Gavin

I Beleive....have gas money, lots of fishing stuff, will travel!

Went looking for a Top Dollar at BPS in St. Chuck today...did not find one...will have to order a few this weekend so I can play with them before I close up our pool....BPS carries some Lucky Craft....and a good assortment of other stuff.....but I get most of my LC's online at The Hook Up Tackle....http://www.thehookuptackle.com/ better color selection than you find at BPS...and they ship fast...no finacial interest...just a happy customer...

Float Stocking would probably help...In the few times that I've floated the Niangua it was pretty easy to figure out were the trout were. Just look for a road leading to the water.

Depends on what section you floated...The Akers Ferry to Pullite stretch is usually a fishless wasteland for me. It picks up a tad at Pulltite, meaning that you can expect to catch a fish, sometimes a dozen or so, but its not gonna be a high numbers day. I havent floated below Round in a couple years, but I've had some good days between Round Spring & Powdermill (I've never floated below Powdermill). Mostly plastic on the bottom or flukes...Cant recall a good topwater bite. Its hard to top the scenery, even if the fish dont bite. Cheers.

Heddon makes the Zara Spook, Spook Jr., and Zara Puppy...Lucky Craft makes the Sammy, Gunfish, & G-Splash....They are all slightly different..The Spook Jr. is a great bait if you upgrade the hooks...its a bit harder to walk than the Sammy 100, and it makes more noise....The Gunfish has a very wide walking action and it spits more water than the Sammy..Less roll & glide on the twitch. I work it a bit faster than a Sammy or a Spook....The G-Splash is allot smaller than the Sammy 100 or Gunfish 95, its a popper that walks with allot of splash and not much forward motion...Its good when they want a smaller bait or when you want they bait to stay in the zone a bit longer. Havent tried that Top Dollar in RPS's profile...but I bet it works too. Cheers.

Yes....but I like the Lucky Craft Sammy 100, and the Gunfish 95 allot better than a spook...the G-Splash is good too.

The two legged otters were ignoring the crayfish...the 4 legged variety would never do that.

There is a thwart right behind the front seat...so you cant turn it around and paddle from the front w/o removing it. I solo mine from the back seat.

Wow! Another beautiful boat...You do some fine work...and thats one heck of a wood shop!

Contact Jadwin Canoe if you want to float Baptist to Cedargrove...or Aker's Ferry if you want to float Cedargrove to Aker's...Weather is still nice, so the Cedargrove to Akers stretch is likely to be busy. Hope you have a great turnout. Would love to attend, but a family obligation got in the way. Have fun.

MDC marks & recaptures..... Norm Crisp has a thorough explaination of the process on his website. http://streamsideadventures.com/features/current-river-shocking.html

KOB beats Kornholio !

Why?...because they have it marked on the calendar........bout the same time, same sample stretches........ been on that trip....I'm not sure what the delayed mortality is....but I helped measure about 5-600 fish & clip fins over the course of two days....lots of minnows & a bunch of suckers died in the process....they have big scales and get zapped a bit harder than the trout. Saw one dead trout in the net pens..most seemed pretty healthy after we measured em.

Dunno....20% of those sampled were bigger than 20"...but they only sampled 23 fish per hour of effort...Thats 4.6 fish over 20" per hour...looks like overall number of brown trout sampled per hour is way down from a couple years ago...with about the same numbers of fish over 20". Rainbow population looks phenominal though.

Its probably a habitat issue...More silt & fine gravel as opposed to cobble & rocks to grow crawfish.

Try a small plastic tube jig. With or without a float.

I've paddeled a Wenonah Spirit II for many years...Its a darn good boat...I can walk around in mine when its lightly loaded and I can stand and fly cast out of the front or back...the bow is pretty high though, and you cant turn it around to solo it, but I do w/o any problems. Its a bit faster than the Old Town Disco 169, but it drafts a bit more water because it has narrower ends. The Penobscot is nice but it doesnt have the capacity or the initial stability you get with the Spirit II.

Buffaloes are good paddling boats....at $75 your money ahead if you make it down the river 3-4 times...A lightly used Old Town Disco would be hard to pass up...A bud of mine was gonna put up his Mad River Explorer 16 last week...mid 1990's boat, green royalex, wood gunnels & cane seats. Used but in good shape. His ask was $650. St. Louis Hills Area. Not sure if he sold it this weekend or not. PM if interested.

Catfish or Bullheads?

Nice find...if you have an ebay account you can search old auctions for an idea of value...Both the rod & reel are pretty common items so not much value there. Fish the heck out of it.

Sounds like fun....think there are a couple similar craft out there...North Fork Outdoors makes some neat frameless pontoons, and a similar raft. All in the $1,500-$2,000 range unfortunately.

Super flukes would be a no no above Patrick Bridge....but I guess you could try a spore with a tail....or tie a few Deceiver's on scounger jig heads. Jointed Jittebug at night might work too.

Go wack em! They would probably go for a Zara Spook or a Suspending Jerkbait. Smithwick Suspending Super Rogue's are good baits and relatively inexpensive....Maybe work out a deal for some temporary access at McKee in exchange for some striper fillets?

Slack is your enemy....If you have enough line speed, you can easilly shoot 10-20' of line on your backcast, and more on your forward cast..........Heres a vid that helped me the most....Think I still have it on VHS if anyone wants it. http://www.amazon.com/Saltwater-Flycasting-Distance-Roberts-Tutorial/dp/B004SIRFD0

Glad you had a good trip!