ollie

Well, that is a bummer for sure. I know last year I don't really remember seeing anyone post about whites on the James. I haven't been to Blunks or McCords in a few years now. I think the last time I was up there was about 4 years ago and I did alright, but nothing special to brag about. Dang it!, I might be forced to buy my OK license this year.

Oh, and he left the bear to rot where it was shot as well. My coworker did say he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Has anyone been fishing for whites on the James yet? I know they are going strong on Grand Lake now so I figured they must be close on the James. Does anyone even go down to Blunks anymore and fish? I know they do, but do any of you go down there and fish? Thinking I might hit up the James in a couple of weeks if they are running strong up there. TIA

https://www.newstalkkzrg.com/2025/03/26/jasper-county-man-charged-with-illegally-shooting-killing-black-bear/ Heard about this last night on my way home from fishing. Got into work this morning and a guy I work with was asking me if I had ever heard of this guy. I said no, I don't think so, and then he preceded to tell me the guy is his cousin! Always been in trouble as long as he could remember. I have no idea if he will ever spend any time in Jail or not. Prosecutors around here are pretty weak on those things.

Flysmallie gets it! I grew up on all the classics and have seen many a concerts in my day. REO, U2, Scorpions, Starship, Van Halen, and too many others I can't remember! lol All were good, except Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, her concert sucked. First album I ever owned was Lynyrd Skynyrd double live and I wore the crap out of it! Just after so many years I have decided to listen to more newer rock and I like it!

Man, after finally going through a lot of this thread, I have come to the conclusion that a bunch of you guys on here are old! 🤣 I love a lot of the music that I have seen posted on here, but I also love me some new stuff as well. How about Dead Daisies, Pop Evil, Royal Republic, Highly Suspect, Velvet Revolver, Stan Qualen, Ayron Jones, I could go on, but you get the picture. I just get tired of the classics that I have heard since I was a kid. Oh yea, another one, Dirty Honey and the Black Mods.

My oh my, the ramps were busy this weekend down there. I was over that way on Saturday, so I decided to stop by and check out the ramps at Devil's Promenade and 10C. Both were extremely busy with rigs putting in and taking out. I will say though, I was disappointed to see guys cleaning fish right by the ramps and throwing the carcass right there on the bank. ☹️ Heck, even saw one guy feeding the black vultures as he was cleaning them from the table he sat up. So much for the idea of taking them out into deeper water or somewhere else. I saw a lot of white bass getting cleaned. Although I talked with a couple of guys who went down the trail to bank fish and they had only caught 3 all morning and it was around noon or so. Same with another guy I talked to as well. I didn't ask where the boats were catching them. I was too busy watching the circus of boats loading and unloading. I saw one guy drop off his wife and told her to drive down with truck to load him up. In the time it took her to get to the truck and get in line, there were four boats in front of her. That guy just stayed out there in the current running the boat waiting for her. I thought that was a little much since he could have just beached the boat and waited for her. He must have spent 20-30 minutes out there idling and waiting for her. I could tell he wasn't a happy camper! lol The time is now for sure.

I hear ya Ham. Wayne was an all around good guy and fun to fish with. Very knowledgeable as well.

Great day it looks like to me! Good way to have a birthday, out fishing. Happy b-day by the way. You must have found some slack wind upstream somewhere. At least the pics look like that. I bet that lake was white capping out in the open and closer to twin!

Well, I guess I have a great son after reading all of this! Heck he took me out for Breakfast yesterday and get this, he paid! lol He is 31 right now and after HS he went to Jr. College on the A+ program so that didn't cost really anything. While doing his 2 years he decided to join the National Guard. Smart kid, because my wife and I made too much to get him a grant and none of us wanted to sign for a loan. After completing basics in GA he came back home and started going to Missouri Southern, in which the guard paid for just about in full. Now he works full-time for the Guard and has moved up in ranks and pay. Now the flip side, his brother (my stepson), doesn't have a job and no real motivation to get one. Go figure.

Very true. I know I had just read where the game and fish were telling people this year not to clean near the ramps and if they did, take them out to deeper water. Deeper water at 10 bridge does mean they can show up after the water goes down!

