fishinwrench

4.0 @ Windyville, that's boderline "blown-out". Catching fish will be possible tomorrow....but not much fun.

Definately Lil'Piney. Mill cr.= is nice if total solitude with a slight chance of hooking up with a little wild trout or two makes you content. Roubidoux (assuming you are talking about the trout holding portion) = is ok for killin' some time while stuck in the W'ville area...but you probably won't be hankering to return any time soon. Wherever you decide on, don't forget to take some of your favorite Hopper patterns. Good luck, Wrench

Horny Toad ! ??? A really good trick for ponds like that is to put on some hip boots, take a garden rake or a hoe, and clear out some "lanes". Then come back and fish them in a few days.

Yeah that's a bad deal. I know the family of one of the girls that sustained "moderate" injuries. My first thought was that I'm suprised it doesn't happen more often, considering the way some of those road-foundered old busses fly around on busy weekends. Getting thrown around in a buss rolling down a hillside would be mighty hard on the body. Hope everyone heals up ok and a lesson is learned from this.

Yep I've had it happen with T-beads when shortline nymphing. If you whip-snap the fly on your forward casting stroke sometimes they just kinda explode. Black T-beads do it worse than the others for some reason. I've even had them do it when putting the bead on a hook (forcing it over the barb, or around the hook bend). It's wierd cuz when the "pop" they just kinda turn to dust.

Very Nice !

The definition and wording of a ...."River"..... still comes into play at the county court level. "Rivers" (as they are called) do not pose any legal trespass problems. It is when you get in to (so called) "creeks" and "streams" that it becomes an issue. Granted some "creeks" are bigger than some "rivers" but there must have been a system and reasoning for the naming of the flows (creek,river,fork,slough,ect.) when the area was originally explored and mapped, which I guess was back in the Lewis&Clark era. If you were to present that document you posted to a county prosecutor he would quickly point out that the body of water in question is a "creek" or a "stream" ...not a "River". It recently occured to me that if it is called "such and such River" you're generally ok, but if it is called "such and such Creek" then you may not be. The term "fork" apparently has some significance also, I think when "fork" is part of a streams name, it links it to the larger system making it a definite part (headwater possibly) of the larger "river" that it feeds.

Sorry to hear you are feeling cruddy Oneshot, hope whatever it is, it lets go of ya soon. I know several guys that have delt with Lymes and Eurlichiosis and from what I understand it just kinda runs its course. Best wishes, Wrench

Thanks I'll check'em out.

I'd like to find a source for small to med. sized spinnerbaits and buzzbaits (1/8 to 1/4 oz.) that do not have heavy wire (largemouth sized) hooks. Any recommendations ?

Nice report. It kinda sounds like you are anxious to get into a good spinnerbait/crankbait bite, and for that I think you really need to be in bigger water with some color to it. My experience in streams the size of Tavern is that Jigs, worms, tubes, and soft stickbaits usually rule the day....any day. One major exception is a small 1/8oz. buzzbait.

Yeah, it's been a hoot. I can't help but notice that the Rock-On boys spent most of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday playing on their computers. Who got all the trips THIS weekend I wonder ? Peace, Wrench

The last time I was at Berry Bluff "access" they didn't have a road cleared down to the river yet. I put in at Bird island (private access below Berry Bluff on the same side of the river) they charged 3 bucks I think and it was a good place to drop in. I paddled (more like "fought") my way upstream to the Berry bluff area. Nice water, good fishing, but a little dangerous (heavy water and lots of strainers) so be on your toes if you go there. There are some big, slow bluff holes and backwater areas between Berry Bluff and lake Niangua that I'm sure are home to some nice kittens. There are some Aligator gar in there too.

Not to drill you....but Define: "fishing it hard" I'll say it again. No matter where you find fish....and end up strokin'em....chances are a guide once did well there, and probably considers it "one of HIS holes". So no matter where you catch fish SOMEBODY is gonna call you a basturd.

Y'all are being fickle. You promote yourself to the highest degree (I mean just look at the avitars) ....then complain because of the attention you are getting. Gimme a break, having a few rookie wannabe's follow you around and pumping you for info feeds your ego...... and you know it. Besides, you act like it happens every single time you dump your boat, and I know better. Get over yourself Man.

