Coosa

I will be fishing starting early in the am tommorow. I will report back. I'm skeptical though as I have never really fished the lake. I'm more of a river man. Glad I logged on today, lots of helpful stuff here

The upper Maries river has lots of cars too. When the water is right they are bout half in half out of the water.

I really don't mind giving that info since where I caught it gets fished hard all the time anyqay and lots of tournaments. I put in at rollins ferry and caught it right against the bluff just to the left of the ramp. I threw a spinnerbait against the bluff probably 10 times with no takers. Then the current pushed me back in the cove a bit so I grabbed my rod with a sammy wtd on and threw one cast parallel with the bluff, bout 3 twitches in and BAM!! 15 lb braid on a revo sx. I didn't have time to make the float all the way to pointers creek so I just paddled around that area. Ended up catching the smallie pictured 1 small largemouth and a nice spot.Really wanting to get out today and make the whole trip but having problems finding a ride. Thinkig bout just walking back to the truck after the float....it's bout 5 mile shuttle.

Nothing crazy.....18" on the dot

My widows were down although it wasnt on purpose. My sliding glass was even open. Only reason I even remeber that is jumped out of the boat to the back of the truck and tried to make a grab for my phone. It didnt take long b4 I was going under and had to abort mission.

"72 guys who's engine won't start because the kill switch is unplugged" That's good stuff. And I have been guilty

There was a lot of kids down there from the technical college here in town. One of them was nice enough to get me home. Had there not been anyone there it would have been quite a walk to the nearest house.

Truck was not running....I dont think.

Haha...trust me the engine was submerged. The truck completely dissappeared. What I didn't put in my post was that this actually happened about 7:00 pm. I called the sheriff department for insurance reasons and they showed up at 830. Our county conservation agent was on vacation so they called the one in the county next to me. Sheriffs dept or conservation didn't want to mess with it at night so it spent the night at the bottom of Ben Branch lake. It really surprised me with it being such a small lake that they left all that gas and oil in there overnight. I would say that truck is done. Insurance adjuster should be here tommorrow. Fishinwrench I did have the parking on but apparently it didn't work well. The truck was still in park when we pulled it out but the shifter was stuck so I'm not sure what happened. Like everyone on here has mentioned, I'm just glad I was alone and didn't have my 4 yr old with me. I can tell you one thing, I don't know if I ever done it before but I sure won't be backing any boats in with people in the truck. It's one thing when you do something dumb but kinda scary when it's a mechanical issue you have no control over. I would also like to add the truck sat on the ramp for probably five min b4 it broke loose

So I haven't posted on here for quite some time mostly because there really has not been much for me to chime in on. Well that changed today! I decided instead of taking the yak out today I'm gonna hook on to the boat and go fish the 43 acre conservation lake near my house. After loading my stuff I throw my dog in the back of the truck and we are off. About a mile from the lake I hear my dog just start going crazy. I stop pretty quickly and look back thinking she fell out or something. I was happy to see she was still there but she had some new hardware (a whopper plopper) connecting her foot to her mouth. After about 10 min I somehow manage to get her free. I don't know how because 2 hooks went past the barb. I was really surprised how still she stayed while I worked on her. As we pull up to the lake I notice a ton of people there which isn't normal. Usually there are 2 or 3 people fishing and it's pretty quiet. Not today. There were tiki torches and tables set up, and probably 20 people standing around the boat ramp. I get out, get the boat ready, and back down the ramp. This is an electric only lake so I jumped in the boat, pushed off the trailer, drop trolling motor in and.......nothing. After a min of messing with that and starting to float away I decided for the 1st time in 20 yrs on this lake I'm firing up the motor so I can get back to shore and get my truck off the ramp. And that's what I did. So then I return to the boat to see if I can get this trolling motor to work. After 15 min or so of failing at that I decided the trip just wasn't meant to happen. Back to the truck, back down the ramp. Jump in the boat, start the motor, drive onto the trailer. Then things take a drastic turn. I'm walking to the front of the boat to hook it to the trailer and about 3/4 the way there I hear BOOM and the sound of grinding gears! Truck takes off backwards and I jump out of the boat into the back of the truck to TRY to make the "save". HaHa...ya right, that wasn't going to happen. It all happened pretty darn quick and in less than a min I went from sitting in my boat looking at my truck to sitting on a ramp needing polarized glasses just to see my truck.

I don't have much to offer in the way of boating but I did fish the gasconade yesterday and the water was pretty cloudy. Paddled upstream in my yak about 2 miles out of rollins ferry. Only had one bite. Used wtd, spinner, crank, and Ned rig. Only bite came on a wtd.

