mjk86

Stockton lake Guide service. Go to stockton. If you go walleye fishing in Missouri your best chance at good numbers and a limit is going to be at stockton.

Sweet walleye!!

Too many....When I was a little kid, I spent lots of time in terre du lac near bonne terre. We fished on the big river over some shallow bluffs near the campground. Wed get ourselves some bugs in the field across the road.Often times my friend and I would only have 2 hooks left. (And 1 fishing pole lol....our other one was a tried and true stick). We weren't about to lose our only hook to a gut hooked fish.

We are all dealing in reality unfortunately. Yes...A conservationist realizes that removing fish from the breeding stock wont negatively affect the fishery if its done responsibly. I have a cousin who lives in new york...his group of friends has your exact same mentality towards hunting and fishing as you do towards gigging...its a slippery slope. Maybe Mitch was right about outlawing fishing....but it will start when those who want gigging outlawed to get their way.

As a "young" person, (im not that young) i can promise you that i do quite a bit to promote conservation management, hunting, and fishing. What do you do besides vomiting all over the OAF page about mythical marauding bands of Giggers, and hippies banning fishing? Probably nothing...but thats ok...cuz you C/R your smallies right? Thats cool. If your interested in actually doing something ill provide you with some volunteer information at various conservation areas, there are lots more options than you might thin. Heck, you can even just show up some saturday and say, id like to help out and they can point you in the right direction. You probably wont take me up on that cuz you really dont care about conservation, just giggers and smallies on the 2 or 3 little sections of river you fish. Also...the notion that im somehow a peta person cracks me up....ive killed more fish and small game this year than you have your whole life. It just helps me to respect and appreciate my quarry by being able to empathize with its struggle. Based on the way these old people are talking im kinda glad time is on the younger folks side....

This is incorrect.

Excellent write up. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I'm sure many will appreciate it.

Thank you for saying this....I've been chuckling all morning.

I bet you wouldn't do to a dog what you do to a fish. Or what if someone pushed you into a pool on your way to work? Just to snap a pic and chuckle. It's torture no doubt about it. Hurting an animal for nothing more than fun...at least if you eat it you can justify the pain you caused it. Why catch it at all? I think as sportsmen we need to let go of that fact that fishing is somehow in some way humane. It's not....it's cruel, everything from baiting a hook to holding the fish. Be as gentle as you wanna be...sing it songs, massage it's back...it still would rather you have left it alone. Obviously I'm not a peta person.....you can ask the fellas at the table rock forum about that. also I throw fish back all the time too. Ones that taste gross or when I don't feel like cleaning em....but I won't pretend that it's somehow not cruel just cuz I tossed em back in the water.

I got 2 on the way...im excited!! They also have the medallion on sale. Ive never had one in my hands either, but the price is right. Im tempted to order one.

Always kinda thought that myself....C/R fishing is inhumane and disrespectful. I mean....i dont care, i still do it when i dont feel like getting guts on my hands, but to deny that its cruel is silly. Nobody actually cares about the bass in the river, they just care about CATCHING the bass in the river. When hunting...it is the hunters responsibility to ensure a clean and quick kill to minimize suffering. Fish certainly do not get that luxury, they get tortured mercilessly.

Good point. This also eliminates the braid digging into itself on the spool. Some reels say they are braid ready, but I put backing anyway.

This is like the beginnings of an awesome horror flick.....Soon there will be gigged people left at the boat ramps....a violent and marauding gang of out of control game fish giggers gets even in rural missouri. Legal sportsmen beware!

