nomolites

Speed limit at night is 30 on LOZ. Mike

Have been too busy traveling with work and clearing the decks of honey dos at home to get to the lake lately - finally made a day of it Friday and dodged lightening bolts Saturday looking for fish. Had a friend who is a lifelong Mark Twain fisherman on board and he was stunned at the quality of crappie in LOZ. Friday AM we started looking shallow for bass and crappie but caught nothing but bucks and quickly decided to move out and try and pick up staging crappie in deeper water - we caught our 15 each dragging clown colored cranks at 18-24 ft in 30-60 FOW. While the action was not fast and furious most of these fish were 12-14” and we only caught 1 crappie less than 10” with lots of 14-17” largemouth mixed in. We cleaned the crappie and went back out looking for walleye and stripers; blanked on the walleye but caught a handful of big whites and 3 hybrids spooning with the largest pushing 10#. Saturday we tried walleye early with no luck but caught some nice largemouth instead on Keitechs before round one of storms pushed us under cover. When those laid down we went out again in the afternoon looking for crappie and in an hour had 18 before round two of storms rolled in - size was not as good as Friday with no fish over 13 but the action was better. There was a break in the storms again and we tried to get out but rounded the corner to black skies and had to reconsider but despite limited time fishing Saturday it was great to get on the water again. Boat traffic was pretty heavy Saturday with some real knuckleheads out there with absolutely no spatial awareness. I was saddened to hear about the kids Friday night and I can’t do anything but SMH when I see some of these folks behind the wheel of a watercraft on a lake with that much traffic - as time passes I become more a proponent of a REAL operators certification requirement. Although I did see 5-O working the Osage/Gravois confluence at dusk handing out speeding tickets, they can’t fix stupid... Mike This post has been promoted to an article

Sweet. Mike

X2! Mike

Enjoy the company 😏. It doesn’t help when your picks don’t show up(figuratively) either....

Thanks. Pretty sure I need points...😄 Mike

I am obviously new to this Fantasy thing(see my standings🙄); how does ownership percentage affect scoring? I am already out of this thing, just would like to better understand the error of my ways..... Mike

They are on the beds now ....

..get in line. To launch, park, fish, dock & weigh(hopefully),and pull out. Rinse and repeat. Mike

Fish evenings for sure; they will move up and the BBBers hafta be off the water. Mike

2 for nine is still pretty dang good Seth....I’d bet you were sniffing around the check line the other seven as well. Mike

I was actually considering but then got an invite to turkey hunt; those green fish will always lose out on that one. I’d be chucking a big white spinnerbait(at least a #6 gold willow blade) or a jig. Mike

Next weekend will be orders of magnitude worse with the BBB; they should be moving up in the evening by then and easy pickings EXCEPT for the 3000 bass anglers crappie fishing for the evening.....😏 Mike

A friend waxed them Thursday am on the jig and bobber rig on shallow gravel with brush. I have still been shooting docks and doing well with the big girls starting to move in to them; lower end main lake was 52-53. Mike

29 pounds and three 8s is impressive, I don’t care who you are. Mike

I carry Geico(ski safe) replacement value on the rig ($35k) and contents ($7.5k) and it runs @ $350/yr. Mike

I love to learn new things as well; interesting indeed. As I stated in my earlier post I will be looking more closely at the “whites” I catch from this point forward. Not surprised the folks at Norfork want to keep their revenue stream coming....money talks is not just an old saying. Mike

I still see whites, striper, and hybrid surface activity although I will agree and say it is not what it once was - I have attributed that as much to boat traffic as anything. I do not keep many whites but I don’t recall seeing many “mutts” as you call them and I catch hundreds a year from the Gravi and lower end; but that last photo IS interesting - you sure you didn’t pick that fish up after it has been floating for a day or so? 😉 I will say this, I will be looking more closely at the whites I catch this year and rest assured that I am doing my part as ❤️ me some hybrids and harvest and eat a good number every year from the Gravi. Those stripers should be in the 22” range this year and will be more fun to catch but I intend to continue letting them grow to adult gizzard eating size before I put any in my freezer. Mike

I fish for stripers in LOZ a LOT and it seems they are stocking more stripers than hybrids recently...like BH I like them both in addition to whites and other native species. LOZ has a seemingly unending supply of shad hence the great fishery she is; can’t see as they have made much of a dent in them - I personally believe they help keep the gizzard shad in check where the LM and Blue Cats alone can’t. The overall mild winters and lack of shad kills also has the baitfish booming. I know the hybrids and stripers will run up river in a false spawn but I have seen no indication of success - how are you IDing the progeny fish? I would believe a striper male being capable over a hybrid male...but both are supposed to be shootin’ blanks. Mike

Thanks for sharing-was curious how fast you were trolling. Used to catch them the hard way from the Mississippi but you have that deal down! I hope that mud doesn’t make it down to the lower end... Mike

Unfortunately just cuz we can see them doesn’t mean we can catch them. That said, I think good electronics make a big difference; as Zara says with SI, DI, and 2D views of one spot you can pretty much ID a fish return - learning to read what species of fish you are seeing and their mood is next. Certain returns on the 998c get me really excited...kind of like one of Pavlov’s dogs.... Mike

My policy has a valuation associated with “contents” which includes tackle/electronics and is adjustable. Good idea to have photos and a list should they ever be needed... BTW-I would not dream of operating somewhere like LOZ w/o coverage; as the song says people are crazy, and just to confirm I see it most times out... Mike

I travel 2-3 wks/mo for my job and am knocking on some serious wood here... Mike

I don’t believe anyone is zero, although my picks are sure trying...🙄 Mike

If you want clear water mid way in the creeks is the best place to find it; pretty good stain up and down everywhere I was last week. Mike