fishinwrench

Ronnie, some folks freak at the thought of touching a fish. Yeah I know what you're thinking, but to look at it another way... I could totally get into hunting monkeys with high powered rifles (or a bow, or just about anything really) if I never had to touch one of the freaky little bastages.

Jerry, Seriously? If the success was even remotely favorable you wouldn't have to be reminded! I bet those old chartreuse bladed spinnerbaits are buried somewhere that you don't even wanna go, with rotten matted skirts laying under them. LMAO!

Well what's the hold up? Can't you catch a dang crappie for Pete sake? Good points on those plastic POS things, really. Anyone that actually uses THOSE truly should consider your product.

Experimented with that alot when Mark Twain (hands down the best SB lake I know of) was in its heyday... but it never paid off. Silver or Gold always, even though at one time I threw nothing but copper if it was a tandem Colorado model because I won a tourney using one during a time that everyone participating was throwing spinnerbaits..... which means less than nothing, but you know how things like that can control your mind. LOL

Excellent statement there! And that is probably why I caught more above average smallies in the muddy creeks up north than I have in the "real Ozarks". The good stuff isn't just everywhere up there.

LMAO! Don't believe everything you read or hear. NOBODY pauses a jerkbait for as long as they claim to. Including the guys that took your money last Winter

HJ, You should consider hooking up with one of the local bass clubs. Suffering through a few monthly meetings is almost worth it for a non-boater with the passion you seem to have. Or.... if you can scrape up 1500-2k there's some boats out there that will do the job and they are just waiting for you to take possession of them.

What's this I hear about barge captains terrorizing the fishermen around there? Someone was actually run over intentionally or something, and others being "shoved towards the bank"? I'm hearing some pretty crazy tales from a pair of customers that fish the MO/Miss.

I went thru a phase not long ago where I got a burr under my saddle and wanted to move my business and life more towards the TR area, but after some study and honest consideration I realized that I was exactly where I belong. The lower and mid-lake 'high use area' of the lake is not where I would want to fish even if it wasn't a "high use" area, (except for Winter) so I'm not effected by that at all. I was extremely stressed out over water quality problems here but I feel confident now that we've already survived the worst it will ever be and it will slowly (albeit VERY SLOWLY) improve in the future. I can't see it taking another nosedive ever.

I found a $50, a $5, and two $1's in the road at the highbank once and the temptation to pounce on it like a buzzard on a dead squirrel was more than I could bare. Since then I've had nothing but bad experiences there, they even placed a dammed sewer drain pipe and concrete casting deck right across from where I used to stand and highstick nymphs to sizable bows and browns. The Hindu's were right!

My heart rate elevates a bit when I come to a stretch of waist to belly button deep water with mixed sized boulders or broken bedrock. And I'll take more weeds along the shoreline instead of a bunch of wood cover....but I sure wont pass on a shot at that laydown hanging out past the weed edge. In your perfect dream-world Wintering hole, is the bluff bank facing N,S,E or W ?

Don't listen to ^^That guy^^, he's just pissy cuz he wants to fish but his shoulder hurts. That IS a tough decision. I think we'll win though. Welcome to "The Lake"

Well that's just simply not true. There are bass that live their entire lives in water less than 10ft. and they probably eat more frequently than the deeper fish making them more likely to bite a lure If that wasn't the case then there'd be no bass in many farm ponds and small streams. Look at the bayous of the South for example. I've lived near the backends of coves and can guarantee that some bass (often big ones) will dominate a certain little area in the backend shallows of a cove...or as close to it as they feel comfortable. I'd go as far to say that nearly every backend of every cove, in every lake that has bass in it has a few resident hawgs that make their living there, and when you remove one another will eventually take his/her place.

Check on those Whites while you're there would ya, and shoot me a PM

Seems about a month late to me, but the eggs were firm and bright so I dunno.

Did some dip-bait fishing for post-flood eater sized channels and had 3 really good days before the area we were in went cold. Lots of eggs still in the females we cleaned. I was really surprised that they hadn't spawned out already.

I haven't heard any of the guides say that they weren't catching any, or many, but it's common for a guide to try not to get anyones expectations too high. Fact is; it takes some skill and it's not always a technique that can be learned in one outing, so while a guide will most likely put you in a position to get bit.....its just as likely that a client will blow it. From the guides standpoint it's often hard to evaluate someones skill level and make the right decision on which bite to concentrate on. I had numerous trips when I have 'played guide' where a client claimed to be a decent and well practiced pitcher/flipper but simply couldn't cut it and couldn't grasp further "polite" instructions.

Yeah if you wanna catch blues consistently you're gonna have to get off the bank. About 2k will get you into a workable, easy to tow catfishing rig. Channel cat are a different story though, most times for them you're better off on the banks.

"a ton of debris"..... is actually an understatement. What a mess!

Hope you did better than I did with the fly gear. Caught 2 keepers and 5-6 shorts right away, then went 3 1/2 hours without a bite. Had to come in before the evening bite

Well, if we've made any real progress the fish should be healthier and there should be more of them. Having not started seriously trout fishing until 1980 it's hard for me to say. I'm confident in saying that the fish quality in the spring branch at Bennett was alot better back then than it is now, which makes all these "improvements" they've done kinda suck.

Having a camera at the ready is the worst "bite cooler" of them all. Wicked cold fronts in May, banana's in the boat, and wearing a pink hat..... have nothing on a lens and shutter.

Looking back, I think there's something to that..... and the 5th day sucks.

I'm sure there is, but there are guys here that are pretty consistent catching good fish at 35-40'....I'm not one of them though. Personally I seldom fish deeper than 12-15' year round, and that's only when I can't put something together in less than 6'. Sometimes that means sneaking around like a ninja and pitching in the middle of a maze of steel, but I personally prefer that to battling mainlake rollers and dredging for twigs in the abyss.

A DD-22 on 12# line and a fairly long cast will either smack or get "close enough" to the tops of brushpiles that are sitting in 18-20fow. Shad pattern cranks are hard to beat here. September is actually the prime time for big crankbaits but they'll do the deed right now pretty well. Another good crankbait pattern on this lake is burning a 7A Bomber alongside the shady sides of docks. You won't win any tournaments doing it but it's a good numbers technique for hot sunny afternoons and doesn't requuire precise boat positioning so even if the water is kinda rough you can still pull it off. Slow falling a big worm T-rigged with a 1/16-1/8oz. Bullet around big condo docks is a good way to catch some hawgs in the Summer...it's a line watching game where you may be sitting over 30-40ft. but your bites will come between 5-15'. Stitching bluffs still works, but again....your gonna catch mostly dinks until you find a sweet spot. Lots of ways to catch bass, that's why they are the #1 sportfish. It never has to get boring. If you really wanna step up your game leave the 'gear' at home and take a 7-9wt. flyrod after them.