countryred

Hazel Creek Lake near Kirksville?

Thats a nice one. The deer have really starting rutting up here .

We made it back down to our property and managed to squeeze in a little fishing too. Best fish was a 16" smallie near Alley Spring, lost 2 bigger ones there. Fished near Blue Spring and caught more, just smaller, and lots of google eyes. 4" gulp worm , rigged texas style around wood or a drop shot rig in the deeper holes.

I'd keep the goggle eyes and pickerel, toss the smallies back. Its pretty low right now above Alley . Its about a 2 days float from Prongs to Twin Rivers.

The access by the bridge is the only one I know of and I don't know if its even open. I have heard of some decent smallie and goggle eye fishing up in that area in the deeper pools.

We have tons of drum up here on the Mississippi River. Anytime you throw crankbaits around you catch a bunch. I never really targeted them but I know some guys who fillet them as soon as they catch them a say they are pretty good.

Last time I was down there I saw several big drum too. They love crawlers, but just about anything should work. A small crawfish colored crankbait might be good.

Wind blown flats and points, Key on areas with lots of shad.

Here is my take which goes back to my tournament days. Big stiffer rod. heavy line, 20lb and up ,..use a heavy wire hook. with a big barb...4/0 HP is awesome.. Medium action rod, lighter line....8-15lb test,,,use a light wire hook with a small barb. like most gamakatsu's.. .

Moody fish sometime just react to the bait instead of sucking it down. Good hooks and a glass cranking rod help land most of them. A change of color , or action will often make them commit better. Another thing that happens is that in real shallow water the bait will run down in to the mud and when a fish hit, only the back hook will stick him. Most of the time, its in the nose or chin.

When I first started bass fishing, it was a 7" power worm,..pumpkinseed for clear water red shad for stained. Later on a bagley killer b1, then an Eakins Jig and craw,..right now, it 's a shakey head rigged trick worm. As a kid it was a Roadrunner. Wait, I was suppose to pick one.

checked all mine out,,,only Table Rock maps are the newer Hotspots maps.

15 lb floro

yeah. all the ones we talked to were about that same price. Thought about opening up our own shuttle parking service once we get moved down there.

oops,...yeah ,,danger was looking for them....I'll check out mine,...I must have about 25 maps,...

I have a bunch of them from all the different lakes from back in my tournament days. I'll dig around and see what I have. Do you want just Table Rock? They might have some scribbles on some pages.

Are they the ones with the white pages and yellow colored water?

Check the areas around the ramps, bridges, and the spillways first. Below Truman has plenty of good bank fishing . We used to fish around the bridges on Stockton and caught a little bit of everything.

Where is SBU? Welcome to Mo ,

Had a big flock of pelicans rise up ,fly in a circle above the boat for a few minutes and crap all over the boat. Appeared they ate a lot of shad. Caught a dead coon on a jerkbait once at Lake of the Ozarks. I think a landowner popped him with a 22 for crapping on his dock. Almost hit a deer with my boat running upriver one morning. I was hauling butt and came around a curve and a whole herd was crossing. Cut between 2 and missed them by inches.

My .2 cents worth summer fronts. Before the front , when its cloudy and still a south or west wind, the fish will be biting, Use moving baits or quick pitch soft plastics. Even after the front hits, if the wind remains ,or clouds, its still ok,,Not awesome but ok, once the sky clears....time to buckle down,,fish slow. The last 2 day trip I spent on Lake of the Ozarks comes to mind. The first day was major post front. No clouds, bright bluebird skies. We tried deep structure, not much happening, they just stopped generating. Only way we got bit was targeting brush around deeper docks, The bites were few and light. Day 2 was had the same temps/ light wind but there were some white puffy clouds, not many, but some. And the bite was on. Places we only caught small fish day before were suddenly full of quality bites.

A 7 pound smallie is something special 5 pounders pop up on Bull Shoals and Table Rock. My bet would be a late winter /early spring hawg coming out of Lake of the Ozarks.

Looks like a 5 win season to me, but some good draft picks will help 3 years from now.

Back in my tournament days, I caught quite a few fish on Table Rock, mostly kentuckies, on a drop shot in 20 to 60' of water. Long flat points and just gravel flats , you could idle around and find the bait and most times there were bass nearby. A zoom swamp crawler, an owner drop shot hook, and a 1/4 oz drop shot weight. on 6lb line. You fish it vertical and watch your screen, you can watch your bait go all the way down. That was back in the old days when LCR's had fish symbols.

Yep, he pretty much covered it.......Also, no glass bottles on the river, camp up high if the is any chance of rain. expect the good gravel bars to be taken. We have always used Harveys, but I am sure the others are ok too. The good and easy firewood is hard to find. Watch your step when nature calls, others have looked for that magic spot too.