Blazerman

This could actually happen again this year. If all hell breaks loose – the Seminoles and Buckeyes both lose – then the SEC wins big. Get ready for an all-SEC championship game for the second time in three years. There is the possibility of Alabama Armageddon: a Crimson Tide-Auburn Tigers rematch of the breathtaking Iron Bowl played Saturday. If Auburn beats Missouri. Or we could have an all-SEC final between the Tide and Mizzou. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--mighty-sec-now-needs-help-to-keep-bcs-title-streak-alive-031043081.html;_ylt=A2KLOzEPyJxSGSUAc8JNbK5_

It is strange, but in Missouri the state parks group is not a part of the MDC. They are a different agency. Not sure why that is but i am sure it will be fine and the place will be great to visit, once it is available.

Isn't it funny how you can catch a ton of fish on a trip, a have a great time, but your mind always goes back to the ones that got away. I can still remember some of the fish I lost better than many I caught. One that will always stay with me was when we were wading and catching some fish on minnows behind a large tree that had a deep whole behind. I had caught about 5 and let them all go and made another cast and the minnow stopped and I set the hook and felt weight but nothing happened. I thought I was snagged so I pulled harder and then I felt a surge and the fish did a tight circle and stopped. I pulled and pulled until the drag came out but the fish wouldn’t move. But I could feel it pulsing in the current and said to my wife I can’t do anything with this fish. She said you’re probably snagged and I said here take the rod, and she did and she said your right it feels like a fish swimming. So I pulled some more and then the line broke. Never did figure out what it was but my guess is a big flathead. Another time at the White river a group of us had loaded up our boats and pulled away from Stetson’s dock. I think there were 4 boats heading out and before we got under way I made a cast across the river towards the deeper bank with an sr5 brown shad rap. As soon as I pulled it down into the current, it got hammered and the fish swam straight towards the boat. I was reeling as fast as I could but about 5 foot from the boat a huge Brown jumped and threw the shad rap right back at me. Everyone there saw it and we all agreed it was over 10lbs easy. No one caught anything near as big that year and it ended up being the talk on the weekend because everyone saw it.

Old Plug your probably right. So don't bother trying them especially for big browns or smallmouth either. .

Trophy, wish i could tell you but i can't because we could not see the difference. but the fish sure did. A group of us have fished the White river for trophy browns for 25 years and we always used to throw count down rapalas and rogues and sometimes shad raps for big browns. Then a few years ago one of the guys shows up with a lucky craft slender pointer and I watched him catch fish after fish on it. He was in my boat and I was throwing my same old rogue from the front of the boat and I would watch these browns and rainbows come look at my rogue and do nothing. He would throw to the same fish and they were fighting each other to see which one could eat it first. I tried everything I had jerkbait wise to try and match the action of that pointer in the water but never was able too. There was something about it that drove the fish crazy and by the end of the trip he had out fished us 10-1. He also had the biggest fish on the trip which was a brown over 12 lbs. You can bet we all had them the next year. Seeing is believing.

I was watching the YouTube videos as well and I plan on trying it on the Meramec for smallmouth as soon as I can get out. (hopefully this weekend). One thing I haven’t seen mentioned here is in the video I was watching from Dale Hollow where they were catching smallmouth, the rig included a 3-way swivel. The bobber was attached directly to one of the swivels links and then one went to the dropper line for the fly and the other went to the reel. It looked pretty slick and it was neat the way the bobber would flop over if a fish lifted the fly up instead of pulling it down. Anybody use a swivel? Also I am thinking about trying my zig jigs. I used them at LOZ with a bobber this past spring and had really good success on crappie. Plus I ended up catching a few white bass and one 16” LM. So I am thinking they might work for smallmouth too.

Weeekend catch is Monday's dinner.

The wife and I did some crappie fishing at the lake over the weekend and didnt do too bad. It wasnt fast and furious, more like slow and steady. We fished half a day Saturday and half the day Sunday and I ended up cleaning 16. We actually caught about 30 between the two days but didnt keep anything under 10. I didnt have my boat so I only fished off of docks. I have a buddy that owns a place with a group of three docks side by side, and loaded with brush around them. I went there first but didnt do very well. It was really windy on his docks because they are right on a point so it was hard to fish them affectively. The other place I fished is a condo dock and that is where we ended up catching most of the fish. I was using bobby garland jigs mostly blue ice and the wife was using minnows. I probably caught twice as many as she did. We were fishing in the third and fourth boat slips closest to the bank, probably about 15-20 fow and the crappie were hitting about 5-8 down. The only downer on the weekend was when I hooked a big crappie and fought it to the surface and then got excited because it looked like it might go 2lbs. I tried to flip it on the dock like I usually do but the line broke and my rod snapped back and hit the pole on the dock and broke the tip. The bummer was it was my favorite ultra-light Falcon rod. The pic is from Saturday.

