BHowe

Lets say a guy on a budget in the 500 to 600 or so range. What would you say would be the best for the money?

Just hoping to get some advise from you guys/gals what a good brand/model of side imaging fish finder is. I've never owned or used one before and don't know too much about them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Nice fish, I'm sure it was a good time!!!

I was wondering if anybody has been catching any big catfish (30 plus) yet. I reckon they should be coming off the beds anytime now or might have already done so. I fished about two weeks ago and didn't catch anything over 3 or 4 pounds. I didn't move to the lake and start fishing cats until Sept last year and was just wondering if they start biting around here a little earlier than that. Any info would be welcome

81 mm is a place called the Oar House (bar/resturant) and on the 79 is Buck Naked (Bar). I had a camper up at the Last Resort Campground for about 10 years. Did a bunch or crappie/catfishing, pretty good area for it. Others catch walleye but I never really targeted them. As far as rough water conditions you have no worries about that. Not a lot of big boats up that area.

http://riverviewrvparkllc.com/ That's the one on the Osage, below the dam

There's a nice campground just below the dam on the Osage River, right where 54 crosses. If not there, the State Park out on Hwy 42 is pretty nice

My son caught this one yesterday. We didn't measure her but figured around 14" or so. Being that it was only 1 of 4 that he caught she was set free to fight again:)

Dang!!! I didn't realize that posting a few pics of a water snake eating lunch was gonna stir up a holy war:), but i reckon it makes for good conversation. BTW, the crappie was too big for the snake to get down so I fed him a ribeye:)

(There is a realistic exception, however: when a venomous snake is in close association with people, which could result in someone being bitten). The only reasone I would have thought of shooting this snake was due to the fact that it was in an area that everybody in the cove swims (mostly kids). I'm not one to kill a snake for no reason poisonous or not. I caught many non-poisonous snakes to put in the barn for mice control back in the day. Thanks for all of your imputs.

Had this one down on the seawall this morning about 3 1/2' long. Cottonmouth or water snake? I didn't shoot it, I thought it to be a water snake. What's do you guys think?

Well, my son and I fished off the dock yesterday evening and caught 4 nice ones right away and then it just quite. However, the ones we caught were all females and still full of eggs. I didn't clean them to see how bloody the eggs were, but I reckon as mentioned before a few warm days and sunshine they will hit the banks pretty hard

My buddy went out yesterday evening and caught a limit in about 1.5 hours. That was around the 30mm or so. He said they were biting up on the banks even in the rain. I just talked to him today and he and another friend caught there limits again today. So, I'm thinking this weekend should really be some good fishing. I think go sit on the boat dock after work and see what's happening and give you a report tomorrow

I found 58 or so in the backs of coves that were getting evening sun while crappie fishing

My son and I went out yesterday and targeted some of those MDC crappie beds. We were casting to within a few feet of the bank and catching them in 6' to 12' of water pretty regular. I hope the weather holds up, it's gonna get good

lake67, Had to take a break over the weekend. If the wind wasn't so bad you can bet we would have been after them. Duckydoty, he managed to break his brand new rode setting the hook. I reckon it was just a weak spot on the rod. He caught several that day and it broke that evening. But, we took it back to Van Hooks and Bobby swapped it out for us no questions asked.....Good feller. Maybe this weather will settle down a bit and we can get after them again soon

Crappie is heating up, I just with the weather was:) My son and I went out yesterday during the snow and caught a bunch. We were fishing in deep water (28-38') but only 10 to 12' down. Seems like they wanted it on a faster retrieve as well. Believe it or not, we pretty much had the lake to ourselves:)

Thanks for the info fellers. We might go this weekend and try out the boats on the creek. We've had them out a few times over the last month just getting used to them on the lake, now it's time to try the creeks. Maybe we can catch a few goggleye and smallmouth for fun:)

Speaking of the Little Niangua, how far will the crappie go upstream or do they go upstream at all? My son and I bought a couple kayaks and we plan on floating it this spring. I was wondering if we floated it closer to the lake if we could catch a few.

Thanks for the info, sounds like a good place to start. I haven't fished here in the spring yet, just late summer till now. Can't wait to get after um. I know the crappie fishing as awesome all summer long, I have never caught so many limits in my life, cant wait till spring.

Just wanted to let you all know I'm new to the area and moved here to fish and work when I have to:) My brother is coming down this weekend and I was wondering if anybody is catching any crappie. If so, are they still pretty deep? thanks for any help you can give me.

I've been catching the big ones on a pretty regular bases from Aug - Dec. Haven't had much luck since, but I'll be ready to go here again in about Apr. You don't need a boat, just find an area that has good main channel access and fish in 15 to 25 feet of water. Fresh shad is the only bait you need....I mean fresh!!! The hooks mentioned earlier (8/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle) are the perfect hook. I use different sizes depending on the bait I'm using. I just use two split shot for weight in the cove, no current to deal with. Make sure to put the shad head on a big hook and be ready to grab you pole!!!!! I fish from about 5pm till a little after dark, seems to work best for where I'm at. If I may make a suggestion, I just use 12 lb test on a bass rod to catch these fish...like the one in my pic (caught in Sept 45 lbs). Makes for a fun time. But my suggestion is this,,,turn it back. If you fishing for food, keep the little ones and let them big cows go to spawn again, they deserve it for lasting that long...but, I can only suggest. Hope this helps, and I hope you catch the $hit out of them!!!

My brother told me yesturday that they were catching them off the rocks at Stockon Dam. It's always been a good spot this time of year.

Bill, I just talked with my brother Friday and he said that the Walleye are being caught off of the rocks on the dam. Hope this helps.