I use spiderwire stealth 10/2 and power pro. Many of for a fluorocarbon leader and I typically tie one up but if/when it breaks off I tie straight to the braid and haven't noticed a difference. Table rock when it's super clear might dictate a leader though. It blows my mind that folks have trouble with braid. I find it to be the easiest line ive ever put on a spinning reel. I have a few med and med heavy spinning rods spooled up with it. I've had the same line for a few years now. It's still perfectly fine although I'll probably change it out this year. I use 4-5#mono on my crappie rigs cuz it works better on smaller stuff....but with mono you have to respool early and often. The best line ever for weightless wacky worms is the high vis yellow stuff. Tie a long 6 or 8 ft leader from fluorocarbon. The line lays beautifully on the surface and you can see any twitch. I also use metered braid on my longline trolling rod and my jigging spoon rod. Both techniques are much more effective if you know exactly how much line is out. Use a Palomar knot to tie to lures and an Alberto knot to join leaders. For spinning gear I prefer 10/2 or 15/4. With the exception of my light power rods all the spinning rods get braid. One more thing about braid is that it doesn't break...sometimes you want to just break off a snag and retie .....not likely with braid, you'll straighten a hook. Even with the 10#.

THanks, those look awesome. Ill have to see if i can find me a few. Zman makes a topwater frog that is a monster, i picked up a pack of those and put em on a nutech hair jig i tied up...the whole deal is probably pushing 8 or 9 inches long. Looks pretty formidable...im afraid that craws that big can defend themselves to the point of not being prey...guess ill find out. The beauty of it, is that it seems like if you want a large profile bait on a jig, most are like an ounce or more. I like the big profile on the half ounce or 3/8 oz nutech.

Guess its worth a mention than if you take a look at this guys other recent post....he and his friend are doing quite well with very nice fish on that same stretch...so ill have to conclude that there are still plenty of big ones to be caught. Nice catchin BTW Mr. Jones!! You fellas are on em!

Teckel USA I think makes a wart knockoff...the drunker maybe? I imagine there are also days where a jig beats any craw type crank and even days where live craws are what would work best. A few years back there was an old fella at the dock that would use fish guts for crawdads traps. He would catch some GIANTS. I mean as big as your hand. So some days maybe you'd need a 10xd in a craw parttern. Or a huge jig. I can't find any big ones so I've been tying up something hair jigs that are 6-8 inches long for that same purpose.

Man you guys are really on em!! Great stuff!

The 5 gallon bucket deal works great. Tie a rope between the back two cleats. Then another between a bucket and the middle of the other rope. Even easier is to put the boat in reverse and go backwards.

That's what I don't get...it's freaking wrong to poach fish....but ethically how could you just let them rot? Why take somethings life and then not even use it? I hope you report this to mdc as been mentioned. Totally messed up.

That's what I don't get...it's freaking wrong to poach fish....but ethically how could you just let them rot? Why take somethings life and then not even use it? I hope you report this to mdc as been mentioned. Totally messed up.

Those look awesome!

I dont think i could ever let a person net a fish for me, its def not something that comes natural. IMO by the time the fish is aware of the net, it needs to be far too late. I was taught to get the fish on its side, on the surface, with 3 or 4 feet of line from the rod tip to the fish. The fish should be on laying on its side, with the line tie/hook facing the angler. Place the net slowly and gently in the water well in front of the fish, then while bringing the net up underneath the fish, guide the fish head first into the part of the net where the handle meets the net. The fish is rarely startled and almost always swims perfectly into the net. Also in the event of the hook coming loose, the fish will turn its head and swim right into the net.

Since when most people are fishing they are only holding 1 rod and 1 reel, the short answer is 1 setup. That is enough. The rest is simply based on how often you fish, what you fish for, how much you can afford, and how much you want to spend on your gear. You all got me beat though thats for sure! For table rock....if you had a 7ft med power fast action spinning rod spooled with 6# mono and a size 35 reel, youd be in a position to catch as many fish as anyone else on table rock. That setup will work great for small jigs, ned rigs, crawlers, small spoons, and even topwaters and jerkbaits in a pinch. Folks feel that they NEED 20 different rods on their boat with 2 people...but that just means that they have no idea what fish are biting on, or what to use. Table rock bass eat shad and crawdads, all bass eat worms. Thats 3 rods if you wanna have something rigged up with everything.

Hmm, i didnt even consider that. Good point thanks. So you think resident fish just hunker down and deal? It still is a pretty solid amount physical poop being dumped into the river, which would normally be consumed at the treatment plant, and for a consistently long period of time.