Nice one. Definitely a wall hanger, especially with a bow. From experience my guess would be the only hard part was getting him back to the truck. Let us know what it scored.

MM didn't look great, Got flustered and ran around in the pocket some. But it wasn't just his fault. Their usually reliable receivers drops some passes that should of been caught. Would of made a difference for keeping drives alive and moving the chains. Then the defense let down in the fourth quarter along with special teams. Not a good game overall but one they still should of won. Now they just need to win out and they will still play in the SEC championship.

I think anyone who has watched Mizzou football for long time time feels the same way. Everytime you start to think that maybe this is the season, they get screwed by a bad call or have a bad loss and things go downhill. And this SC game scares the crap out of me. Here is an article that talks about exactly that: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--undefeated-missouri-hoping-to-avoid-another-epic-failure-this-season-183600206.html

I did not fish the fall bash this year but I have fished it a few time before and my buddy and I have always gotten checks in the past. We usually split whatever we get since we look at it as a team effort. Our goal each time is to win enough to cover expenses and anything over that is a bonus. It is interesting to see guys on here talking about the fishing not being very good and I am sure there were plenty of people who didn’t catch fish. But for the guys who fish the lake regularly the Big Bass bas is almost a guaranteed check. The only question is how big a bass can they get and how much will they win. If you go back through the results you will see there are guys that fish each one and get a check every time. And there are also guys who don’t collect the checks them self’s but know the lake and know where to fish and put their partners on fish and split the money. Also about the over-all size, everyone knows the fish aren’t as big in the fall like they are in the spring before they spawn. They pay 25 spots (or 26 spots if you have their t-shirt) every 2 hours 4 times each day. So that comes to over 200 spots paid plus t-shirt spots. The smallest fish paid was 3.74 and only 4 spots were paid for fish under 4lbs. My point is plenty of people made money and plenty of decent bass were weighed. I would put LOZ Bass fishing up against any lake in the country and I would bet it would be among the best for size and numbers.

Hear ya Wharfrat. i brought a buddy down in April who always fishes Kentucky lake in the spring for crappie, and he was amazed at the size of the crappie we caught. We were there 4 days and got our limit each day and he said the crappie were the equal to Kentucky lake and he might have to skip his trip again next year and just head back to LOZ. Can't wait to get down there for some late fall fishing.

Thanks did not see it. Sounds like it might be time to give the crappie a try.

Ok Wharfrat, are you catching crappier right now?

Scary stuff. This could happen to anyone. Be careful out there. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/missouri-hunter-dies-after-falling-into--foot-deep-sinkhole/article_8e9205e8-f292-5d9a-a09c-c8881e16c22d.html

Ok back to expectations, this past weekend I caught a bunch of fish in a day and a half which has me really looking forward to this fall. I tried a bait I haven’t used before and I believe this will now be my new number one summer\ early fall bait. The bait is a Bass Pro river bug and I had it rigged on a weedless jig head. I think it was probably a 3/8 oz head. The color I believe was watermelon candy. I caught all 3 species of bass on this bait including one smallmouth about 18”. For most of the smallmouth, I was throwing it in faster water and retrieving it with a slow twitch while keeping the bait moving. I never stopped it or let it fall much- kept it moving pretty good, and the smallmouth would hammer it. I had two different fish grab it and I fought them half way back to the boat. Then they came off and I just stopped the retrieve and they came back and got it again. For the largemouth and spots, I was working it in slower water like a typical jig and trailer. Casting into cover alongside logs and boulders and letting it fall, then work it back to the boat with hops and twitches. The best thing about this bait was you could catch a bunch of fish on one and not have it get all tore up so i didn't have to keep replacing it. Once the weather cools off in Nov\Dec I will switch to the LC slender pointers. In the fall with the super clear water, I love watching the smallmouth come out of hiding to attack those baits.

Wish I would of heard about the crappie on Saturday. Would of headed downstream. I caught some nice catfish but would of rather had a nice bunch of crappie.

I just came back from spending four days at my property right by Redhorse and you really cannot go up or downstream much at all right now. In the spring and early summer you can get around some but right now it is too low to go anywhere with a prop.

