Old plug

MERC------ i do not really miss it. I fish about 2-3 hours a day around here in the summer in spite of all the boats. Last year my son was out for the weekend and we fished both Saturday and Sunday evening. We got pretty beat around at times but we caught if i recall correctly 6 over 4 lbs 3 over 5 and1 darn close to 6. All of them were bass that were suspending about 25 ft all day then moving up near the docks in the. Evening shade. Around here about 90% of the docks got brush in front of them. We were just casting 12 in plastic worms with tiny weights on them and letting them sink. They rarely reach the top of the brush. It as a pattern that i use a lot. But this past year it not so good. The water that weekend never stopped rolling. I usually avoid during the week. At 74 I am getting to old for that also.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh. They do not need to know about grays and variations of grays.

I have no doubt that happens Bo. But I will not be out there anymore at night. I have been fishing these lower gravois arm waters for 20 yrs. last year I went out night fishing for the first time in a couple of years and got a little disorintated by the dock light patter versus the dark areas and was on course to drive into a bluff. So I do not go out anymore at night because I do not trust my night vision any longer.

Must be my area. But what i caught were all close to keepers plus those three that i got were real nice keepers. I went to watch them play up at the horse arena last evening and those that were there were complaining about it except Jody. He comes walking up saying he really got into them and pushing his hand in my face to smell. I told him iI did not smell any crappie to me but it was pretty clear he tore a hole in the toilet paper wiping. I do not think he has even been fishing. I am keeping one of my daughters cats for awhile and had to give that big devil a pill this morning. He us a 12 lb Tom and he is about 3 lbs down right now. He was highly indignant about it. It was like trying to hold a darn tiger still.

I went down to put my dock deicer in and caught 7 crappie 3 were keepers in a matter of minutes. Looks to me like their metabolism is slowing down. Only hit jigs tipped with crappie candy. Everyone i talk to around here has been catching mostly small to very small crappie.

They suspend out over deep water in most lakes a lot. Here though it is debatable if the fish your catching near the bank at night are from the deep schools. That is because of the wall to wall boat docks. The water under docks stays a lot cooler. Also there is every manner of "cover things" under those docks. I think if those deep schools move in after dark around here I would be looking for them along a ledge someplace first. It is just the difference in environment. Sometimes around here you can catch some real pigs rising straight up from those suspended schools. I have done it with a with giant plastic worms but it is a very fleeting pattern to fish. I stopped fishing nights last year for good,but had I not I would be trying that.

I have not seen one but I imagine i will next time I go to pro bass in springfield.

They do not dive very deep. What you do is you cast the lure to the chunk. Bank or whatever give it a turn or 2 on the handle and let it sit. I do not think you grasp the concept but it is the way we do it around this lake early in the spring. All those rocks and boulders heat up on sunny afternoons and draw bait fish to them and the bass are right there only a couple feet down.

That boat is is a beaut. It lacks only a few things that redesign like something you might see in some of the inland boats like Lund etc. A good sized front deck is also a premium on these type boats around here. We are casters here and that boat is built to troll.

It just might be at that. About half of them were pretty faded. I bet the next cold hit and a lake drop will send them into a deep water funk.

Geee BiLL-------- OUR AGE !!!!!!! I wish I was our age. And i wish you luck when you get to be MY AGE. I think a lot of people who fish a area for a long time do not require electronics. I think also a lot of retirees find it to expensive to buy these newer units. Like I say. I like them for limited things. I have to two on my boat. But I do not depend on it.

Well I know a few pretty good casters around here and i do not think there is one of us that has not clipped a few rocks and chipped up plugs in late winter. There is other stuff but you still hit the rocks with it. You have to be within a few inches. The bass are often very very close to the bank here at that time on sunny afternoons. MOsmallies If that spot your talking about is below the darn on the ILL side right past the last gate I have been there many times. If you will try for big catfish around there you will not be disappointed and you can expect to tangle with 50 lbs are much larger.

