Riverwhy

I am meticulous about following game laws and I have never had a bad experience with a conservation agent. The probable cause before being searched and checked by an agent is a little fascinating. I was at LOZ a couple of weeks ago and was going through the mid lake no wake zone along with another fifty or so boaters. There was a water patrol boat out there and I think we all felt like we were a school of baitfish and the water patrol was just waiting to strike. Sure enough his lights came on and they pulled over a boater that was on the outside of the "baitball of boats". I felt sorry for the fellow for his apparent random selection but was awfully glad we made it through the gauntlet without a 20 minute interrogation. There is a nice special going on right now on the BBC about the Magna Carter (sp) and the importance it played in current democracies by making it unlawful to search someone without probable cause,

Thank you for the report Ham. I love the mid lake area and catching those top water whites had to be fun. I'm headed down next week for three days but I think I will float and camp on the river instead of taking the bass boat out.

After I get finished chasing smallmouth and goggle-eye with my ned rig for the next couple of months, I will go to MT and report back.

I wouldn't mind seeing trout become strictly a C & R species. If all those stockers were released think about the resources that could be targeted towards stocking crappie. Geez, I guess we will advocate releasing carp next.

In Fishermen says bluegill size is related to how soon the males develop gonads

It is not a good bass lake for me. I head to LOZ if I am targeting largemouth.

Fishinwrench, Dave and Jerry, You guys have offered a ton of great fishing advice and humorous commentary on the forum and I have nothing but respect for you guys. However, your assessment of Mark Twain is so far off base it is kind of funny. I do not know what it was like 20 years ago but it is currently a very good crappie lake for both size and numbers.

I fried Bighead carp a couple of weekends ago and it was very good. Meat was white and mild . We found no small bones to deal with, just a few big ones.

Part of the spring use to flow under the house. Owners had boards in the floor that they could lift up and used the spring water as a natural refrigerator. I also believe the spring was originally artesian but was changed with dynamite. Myron is as good of a steward as we could of hoped for.

Looks like the new guide boat series. It even has a microphone to preach righteous C & R dogma.

While it certainly is NOT illegal provided the fish meet the 18-inch minimum length limit and you are within the daily creel limit, absolutely nothing good can come of stringing up a bunch of walleye. Just kidding. I could not resist taking a line from Champ about keeping spotted bass. I'm trying to master summer walleye trolling but it is an art. Nice bunch of walleye. I'm jealous.

15 pounds. I just did not have that big kicker fish.

I bass fished from morning to mid afternoon in the main lake area on Saturday. We caught largemouth on everything we threw from spinner bait to crank bait to football jigs. By far the most success came on a pb&j ned rig. The rig produced by far the greatest number of fish and much to my surprise accounted for the heaviest fish. Most fish were shallow and three pound plus fish were common. All bass were largemouth and no spots were caught. I even targeted a few bluff ends for the spots but they would not bite. Overall it was a great day with 29 bass caught between the two of us. One last thing to mention is that 17 of the largemouth came on the same ned rig. Pretty efficient bait.

I think Al is correct in every detail. I appreciate the straight forward and non political tone. I have a little over four decades of experience with the North Fork and the Brysnt and I'm not positive about water flow rates changing but once deep pools now filled with gravel is painfully obvious .

Congratulations on the fish. I love to see good sportsmen who eat what they catch.

Winning weight in last weeks crappie tournament was over eight pounds. Several others in the 7s.

Truman and Mark Twain are the two best crappie lakes in Missouri. Average size this spring has been pretty good. You generally can limit out with 11 to 12 inch fish with an occasional 13 to 14 inch fish. I might mention that crappie fishing techniques vary greatly in Missouri. Mark Twain is centered on jigging by standing timber and in between the logjams in the back of the cutbacks. LOZ anglers spend their days shooting docks and looking for man made brush piles. Fishermen on the clear water lakes of the white river chain often rely on electronics and the rare but precious underwater brush. Anglers familiar with one particular style and habitat will often struggle when they target a different lake.

I hated to read about the fellow passing away. Many folks on this site have in their ignorance (by that I mean lack of knowledge) commented on the supposed lack of risk and danger from venomous snake bites in Missouri. Perhaps this fellow read your earlier posts about how snake bites were not lethal and decided he did not need to receive care. The callous comments concerning being bitten twice again shows a lack of knowledge concerning the speed and tendency of these vipers to strike multiple times. Perhaps comments showing a bit of compassion are more appropriate than making fun of a fellow that refused medical care because he did not understand the lethal nature of a snake bite.

It's pretty early in the year yet but here is a short list so far; Largemouth bass Kentucky bass Smallmouth bass White bass Hybrid bass Striped bass White crappie Walleye Channel catfish Red ear sunfish Bluegill Green sunfish Pumpkinseed sunfish Redhorse sucker

No such luck with the corn being an effective way to remove the trout from my smallmouth streams.

I'm headed to Prince Edward Island in late July for my first ever Alaska trip. We are staying in a forest service cabin and will spend the week fishing the island streams. I'm packing my standard spinning tackle but I really want to land several on a fly rod. I currently have a pretty cheap 5 weight rod. I was told by the fellow at BPS that an 8 weight is probably what I need to purchase. Any advice out there from the experienced Alaska fishermen?

How about gluing the Ned worm to the jighead and then rigging the hook weedless? This reduces the need for a weedless hook. I love Dave's jigheads but I can not get any messages to go thru so I'm looking for different options.

I fished the mid lake area over the weekend. I had hoped for a morning top water bite but just could not find much top water action either morning. However, the largemouth bass were pretty active and I caught a four pound bass on a lipless crank bait and three more keepers on the ned rig. Went back out in the evening and caught 24 inch striper when they came up to the surface at dark. Also caught a couple more keeper largemouth and a keeper walleye. Sunday morning decided to go way back into the creeks and was surprised to find a great largemouth bite on crank baits. Also caught another keeper walleye on the shallow flats and 9 white bass before calling it a day a little after noon. I should add that I caught a large number of thirteen and fourteen inch fish as well as the keepers listed above.

Those look great. I always struggle with getting my trolling speed down. Have fast do you think you averaged?