Well I'm sad to report the fishing didn't go so hot for us. Complete strikeout, not a bite. I went more for the dirtbike ride but was hoping to catch some fish as a bonus. Wore the gopro and got some awesome footage on the bike. Wish I would have worn it while fishing, then you would all get to watch me go for a swim in my rainsuit.

I remember those! I had few but I was really young and uneducated to fishing. Judging by this picture it's no wonder I didn't like them.... I had it rigged backwards!!! Lol

I was using a medium when I started but quickly switched to my medium heavy.

I know I have a couple of buddies who I fish with with that love to fish jigs and wacky worms. When we go together it seems like they usually get me in numbers but I usually get them in size. I throw a lot of wtd baits, spinners and buzzbaits. I really have a problem with fishing slow which I'm sure is partially due to my gear. Bait casters and braid. Fishing slow is something I'm trying to work and I'm in the market for a good spinning reel. I have never really seen either one of my slow fishing buds catch anything really big but we don't fish together all that often. I know one guy that is always wanting to float with me but he fishes SO SLOW I can't hardly take it. I like to cover 10-15 miles in a day where I think 5 miles with him will be a long day. I guess maybe I should try it with him once, might learn something.

We'll that was kinda the same thinking I had since I have seen tons of boats fishing there. I just never fished there before, always to busy drinkin a few "Kool-aids" with friends that don't fish .BUT posts like I posted affect more people than just me so I will be less detailed from now on

Well I guess I will quit with the detailed fishing reports. Sorry guys.

Ya man, I was really surprised at how hard they pulled!

About a 2 weeks ago the brother and I decided to go out on the river and try a little largemouth fishing. We'll we struck out on the largemouth but did manage to get into a couple hybrids .( I think they are hybrids anyway? I'm not real educated on my hybrids, whites, and stripers.) We only caught 2 but we didn't fish long. So Saturday evening we decided to give it another shot. We left a little earlier this time so we would have more time to fish. Boy did it ever pay off. Both of out 1st 2 casts paid off with 4 fish right at 5lbs each. The action stayed hot till about 20 min b4 dark. We caught about 12 fish each with tons of missed HUGE blow ups. Some of the most exciting fishing I have ever done.. A few of the fish were just to big for our lures as they bent the hooks straight. Man I would have liked to have landed those bigger fish. Most all the ones we caught were between 5 &6 lbs with the biggest going 6 lbs 6oz. Lost a few that had those beat easy.

I agree with what you said about dropping the lure right on top of them BUT every once in awhile you do get that cast where it seems like that fish just catches the lure in its mouth. It's always baffling to me how quickly they can bite sometimes. Those fish are faster than most people think.

You hit the nail on the head there Gavin. I always have one tied on and am constantly walking in from different positions and angles. Heck last week on the meremac I found myself basically leaning backwards over my yak seat and walking from almost an upside down position. The kayak spun on me a little but my lure was in a good position and I didn't want to stop the motion, so you just do what you gotta do to keep the motion. Another wtd I haven't seen anybody mention is the xps bass pro, it is the easiest walking bait I have ever used and by far my favorite.( and it's only $4) The only set back is the paint does not really hold up well. But as discussed b4 I think the paint job is prolly more for the fisherman than the fish

A folding bag chair is one thing I didn't mention In my list of stuff I bring but I do bring one. I sure don't feel like I'm being denied any type of pleasure on my trips. I feel that I have plenty to eat, I sleep good on an air matress. I don't really feel that there is anything else I need to be comfortable. With each trip I learn more of what to bring and what to leave.

Water was pretty clear but I say another week and you will be doing a fair share of dragging. The guy at greens canoe told me he will probably stop putting people in that far up here shortly.

I would have to agree, your cobbler does sound much better than poptarts. I can't give up my jalapeño chili cheese dogs though!! I do need to give the Dutch oven thing a try....never used one but it's been on my mind

I fished a section of the meremac I have never been on b4 the day b4 yesterday. Took out at hwy 8 and put in 9 miles above that. I didn't get on the water till 1 in the afternoon because I drove all the way to Kirksville only to get rained out of work that morning. It was dang near dark when I got off the water then had to drive all the way back to linn. Long day. Anyway I had the same experience as you Seth. The topwater bit was just down right vicious. Mostly smaller fish in the 12-15" range . Did catch a 17 incher. Lost 2 good ones. One in paticular that really bummed me out. He hammered it and the fight was on. Got him bout halfway to the boat and then he disappeared. I've caught my share of 18-20" smallies and this was definitely one of them....oh well he's just another fish story now. Had a decent day, think I caught 30 something....could have been alot more, the fish were not hard to come by, but had to keep it moving because of the late start. Sorry don't know why my pics are sideways.