nomolites

61 on the North Shore this evening; the day started at 53. Caught nice fish on shallow wood early and suspended at 12 ft after sunup. Long casts as the fish are spooky in this clear water.

Now would be the time to to have a shot at that 18" fish; they will be on the beds in the next week. Release the buck out the back side and get another cast up in there quick....

I love this time of year... Well done!

I refuse to throw that contraption; regardless of it's track record-I just don't enjoy it. Most boats were tossing at least one that I saw on the lower end. Caught my fish on jigs and wiggle warts; just not many and no money fish. Water temps were low to mid 40s until after 3 o'clock. Back to walleye and crappie for me; freezer is getting thin.

Lucky man. No money fish for me; I found the bite in the lower lake to be tough.

7.96 leading...

Tough day; no money fish here. Tomorrow is another day...

...seeing what this water influx did for the fish - I was getting tired of pitching that Pointer anyway. Brother talked me into fishing the BBB, which is not really my cup of tea these days, so I will be one of the thousands out there looking for a check this weekend. Good luck to all and be safe; I'm thinking we'll have quite a bit of junk afloat and probably a few knuckleheads operating glitter sleds to contend with so keep your head on a swivel! Mike

I have to say I catch a LOT of blues unintentionally these days; some really biguns trolling crankbaits. Like Plug says I see a lot come off flats on spoons and other lures and I'm sure dragging shad will work even better. They will suspend over deep water wherever the thermocline is holding and the shad are and will positively hammer a trolled plug. Find the shad, and the blues will be there, but a flat intersecting the thermocline in summertime in the evening is positively dynamite.

Shouldn't be a problem but the south side(right) coming out has most of the invisible timber although the point past the first cut on the left has a bit as well. Stay to the middle for the first half mile to mile and you will be in the creek channel-you definitely will be clear after that. Going to be a ton of boats on the lake for the BBB; be careful out there and stay wide of the black Crestliner

You can always put in at Gale and go up....

There was a good bite in the Gravois and on the N. Shore as well. Pitch I right up on the rocks and wind it down a few turns and let it sit; repeat - within one or two it was "smack". The fish I caught did NOT want it jerked at all.

Bunch of male and a few female whites and a good jerk bait bite for LM but zip on my target fish - walleye. The LM were right on the rocks and smacking a Table Rock colored Pointer in less than 5 fow, The whites in the old creek bed along the flat.

21 mile marker

Nicely done. Water temp was 41-42 degrees on the North Shore this morning and the only good bite was green fish; caught them up on the rocks with a jerkbait. Crappie were slow.

I hope to wet a line or four and see what's doing up the Gravois Sat. Am. Hopefully something will stretch my string...

Pretty sweet; plus they threw in a free hat!

You got that right, the water is still way cold. The N Shore normally warms as quick or quicker than anything on the lower end and would be where I'd start if fishing the target area. Add a little sun, a little wind(not a lot), and a guy could get his "arm broke" out there in the next month or so....

I have a 1000 and a 2500 but unfortunately they are in my rod locker 174 miles from my current location. My paperwork does not give dimensional info, but I can tell you it is low profile and small diameter compared to most of the competition. Sorry, that's all I got today. (BTW - spooled with braid they perform flawlessly and I am very satisfied with them) Mike

Coffman Beach ramp will put you close to dead center in the area you want to fish. Fish the windblown banks on the North Shore; find brush and there will be fish suspended above/around it or fish channel swings. Slow is the order of the day right now.

I use 10# braid; the smaller diameter = less drag and the ability to fish a bit deeper although any good line will work; a lot depends on how deep you intend to fish. I use line counters on all my rods but you can also get braids that are "colored" with 30 ft. sections a different color allowing a quick and easy way to meter line out. More than two lines in MO is OK as long as the rods are labeled with your personal info, etc. like jugs or trot lines but with 4 rods out it gets tricky and you can get fouled up fairly easy. I usually run 2 braid and two lead core but when the fish are shallow I run all four braid with just two "long" lines and two "short" lines with lures that have a much deeper dive curve to keep things separated. As stated above, a shad crank bait is hard to beat. I have a "couple" flicker shads and many other shad imitating baits....I would advise that you be forewarned, trolling can be habit forming once you get the hang of it.

I catch a few every year trolling; usually nothing over 5#. Biggest I have caught was right at 15# - but that was a while back. I catch many more hybrids... Mike

I run the Navionics platinum plus chip and it is decent for the lower Osage and Gravois but has little definition for the upper Niangua or many other areas. However, when used in conjunction with SI technology it is INFINITELY better than anything I have used yet, and I am very happy with it. BTW - I still have the aforementioned waterproof time worn hydrographic map mentioned above that I used for many years but I have not had a need to pull it out since slotting the chip.

I love my 'bird. You won't regret stepping up to SI technology; sure cuts down on time spent hauling water.

Location, location, location. Well done!! I was out for a few hours Friday in the Dam area throwing a bone colored pointer looking for walleye and all I could catch were crappie and those green fish...I'll keep looking.