It never has before, not on any lake or river that I know of. Well put Sir. Like I stated earlier,if you wish to be low-key, secretive and go un-noticed there are easy ways to do that....and it even LOWERS your overhead cost.

I understand what you're tryiing to say....but I'm gonna nit-pick it anyway, just for sport First off, you still didn't "find the fish and put together the pattern on your own" so really how proud of yourself can you be ? Secondly, How can you be sure that some of the "spots that met the described criteria" were not one of the guides money holes ? I could go on and on....but I'm just pointing out a few details that make this whole scenario redundant. And yeah I was once a full time guide, off and on for 12 years, and I know the business as well as anyone I think.

You can eliminate a lot of the followers and hole hunters by electing not to dress yourself and your boat, motor, truck, trailer with all the "bling". The caliber of people you wish to avoid drawing attention from are still attracted to that rolling, walking, and floating billboard thing. It was a cool fashion statement 20 years ago, but I think it is time to let it go unless your "sponsors" demand it. Especially if you truly wish to reduce your paparazzi. Don't take this the wrong way bro's, but....you kinda sound like a group of chicks dressed in thongs, bitching about guys watching them.

Right on ! Which river gave it up ?

Did MDC ever clear a road to the river at Berry Bluff ? The last time I was down there ('05) the MDC map showed it as a "river access" but you couldn't get a vehicle anywhere close to the river. The farmer at the entrance (really cool ol'fella) told me that there was a property dispute going on. Just wondering if they ever got it straightened out. I ended up putting in at Bird island and paddling up. It was a wicked stretch of water there at the time. Heavy water and big strainers everywhere..... but I did catch some pig Smallies.

No truer words have ever been spoken. The effects of the mental (zen) aspect of any technique is so true and valid that it borders on magic, especially in the hunting/fishing game. When you "feel" it happen....and then it does, you just experienced it. I wish I could learn to apply it at will, and into other areas of my life.

Pretty stream. Isn't it cool how fish can materalize from out of nowhere on streams like that. They'll sit over a crack or crevice in the bedrock, or in the shade of a twig. They can be 20 feet from you....and you won't spot them until they move.

Week before last there was a guy with two kids fishing balls of nightcrawlers under bobbers at the spring hole (container of crawlers setting right in plain view), a park ranger got out of his "cruiser" and I thought "ah-ha he's gonna get it". But no, he walked right past them and started giving another guy a bunch of crap for having a dog unleashed. A very well behaved dog I might add, that hadn't left the guys side the whole time. Rules are Rules I guess....Well, some of them. hu?

I know ! And I guess he needed a Case Jacks worm... to chase it down with

People start telling lightning stories and I just gotta feed off into it.... #1 I was at the Superbowl of Motocross in Fulton co. Georgia back in the late '80's, we were watching the race from the parking lot when a bolt of lightning came from straight up and hit one of the racers in mid air....he never even knew it and kept right on riding. 10 seconds later while everyone was still screaming and freaking out about it, ANOTHER bolt hit the bleachers on the west side from a 45 degree angle, several people got taken to the hospital and we later heard that one of them died. The thing that really blew me away was that the race kept right on going while the ambulances were pouring in and people were scrambling around trying to get out and screaming for help. It also never rained a drop that night and nobody in our group ever heard any thunder. It was crazy. #2 I was running from a bad storm on Lake O in the Fall of '94 trying to get back to Shawnee bend access before it hit, I had a 19ft. Champion/200 Merc lit up and screamin' as I rounded the twin islands at the 8MM when a bolt that was bigger around than my boat was long, shot from the ground up about 100 yards to the starboard. I'm not sure if the heat I felt on my ears was from the lightning or from a sudden rush of adrenaline, but it was close enough and big enough that I'm pretty sure I almost got burned. I blew right through the No-Wakes at SB still turning 6000rpm......I remember thinking "Fine, give me a ticket...just let me off this lake NOW" ! Lighning is Scary business, sure enough......but Don't even get me started on Tornado's