bfishn

I put some miles on that Cicada with little to show. Got the feeling it shouted "run for your lives!". Might be a better drift bait, jigging's pretty aggressive.

I gotcha now. Yeah, timber's green, anything else isn't. There was a lot of timber cleared right before the lakes filled too.

I'm sure it depends on the map, but AFAIK, fields were never specifically identified as such on topos. You just had to read between the lines, looking for sizable, relatively flat, untimbered areas often bordered or divided by one or more fencerows, and/ or a straight timber/untimbered edge.

Historical topos are at; http://nationalmap.gov/historical/ You just need to know the quadrangle names you're looking for.

True that. From the USGS; " The most recently published figure of overall absolute vertical accuracy of the NED (national elevation database) within the conterminous US, expressed as the root mean square error (RMSE) of 25,310 reference points is 1.55 meters." And that is for the current dataset. Since topo data for lakes like Table Rock, LOZ, etc, was derived from pre-impoundment photogrammetric images from the ~'50s, the base resolution would have been far less than the current 1.5M. There's a good reason our old local topos were limited to 10 and 20 foot intervals. Nowadays, when differential GPS with a nearby land based elevation reference can reach accuracies of inches or less, those one foot intervals are an easy sell. Too bad they're mere extrapolation.

Until I get bored.

...let the record show, I trademarked a proper name for that previously-seldom-revealed tactic; Precision Bombing.

...to do that, I kept 2 rods rigged with slip bobbers (with crappie minnows dangling in the tank) set at (whatever) depth I marked them at. Stand on the troller until you mark one you want, and drop the bait with an open spool right on its' green little nose. Come off the troller, let the floats stand up while the boat coasts and the line spills. Be ready. If you lead them right, the bobber just goes down, never having had the chance to stand up. I never tried spoons, etc, 'cause when I can get them on the bobber I can't quit... :-)

One summer (in the '90s?) I zeroed a few times in a row on the regular mainlake DC spots. On a tip from a local, I found them about halfway back in both Sugarloafs. Threadfin fry was super thick so you had competition, but it was definitely where they were. More of a swim-n-swallow bite than deliberate hits, you just had to have a bait in their way.

Ought to be a good evening for big 'gills on bugs.

They eat the heck out of native mussels, so I don't know why not. You don't have to go much farther south before they're called shellcrackers, for good reason. Back when they (over)fertilized BV lakes regularly, you could find a floating adult mussel, bait with the cut meat, and catch the fire out of them.

Give him a break, he's probably just got some fly specs on his monitor where it says Conservati** Issues... instead of o,n, he saw a v.e... :-)

Whew, by the title I thought you'd uncovered my 'shine stash.

Nice pics JDoc! Those are even better views of the Indian Trail bridge than I got with a drop cam some years ago.

http://fishing.mdc.mo.gov/reports/best-bets?field_fish_population_nid=100550&=Apply

I had a childhood mentor/neighbor much like that, we fished, trapped, and collected arrowheads, stuff Dad had little time for. Dad mildly discouraged our outings, hinting that Tom's "lazy" habits would rub off on me. Dad was right. In my north Missouri farming childhood, small, round hay bales were the norm. Anyone that's ever run one of those Allis Chalmers round balers knows well how finicky they can be. Try to run hay that's just a few hours from being cured enough thru one and they seize up. When that happened to Dad, he'd spend the rest of the day wrenching, beating, and cussing the mysterious inner workings, usually ending with a trip to town for expensive parts. Not old Tom. When his baler seized up, he just shut 'er down and went fishing the rest of the day. Most of the time when he returned the next morning, the baler would puke out a misformed bale and then get right back to business. The difference in strategy was not wasted on me... :-)

In Roaring River you can find some channel cat on the banks of the old channel back in the timbered stretch and on out to the next bluff in the daytime. They scatter out on the flats at night. There are a few flatheads in the bluff rock, best to chase them at night on the long points that extend from the bluff ends, usually on or near the channel break. I've done better on the main lake in that area than the coves in summer though, same strategy. Big ditches (the ones you could drop a car in) cutting thru mainlake flats are prime spots. Cut shad for the channels and live shad or green sunfish for the flatties.

Your hand and body (where the rod butt contacts) are the fulcrum and the opposing force. The long end always has the advantage. As you noted, tip velocity is the advantage for the longer rod.

...to the fish, not the angler;

Attaboy!

14.95 for me. 7 more between there and 10. But I saw one once (in the water) that could get the heads of any of those in its' mouth...

Probably for the same reason there's a school bus and a picnic table on the hump across from Honey Creek.

Dawn & dusk.

Nice! Now that you have some spots marked, you might try getting picky with some big fish baits on the vertical. For me that means big live baits on slip bobbers. I'm sure there's other ways too.

You're welcome. No charge is cool too. Here in Arkansas they hit us for the lab fee and courier transport from the local Health Dept to Little Rock ($17). Cheap peace of mind. PS Keep your fingers away from the rim and inside of the sample container.