Feathers and Fins

I would rate it fair but I only fish the white river section for them.

OTF, Its like the Jaw syndrome when something gets vilified people will kill it. Jaw came out and everyone started killing sharks.. no different the bible vilified the serpent and they have suffered since then. Now sharks are getting so much positive press through Osearch and other groups they are starting to shed their villains status. If people knew the truth behind how beneficial snakes were they would probably be more than happy to have them around.

Been bit probably more times then anyone on this site and I can tell you how it felt... EMBARASSING as it was MY fault not the snakes because I lost my concentration and most bites by people that were responsible were the same cause, loosing focus and all of them felt the same way.... As for people who don't have to deal with them getting bit is because they were messing with something they had no business messing with. Just leave it alone and it wont bother you. As for non-venomous bites it hurts whoop de doo but your over it in a few minutes... As for killing them it is illegal in MO just fyi I swear a guy will get in a car after drinking or too tired and be more deadly than a snake ever is and yet they want to kill a snake just for it being what it is.

Down riggers I wont run bucktails I try to stay with spoons, swimbaits and hard plastic. But I have and cut it down to 60ft and try to keep where I believe 5ft below the ball is.

Very well done.. I stuck a link to this in the species specific area on the Beaver Lake forum.

approximately 6ft per every 1/4oz with 150ft of line at 2.0 mph is a rule of thumb I use so 300ft = 12 ft with 1/4 oz or 150ft = 12ft with 150 ft out with 2.0 mph speed. be warned if your going in the wind and your boat speed drops so does the lure and ive lost more than a few not paying attention.

I just like how they rig and stay on hooks for a long time. break the bill after rigging and push the poo out of them and they have a nice swimming action and profile is something stripers will eat.

Nope in reservoirs threadfin are very pelagic ( open water ) Gizzard can be pelagic but mostly are shallow water residents especially on Beaver in mud flat area. Here is a good write up on them http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/hsi/hsi-112.pdf

They are going after Both but the primary source this time of year will be threadfin as they are more open water. Fall when the water temps drop and stripers go shallow they tend to be on Gizzards more as they are more in the shallows. That's not to say they wont pin in threadfin but its a good general rule. Gizzard shad always work in open water or shallow as well the big meal means food and stripers like food. I have cleaned many stripers this time of year with 2 to 3 inch threadfins in their gut so I try and find the bigger bait balls and then fish around them. I would love to get Ballyhoo and pull them on down riggers I would bet they would get many bites from large stripers. Then again I wish I could get trout out of the white and use them but for some reason AGFC wont let us do that darn them.

Threadfin are more open water and Gizzards are more back of cove water. Gizzards get bigger and tend to last better in a bait tank. As to which one is more populous in the lake its impossible to say for sure but after the shad kill this winter I would lean toward Gizzard presently.

Think Striper Jigs, most stores sell them with the striper gear. I have never stopped using them for bass, striper and walleye but in Bass fishing it seems to go in cycles to who used what to win the last tournament. People see it on tv or read about it and have to have the new "in" thing. Hair jigs have been around long before I was born for a reason, they work! If you understand when to use them they are very productive year round, Early spring through late summer 2 to 4 inch mimics the forage of small shad and fish fry if your swimming it or crawling on the bottom it looks like chubs and craws. From late summer to late winter 4 to 8 inch baits mimic the larger shad.

Lack of enforcement simple answer. You have to have a Boaters Education Cert if you were born after 1986 im betting many don't. Heck J-doc and I were at the ramp a few weeks ago and a guy just bought a new wake boat ( no numbers new ) couldn't get it started so he pulled it out and I heard him on the phone with the dealer telling him he couldn't get it started, dealer told him to put the boat in neutral to start so the guy did it and boom it started. They just buy these things and have 0 clue how to use them let alone boating rules. I personally think every last person should be required to have a Boating License which means a written test and a on the water exam. Use that dam money to pay for a full time officer on the lakes at least during summer. The other thing that needs to be done is to place NO /SKI TUBE ETC areas on the lake. I know I have said it as have others but there are areas on the lake that sooner or later will impale one of them, all it takes is a few feet of drop and there is some serious hazards out there.

Its summer and they are difficult to get with the heat and the boat traffic. Its probably not you but more the boat traffic putting them in deeper water and making them much more difficult to catch.

SOAK in egg for 2 hours turning at least once. Drop in a bag of flour Fry in Bacon Grease for 1:30 per side Pull out and put on a pan that's been lightly oiled with olive oil Put sauce #1 on it and 4 cherry tomatoes Place in oven at 350 for 15 minutes Make the sauce while its sitting in the egg. In this case its two sauces. 1st is salsa 1/2 cup and 1/4 cub bourbon just before you put the fish in the oven lightly basted. Second is a simple sauce as well. Take two peaches and hand squeeze them in a small bowl and in some add 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar 1 tablespoon raw honey ( store bought if you have to ) and 1/4 cup cognac. Lightly baste as soon as you pull it out of the oven and place the rest in small sauce bowls and serve.

Looks good but awful watery. I had that issue the first few times and solved it with pulling the cover off 15 minutes before it was done to let the water boil off it makes a big difference.

I can imagine I know what it does with just a simple blade. when I made the quad blade it really stood out and im sure the vibration is ungodly amazing how one little swivel added makes such a big difference.

I know you use Braid but how are you liking the swivel in front ? I don't run braid and wondered how it did with that. I started calling that rig the Spindancer lol.

I feel for you, we had the same deal last night. I swore my boat had a sign on it that said get as close as possible to wake... Hey where are you getting those pills at?

Nice catch and smart move to get off before you got hurt

I have had many suckers produce I try to be selective in what I pinch typically anything below 18'' gets pinched and then selective based on production on vines.

JD: Are you pruning your tomatoes'? Pruning the suckers especially lower leaf and will increase size and yield. also this time of year doing it on the upper stems will help and increase your watering to every morning instead of every other day, just adjust the amount of water to compensate. Here is a good article on pruning, http://www.tomatodirt.com/pruning-tomato.html my grandfather taught me this years ago and it really improves the harvest. The other thing he taught me is to make sure you only have ONE mater per bunch he would pop off all but One off each bunch to get monster tomatoes', works good if your just providing for a small family.

http://www.4029tv.com/news/drowning-victims-body-found-at-hickory-creek-in-benton-county/26929974#!bd4XKn

Water temp 85 to 87 degrees Water Clarity 5 to 6 ft Air Temp 90's Wind 5 to 10 out of the south west Depth 20 to 35ft Bait Crawler Harness Speed 0.3 to 1.0mph Boat traffic ( extreme ) Location Tips of deep points Near Horseshoe Bend Time 5pm to 9pm Yakfm and I went out hoping for some top-water action which became quickly apparent would have to wait till later to emerge as boat traffic in Mont ne was extreme so we went to one of my favorite walleye spots to look for them. It was not disappointing we pulled 2 keeper eyes off the spot and 2 shorts with 15 catfish one real nice one and a nice 15'' class spot all within a 200ft area. Due to boat traffic we were forced to move so we flew back in to Monte ne hoping by now the boat traffic would have died down but alas it hadn't but Yak did put a white in the boat and a couple bass there was a little topwater that tried to get going but boat traffic shut it back down pretty fast. All in all a real good short trip in our opinions and both of us took home some good eating fish for today.

My favorite way is with Pheasant or Quail, Quill.

The person who has can get a hall pass if some BBQ sauce finds it way in to the back of my truck again