I think a few crappie fisherman are out this afternoon. I went down to the dock and caught 17. Only 2 were keepers. Several looked pretty washed out but still had a fast fight to them. They were hitting real soft on a 1/32 oz tube.

Money says everything out here you know that Wrench with few exceptions. Some of these people are the cool yuppie type people all week then come out here and act like what they really are.

Real pretty but they would not be very pretty around here after they bounced of the boulders and chunk bank in February and March. And if your not hitting the hard stuff now and then your not within a few inches if the bank and that is where it will be happening a lot if the time. MOSMALLIES---- Have you ever fished the Mississippi up in the Clarksville area. I and a friend use to fish it a lot in the winter. Back then we could load a ice chest with sauger and walleye and big black crappie in a afternoon below the darn. I also know someone who caught a 9 lb bass in the pool just above the darn on the Mo side. It used to be shallow and full of lily pads. Mississippi River is about the best crappie fishing in Mo

BILL your a professional guide. I suppose i would want the vey best electronics with me as well. I do not know your age, but some if us at mine run into problems with adapting to new things with many buttons and modes and what have you. I do run two finders on my boat. And i do use them for pretty simple things. I love the front one for white bass jigging. But with all the other stuff I would be frustrated I am sure. I get enough of that with the TV remote.

Finns---- in my case i do. Not have to scan been fishing this same 15 sq miles or so for 25 yrs. I do well enough to suit me most years. I know what you have to do with electronics to get the most from it. It is also expensive for a retired person 74 yrs old. My way is i know where there are hog places and I go there are like places over and over. A example of what I mean about the conditions where it will not catch fish for you is early this this fall we had a big rain here. There is this place that has a creek flowing large cove that draws bass in there when there is a fast rise. I caught 2 bass 22 inches long in about 20 minutes in water not over 3 ft deep. Electronics would have been of little help I believe in that situation. There was no structure, no brush just a flat mud bottom with the bass holding fast against the bottom of the dock flotation. In this case it was experience and knowledge. I suspected they might be up there and I was almost sure they would be holding on the outside corners of the docks that provided the best ambush spot.

FIns ------- You are a troller. I think for you it would be important. and you seem to be one of the few I have met on here that fully understand what you are doing with electronics. black bass are different. Most of the bite pattern is revealed between experience conditions and between me and the end of my line. but I do use mine to find small humps far out in the lake and other things of that nature.

You guys that fish for school fish a lot like stripers and whites need to scan unless it is some flat or something where you know they will show up. But you can really mess up your fishing paying to much attention to the electronics when bass fishing. Since I fish a area of this lake I know I sometimes do not turn it on for weeks at a time.

I went down on my dock to run my motor and caught 8 crappie in about 15 minutes only one was a keeper. They were mostly about 15 ft right up in the stall under the brush.

PHIL. I would think anytime someone jumps the fence the way Brain just did you should be able to delete the whole post.

That river has always been a blessing to that arm of the lake. Your good fishing will go on all winter long. I do not know whats going on here in the gravois but it certainly is not good. The water quality is getting better every year due to the sewer program. Seems like the fishing gets worse.

Thank you. I hope we can make it. But if the stock market keeps going I think he will be getting calls for pools. Then he would be out dawn till dark 7 days a week. But not many can afford a concrete and stone pool complex unless they got money to burn.

I think you enjoy the tweaking almost as much as the using Mitch. I understand that real well i get into that myself. And it extends to other things and it will pay off. I did the same thing with bowling and horseshoe pitching. I had to know everything i could about the trajectory of the horseshoe flight and and the roll and oil pattern with bowling.

I imagine you would not want to relocate. You might try looking for a work from home deal. Are you can find some consulting job. My son in law is under contract to United Health and my daughter is consulting for a software company in St Charles. They both got laid off because United Health sent their work to India. Now they have to have my son in law back under contract be cause they cannot hack it over there. There is someplace on the internet that you can place your resume. I do not know what its called. But hang in there.