Joenothum

Would like to plan a trip in the near future to the White River. I use to fish there years ago and we always had rented a boat and they would throw a drag chain in the boat to slow your drift down. I also remember it being fairly shallow compared to Taneycomo. My question, is my boat "to big" or sit too deep for the White? Should I get a drag chain or will my troller be sufficient? I have a 1860 Lowe Roughneck SC with a 50 hp Merc. Sits very shallow but I'm always paranoid about lower units. Also if you know anything about me, I'm going to be throwing some big baits for big browns. What stretch/launch or area would anyone suggest to target bigger fish? In the past we had fish at the confluence of Norfork and the White and had always caught a ton of fish. I would have post this in the White River portion of the forum but I wanted a Taney fisherman's opinion on the boat situation.

I've thrown a bunch on Taneycomo and the best I have found is the Rapala Shadow Rap deep jerk bait. I add a "Suspand Dot" (storm makes it I think) under the head so it sits slightly nose down on the pause and I think helps it get down. Dark colors on low light conditions or cloudy days, brighter colors on sunny days. I throw them on my jerkbait rod which is a baitcaster and I've got it rigged with 8# fluorocarbon. The smaller line diameter and fluro helps the bait get down deeper. I'm casting toward the bank, cranking it down for a few turns then ripping it hard twice and then pausing long enough to reel up the slack. Majority of the time I'm getting hit in about 10-12 foot of water I would guess. I really try to get the bait as deep as I can. Have some patience with it, a lot of times I'll go out and have 2 or 3 hits and that's it. If they are really generating water then it will be a lot better. Last year when the shad were coming through the flood gates in January you could catch fish after fish on a jerkbait.

Had some friends come stay at Lilley's for the weekend and they asked that I take them out for the day. I put in at about 7 at Cooper's Creek and in the 20 min my friends were getting breakfast from McDonald's I caught a 7.82# brown on my second cast and 5 casts later hit one that was in the 3# range. I don't trust my scale so I ran up to Lilley's and asked for them to weigh it. Ryan, the dockhand (I think that was his name) was very helpful weighing the fish. Weighed it, snapped a few pics, and put her back. Other than that we picked up a few fish here and there but I considered it "slow" even though we boated about 30 fish all day. Later in the day, I had 2 nice browns (at the same time) follow my jerk bait back to the boat but they didn't really seem to be aggressive enough to commit. I think if water was running they may have taken a swipe. Big fish came on a jerk bait. Today I experimented with a glide bait. I'm sure I look ridiculous chunking a 8" bait on a flippin rod but I really want to catch a "teener".

I think I'm in the wrong business

Eye candy right there!

I crush the last two sets of trebles. I really want to be sure I stick a big one if it hits so I like the barbs on the front treble. I don't like that center hook swinging down and hooking them under the gill area, use to have lots of bleeders from taking hooks out.

Seth I used 8# fluro. I really like throwing the Rapala shadow rap in the deep diver version and then I stick the Storm "Suspend Dots" to the underside midway on the lure and head (2 on the head). It makes it barely sink nose down which I really think is a huge key in the jerk bait. However my buddy will throw his RC stickbaits on 6# mono on his spinning rod and still catch em. ...another note, on the rapala jerkbaits, change out the split rings and hooks. Hooks are very sharp but very wiry and bend easy. Split rings break.

Cracklebak that's exactly what I throw. I probably look odd floating down the river using my baitcaster but its much easier throwing them that way.

Yes we were throwing big jerkbaits, I like the deep diving ones.

These were colored up really nice, I'm sure the one was still trying to spawn.

Had a buddy come down and fish this weekend. I had not been on Taney to fish for trout in at least a couple months, (even though Taney is literally in my back yard). We boat up around Fall Creek to target bigger fish. My third cast I caught a really nice brown, and after that it was dead for an hour. All of a sudden we started hitting a few smaller fish and Cody hooked up with a good one. Of course this is the story about the one that got away but the fish came unbuttoned at the boat and we both agreed it was in the 7-8# mark. Literally 5 casts later Cody catches a beautiful brown that had some size to him. We didn't weigh our fish but both were 3.5-4# I would guess. Didn't catch a whole lot but we were after bigger fish and found a couple.

