Smallie Seeker

For $100 I'd go with a Bass Pro Shop Pro Qualifier or look for a used Diawa Tatula off Ebay.

Sculpin colored jig from the drawer at Phil's shop. Can't remember which size it was.

Took an hour to pick me up but the fare was only $11 bucks. Cool cabby who is the lead singer/guitarist in a cover band and gigs at the local bars. Gave him a $20.

https://youtu.be/Y7VHAPY6HQw Locked my kayak up by the dam this morning then drove the truck to Coopers Creek and parked it at the ramp. Caught a taxi back.This was a great idea btw. Hit the water around 10am. No generation. Paddled up towards the cable and began throwing a sculpin colored jig under a float. Missed a good hit first cast. Second cast I hooked this brown, which ended up being my pb and was right at 20 inches. Got it on video. My GoPro was acting up and skips a few times. Floated and fished back down to Coopers creek once generation started and most of the algae had washed through. Picked up a few rainbows on the way down, but catching that brown trout first fish of the day led to more of a leisure float with me smiling the whole way.

Yes, they’re out.

Wow! Awesome fish and post! That looks like the trip of a lifetime! Have yet to ever chase smallies outside of MO. I need to drag my rear out of an Ozark stream for once and plan a pilgrimage up north. I'd be grinning for a month after a trip like that.

Such good info in this thread. First off thank you to all who have contributed. With all these veteran cranker's chiming in, I'd love to hear what everyone's preferred setup is for cranking ww's/rc's. Same line and gear ratio for both?

Those are some chunky mama's!

I'm on vacation from Nov. 5th thru the 13th Will be doing at least an overnighter on the upper Current during that time. Will be deer hunting the bad weather days and fishing the better ones.

Fished the park Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Bite was kind of slow and light. Ended up doing pretty good both days. Caught about 10 total. Nothing really big though. Seemed like they were bigger this time last year. Water was clearer than I anticipated with the recent rains. Had a bunch of looks and dismissals when I was on 3lb tippet, switched to 2lb and had much better luck. Hooked up on egg patterns, gold bead head nymphs, and midges. (Should've taken off my GoPro headgear. I'm blocking the logo on my O.A.F. hat! Photo fail!)

Thanks for the report. I've always had a hard time landing big bows/browns in the trophy section while throwing stickbaits too, but it definitely gets the heart racing when one gets slammed and drag starts peeling.

I hooked up with a few hybrids last year while trolling jigs for crappie on #35 last year. Had a nice one come off at the boat. Haven't been out there this yr.

Congrats! Still got tag #2 burning a hole in my pocket. I'm envious. Jakes are fair game here on out!

Nothing wrong with that! Congrats!

Doesn't get better than that! Very good work! Congrats to you both!

Nice!

Got my bird tagged and so the real fun could begin. My planned trip to Tablerock with Marcus. I get just as much fun calling birds for buddies as I do pulling the trigger. We arrived at the lake Wednesday evening, and predawn Thurs morning we were boating back into a cove to make the hike up a huge Tablerock ridgetop we had picked as our first spot to try. I don't know what it was about that Ozark mountain, but it had to be the most beautiful spot I've ever turkey hunted. Nice mix of cedars and hardwoods. I was grinning as we made our way up the ridge, commenting that this spot just looks like it should hold turkeys. And it did. First light and we had 5-6 gobblers hammering all around us, with the 2 closest being down the ridge to our left 150 yrds. Got them fired up and the 2 toms were headed our way. They got to about 75 yrds and hung up. Gobbling their heads off. We could hear they had a hen with them. After a while they went quiet, and so I leaned over to Marcus and said "I'm gonna take a little walk, you just be ready and keep that gun up!" I proceeded to quietly walk down the opposite side of the ridge, making soft clucks, and that did the trick. The hen came right up and over the ridge, passing Marcus at 15 yrds, and was soon in my lap. The toms were in tow, and their white noggins crested the ridge at 35 yrds, and Marcus let it rip. And missed... Happens to us all. We headed back to the boat to lick our wounds and do some fishing. Bite was slow. Regrouped and headed back up that grueling hillside the next morning. Had em gobbling hard again, but none that wanted to play the game, and by 8am all was quiet. It was time to make a move. We circled way around where we heard the closest gobbler, and set up on the opposite ridge. I proceeded to make a few calls, but heard nothing. Told Marcus to keep his hopes up. This time of morning we could catch a tom sneaking in quietly. And that's just what we did! He spotted the black shadow down in the bottom of the draw, and we could soon see his beard swinging from 100 yrds away. He was making his way up towards us, and at 9:30 the 870 went boom and Marcus tagged his first gobbler! Bird never made a sound. Now here's the best part. I'm the turkey guru, the know it all, the one who my friends all ask for advice. I had been doing all the calling. Well about 20 mins after we set up, he says "lemme see one of them calls you got there, you're doing it all wrong!" And proceeds to make a few soft cuts. Wasn't 5 mins later and that old tom appeared. Only calling he did all trip. Couldn't have scripted it any better. 21 lbs, 11" beard, 15/16th" spurs, first gobbler and on public land! Bird flopped back down the ridge and into a creek, so he was a little wet. Now we're both just stuck here at TR, tagged out till Monday. Time to go fish!

