ColdWaterFshr

You're killing me Smalls! Would join you but I've been in goof off mode at work for too many days already. Hope you slay em.

Never heard that one. That ole boy's got pretty good end stinks. Love it.

Spring and fall I tend to open the tackle box more and consider other baits. Summertime though, I'm pretty much pitching only buzzbaits.

One thing that doesn't make sense to me -- how come Taney has a 4-fish limit, and only 1 can be a brown of 20" or greater, and yet the trout parks have no such restriction on browns? Seems pretty inconsistent. And aren't all of the states brown trout are raised at Sheperd of the Hills hatchery right, or at least the majority are, right? If anything, since they have to transport the brown trout to Niangua, Current, and NFOW, and not so much so with the browns raised at Taney at Sheperd, you would think they would place a higher value due to the cost involved on the fish they have to go to a lot more trouble to plant in the streams. And Taney has far more sanctuary and better chance, better habitat to produce a lot more and far bigger browns anyway -- so why are they more precious with the browns there than the stream browns?

I just to say that kid can CAST! Wow. Did you see him double-hauling? perfect form. You should be proud, Brian. And good job on the cool video.

got a close-up look at the Jackson Coosa yesterday at Bass' River Resort. Looks like a fun little fishing rig.

Elk and its tribs (Little and Big Sugar) are just as clear as anything I've seen on the Black. How much more clear than clear can you go? Its like the Spinal Tap Black album. "The answer is none clearer'

Gavin - what the heck is a secchi disk data? ; )

Lots of streams in Mo that are air-clear like the forks of the Black. Little Sugar, Big Sugar/Elk in SW Mo-- are extremely clear. Bull Creek, upper Swan, Roaring River, Flat Creek. Many streams down there are. I'd give that corner of the state the area with the most. Though we have a couple creeks over this way too, upper Jacks, Little Piney, lots of the Big Piney, Mineral Fork, Huzzah, Courtouis, upper Meramec. How can you split hairs over gin-clear in a stream that never gets deeper than 10 feet? and you can see all the way to the bottom in just about any spot (assuming low-water conditions). Ridiculous comparison and you'll never crown one stream in Mo THE clearest. And smaller streams are always going to appear to be more clear anyway.

Hitting the middle Courtouis or Huzzah tomorrow with my family and another. Bought some road-runners and grubs for the kids to fish with ( thanks Ron - and maybe me too if the jerkbait bite isn't on, and maybe I'll become a believer) Question - should we hit Eaglehurst to Hwy 8 on the Huzz, OR Butts low-water bridge to Soctia bridge on the Court? Decisions, decisons.

Shazam. I love reading reports like this.

I'm with you, Ron I don't like ultra-light spinning rods at all, and they really have no application for smallmouth fishing. I like just about any IM-6 med-hvy or med-fast action, 6 foot rod rated for 6-10 lb line. The cheaper the better, although I would never get 2 piece in spinning or baitcasting. On spinning rods, I like a long handle off the back of the reel-seat. Helps me with casting control and I like a longer handle for the way I can set it down on the thwarts of a canoe and the reel not be in the way. Bait-caster rods, again I like cheap, good graphite, medium to med-heavy action, 6 foot or less, long cork handle. I think I have a $30 Wal-mart rod holding my Shimano Curado. Does okay, but may be a little too stiff. Fly-rods - my only smallmouth rod is a Sage Fli 7wt that Ness once told me reminds him of the color of the contents of a baby's dirty diarrhea diaper. He's right. It casts like a dirty diarrhea diaper too. It'll throw a honkin streamer or blockhead popper though. Just broke my Sage 5 wt VPS rod tip and that danged lifetime warranty keeps going up. Used to be $25, now its $65. Caught more smallies on the VPS than the FLi, but those were by accident when I was fishing for trout. I hardly string up the fly-rod anymore for smallmouth. Too much work and never proven to me to be as effective as baitcasting or spin-fishing.

Depends on how big the canteen is.

I'd like to recant a statement I made earlier about loving just getting out and all that touchy-feely nonsense. I like big fish. 16" is nice, 17" is special, 18" is a cause for celebration, and around 19 inches you are getting into spiritual conversion territory.

Slipped out of work for most of the day, a last minute hooky fest. Hoff and I hit a favorite creek today. While I didn't break the 20 inch sound barrier, I came close with a 19 3/4 (almost 20, but PD's heavy foot couldn't get it to squeeze any flatter) and a very respectable 18 1/2'er. Didn't catch a lot of fish, but oh son the ones I did catch were pig-beasts. The 19 3/4 fish looked like the ugly little sister to the one in the video. Get out there while its good boys. These hogs are going to have other things on their mind in a few days.

There's all kinds of good spots. It doesn't have the usual massive gravel bars of many ozark streams, but the floaters guide book makes it sounds like there isn't any. Not true.

Chalk Bluff is a few miles down from Rymers on river right. Bee Bluff is maybe 2 miles past Chalk on river left. I'm sure you can find someone at Bay Creek to give you a lift, especially if its a weekend. Wave a $20 bill and that might help.

No pot of gold, but a nice pot of bronze!

Blue Spring and Ebb and Flow Spring are also cool to check out, but the bluffs are what you'll spend your time gawking at. Very jealous of your trip. Makes me want to plan one there soon. Now would be the time to go, before the bugs and people hit.

If you've floated with loaded canoes several times before you should be fine. And yes, you can get out and wade your way through just about every tricky spot. Only if there has been a heavy rain and the river is blown out, you wouldn't be able to do this -- but if thats the case, the Park Service has closed the river and they are out in jetboats doing a search and rescue looking for you! Only time I felt it was slightly tricky was from the Prongs and that was in high water -- the gradient is a little steeper up there and its a little more twisty. I remember once when we floated that 7 or so miles from Prongs to Hwy 17 in a little over an hour and it had some fun little rolling waves, but still very mild class I-II. From Buck (Hwy 17) on down to about Bay Creek its not as fast, and after Bay Creek its slows even more. Sometimes there will be a new tree hazard in the water, but the park service is pretty quick about removing those.

6 lb maxima green for spinning rod 12 lb maxima green for baitcaster

2sheds - you ever seen any bear down there?

There is also that trick of keeping a wet towel draped over the lid of the cooler at all times. Helps keep the ice.