ollie

I was down there yesterday and it looked like RR on a much smaller basis. As soon as the people learned that you could keep them after the first they showed up in droves! I fished Capps in the morning and Hickory in the afternoon. Capps was pretty tough, but did manage about 4. Did better at Hickory with about 8 for the count. I left around 2:00, it was all I could handle of the bucket-brigade. Saw one older man with about 12 trout in a basket and was about to call him in when I saw about 5 grandkids running around. I'm guessing the old man caught the fish and were going to claim the kids caught there share. Without seeing it personally I'm not making the call. One things for sure, there will be empty worm containers, power bait bottles, and corn cans washed downstream today.

I love this little creek! I have always done pretty well on it from the spring downstream. Caught a 17" smallie down there one time and on the same day I saw the biggest smallie I have ever seen on that creek. It dwarfed the one I caught like by twice! Was there a couple of years back and my son's uncle caught a nice 16-17" trout. There are some pleasant surprises in there that's for sure.

Right now I have on P-line CCX in 4lb. low vis green. Only have that on because I didn't have enough to order from Cabelas. I have used Tectan before and like you use to like it, but then I lost two HUGE bass on it. Switched over to P-line cx premium after the Tectan and I have been pleased with it so far. The CXX I have on now I'm not too sure about. I fished it the other day when it was REALLY cold outside and I had some problems with it. Laugh if you will, but I use to really like the 4lb. spiderwire in mono low vis green, but they quit making that. For jig fishing trout water I use nothing less than 4lb. and a low-vis color.

A lot of people are just lurkers or trolls. They want to take info, but not share in return. One forum I belong to has the fishing reports closed to anyone but the members. They have to be a member to post, but to see or post in the report section they HAVE to be a member. Cuts down on some people wanting info without sharing. Let's face it, you want people to share, but at the same time you don't want to just "give away" info you have done all the research on like fishing spots and locations.

My neighbor and I went today about 9:00 this morning and things took off right away. First hour we caught 4 each with one double on. Fish were hungry and we saw a lot of people fishing down there. A few stringers taken to the cars, but looked legal to me. I caught about 10 down there until we fished Hickory the rest of the day. The water of course has carved out a lot of places, some deeper than it use to be! Then one good hole we use to fish had a big old tree in it completely! That place took a beating, but the trout are still in there.

It's not only about the poaching. The Trash never stops down there. Anytime a heavy rain comes the whole towns' trash washes down to Hickory. That's just the way it is. All runoff drainage from town dumps into Hickory at different spots. A lot of people in town don't have trash service and some just don't care. They try and keep the Morse park clean, but the rest of the stream suffers. Back in the 90's I could go there and find smallies, greenies, goggle-eye and the occasional trout. Now all you can catch are the stockers. It does need enforcement like all our waters, but the local PD won't do anything because they say it's a MDC problem. I am glad to hear Carl checked you out. That guy is a MDC legend around here.

Don't really care if I gave away the creek on this one Ham. It's not like they are growing wild and they are slicks, not smallies. This is a white ribbon creek for taking fish when the season is here. It's all C&R right now, but come this spring and summer when our southern brethren are out there with their seining nets then that is a different story. Hickory is a different animal anyways. I have always called it Neosho's toilet bowl for a good reason and I won't change my mind until the city decides to do something different about it.

How do you convince someone that you have a caught a nice size fish? This just happened to me yesterday at Hickory. Here's the deal, I have the day off and want to go on down to RR, but can't. When I get home Thursday night I find out the top of the engine block looks like it is leaking anti-freeze. Friday morning I fill up the radiator with more water/anti-freeze, take the kids to school and go to the mechanics shop to look for answers. Find out the intake has to be taken off and a cheap gasket has to be replaced. Bottom line is more money than I need to spend plus I have never done this before. Brakes, plugs, simple things ok, but this looks a little out of my league. I am leaking anti-freeze like a sieve. Can't drive too far like this and he can't get me in until Monday. That is why I settled for Hickory. I just normally don't fish it because there is better around that isn't too far away IMO. I was really bummed out to find out that news out on my DAY OFF! Ok, so I make the best of it and go in search of some trout at Hickory since it is literally 1/2 mile from the house at the most. That way I can drive home in the cold and not have to worry about the leak. I get there about noon and it was pretty cold I thought. I was somewhat warm, but it was still cold! I caught five stocker size fish with the biggest of them at 14". The believe it not comes next in a fast moving hole I caught fish number five, then I made a couple or three more casts looking for more fish and BAM! My rod bent and the line took off. The fight must have lasted at lesast 5-10 minutes. When I finally can grab hold of the tale I realize this fish is a true trophy fish. Big 'ol hooked mouth male rainbow that measured to the tape at 22". Here I stand in the middle of the stream with no net, no camera, and nobody standing remotely close to witness this catch. I personally would have a hard time believing anyone if they told me this story. Of course I released the fish unharmed back into the waters, so maybe someone else will catch him also and back me up on this one. When I got home I felt really wierd though. I had had a terrible morning and was getting really upset then something like this happens when you least suspect it. I just can't figure it out I guess. BTW, caught the fish on an olive jig I tie with hackle and he had a clean hook in the roof of his mouth. I honestly believe it was a trout from the pond in Big Spring park. Probably got that far downstream when we had a lot of rain. This fish was FAT and beautiful, didn't look to wild to me. So another question I've been asking myself is if I should be proud that is the biggest trout I have ever caught even though I think it has been hand raised? Sorry for the long post, just never thought I would catch a fish that big out of Hickory.

