Riverwhy

Your experience has nothing to do with Bull Shoals but you just happen to run into a couple of inconsiderate fellows. I was fishing Norfork last week and we were on a fantastic top water bite. Jumping shad with various bass species lunging out of the water. We were just a little over a cast away from the shore and catching fish with nearly every cast. A large white boat similiar to the guide boats from a couple hundred yards away sees the action and begins to come down the bank. They do not stop or go around but simply continue to fish through our top water bite. Fate was a least a little bit funny because they were too silly to catch any of the bass that were surfacing all around their boat. We simply trolled over to the other shore and waited for them to pass. After they left the top water turned on again and we again began catching them like tunas. To top off the experience they started their outboard motor and powered once again through our top water bite. They waved as they passed. We looked at each other and had to laugh. I actually believe they were too stupid to understand. We just made up our mind to not let it get under our skin.

Nice smallmouth. I put meanmouth, sasquatch and chucacabra in the same esteemed lore. Great time of year to be fishing.

Johnsfolly, I caught 8 walleye over the weekend. Only one keep but several that just would not quite stretch. Best bite for me was a rogue fished slowly in the evening against rocky main lake points. Good luck.

I agree with Al. I have been hesitant to say much but some of the landowners there are dangerous. You have every right to float and camp but do not go unarmed. I've had bad experiences there and it resulted in a threat of violence. First from the landowner and then from my group. There has been no further confrontations for several years. I prefer to end my contribution with this post.

The water was classic Mark Twain brown

Crappie have moved into the creek arms. We caught a couple of limits over the weekend jigging next to wood in about 16 feet of water. Average size was pretty good with many 11 and 12 inch fish. Chartreuse jig with a nibble. Extremely light bite. 9 to 10 boats in the creek arm most of the weekend.

An early warm up followed by a late spring cold spell is the best hope for a mild bug season

We threw silver and blue.

Fished mid lake on Sunday afternoon. Water temps in the mid to upper fifties. Went to the creek arms and fished the transition between muddy water and green water. Threw regular and lipless crankbaits. Whites and largemouth were biting well. Also caught a hybrid and a short walleye. Absolutely shocked me that fish were that aggressive this early. At one point we were catching largemouth on what seemed like every other cast.

Make sure the water is up and be cautious with the landowners along the route.

I do not support any effort to defund the Missouri Department of Conservation but they have a some weaknesses that need corrected. It is however impossible to discuss these weaknesses without getting a bit of a thrashing from the "better than Illinois crowd." My guess is that a little bit of conversation and true compromise with the various interests from around the state would help to remove this burr from under the saddle of these representatives.

When I saw the ad I thought the same thing as J-Doc. I gotten taken in by purchasing a couple of scatter raps and there are very difficult to cast much of as distance. I feel gun shy about trying new Rapala stuff for a while. Surely they testing the dang things and knew they didn't cast well.

I went to the Bass Pro in St. Charles on Sunday to pick up the PQ reel that was on sale. I spent a lot of time visited with a pro that was hawking wiggle warts. The fellow had a lot of experience fishing Mark Twain, LOZ and Bull Shoals. Right up my alley except that I fish Norfork instead of Bull Shoals. He was informative and talked techniques at all the lakes, time of year, bait selection, etc. A great guy and a lot of fun visiting. I agree it was not very busy but I liked the event.

Thanks for the review. I bought the same model Sunday and plan to put it on a medium heavy 7 foot Extreme rod.

It's the middle of January and fishing withdrawal combined with cabin fever is enough to drive me insane. So, I got to thinking about all the recent trends in fishing over the past few years and I began wondering which were really great new lures and tactics and which are fads and which have really been around for years but are just being presented in a new light today. My musings include the following: Alabama Rigs Ned Rigs Jerk baits Drop shot rigs Spy baiting Float-n-fly Pre-Rapala wiggle warts Are these really all great new (or old) fish catching breakthroughs?

Not to step on AFBuer's thread but I'm a spinning reel guy not a bait caster fan.

I find choosing a rod to be the most difficult part of getting your fishing gear together. I can tell you all kinds of reel specs, pick out quality line, and talk about lure choices all day. However, my weakness is picking out the correct rod. I'm afraid I end up using a $200 reel with great line and a proper lure and match that up with a low to medium quality rod just because I can't figure out the best rod for multi species fishing. So, good question and I hope someone will share what we need to be looking for in a great rod. (For me that means $100 or less).

CRAPPIE 1/16 and 1/32 jigheads variety pack of tube jigs but always have some chartreuse crappie nibbles WALLEYE bottom bouncers with crawler rigs flicker shad hot-n-tots BASS White Spinnerbaits Wiggle warts Assorted jigs Suspending rogues plastic worms and creature baits

1. Lake Norfork striper fishing 2. Flyfishing at Kelly Shoal 3. Wading and limb lining the north end of Platte River 4. Spoonbill snagging below Warsaw 5. Goggle eye fishing in the winter in big springs 6. Walleye fishing at the Pothole 7. Hybrid fishing at Truman 8. Jigging up sauger on the Mississippi 9. Float and camp from Bertha to Tecumseh 10. Drift for big blues on LOZ I could list so many more. Missouri has so many options.

Why would that make you want them to stop stocking them? I absolutely love fishing for hybrids and 3 or 4 nice ones a year is a gift.

Hellbenders are certainly difficult to completely understand. The prevailing research appears to support clear cool water with plenty of dissolved oxygen. My most consistent (accidental) catch has come from a couple of deep slow holes in a relatively warm water ozark stream. The other spot that my family has caught several has been in the very upper ends of the lake. I have intentionally been a bit vague because I really would like to see this specie hang on and grow in our natural settings.

I fished November 2nd and October 18th around the mid lake area and the water is clearer now by far than it was a couple of weeks ago. This has been some of the best fall fishing in a long time for me. The fellows that live around the lake will have to talk turnover with you because I saw nothing during October and it is even clearer now.

Fishing has been excellent around the mid lake area for largemouth bass and white bass. Sunday we had 26 largemouth in the boat in around two hours of fishing. Later we went on to catch ten nice whites. Water is pretty clear and lure choice did not seem to matter much. Spinners and crank baits ruled the day for us. We even had a double a couple of times Sunday. We did not target crappie.

A few years back In-Fisherman sold a catfishing book that listed some of their top catfishing lakes based upon growth rates. One of those lakes is a 240 acre impoundment in north Missouri where the predominant diet of the catfish are freshwater mussels. As a side note this also makes the catfish a bit hard to catch for anglers using conventional methods.

Justin, I think you are a good guy. No need to question my common sense just because we differ. Carbon taxes DO NOT reduce carbon emissions. They just shift carbon production to another venue. Sounds we both want clean water and clean air.