fishinwrench

The areas I've been fishing have a max depth of 18-25 at the front of the docks. I'm pretty much limited to creek arms and big coves since the mainlake is too rough to be enjoyable, even during week days.

Don't give up the location of that occurrence. Sounds like you found a good school. Ameren was generating water pretty good yesterday but if the area was back in a cove I doubt that was a factor. Considering that I have been doing well lately by slow rolling a Spinnerbait in the same fashion I'm not surprised that they ate a swimming jig. Up on this end they definitely prefer spinnerbaits now, maybe it's a water color thing. The positioning of the fish is identical though. Alot of docks have braces 4-5' below the slips at the front and even when the fish are hanging deeper than that they like to relate to those braces. Gotta take control of them quick because they love to wrap you around it.

Since you brought that up.... I do cop a bit of an attitude when he starts in about how "by staying at ROLF you are helping fund our semi-adopted underprivileged little pickaninny in some far away land". #1. If you are truly looking to help an underprivileged child I'm sure you could find one right there in your own county. Ya know, where you could actually see and monitor their progress. #2. I have an undeniable suspicion that very little funding (if any) from ROLF ever reaches said pickaninny. I may be totally out of line by saying that, and if so I'm sorry, but those who know me very well are fully aware that the thoughts that pop into my head have a bad habit of falling right out of my mouth. I do like Myron though, and don't need any extra BS feel-good incentive to fork over the price of staying there. It's worth it.

I have wade fished it at and slightly above 1000cfs and fishing was good. Use common sense, there will be areas that are indeed too swift to wade, but it isn't what I'd consider "dangerous" at that level.

I can tell you that if you've stayed there before and Myron knows who you are then he probably won't take your money if you just want to drop by and fish awhile. It's a really cool place, you'll like it almost as much as your wife will. Stay there sometime.

It's ok, let them move production overseas, Trump will see to it that they loose their profits when they try to sell them here. I'm betting there ain't much demand for DD-22's and DLN's in China or Guatamala.

In all fairness I should report that my partner and I have been experimenting with Spinnerbaits alot lately and of all the ones we've tried (both bought/modified/and built from scratch) it has become undeniable that the WE just flat catches more fish. My partner doesn't like them at all but even he is convinced now. Neither of us has experienced any more hook breakage, and we've even been boat flipping them to TRY and break one. The only modification I do to the WE is shorten the spacer between the blades, trim the skirt and add a twin tail trailer. I like the fact that the heads get loose and wobble, I'm almost completely convinced that the loose head and the thin wire are what makes it a better fish catcher for us right now. Basically we are just slow-rolling the 1/2oz over 10-12' brush during the day, then fishing a 3/8oz version in the backends after the sun goes down, or if it's cloudy/rainy. The fish here are definitely turned on by some spinning blades right now, and have been for several weeks. I feel like we've caught enough decent fish that if there was a genuine hook quality issue we would have broken a few more.....It hasn't happened again.

LOL The fishing was pretty good. The fish in that stretch are kinda stupid, I don't think they see many baits.

Whoa! Side boob ! Not much of THAT going on at deer camp.

I can see the headlines already.... "Gar fisherman who was too poor to pull the ripcord, Drowns". ?

Yeah things like that are real eye openers. When you were going through the mental process of rigging something to deploy your PFD why didn't you just go ahead and pull the dang cord ? No sense in waiting until the last second, right?

The stretch just above Bird island is downright deadly. Heavy water laden with strainers in the worst possible spots. In all honesty it's the only place I've ever been in a canoe where I thought I was gonna die. You can't portage around it either.

I caught a big ol'slab this evening while cranking a 12' brushpile for bass. How big? Big enough to completely engulf a DD-22!

