon!

Yes the first time I fished it a guy pulled up in a boat. I had my choc lab in the front of the boat with me and he wanted to see her. He saw I was throwing a small crappie jig not having much luck. He quickly handed over a chew can full of wax worms and a teardrop ice fishing jig. I was busy the rest of the day catching big ol slab crappies and bluegill. It seems like everyone is always willing to help around there.

I used to live in the Clarksville area in TN. I loved fishing Reelfoot. The crappies and bluegills are some of the largest I've ever seen. The larger boat traffic in zip due to all the burried cypris logs. We used to go in June when the spring fishermen left and fish all the trees with a flyrod rigged with a ultralight reel. We would drop ice fishing jigs tipped with wax worms up tight to the trees, normally we would limit out rather quick. It was always a blast to get that random catfish to take you for a ride also. Another fun time is Kentucky lake when the redear are bedding. We have caught some enormous redear out of that lake off some of the stake beds that the locals put out every year. I still make an annual trip to Kentucky lake with buddies that are still in the area...well worth the drive.

I am Duane, I left a couple weeks ago. Havn't had time to figure anything out here yet, but I can see water from my window! Might have to hike over and check it out this next week.

Thanks Phil, being a long way from home these videos are going to keep me motivated the next year! The trees are looking awesome.

It was supposed to be a big family trip this weekend down to Taney but my youngest daughter was pretty ill so it ended up just being myself with my two oldest daughters. We did the Silver Dollar City mess on Saturday and fished for trout both mornings and later Sat. night. This morning I took them to the landing area to visit one of the candy stores before coming home. One of my daughters asked if we could fish before we left I was glad to make it happen. I put on a couple slip bobbers with some 2 1/2" BPS shad jigs and launched the rig as far as I could out into the lake. We tore up the crappies for quite a while before I had to call it quits and get on the road. Those two girls kept me pretty busy making long cast and taking fish off. We probably caught 10 or so in the keeper range but most were pretty small. Fun day for sure!

Wharfrat thats an awesome rig! One of my good friends over in Kentucky bought this boat in January. We had it out on Taney for a week and I was pretty impressed. Just want to pass on a couple of things he had go wrong so you can watch for yourself: Trailer rubbed the tires on one side pretty bad on his way down here from Kentucky. He called immediately when he got to my house and reported it to Ranger. They have since replaced the trailer and said that it had been a problem with several of the trailers they had sold last year also. The all aluminum design evidently causes a lot of "sweating" to occur. He pulled several rods out of the compartments after setting for a few weeks and they were all covered in a mildew/mold. A little research revealed that other are having the same issue. Again he called Ranger and they recommeded a roll on liner for the inside of the compartments. Anyway I hope neither applies to your boat, just thought I would give you a heads up. Other than those two problems he is in love with his.

Thanks fellas Im pretty proud of all my girls and hope they pick up just one of my hobbies/passions. Wrench thats a good point, those slabbusters are pretty sacred to me... I'll keep a close watch. Jeff it was good to meet you too. Wrench really schooled me on the bass and put us both into a pretty good mess of crappies. It was a great day out on the water, and I learned a few things. I look forward to booking a trip with you when I get back. Glen filled me in on what you guys do and I checked out your website. I think I could learn quite a bit on a couple trips with you, and I have a buddy I could weasle into spending the day with us.

I picked up my middle daughter, 4 year old, from preschool today and we headed down to the Red section of the Roubidoux. The fishing wasn't bad, but the company was awesome and we had a blast. In between her raiding the gummy bears in my tackle bag I let her crank in a few on my fly rod. Her abilities already amaze me with the spin gear, I cant wait to see her trying the flyrod, hopefully soon. They were liking the black zebra midge today, I'm not sure if anyone really fishes this river anyway on here but thought I would throw it in there.

Thanks all of you for the advise. I can see an advantage to both books and the online videos. Wrench is right for a beginner the internet is a freakin nightmare, but if you know the look you are going for with a specific fly then that can help narrow the search down some. I remember fishing the current when I first came to Missouri a few years back. A guy was fishing a elk hair cadis and doing rather well. I got the materials and headed home to tie a few. I'm glad he gave me one to reference because the different versions were endless. I personally learned better from videos when I was first learning how to start and finish a fly. Now that I have the basics down I think I could really learn from a good book as well.

Thanks Duane, I was hoping that you would throw in your two cents. I picked up some mink from Phil's shop the other day. I will be down there again this next weekend so I kinda wanted to go in there with a list to help me. I also picked up the "olive" color you showed me, looks kinda chartruese. What about jigs guys... I'm interested in what sizes for smallmouth, goggle eye, and trout. Also the paint for the heads. Are there paints out there that you don't need to bake on? I'm not thinking I will have an oven.

South Korea....I just found an american bass club over there so I will be researching that a little.

Great idea on the book Ness. I was planning on watching some of the videos on here too for help with some of the flies. Do you have any suggestions on which books, there seem to be quite a few?

I’m getting ready to leave the country for a year for work. I need some help getting supplies/stash ready for tying. Although I’m guessing my free time will be somewhat limited I want to fill it with becoming a better fly tier. My skills right now are limited to only tying a few Wooly’s and midges. I want to get better at tying it all. I have a small stash right now that I use for tying jigs and the some other small stuff I basically just mess around with. I need more.. My fishing locations normally include the Current, Taney, and Niangua for trout. I would like to be able to tie up flies used for all circumstances for these rivers, with some emphasis on streamers. Not really interested in the big ol articulated stuff just the basics. Piney/Gasconade for smallmouth. I really want to get more into flyfishing these locations. I also like tying jigs and would like to create more of a standard rather than just winging it. So with that, if you were leaving for a year to a location you couldn’t fish but wanted to fill your time with tying flies…what would you take? Jig heads/Hooks, sizes/styles…dubbing…hair.. Paint for jig heads that doesn’t require an oven. Any help you all could give me would be great. Remember I’m pretty much a newbie to this so you might need to break it down a little. Thanks in advance, I will be living vicariously through you guys for the next year!

Nevermind I got my rigs messed up I meant shakey head...wacky is with my senkos.

Thanks guys. Seth I had them texas rigged with a 3/8 bullet pegged at the hook. I will try rigging them wacky next time. Is the shakey head similar? I have a hell of a time keeping them up the top of the hook so maybe a wacky head and spinning tackle for gentler casting would be better? The fun part was the jerk bait on the medium light rod and 4lb line though... I know I was messing with fire but it was fun!

I dont think they suspend much, but when Wrench was getting his junk chomped on by that pelican he probably let his bait fall just enough. Good technique actually. Way to go Wrench!