fishinwrench

darn...that truck ain't moved since I was there Almost 4inches here at the lake....and it's still snowing sideways. Gonna go 4-wheelin' and take the kids sledding here in a bit. Tournament going on today.....man I don't miss that business anymore...

Henbit ! Someone told me they were marigolds...but I knew that wasn't right. I looked it up and you are right, that's it ! Thanks CW ! Are you an ol'farmhand that just knows dung like that...or did ya have to ask one ? LOL The big Gills are out when the Henbit sprouts......that sounds cool.

Ah I see. Well I wouldn't be able to pick my favorite line by casting it in a lawn or parking lot. Charlie Reading's casting pond would be a good place to compare NEW lines though. Only problem is, if I have time to spend half a day in a flyshop...I could be fishing.

You got it Man, I'll holler when they start moving. If it plays out like last year it'll blow your mind. Now Dammit Cricket quit trying to distract me....this is a HONKER BLUEGILL thread Hybrids tearing up the creek between my house and the bluegill ponds are detremental to the mission at hand.

How do you guys get to fish all these different lines ..... Are ya made of MONEY ? I'm sure there are better fishing/casting/mending lines than 444SL.....but I'm afraid to switch. I'm also very picky about line color, I love Cortland mint green...or is it geckko green...whatever they call it, it looks good strung on a green rod, it blends well in a river environment I think, and I can see it good on cloudy and sunny days. I do have to trim 3-4 feet off the tip to kinda tune it up though.

Just did up a similar batch The Mountain Dew is an interesting addition, we just used water in its place and omitted the soy sauce but it came out fantastic Do you do yours in the oven or with a dehydrator thingy ?

I'll let ya'll know when the white/hybrid run begins. Last year the water receeded after a gullywasher and we were sight fishing to groups of 4-7lb. landlocked hybrids....it was pretty crazy. I wish I had video equipment cuz it is something you really need to see to get a grip on it. After the Hybrids disappeared the whites kept coming in, it was like a new group of fish moved up every nite. Then just when it looked like it was about over...the Gar showed up, and OMG ! That's how I totally missed the big Gill movement. I only have a couple of good bluegill areas nearby, and they are only good if you hit them at the right time. Miss the window and all you'll catch is the 6 inchers. Hit it right and they look like this... I do know of one MDC lake in Callaway county, and another in Boone that are being managed for Big Gills. A buddy of mine hits the one in Callaway every year and reports plenty of 9-10 inchers, several 11's, and of course a pair of legendary 12's. His fly of choice is a little 3/4 inch long mini-clouser tied with kelly-green and white calftail. He sent me this pic last year... Here's a little concoction I came up with, that has caught a lot of big Bulls.... Basically a #10 mustad 3366, 1/60 clouser eyes, a black hen hackle, and a Southern Pro "Tiny Worm". This thing Kills !

I knew that is what you meant.... agent error and ethic issues are small potatoes though. Dablemont has clearly accused the MDC upper level of corruption and cover-ups'....and that is where I was going with that. If someone openly and publicly accused me, or my business of something that was ludicris and totally untrue.....I would openly and personally respond. Why are they not saying anything to show that they care about what a group of citizen/taxpayers/sportsmen are being led to think ? The lack of comment doesn't look good right now, but maybe a lawsuit is pending.

"Missouri Dept. of Conservation"...is a pretty "real" name They first must show that his statements are both damaging, and untrue....then he can be sued. This is disturbing, and in my eyes anyone who isn't concerned about this, and doesn't wish to know the real facts...is either a nieve (stepford citizen) or has a hidden agenda. Dablemonts statements have definately been reviewed from those within, so why no comment? Are these accusations of no concern to the MDC? Are they addressing this at all, or just waiting to see what evidence is there first? Exercising their right to remain silent in the face of public scrutiny looks bad and reaks of legal BS if you ask me. I love what we have in this state as far as our outdoor resources, and if the only way we can have it the way we do is for the dept. to operate crookedly....then so be it. The world (law, politics, ect.) is a crooked place, no surprise there. But it would be really cool to know that the MDC is on the up and up, and not just another form of crooked government.

Just wanted to open up some discussion about hunting big Bluegill, something I get real excited about for 2 to 3 weeks every Spring. Around here I've noticed that the big ones are the first to move shallow and the perfect timing coincides with the little purple sprouts that come up in the corn/milo fields. Last year I missed out on it because it ALSO coincided with the White/Hybrid run in the creek by my house, and I got caught up too deeply in that...but never again ! Whites and Hybrids are great fun, but they aren't worth missing out on the Big honkin' Gills over.

"The Odd Couple" LOL that's good ! Pretty cool what two totally different approaches can pull off when they work as a team. I seriously doubt I would have gotten half the bites I did that first day if Brownieman and his jerkbait hadn't woke them up first and caused them to give up their location. Thanks to you I now have this vision embedded in my brain of that HUGE Rapala dancing spastically in my periphial vision, and getting slammed by nice Browns It played out enough times that there's no real need to journal the trip....cuz I couldn't forget it if I tried. Thanks Man! Here's BM winding up for the double-handed sling (the spinning rod version of a Double-Haul)... An average Current river Brown, we had quite a few bigger ones the first day but it looked like it was gonna pour so I left the camera in the truck... This was my best fish, taken during the caddis hatch on a #14 tan and chocolate hairwing dun (a 16-18 would have been better I think, but all caddis on the Niangua (where I usually fish dry's) are 14's and I was without a smaller one)... And the release.... Huge thanks once again to my buddy BM for putting me up and being a super guide. Keep an eye on those Cattle

Yep, saw them do a body cavity search on a guy just the other day.... It got messy. You won't be seeing ME at Lil'Piney anymore

Nine boats at Barclay ? Giggers, or what ? I started to leave the park and run down there, glad I didn't now.

