Wayne SW/MO

Been there a long time?

Wooly buggers are always effective. The trick is to fish the bottom and if you don't lose a few you probably aren't where you should be.

It's feast or famine anymore.when it comes to rain, but it's a lot more famine this year.

It can be nice in the winter. The first time I fished it in winter was the first season and we were already in the area. There was a 4-6" snow and my son and I had it all to ourselves that day. At that time fishing was Fri.-Sun. and the hatchery wanted to save money on food and they loaded the stream up. The spring hole looked like one of the hatchery runs.

Al I guess my point is that the spots have been around for decades and being wild critters they go where they want too go. One has to ask why now and generally when one ask that question the first question to follow is "What has changed?" and it's no secret that the streams have. The Niangua is a good example for me, or the Thompson to the north, both are almost unrecognizable because of how shallow the have become. We no that the springs are all diminished and the water more shallow in most and that spells warmer water to me. Sure the smallmouth are tough and will stay if they have too. I don't about your experience, but in mine they will put up with cold water before they will water too warm. Of all the sunfish the smallmouth seems the most intolerant of conditions. Lakes are good examples, while spots have pretty much moved to all sections in lake where they exist, smallmouth don't and tend to remain in areas they like. I think there are probably a lot of micro causes overall that combine with the obvious changes to make the spots move farther upstream. i can't see any reason for a spot to be a competitor to the smallies.

When the AF picked up the AR in the early '60's they were full auto select, but it didn't take long to see the fault in that. I suspect too many found themselves out of ammo in a Nam jungle.

There are a lot of fords that make good access points. When you see a road that accesses the rive from both sides and no bridge, chances are its a ford.

Pflieger mentions in his book that there was an undocumented stocking in the Osage system before 1940 and that one was seined at the junction of the big rivers in 1969. That puts them very close 40+ years ago. If you assume they have had access for many decades then the question would be "what is different?". I have trouble buying the dams theory because the dams are not only far upriver, but they are all old enough to question why it would take so long to make a big difference? I don't see how the big changes in most of the Ozark streams can be ignored, given the fact that spots are drawn to waters just slightly warmer and more turbid than smallies? I'm not real familiar with the eastern streams, but I assumed they suffered the same fate as the ones in the west, loss of deep water and clear water.

If you look at the situation from a common sense standpoint it doesn't take much to see big changes in the streams. They're rapidly filling in at the same time springs are diminishing causing the water to warm. Smallmouth don't do well in hot water and they avoid it. The spots have always had access to every river in Missouri, the dams haven't been here forever!

I've caught a few blues at the pothole, but I wasn't fishing for them and I don't know what the population would be. It's pretty low up that way now.

If you're talking about now the answer is no. There isn't nearly as much water up there and some of it is most likely pretty shallow with the lack of rain. Later in the year after the outfitters quit going up there it can be a better float, but there will still be some dragging.

I don't see any difference between alcohol and assault rifles and deaths where they are involved. We don't "need" either of them, but we take completely different approaches to misuse. With alcohol it's the person, with assault weapons it's the weapon, makes no sense since either one can set on a shelf for a hundred years and not harm anything. As far as marijuana is concerned, it's currently illegal in the US according to the government, and just like prohibition, it's making people rich while doing nothing to control it. Prohibit guns and they will end up in the same way.

The lake is very, low so be careful when running. Don't depend on buoys.

They're native in our part of the world. The reason that spots have suddenly come on the scene is because they were know as the Kentucky bass in Missouri. Eventually we ended up with enough out of state biologist that couldn't allow the colloquial names of Kentucky and jack salmon to be used. We now have spots and walleye. They aren't invasive, they're just extending their range do to the climate and drought.

My best color was the gold X Rap. It is actually more of a blue with orange highlights though.

They have been my best jerkbait for several years now. I don't really do the walleye and my success has come in the colder months on bass. The gold and the ghost have been my best colors. The gold is actually more of a blue with some orange and I suspect it is taken for a long ear. The ghost is a white that is hard to describe. I like to use braid with my jerkbaits because I find that the take is most often on the pause and braid will signal it if you're paying attention. I make a lot of trips to the pothole in the early spring, but I really don't see that many caught on lures, live bait is a different story. This is just an observation because I don't consider myself a walleye fisherman, just an observer killing time mostly.

Go visit Charlie Oneshot. He'll give you tips freely and he's probably not that busy right now. For all of his faults, he's a heck of a caster and he has that casting pond right in front of the shop. You could go see Roger's, but I doubt you would want to help out your son's competitor.

For the most part it's a matter of water now and I suspect that may follow into summer. It's hard to name a good stream if you're limited to wading because the wadeable streams are all but dry now and probably won't recover as fast as they normally do. If it were me I would hit the James and possible the Finley. I'm not sure what the Finley looks like now. The James will offer a lot more with the low water. Of the streams cullinby9 mentions, 1,5,9, and 10 wouldn't be worth the drive. You might see if the Osage Fork has enough water, it's a good stream.

Ain't that the truth, if we don't they'll have no where to run too.

I can tell you what is popular at the pothole. Rogues in blk/org, Firetiger, and clown seem to be very common. This is just an observation on my part. It is early for the spawning run and I would question whether it's worth fishing if they aren't running water. One can check the generating schedule at TR to see if they are running any water. It takes about 4 hours for it to get to Powesite and they have to run it out because Taney has no holding capacity.

It's a great off season river.

I haven't seen Beaver lately, but you can run up Swan, literally.

So it might be more realistic to take gun control to the point where few if any have guns? You're also assuming that someone could be diagnosed by one person, but what if it required a second opinion by someone neutral? Still better to assume all gun owners are suspect?

As far as mental checks, I'm not in favor of it being a requirement. It doesn't however stop congress from allowing and requiring psychiatrist to report people who have dangerous tendencies. The old BS that someone sane might be deprived of owning a gun doesn't cut it in light of passing laws that restrict all law abiding citizens, but do nothing to stop criminals and nuts. The point is if someone wants to own a weapon that isn't dangerous in and of itself to own and fire, why not? A vehicle doesn't kill, but a driver does, yet we are suppose to believe that a gun will laying on a table. They, the powers that be, need to worry about causes and that starts in the mind of the assassin. Without assault weapons they can believe that 2 of the last events wouldn't have happened, but with intervention and control of the last 4 individuals because of mental problems we can assume all of them would have been avoided. The reason we keep seeing these and having gun debates is because it's the simplest knee jerk reaction. Let the crazies with dangerous anti social tendencies alone, just believe that we can take all dangerous things out of their reach so they can't hurt anyone, in other words treat everyone like they're crazy and no one will notice.

Well when I shot on a town aiming and squeezing off a shot that could hit a target that was about 3" by 6" at 200 to 300+ yards real consistently was important. The 223 was a good round, but not beyond about 200 yards and often not after the wind came up. My favorite 223 was Ruger #3, a single shot. For all who have a problem with shooting them, they are a hazard on pasture land and controlling them by poison, the only option to shooting, all but wiped out the Black Footed Ferret.