Put in at Cape Fair at 345 and fished for about 20 minutes before the storm rolled in. Managed 6 fish in that short time. 3 came on the plopper and the others on a swim bait. Storm hit I ran for cover and stayed under a dock for about a hour or so. I decided to just go fish seeing that I was going to only have a hour or so of light. Despite the rain I ended up catching 13 more on a square bill and spinner bait. Of all those fish only 2 were keepers and both were on a spinner bait. Seemed like the fish were in 6-8 fow on ledge rock with chunk rock mixed in. I was soaked and cold but bite was hot. Water temp was 71-72.

Put in at Cape Fair at 345 and fished for about 20 minutes before the storm rolled in. Managed 6 fish in that short time. 3 came on the plopper and the others on a swim bait. Storm hit I ran for cover and stayed under a dock for about a hour or so. I decided to just go fish seeing that I was going to only have a hour or so of light. Despite the rain I ended up catching 13 more on a square bill and spinner bait. Of all those fish only 2 were keepers and both were on a spinner bait. Seemed like the fish were in 6-8 fow on ledge rock with chunk rock mixed in. I was soaked and cold but bite was hot. Water temp was 71-72.

Past 3 months have been almost zero fishing time due to work (even had to cancel my yearly canada trip). Today I'm gonna say screw it and take the next couple afternoons off for much needed fishing time. I really just want to catch a bunch of white bass. Has anyone been seeing them school in the afternoon or even finding them deep? I had moved to Branson in November of last year so I'm not familar yet with the fish on this lake and the typical white bass spots. Used to go to Grand Lake a bunch because it was close to home and you could just drive around in the afternoon and find they schooling and just follow them around for a hour or so. Anything like that here this time of year?

I was fishing the K Dock area on Bull 2 weeks ago and this bear came right down the bank to the boat! Couldn't have been 30 yards from me. If you go to the MDC Facebook page I shared the video of the experience to the page. Not only was it a bear but a black bear in a cinnamon color "phase".

Last week I caught a few females up long creek. They were as far up as I wanted to take my boat. I would agree with you it just has not happened yet.

I know on fly fishing tournaments that are catch and release you photo document the fish as well, are they planning on doing this?

Toby, I like to throw something around 4-5 inches. Depending on if shad are present or not or dead floating down stream depends on what type I use. This one today came on a deep diving Rapala Shadow Rap. I also added a couple of the Storm suspend dots to it to try and get it deeper.

I hit a good fish this afternoon below Fall Creek. I had the wife and daughter in the boat out enjoying the weather and was just out for the afternoon to fool around. Made a few casts with a white jig and caught a couple then picked up my jerkbait. First cast, boom. Fish stays deep and pulling drag off my jerkbait rod. (Yes I use a bait caster rigged with 8# flurocarbon for trout, so much better control with big stick baits.) Got the fish immediately in the live well to unhook it and get ready for a photo. We weighted it and took a quick picture and back she went. Weight was 5 pounds 1 ounce.

Phil, is the Boswell Tournament open to us guys or is it private? Saw the forms on your site to register but saw it said private.

That bank in the pic we fished the lower half of it 5 times and would catch about 5-6 fish each drift. I understand that the high water helps that bite but you fly down some bank in that current!

Here's a couple pics didn't take very many cause we didn't catch any big ones. I figured that was you Phil but was 100%.

Went out with a couple friends from Arkansas on Saturday to catch a few trout. We put in at Cooper Creek and went up a couple hundred yards past Fall Creek and drift down from their. Current was obviously very strong. Used the trolling motor on one of the higher settings just to keep us straighten out parallel to the bank. We started out throwing spinners and whites jigs and added weight to get them down deeper. Caught a handful and I became a little bored catching small rainbows so I picked up a rod with a jerk bait tied on and within half dozen casts had a 4+ pound brown follow it all the way to the boat! Obviously, the sight of the fish following the stick bait made the other guys change lures. We proceeded to float about 20 yards off the bank, each one of us throwing a jerk bait. Man did we catch them! Not sure how many we caught but I remember on a couple occasions we had a triples on. Didn't catch any big ones but did catch probably five 2-2.5# browns. We floated down far enough to catch sight of the landing but the current is much slower around that area and jerk baits did not do as well so we stuck to the fast outside bends in the river. Overall a wonderful day on Taney. Careful pulling boats out of the lake. Cooper Creek ramp was covered in sand/mud and saw a few guys struggling to get up the ramp with their boats loaded.

In may buddies bass boat its a good 15 minute run from the second shoals down to blue springs. Only have done that a couple times but seems to be that long. I think if you started early you would have plenty of time to make it in a day. I think you would just get a lot of boat traffic the farther down you got.