Wayne SW/MO

Caught below Powersite. I don't know about 40K, that's a lot of fish and one would think that a lot more of them would show up below Powersite when they try to spawn and the shad spawn. I would like to see them stocked deliberately. The old negative of traveling and ending up in the White is a moot point because of Norfolk. If you've seen the Osage below Truman when they are running, which is often, you would see that they are a big attraction. They would also most likely be an addition to the economy because I can't see any competition with trout fishing occurring.

It does tend to shrink depending on the height of the water. .

I wonder if we could trade some Walleye's for Stripers? Can you imagine the fishery below Powersite if there was a major Striper or Wiper run when ever they were generating? That would be a boost to the economy that would be noticeable.

I can't, but I believe I would let it go. The reason for this is at my age a record wouldn't really mean anything to me, and I would hate to see the fish die. On the other hand there is no doubt the fish was old, and may have not even survived being caught if he was released immediately.

The Eleven Point has some hiking opportunities and cold weather fishing. There's also the fact its a great river for outdoorsmen, and a great looking river. You can find Brian Sloss on the Eleven Point section for detailed information.

That may be a big job. I would think it hard to get away from, wade below the dam, anywhere down to the 65 bridge from a boat, and the docks at Cooper Creek, Rockaway and Empire.

I started another thread on Smallies in general with some information I found. http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20450 My thoughts exactly :lol:

From the MDC. "Many state and federal fish and game agencies have expanded the smallmouth bass range across the nation through fish stocking. In Missouri, the Missouri Department of Conservation has not stocked smallmouth bass since the early 1970s, following an extensive research study that showed supplemental stocking of small, native smallmouth bass yields only a minute increase in adult numbers. Alterations to available habitat for smallmouth bass is the prime reason for decreasing populations and adding more fish into poorer habitat rarely means more fish for the angler." Smallmouth bass White Paper, Sep. 2009 <------LINK

That's a crock! Ethanol in fuel started long before the politicians got involved. It originally started to use up an excess of corn and replace lead in fuel. It was originally a localized effort by farmers who, along with the small towns they supported, used the bulk of it themselves. The government had long supported some farm products with subsidies to keep the industry viable. They figured it might be advantages to keep farms working if we wanted to eat. In the end the capital investments in Ethanol plants kept them pushing for markets, which drove up corn prices. The farmers may have been the beneficiaries, but they were never the instigators. If anybody sold the politicians it was the ethanol producers. But even the ethanol producers didn't have much of a problem, given the global warming hysteria and are relations with foreign crude producers, in getting help in the market.

I'm not saying I would, but some might report the same violation just because the violators are present. If someone is taking a fish that I could enjoy, but won't because of an illegal kill, I have no problem Snitching, bitching or telling.

I hope it wasn't from below my lagoon!

There is, or was, a lot of them in Bennett.

That doesn't appear to be the case, at least in appearance. In the winter I would imagine that both occupy the lakes, given the fact that stream smallies will migrate to lakes in search of deep water during the winter. Beaver would be a good example of the fact that some smallies will not inhabit lakes to any appreciable degree. Beaver originally had the White river and War Eagle fish available, but the population never increased to any reasonable numbers. At one time I remember reading that the MDC was looking at some Tennessee fish, but I don't recall if they brought any in or not, I'll have to do some searching. I believe Oklahoma may have used Tennessee fish. As far as Taney goes, its had decades to develop a smallie population and it hasn't and you can't fight Mother nature.

There's a very good, maybe great, population of smallies from Campbell Point on east, you just have to fish their habitat.

At one time he had a sign up that he was closing, but I really haven't noticed. There's one to the west, between the stop light and the 4 way on the north side.

For the most part the accepted range was 60f for smallies and 62 for largemouth to start and extending to about 65 for smallies and 70 for largemouth. There doesn't seem to be a consensus but those seem to be the most popular. Most sources point out that daylight has to also be right and not just the right temperature. Many give the smallie credit for spawning deeper at times. Most feel that smallies are more particular about the bottom makeup where they prefer small gravel, but will accept gravel and/or sand. I always think about lake Texoma in southern Oklahoma, which was void of smallies until the lake bottom changed. Over many decades it became more of a clean rock and gravel bottom and the largemouth population declined. They stocked it with smallmouth and it is now a lake that rivals the Rock in smallmouth. By the same token, it is obviously not scientific but Taney simply doesn't look like a smallie lake. Its not their habitat. It is to some degree a silt basin.

I agree the squeaks come from nails that no longer hold. You'll need to screw down the old floor material if you're going over it. The foam that is used under wood flooring will help. If you pull the floor to the joist, fill the voids with insulation, the blow in type, and then screw everything down.

I've had drawers for materials and not had them, I prefer the not. I like mine in plastic containers that I can stock accordingly. Its much easier to go through the materials when they are all right in front of you. I also believe that a portable thread and tool bar is superior to a fixed one. I would hate to think about how many pegs it would take to hold all the threads and a portable is easier to restock.

OTF I did some research last night also, and I'll look agains, but I didn't come up with figures you did. I did come up with some information supporting my comments concerning spawning habitat. They also point out that apparently largemouths will push smallies from spawning areas, and in a limited opportunity area it could be the largemouths take up most of the successful areas. I still stand by the fact that Taney isn't prime smallie habitat, has few spawning areas and extra predators to eat the fry. Bull creek and Roark could supply the lake with a lot of fish, but the apparently don't probably because the fish aren't interested.

That could work, especialy with a light under the bar top.

OTF a problem with Beaver causing a drastic change doesn't account for the James arm, which also seems to have less smallies. Personal I think its because the fish have a choice, and they like the environment of the lower lake. I don't belive there is any scientific evidence that Largemouth have a broader range of temperatures to hatch their eggs, in fact they like a warmer temperature. I think the problem in many lakes is that the window of temperature that smallies prefer is short lived, more so than the warmer temps preferred by largemouth. I don't think that's the only difference, I believe a good spawning bottom is important. LM's will nest on a hard bottom of clay, rocks, etc. Smallie on the other hand seem to prefer pea gravel and deeper water to spawn.

When I think of bars I think of something you lean into, I wouldn't want to tie on something like that. I like my back straight and the top touching my gut. If its too high you'll have trouble looking down on the vise to see that the materials are balanced.

Harder Than Nails, cheap, found in the fingernail polish area at Waly World.

I here they even catch one once in awhile. I know you're joking Sam, but the last thing we need is more money dumped down the Walleye hole. I'm not sure about that, springs are pretty consistent in temperature, no matter where the exit. There are large mouth above Bennett and far below, but I've only caught one small one in the cold water part of the river. I don't know why smallies wouldn't be prevalent in the spring area and largemouth would, but I have a problem laying it on on egg survival. Why are the two fish separated, to some degree, on the Rock? There are more smallies in the east end, even though the streams on the west end are all historical smallie waters.

To the best of my knowledge there is only one creek that has enough volume to make an impact on the lower end, and it doesn't flow into the main channel. It does probably produce the best water for spawning of warm water species. Half of the lower end, below Rockaway, doesn't get any real input from the North side, it flows into Swan. The south side watershed isn't that large either, so aside from heavy rains, there isn't tha much input to change the temperature that drastically. In fact in normal water levels on BS, trout do fine below the Powersite dam because of the cold flow through the dam.