I prefer a straight nail knot when I know I'm going to be doing the same kind of fishing for awhile, but I use sink-tips fairly often and don't like to have to pack a seperate spool and re-string the rod everytime I want to switch, so I whip a loop in my floating line and use a modified Rio sinking leader. I really don't like the bulk of a loop, but I deal with it for the sake of being versatile. I find it hard to give up on a riffle or tailout that I've nymphed to pieces, until I've ripped a muddler through it on a sink-tip.

I don't get too concerned with how deep it goes, what I like about the deep diver is how well it responds to slight little tugs and twitches. As for color, my choices are above (tenn.shad, or blue/silver). I've never done as well with the orange belly schemes, although I know a few guys that swear by them. I just want it to resemble a shad, and I've learned that sometimes the fish want alot of "flash"....but most times they don't. Chrome sided jerkbaits with alot of flash tend to catch smaller fish better, so they are good for running down a bank with the purpose of locating a group of fish. Once located I'll switch to subtle colors and more times than not catch some keepers.

For Bass: Smithwick deep-diving rouge, the old non-suspending ones...which I'll weight to suspend myself. In Tenn.Shad or Blue/silver (depending on water color). I'll wish I had a LC Pointer instead, from time to time....but you said "choose one". For big ol-slab Crappie: Yo-Zuri Crystal minnow (deep diver) in Chart/Shad.

email sent.

Thanks to the Stream Teams, and the last flood, most of the Summer 2008 debris has either washed down to Lake Niangua or been buried in gravel, the only trash I notice now (ironically) are the red stream team clean-up bags of which there are about a dozen per mile (mostly tangled in bankside trees, too high to reach). Fishermen need to take the river back, to a degree. They had it first, but either pussed out or didn't care enough and let college kids and party'ers from the citys intimidate them and run them off. When you fish it this year... be friendly but stand your ground and make the party floaters work around YOU for a change, that's pretty much what I do and I have yet to have a problem with anyone. With exception to a MDC agent that repeatedly blew through a island chute in a jet boat trying to impress his female passenger while I was fishing there. He blew through on me 3 times...then on the last (4th) pass through, he stopped to check my permit and asked me a bunch of stupid and pointless questions. It was an island area and I was on the narrow, shallow, rocky side, he could have more easily passed on the other side. I was mad enough to fight, and they could tell it. The badge, and the noticably embarassed plain clothed lady he had with him was the only thing that allowed him to keep his teeth that day. The only other unpleasant experience I have had on the Niangua also involved a group of lawmen, they apparently had busted someone with drugs or something earlier that day and were acting like a bunch of adreneline pumped wacko's stomping through the stream with a bullhorn and giving everyone that passed by the third degree. It freaked my daughter out, more than any drunk guy cussing could have, and that really put a bad taste in my mouth.

Here's a preview (teaser) of it: http://books.google.com/books?id=XvaKvxVHQ...=result#PPT1,M1

Biots take permanent marker well.

I ran across this article and had never seen anything like it before. Thought it might help someone break free from the "bobbers". I'm also thinking that if the top 6 inches of the leader BUTT was altered like this, it could help hold up a sinking flyline tip. Anyway, check it out... http://www.fishandfly.com/articles/20080620

I'm going but I'm thinkin' "River". If it kicks my butt, the wind gets crazy... or I get to feeling lazy, I may end up in the park.

With the unit turned on you should be able to put your hand on the transducer and feel it ticking. Most LCR's run 12 clicks- pause- 12 clicks-pause. Regular depth sounders simply run slow steady clicks with no pause. If it is not clicking check the transducer wire for a open circuit (and Yes you can splice it, it is just coax).

Shop and compare...... http://www.coachscabin.com/ http://www.riverwoodresortmo.com/ http://www.fortniangua.com/ http://www.bennettspringstatepark.com/lodging.htm

For what it's worth I did email Weaver's and asked if the "5 thousand" was a typo, their reply was kind of PCP (politically correct Pissy), leading me to assume that they read the Niangua forum on here, and took a slight bit of offense at me "challenging their numbers" (as I put it) in my earlier post. Personally I do not think they fudged the numbers for business sake... they are CLOSED now anyway. I'm sure that they honestly and accurately reported what they were told. But nobody except the 2 guys driving the truck, and the hatchery manager actually know how many Browns were stocked into the river...and by "river" I mean THE RIVER outside the park . In my attempt to read between the lines I'd guess that they "RECIEVED 5000" browns from SOH, of which most will go into the spring branch, and maybe 500-1000 went to the river...but hey I could be totally wrong, wouldn't be the first time. On one hand I think it would be great to have that many browns swimming that section of the Niangua, and on the other hand I feel that it is TOO many. After all, none are legal keepers, and won't be for a year or so. What is the estimated growth rate on Browns, anyone know ? If 5000 (in the "RIVER") is true, then there should be about 1500-2000 hanging out below the Whistle bridge, if not now, then real soon.