Its been an awesome season so far. Called in gobblers Saturday and Sunday during youth weekend for my buddy and his daughter, but had misses both times. Set up on the same farm opening day. Called the same 3 toms we missed during youth into 80 yrds, but they hung up on a hardwood ridge and just strutted and gobbled. Think they're still spooky from youth season pressure. Made a move to another farm nearby. Was slowly waking a wooded trail that leads to a known strut field on the back of the property making soft clucks on my mouth call, approaching the field edge when a gobbler cut me right off. He was only 100 yrds ahead but out of sight due to a rise in the field. His hens were in the corner 50 yrds out and staring me down. Managed to sink to the ground out of sight, and belly crawl to a tree on the edge. A few clucks and purrs and the hens dismissed me and fed up to 15 ft out. Gave a few cuts and got him gobbling, when a yote bust through scattering the birds. Game over. Had the Intel I needed and set up on that field edge the next morning, Tues, in a blind with a jake and hen decoy. Heard him gobbling at first light, but heard hens with him too. Called in the boss hen at 830. His harem of 4 other hens entered the field at 930, and a few yelps and he was gobbling his head off. Around 10 he appeared like a ghostly apparition on the field edge 100 yrds out. Mean looking wary bird. Just stared my decoy down forever. Finally shook the rain off and slowly proceeded to come in. Got to 40 yrds and hung up, semi strut, mean mugging my decoy for 10 mins. After he turned to follow the hens which were exiting the field, I let him have it. 10:30 am. 23 lbs, 5/8 Spurs, 10" beard.

All I've caught is trout. Rainbow trout. Whole bunch this past weekend at Montauk. Smoking them tonight.

Close!

Only the biggest buck of all time! To think that the world record blue cat was caught in the same area is crazy. There's something in that soil, maybe the great nutrients supplied from the MO and MS rivers? Or radiation? lol.

60 lb blue cat caught on 80 lb braid from the bank of a private lake. The funny part was that it was caught on my 2nd rig. A backup old bass pole I threw 80 yrds of braid on just to have a 2nd line out. Of course the heavy 12ft catfish rig didn't get hit the little one did. (Lesson learned, got a 2nd cat pole). This fish drug me all the way out, and as a last ditch effort I went into the lake while holding the pole in one hand and the last foot of line in the other. Over waist deep. Managed to get back on land and land it.

You say that every year?!?!

Went for broke at work and asked for the 18th-30th of April unpaid time off. Used my paid week off during deer season. Rejected! 18th-26th. Denied! Looks like I'll be off 16th-24th. Can't wait to be barrelling down 44 in the Dodge, Marcus singing showtunes in the passengers seat, truck full of ozark tools and toys, with the boat in tow, captained by Pete drinking brews in a skeleton mask!!! Them birds and brownies don't stand a chance!

I believe you are good as long as you don't have the keys in the ignition.