Are the crankbaits happy with their new color when they wake up?

Once while floating we were riding the shuttle bus to our drop off point and on the bus with us was a very large woman with a guy and a small baby. When we got to the drop off spot we grabbed our canoe and our stuff and headed out. As we are pulling away I notice the guy loading up a canoe. Now this woman had to be close to 250 at least. And they had this small baby in a car seat and on top of that they had a huge cooler. I couldn’t believe they were going to try and float in a canoe with this kid and I said to my buddy this is not going to be good. So we hung around long enough to watch them get underway and to see if the canoe would actually float with both of them in it and it did but just barely. So we get a little ways ahead of them and come to the first swift spot and we beached the canoe and wade out to start fishing. A few canoes go by then we hear the couple. Apparently she is not happy about the way he is paddling and letting him know about it. So they come into view and get to the swift spot where the current swings around a sand bar, and she is hollering and then tries to shift in her seat and the canoe rolls right over. He grabs the baby and walks over to the beach. She is bobbing in the current and screaming grab the cooler, grab the cooler. I grabbed the canoe and pulled it over to the beach where he was standing and my buddy is trying to grab the cooler but before he can it rolls over and everything comes out. Inside this cooler is beer and fried chicken and all kinds of stuff including a plastic cake holder filled with potato salad. And it is all floating downstream and spilling all over. I am standing next to the guy and he looks at me and says I knew this was a bad idea. She gets her footing and comes over where we are standing and starts screaming at him about the food being gone and says something like I am not floating anywhere without our food and beer. And storms up the bank. He stands there for a second and then follows her with the baby. My buddy and I look at each other and he says what should we do? I said I don’t know. So we pull the canoe up on the beach and turn it over and then started floating again. Along the way we use the net to scoop up what we can of their stuff and we never did see them again.

I don't plan on cutting off any copperhead heads but if you do stay away from the cut off head. http://www.14news.com/story/23136138/viral-video-decapitated-copperhead-bites-itself

Plenty of people choose to live close to a river, creek or stream because they enjoy the location. Most, like me, know the risks of flooding and choose to except the risk. Back in 1973 I was 16 and we rented a place at Twin Springs on the Meramec. Even though we were close to the river we were so far above it I never in a million years thought the river would make it over the bank it front of us let alone reach our living area. The first bank was probably 30 vertical feet above the normal river channel and our place was on stilts and another 8 foot above the ground. And the river got 4 foot high in our living area. That showed me how high a river could get and I never forgot it. So when we bought our place off highway K once again we were at least 30 vertical feet above the river. While we were standing there looking down at it my wife said do you think the river could ever get this high? And I said yep no doubt. So we planned on it and stored much of the stuff we didn’t want wet up on higher shelves and didn’t store anything there over the winter that we didn’t want to lose because of flooding. And in 08 the river got up to our upper level and our garage had 4 foot of water in it. I along with many of my neighbors were standing on the k bridge looking at the river which was about 4 foot below the bridge and I was thinking this river has to be 50 foot deep right now. And I was amazed at how high it was. It normally is about 2 foot deep there during summer pool. It was a big mess and I am sure I was moaning and groaning a lot while we were cleaning up but we really didn’t lose anything I was upset about. Luckily it didn’t get into our living area because we are on stilts again. But if it had we would of taken the insurance money and rebuilt. Because I like being close to the river and except the risks. Just like the rest of the people on our street who cleaned up and went back to enjoying the location.

I have run my Blazer jet below Bull Shoals dam for trout a few years now and I can tell you from my experience if their not running water, you are probably not gonna be using your boat. We were there again in February like we have been for the last 25 years, and this year they did not run any water at all the four days we were there. My boat stayed on the trailer the entire time. I have run in a lot of shallow water in Ozark streams and occasionally hit a gravel bar or log under the surface. Doesn’t really do much damage normally. But on the White, I was hitting the solid ledge rock that is on the bottom in many spots. That stuff doesn’t give and can cause dents and even rip holes if you hit it right. We have learned over the years that at least on the White below Bull Shoals, you are better off wading or floating in the flat bottom john boats they have down there, then trying to run a boat with a motor. I cannot even imagine how you could run a prop motor if there not running water.

i posted this on the Meramec section but thought i would post it here too since it is my wife's personal best by far. It was a little over 21". We didn't wieght so can sonmeone give me a good guess? Although i noticed many people don't name the place they caught there big fish, if you had to pick one Ozark stream to catch a 20" smallmouth, what stream would it be. I would have to vote for the Meramec since i know it so well.