Nice report. I thought about going but again can't make up mind on the license! lol Did you see any carcasses of bass by the boat ramp? Just curios on that one. I had heard that this year they were going to crack down on that so the vultures wouldn't have a smorgasbord to feed on.

Almost all the MDC access around here have big ruts in the parking lot where people do donuts in their trucks or four wheelers. Some of them I have seen have trash as well. Most are clean of trash, but the ones around here ALL have ruts in the parking lots though from a-holes wanting to do donuts. Just don't understand that one I guess.

Got my lifetime a few weeks back. Now I am set and don't have to worry about that now! Still can't decide whether or not to pull the trigger on the OK one. 30+ dollars more this year and I don't really go often enough so I'm not sure.

See, with me having relatives down there and all I probably would have known him or someone else that we both knew, and it would have been alright. That is just me however. I would like to point out though that there is only 4 bridges that cross that river upstream from Noel and at each one of them there is private property around them. If it was the low water bridge then you should have seen the signs. If under the interstate then I could understand because it isn't mark very well. If you were at the Pineville access then you had every right to be there. Although under that bridge it is iffy at best. The one at the low water bridge is the one the cops love to patrol in the summertime. K bridge I definitely wouldn't park anywhere around there unless I knew someone.

No, they won't make up the difference in the next stocking I'm sure. I was betting on them being dead before hitting the water, but you never know. I'm also sure they didn't want to take them back after they figured out what was going on.

Yeah, I got a couple of pics so I am going to reach out to them today and see what they say. I just heard back from Rick at MDC. There was a malfunction in the oxygen line when they transported them from RR. MDC was aware of it and told me only about a fourth of the stocking down there was like that. Some did survive, but not all. At least they owned up to it and are aware of the issue.

Just launch over at conner's bridge and go around. Your choices are far and few between! lol I know you don't want to launch up at devil's promenade so you really only have three to choose from if you are going up spring.

I saw a couple of reports where guys were catching the crappie up by the docks on spring the other day. Figured it wouldn't be too much longer for the whites to show up.

So Sunday I went down there to take a look and see if they stocked anything since MDC was in a stocking mood with all the trout streams. I was definitely surprised at what I saw. At the first bridge down from the mill there must have been 50+ trout all belly up on the bottom where it looks like they dumped them into the river. Pretty much all of them were in a 10 foot radius so they had to have died immediately when they hit the water or maybe they were dead already I don't know. I thought maybe shock at first, but you would think some of them would have scattered out before dying. I am going to have to ask the conservation department what happened on this one. Needless to say, I didn't catch anything down there so I headed back home early. Can't say I have ever seen that at Capps before.

Depends on water levels. When it is running less CFS you can wade in a lot of spots. Although it fishes better at higher levels. I actually only fished it a couple of times last year due to low water. I normally put in the yak to fish.

The only issue I see with the ramp under 10 bridge is that half the time no one can launch there worth a crap as well! Ask billethead, he knows what I'm talking about. They need to improve that ramp as well because it is so shallow there. Last year I sat there in my car and watched countless trucks trying to launch there and most gave up and went somewhere else. The only real good ramp on that end of the lake is over on the Neosho side at Conner Bridge. You could launch at Bee Creek, but that would be a longer haul to get up the Spring or Neosho at that point. There are a couple of pull off places on 10 going towards Grove, but those are pretty rough, and no one is there to watch your vehicle.

Those are the trips we live for! Great looking fish.

Yep, I saw this one coming last year. Just like the toll roads in the state, keep taking the money, but don't repair anything. Looks to be a statewide thing IMO. I used to always get a license, but I probably won't this year due to the cost and the fact they don't want to fix anything it seems like. When they first started collecting the extra $10 for certain state parks, they said it was because they needed the extra revenue to maintain those parks better. Look how that is working out. Off my soapbox now.

Good luck at Indian. I live 20 minutes from there and back before the internet and such a huge population explosion over in NWA came about you could count on some decent size smallies from there. It just hasn't fished the same since then. Yeah, you will catch fish in there but not like 10 years ago. It is a very small stream and the locals hit it hard. Even though the Elk gets hammered in the summer, you at least have a chance at a decent fish out of there. JMO