fishinwrench

I find a #14 nymph the most useful/productive. It's kinda small yet still has a decent hook gap and fishes well on 5x About 6 years ago I started using a no-slip loop knot on flys 14 and up, and I really think it makes a difference. I've done it enough that I can make the loop really tiny. Allowing the fly to hinge instead of being bossed around by the tippet just makes sense to me.

On the rivers I paddle most, anything above 6-700 becomes too much work to be fun.

I had 3 pinned on a 4-6' flat and all of a sudden one took off by himself (well he wasn't by himself but you know what I mean), he went way out across the flat at a steady speed and then stopped and stayed in an area about 20 yards square the rest of the afternoon while the rest of the original school stayed put where they were BUT STOPPED BITING. That taught me that the school doesn't always stay together, they split up into smaller packs that go haunt other areas. They never did go join back up with the original school. The area where the deserters stopped and stayed turned out to be a hard bottom area amid acres of soft muddy bottoms. So now I don't spend any time at all fishing over soft soggy bottoms on the shallow flats. I'll stick my rod down and if it is hard/rocky I'll fish it, if it's soft/silty I'll keep moving. The rogue school, after they got settled into the new spot, kept biting clear until dark but the original school stayed shut down and I couldn't get them to bite anything. So when you're on a hot school of Whites and the action slows it's a safe bet that part of the school (the remaining active ones) wandered off elsewhere to resume their feeding. The ones that stay put around the piece of structure are probably done gorging for the day. If you ever pull up on a spot and catch ONE white bass you can bet there are more there, they just aren't gonna chase or bite. Somewhere within a 1/2 mile of there is probably another group that WILL bite. I really wanted to leave them all pinned overnite and see where they ended up the next day... but I didn't wanna mark them for someone else, so I chased them down and pulled them back up.

Does OK buy their paddlefish from MO or do they raise their own ?

Somebody should go to jail for that! Right?

I've done some hillbilly tracking studies (balloons, safety pins, and 4# line) on schools of white bass before. I learned some cool stuff that has helped me load the boat on several occasions.

Outstanding, man !

That's right, and we should keep it that way. Don't be spreading Florida bass (altered Texas freaks, or any others) across the nation.

Yeah but that body of water will never have just pure strain LM in it again. And maybe....just MAYBE one day they'll wish that's what they had, for one reason or another. These biologists aren't as smart as they pretend to be. I'd rather trust mother nature for future fish populations. Lots of unforseen consequences are possible when you start mixing genetics. 15 years from now they might have bass that are big but won't jump. Or fish that grow fast but die in about 6-8 years, so if you end up with two bad spawns in a row you loose 60% of your bass populations. You never know! Some day you might wish for a plain ol' mater, and getting your hands on one might be impossible. I'd personally like to take all these "biologists" out at the knees. I don't trust them because there are too many of them out there anxious for something to do.

I can't get excited about frankenstien fish whose DNA has been tinkered with. There's just something about that, that doesn't sit well with me. I can't even get into hybrid Stripers that much. Sure they are fun to catch but they just aren't real to me. The last thing I want is some team of bullshit biologists tampering with our native fish. Leave them alone before all we have left are genetically altered fish swimming in our waterways. Once you set those freaks free you can't reverse that crap.

I guess these are my highlight catches for 2015. I reckon I didn't catch a decent trout last year, or if I did I didn't take a pic.

Oh his research was far from compete even after he returned. I believe they wanted him lynched after nearly freezing to death. https://youtu.be/5FBUEfdPDOQ

Astrology predated Chris. If he didn't know the world was round before he sat sail then he was a moron.

Totally agree, Al. There is a huge difference though between a piece of dyed or painted red plastic and a shiney red clump of mylar tinsel, or maybe a red hook. You may not be able to distinguish RED rubber but I bet they can absolutely distinguish something red that is lit up or being reflected upon. Not that fish ever see that in their natural world.....but still.

One thing is for sure, each lake/river and it's fish population are unique. Just because the bass in a Texas impoundment show distinct movement patterns you can't assume that the fish in other lakes/rivers do the same. And alot of those tracking studies attempt to generalize. There is a long standing belief that if you catch a good fish from a certain spot and take him away then another good fish will take its place. If bass are as "home range" as tracking studies try to indicate then how can that happen ? By their theory a good sized fish ALREADY HAS its preferred area, so there shouldn't be any roaming hogs looking for new unoccupied places to sit and chill. I truly believe that incomplete science is worse than no science at all. This tracking information does us more harm than good.

Unlike back in the olde daze when I started you have all the info at your fingertips. Just start searching and absorbing. Have fun.

In another tracking study they determined that fish caught from across the lake did not make it back. If they can follow a bank and get back to their capture site then some did, but no fish crossed a large body of deep open water after they were released. Thereby blowing holes into their alleged "homing" ability. They likened it to taking an ant from one end of your porch and placing him on the other side of the house, the ant will root along the edges until he finds his gang again. But take that ant and put him on your neighbors porch and he won't know to cross the yard. When I was a kid my friend and I caught a GIANT garter snake (biggest one I've ever seen to date), we carried it all over town showing it off, then finally let it go. About 2 weeks later the same snake was in the same exact spot we caught it from, and the place where we let it go was at least 3 miles away and across more than a dozen streets and 2 creeks.

Well if by chance you strike out there truly are plenty of ducks and Canadians out on the flats. Someone should be putting some pressure on 'em.

Gravois access. There will even be a go-getter down there. He needs some exercise. I even have a duck boat you can use. Go for it.

You should ! Plenty of waterfowl within range of where we'll be. Can we shoot pelicans or are they protected ?

Oh cool. Why don't ya hop over the hill and give us a hand cleaning up the access Saturday. We'll go fishing after we're done.

You spend a full month on the upper Osage here and I guarantee you'll see enough to make up for it.

Spoonbill don't even look like a fish. They look like something your supposed to use for smoothing concrete.

I'd like to have a poster of a Spoonbill shoved up Chiefs azz too.

Shut up, Scott Farcus !