The biggest problems with trailer lights is maintaining a good ground connection, and the sudden temperature change that occurs when cold water hits a hot bulb. It's all about PRESSURE. When something inside a sealed housing heats up or cools off... the pressure changes and condensation builds up. And don't forget that a BULB is a "sealed housing" in itself. "Sealed" housings keep water from rushing in and contacting the bulb, but they also keep moisture in that accelerates corrosion. A dielectric grease on the bulb contacts and a housing that can breathe/drain/dry asap is really about the best you can do. The white wire in a trailer light harness shouldn't rely on the trailer frame for ground continuity....but almost all systems do. You can greatly improve a trailer light system by extending the white wire from the plug directly to each fixture, and sealing all splices with liquid tape. Giving your lights 5-10 minutes to cool off before backing into the lake, after driving to the ramp in the dark, helps ALOT.

Somebody is always concerned about an extra 15-20 pounds in a paddlecraft. If that much extra weight truly bothers you then you aren't doing enough paddling. Or anything else physical, for that matter.

That one looks about 15-16". I can tell you that an 18" weighs under 3# They fight like they weigh 8-10 ?

Well here's the deal..... An active shooter needs to be taken down by whatever means is the quickest, but there are other ways to subdue combative drug dealers and/or cigar thief's, and folks who drive off without paying for fuel. The whole "Do exactly as I say immediately OR DIE" mentality is never going to work out well when people are upset/freaked out/wound up for whatever reason. If you think that being immediately submissive and doing what an officer tells you to do is always the best choice then maybe you should speak to the Brandon Ellingson family. Not everyone that an officer has contact with believes that they've done anything wrong. Or at least not "wrong enough" that they should just have to surrender and go cuffed to the jailhouse and fight it out LEGALLY $$$$$$. later.

Attempting to determine what depth they are suspended at. Then choosing a bait that will either run at that level or can be counted down. I don't try, nor care. I may throw a big super Spook a bit, then slow roll a Spinnerbait down about 5-6ft., and if they don't bite either right away I don't try any harder. It always seems that if I can get one then I can usually get 3-5 before they stop eating what I'm throwing. Someone better at it could probably make some adjustments and load the boat.

I'm probably one of the worst "deep open water" fishermen here, but if you simply move out over water that is a couple long casts away from good shoreline areas you can sometimes find suspended fish that will bite. Big Spooks, Spinnerbaits, swimbaits. I don't try to "get to the fishes level", instead I just try to just get close enough that the few semi-active ones will chase. It might help to kick out a marker bouy when you catch one, and then try different baits and presentations in that general area.

I can use every reminder I can get ! It's those short little 1/2 to 2 mile runs (spot to spot)

It is the gold plated hook. A trailer hook won't even save you if the main hook is prone to break. I took a pair of pliers to another one and it snapped right off too, pretty much in the same place. They don't break at the bend (like you'd kinda expect) they break down closer to the lead, which has me thinking that the tempering is weird. I'd like to test the silver hook ones but I don't want to sit here and just break hooks on brand new Spinnerbaits and scrap them for the blades. Beginning to think I might as well though.

Is it because they aren't sharp enough, or are we going to dive into a discussion about the tensile strength and tempering methods of common steel wire, and why some manufacturers do it one way....and some do it other ways. C'mon, let's learn something here. All that SHOULD matter is that the point is sharp enough to bite into a fishes mouth right away, and that the wire is stiff enough to not bend/flex easily.... but WILL bend before it breaks. And that the barb is not so outrageously big that it takes excessive pressure to get past it. I'm examining a SK hook right now, and IMO it seems perfectly acceptable. If I miss/loose a fish on this KVD square bill I can't in any degree of honesty blame it on the hook.

No I'm talking about the ledge on the North side. This one

If it straightened the hook out then apparently it was sharp enough to bite him in the mouth. It's good that they'll straighten out before your line breaks, you can recover your high dollar baits from a snag easier. Then you'll have a REAL reason to change your hook(s).

Nothing to do with the lead is gonna make the dang hook break. They are great Spinnerbaits, but I think they need to change hooks. They need to be a size bigger anyway.