fishinwrench

Us ABU round reel guys prefer straight shots of Devils Cut. ?

A tiny drop of super glue gel works good. Just don't use too much, you can pop it free and pick it right off with your fingernail when you want to.

Proof that the economy is fine ! Think I'll give myself a raise, effective January 2017. ?

That's the part about Shooting Docks that gets old fast. After spending a week perfecting the technique, and buying the perfect rod/reel to do it with, I THEN discovered that it was my least favorite way to catch crappie. It would be better from an old stock V-bottom Richline. Doing it from an elevated bassboat deck is a PIA.

Good job !

That's a limit of 7+lbers ! I saw a 32lb. 5 fish limit weighed here at LO back in the 90's. Amazing sack of fish! It was in a little 12 boat tournament in late March. Reportedly caught with an Electric Red Rattle Trap on shallow flats. My partner and I had a little over 18 and went walking up to the scales like we had it won. Talk about a kick in the nuts !

I saw the ad where they were casting at a brick wall and not backlashing, but my immediate thought was that if it halts an overrun situation like that then it might kill a good skip cast. Because in all actuality you have to be over running the spool (in a controlled kind of way) in order to make that MONEY Skip Cast. The line has to be paying out just slightly faster than the bait is moving. Any tension from the reel, even enough to pull the curl out of the line, is gonna kill it. No? I feather the edge of my thumb on the slick edge of the spool on a short skip cast, but on a long one I just let her fly....and stop the spool abruptly when the jig stops moving away from me.

There are purist hog hunters ? "Look at that poser, he's no REAL hog hunter. I bet he hunts conservation land, smokes menthols, and even picks up his brass". ?

Mighty fine!

Pitching is one thing. Skipping is a whole 'nother thing. I have no idea why but using (cheap) braid for backing and only 60-75 yards of flourocarbon on a baitcaster makes SKIPPING easier. Something about the weight of the spool I think. Having the confidence to just let it fly is the real key, and that only comes from picking out miles of backlashes. Have fun and take some extra line. Some baits skip better than others, and the trailer on your jig can either make you or break you. Avoid ribbed trailers (like Beavers) because they bite the water too hard. The head design (shape) of a jig head is what you'd expect to help or hurt you, but oddly enough that isn't the case. I can skip a football head just as easily as I can the flat bottomed pyramid style heads. It has more to do with the overall bulk of the jig and the angle of momentum. It ain't about the reel though. Promise ya that.

There ya have it

So they are funded by other GOVERNMENT agencies ? Or private businesses ?

If it is a government site then we are already paying a fee. Even the folks that couldn't care less what the rivers are doing are paying. So let's not be TOTAL suckers about it. The fact that you have a few extra dollars a year that you COULD afford to pay shouldn't make you feel guilty or indebted just because you are one that uses it. Trust me, you are paying for plenty of other government stuff that you DO NOT use....So it's ok. ? If they want more money then I'm sure a local outfitter would gladly sponsor a guage site in exchange for some advertising. "This Realtime River Guage Monitoring resource is brought to you by......"

Not to hijack, but the MDC should do likewise with feral hogs. Take all the money earmarked for the trapping nonsense and put a bounty on their heads. If evidence of a hog population meant a possible payday for someone who is out of work and has a gun, then the hogs could be eradicated with a quickness. I'm sure that for what MDC is preparing to spend on their trapping projects that the payoff for a truck bed 1/2 full of hogs would definitely be worthwhile to a hunter.

The USGS is short on money ? Whose fault is that ?

Does anybody remember the "Zara-Gossa" bait ? It was a jointed hard bait that acted kinda like a Sluggo. It never really took off.

Too big. I use the 4600 series ABU's. I can overhaul one with my eyes closed and they do everything I want a reel to do. No desire to change, or even try anything else. Besides, every glitterboat on the lake is floating a Lew's representative. I enjoy being different. ? The guys that work there have bills to pay too !

My old school round reels would look totally out of place on a micro-guide split-grip rod.

Why do they feel the need to tinker with crappie genetics ? Bored biologists can't ever seem to leave things alone, and piddling around with the native fishes genes could be irreversible.

Yeah, ya know it's good to see some different scenery from time to time but seldom do I catch more fish elsewhere than I can right here in my back yard. So unless conditions are drastically different elsewhere I feel like it's foolish to burn up a bunch of fuel either in the truck or the boat. The scenery doesn't get boring if you are catching decent fish.

Yes Sir ! Good job!

Above the confluence of the spring Branch you'll catch a few rainbows (very few but there are some), Smallies, and Goggleye. Below the spring branch there are rainbows, browns, smallmouth, and Goggleye. And you just have to put in some time to learn which areas are holding them. The recent stockers are almost always in a tight school tucked into a small area the size of your dinner table and once you find one you can repeat that drift and catch a limit real quick. The browns, and the rainbows that have been there awhile act more like trout are supposed to act, and you just have to work for them. Bennett to Barclay is a nice float, and about the only one to consider due to the shuttle difficulties of the Niangua.

Wow! One or two wouldn't have surprised me, but that sure did.

It is likely a water color thing. On deep clear lakes it may take some heavy wind and waves to coax them up where they can be caught shallower. In water with some color though I don't believe the wave activity is a deal maker/breaker at all.

Yeah it happens all the time around LO.