Jerry Rapp

went down today for the regular sit by/in the river day with the dogs. They like their water time. Coco, the English Springer Spaniel loves it for sure, but now our little adopted Japanese Chen is right with Coco all the time. The stage is still about 2.74, which is very low. Still some decent flow, but more like a good creek in June. When we got there about 1000 hrs, me and the dogs fished a bit. Coco likes to take the pumkinseeds I catch back to mom on the bank. She never chews them, but they are her prize, and Karen gets them from her and lets them go. Now after 2 years of trips, Izzy, the Jap Chen, has taken to doing the same thing. She is about a foot long, and 6 inches high, and just stands besides me in the water waiting for her turn, shaking the entire time. Funny stuff, and just another of nature's wonder.

ktm made a very good point. I am sure on the Wake Boat Forums they are discussing how to get rid of fishermen who get in their way, much less leaving line around their docks and scratch marks from jigs bouncing off their moored wake boats. One of the lakes I use to fish regularly in southern Illinois, Lake Egypt, has a rule, that is enforced, no casting within 10 foot of ANY dock and an enforced 35 mph speed limit. Just be very careful what you wish for. Common sense goes a long ways, and all users need to use more of it.

sounds like a great trip! I hope you broke par in golf also! On a side note, you said you started saving your toads when they tore up. We all should save all of our torn up plastics and not just drop them in the water. I use to be bad about that, and then started looking into Robert Montgomery's writings in Bassmaster about discarded plastic baits. Now I throw all used plastics into a corner of the floor of the boat to be trashed accordingly. And also, in 8 weeks you should be in great shape for Fall fishing!

no Justin. It is time to elect people who will do what make's sense.

keep us posted esox. It will make for a neat story. Be careful on that big river.

you know there is a yard tax user fee don't you? Just kidding. Seriously, I would never think of starting a yard this summer. Historically Sept and October can be very dry months. If it were me, I would just let the weeds grow until next Feb/Mar and then do the real work. As far as type of grass, everyone has an opinion. Look around at the neighbors yards, they are all probably brown, but if some have good coverage ask them what type of grass they used.

tie on a lure, the size of which you will use most often. Hold the rod out parallel to the ground. Adjust the tension to where when you disengage the reel and let the lure free fall to the ground it won't overrun(mini backlash). That will be a good starting point, and after you figure that out you can adjust it with each lure you use on the water in the same manner. You will learn in using it that your thumb is your best friend. Then you will be able to loosen up the tension and cast further, and once you learn it is just like riding a bike, you never forget. Also adjust the drag to where you can pull the line off semi easily. I would also suggest using some Big Game Trilene line, probably 12 or 15lb test before you load it up with expensive flouro or such. Good luck, you will 5 to 10 baitcasters in a couple of years I bet. And by the way, none of us ever get backlashes, they are professional overruns.....................LOL!

10 or 12 foot jon boat. You can get them for $100 - 150 if you look around. And then there is a thing called a sculling paddle. You sit on the front seat and scull with the paddle. It is a lost art for sure, but I did it for many years.

mother nature is pretty amazing, ain't she. It all cycles around. Always.

for some strange reason I read this entire thread. And you trout nuts are just like bass fishermen. I guess it is the fishing gene?

it seems like the consensus is to just tax on user fees? But yet Arkansas is spening %90K to upgrade an office in Jonesboro? And MDC is stocking Elk and then kills them when they get outside their boundaries. The problem is, and always has been, govt agencies don't spend money wisely. I worked for the Corps for 32.5 years and you would not believe the waste that occurs, mainly because CONGRESS has said if you don't spend your allocated money by 9/30(end of fiscal year), you will lose it in the next budget cycle. Lots of dollars could be spent more wisely if agencies were allowed to carry over the balance, but they can't without hurting themselves. The government is really sad when it comes to fiscal dollars and responsibility.

thanks for the info QB. They have very competitive prices to begin with.

Al, or anyone, how was the big settling basin formed below the dam? Was it a gravel operation at one time? Was that where they got fill for the dam?

they all have the same right as you to be on the lake. Sorry, RPS, you post good stuff, but the floaters are griping about the same thing on another forum. Everything public is public.

Ozark Gunner, you should try fishing in December, you may be pleasently surprised.

did anyone look at the cost of this? I it worth that? Seriously?

the outfitters are making money legally. What an insane comment smalliebugs. I am just shaking my head in amazement in how much you guys are just like bass fishing tournament anglers. You think you own it all. It is PUBLIC water.

good question Al. I use to be one who would go every chance I got. Now I am much more selective. In the past month I have only been twice because of the extreme heat. I am not a river rat like most of you (although I do wade the Black for about an hour every weekend when we take the dogs down for a cool swim). In the fall, winter and spring is when I do most of my lake fishing now. I have a couple of 100 acre semi private lakes within 10 minutes of the house which usually provide fun fishing in cooler times. This past winter I probably averaged 3 days a week on these little lakes or at Clearwater and Wappapello. As I get older (more mature?, LOL!), I sort of like to pick my days and I have a good ring of friends which helps us all keep abreast of what is going on where. So I would say 75 days a year, but a lot of them are 2 to 4 hour trips during peak times or on those days which you just know they are going to bite (funny though, that doesn't always work out as planned!)

this is really a funny topic. Most of you guys are just like tournament bass fishermen. You expect to own the river/lake and everyone else to just leave you alone. If you visit bass fishing forums you hear the same whining about bass fishermen being treated like second class citizens and they should have respect when they are out fishing on THEIR lake. It is all public water. PUBLIC. If you want privacy you have to buy your own river/lake and keep everyone else off of it. We are taxed to death already and 16 Trillion in debt as a nation. Cities are going bankrupt over debt, and many states are not far behind. It is a big world out there beyond our lakes and rivers, and until spending at all levels gets under control, there will be no solution to anything.

most of the time it appears they are strolling or drifting jigs/minnows. Last fall after the record high water went down, it was an armada of boats trolling little cranks. If they are biting you will know it, and you will know which side of the little lake is producing best.

I fish it a lot, but not since early June, and that was at night. Clearwater is like most every other lake around, stagnant and hot, with very little water moving through it. Even in a normal summer it gets very tough in the summer. If you bass fish, either try very, very early with topwater on the deeper banks, and mix in a shakey head. If you bass fish at night, fish the around the berms on the dam and in front of the Piedmont boat ramp with a black jig or plastic bait. If the crappie are biting, which I seriously doubt, there will be a bunch of boats in the middle of the lake fishing for them. It looks like the heat wave may break next week with at least some scattered rain, maybe that will help, but I wouldn't get too hopeful for much action. Wappapellos surface temp is reaching 93-95 in the afternoons, and Clearwater's temps will be right there with it.

thanks for the morning chuckle Tim.

anyone who would start a fire of any kind in the ozarks now needs to think twice. Or three times.

fishermen always want things favored in their way, and you can bet the floaters, tubers, rafters, partiers want things favored in their way. They would probably want to see the fishermen go away. It is a two way street. Should there be more enforcement on the rivers. Sure, if the partiers did what they did on the water in general public 75% would be arrested. Should there be a tax to pay for more enforcement? IMHO, no, we are taxed to death. What needs to be done is way more sensible spending by our elected officials. For example, is stocking Elk a better expense than keeping the rivers under control? Before someone jumps me saying MDC can't control the partiers on the river, that same money they use for Elk comes from the same state. That same state's govt could allocate that money to MSWP, etc. to help enforce the rivers instead of stocking some animals. I am off the soap box now. Carry on.

what do Tarpon feed on?