As far as cleaning the barrel I have heard different issues with both leaving the barrel dirty and cleaning it. The assumption of not cleaning the barrel has to do with the bb wearing a certain path down the barrel as it leaves. Mind you this has more to do with a smooth barrel than a rifled one. Personally, I don't clean out the barrels because there is no powder residue like in a firearm. It never has effected the accuracy for me it seems.

If your getting all that and a canoe in excellent shape then I say, "go for it", sounds like a great deal for the canoe alone.

Yea, I tried to buy and steal a 499, but could get no where with anyone on the deal. Only Jaycees and competition could get their hands on one of those. Daisy just plain and simple didn't want the expense of new tooling for guns and shot. We were already getting alot of guns overseas and the ones we assembled in Neosho had most parts made overseas. Tough to control quality with suppliers 1000 miles away. If you only knew what I have seen when it goes to the quality side of the gun. When we where importing the Gamo products we at least stood behind them. I do understand it is different now that they are on their own. Now, the only guns I remember testing from Walther was a Colt wanna be that leaked CO2 just about every time. Of course a lot of pistols that have a CO2 cartridge leak at some time. Simple fix unless they have come up with a better design. I have an old Daisy 880 made back in '72 that shoots great and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Back when the quality was great.

You wanna talk BB guns huh? I used to work in Daisy QC for over 5 years. Don't buy them under any circumstances. Just my opinion after working there. After shooting many numerous brands I would disagree with you on the spanish models. Well, at least the Gamo brand. They use to be a very good gun unless something has changed with them in the last 5 years. Personally, I wouldn't own a German one either from the test we did on them. The CZ guns were pretty nice though. We had a gentleman working there at the time that sighted in guns for the Olympic team. Man could that guy shoot! I will say I'm sure there are many other brands out there we didn't test, but we did test the majority out there on the market before 2003. BTW, we also tested many different brands of shot and even the higher price competition shot from overseas didn't always meet specs. They were more consistent, but they didn't always past our testing. The Crossman shot is the best for the money IMO. Once again, DON'T buy the Daisy shot, that is how most BB guns jam, due to oversized shot.

WOW!! I figured it might take some beating, but not that much. I will have to go down there this Sunday and take a look around. It will be a long time until they can get the park up and running the way it used to be. It really is sad.

All stayed south of us in Neosho. Not sure about where my in-laws live. They are over there by Wheaton and it looked like from the news they got it pretty bad.

I figured as much. Did you get over 5" of rain last night? Even the 8 minute float will be washed out on Indian. Keep safe down there. I have to go out to Rocky Comfort sometime and check on the farm my in-laws own. I'm kind of scared to take a look.

I saw your truck down there. I wasn't going to do any fishing until my neighbor talked me into it. We parked and walked downstream. Not to exciting I can tell you that. I caught four downstream, but if you enjoy looking at all the trash then it's the place to be I guess. Poor Hickory, after each heavy rain it looks like a giant toilet bowl down there. We almost decided to fish upstream until we saw about 6 vehicles parked around yours! The neighbor did manage to land a smallie around the 12" mark though, that was about our only excitement.

I'd like to go, but not sure about the wind issue this weekend.

Take my word on this. McFadden will run for 150+ and will have 3 TDs. Come on Drew, I know you live around the KC area and you made that prediction?

Fishing wasn't too bad Sunday, but the bigger fish from last month have either spread out or have been culled out. My neighbor and I showed up around 9:00 and found Kyle already down there. We all headed upstream and started fishing probably by 9:30. Things for me really didn't heat up till at least 11:00 or that seems to be when the bite turned on. Caught around 12 for the day. All pretty small stockers with the biggest being around 13". My neighbor caught the biggest of the day. A 17" bow that I'm sure has been a hold over from last year it would seem. He caught his on a black jig and mine were caught on a ginger and a black color. Weather turned out to be pretty good also.

Going to try and make it down there this Sunday if I can. Anyone else interested in making it? Should be pretty good fishing.

I'll weigh in on this one since I have fished the BTW a few times before. My experience and that is only mine is, I have had pretty good luck down there. You DO have to do some homework on where the greater concentration of fish are, and there are some nice fish in there. Now saying that, I have only caught mainly stockers down there, but have caught a couple of 18" fish out of there and have seen some bigger ones. If you have some sort of a boat you WILL do better. Would I choose it over one of the other tailwaters? Depends on what your after. For size I would say not even close, but for quantity I have never really had any problems catching fish. JMO

I'm jealous.

Count me out for this one. Too many things going on around here with Christmas and I'm thinking this one is going to be pretty crappy.

The only thing I DO know for sure is that the Neosho Hatchery does not raise browns and that the MDC is the one who stocks the browns at Capps. I still think the ones that are different are escapees from someone's pond or private stream that has flooded or transported there from a bucket. (hickory)

Crap! just like always it seems the tigers or for that matter any Missouri team are going to choke. I love my state teams, but man have they given me heartaches.