moturkey

I'm getting tired of flopping an 80+ pound kayak onto my roof, so i'm scouting trailer options. I'm leaning towards a multi-purpose utility trailer over a single-purpose kayak trailer. The best deal i've been able to find on the innerwebs in this region seems to be the Stag 5x10 for $725 (http://stagtrailers.com/pricing-list/). Anybody here familiar with their products? Any other suggestions? Any similar used trailers someone here is looking to unload? Thanks in advance.

I'm game, unless it's during turkey season (4/16 - 5/6).

I've not fished Norfolk, but I was out at the Dream Stream in early September. Scenery is undoubtedly beautiful. The Dream Stream is only 3 miles long, and is narrow - mostly about 25-50 feet across -- with well-worn footpaths along the entire stretch. Although we were a couple weeks early and managed to avoid the crowds when we were there (and the productivity of the fall spawning run), its size doesn't seem to lend itself well to big crowds which I suspect it gets in late September / early October when the fall spawning run kicks off. This is typical of the Dream Stream landscape: The Eleven Mile Reservoir is beautiful, as is the Eleven Mile River below it. We got into a couple nice ones, but neither size nor quantity of fish was overwhelming. FWIW, we are currently making plans for another fall trip to CO, and we aren't going back to the Dream Stream.

Alex - I was on the hunt for Chuck's book this summer/fall, and finally got a copy a few weeks ago from @msamatt with the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance. I think he got tired of me pestering him:). I've thumbed through it a number of times and was mildly disappointed (like chief) in the lack of stories. It's nothing more than raw data in my opinion - locations of accesses that may or may not be there anymore. Nonetheless, it's a good resource. Use it in concert with DeLorne and Google Earth to narrow in on possible spots, then get off the computer and go get your feet wet to see what's out there. PM me if there are particular streams you're looking at and i'd be happy to share the info from Chuck's book.

Great story, Joey and congrats on your success.

Wow. Why not just fish in a stocking pond? Not my cup o' tea there, but to each his own.

It was great to meet you as well. I tried to get your baby craw working periodically throughout the day, but once I got hot with the Ned I had a hard time picking up anything else.

Although my plans for an overnight solo trip this fall have been foiled by the scheduling constraints of work and family, I did manage to get a full day on the Meramec yesterday and it was awesome. Perhaps not a 'banner day,' but it was certainly a success by my standards. The numbers were good, but the sizes were smaller than I was hoping for. It started off chilly but when the sun came up and burned off the fog it was perfect. Water temp was 56 when I put in at daybreak (a bit cooler than I was expecting), and despite landing a spot on my first cast the bite was pretty slow in the morning. I stopped at 12:30 for lunch at my half-way mark, and at that point had only boated 4 smallies and 2 spots. Spook and (large) HD craw counted for 1 fish each, and a white spinner bait claimed the other 4 (thanks for the tip, @Hog Wally!). I lost track of the number of short strikes on the spinner and spook. Despite the hoopla, I've never had much luck with my half-hearted efforts on the ned rig. I really wanted to spend some time with it yesterday and I'm glad I did. Just after lunch I found a nice rock pile along the bank in a 7' run. Water clarity was right at 7' so I could see plenty of fish but was having trouble holding my kayak against the current. I beached upstream and walked down the bank to the rock pile and caught 4 smallies in quick succession. The afternoon continued to produce well on a similar pattern, and they all came on a PBJ ned. I finished the day with 21 fish - 13 smallies and 8 spots -- 15 of which came in the afternoon on the ned. Biggest of the day was only 14.5" and I had one more that was just over 14". I didn't see a soul out there, with 1 exception in the early afternoon that was a fun encounter. I could hear a radio in the distance blaring KSHE-95 (the oldest continuous rock station in the world, for those not from this area), and expected to come upon a group of river rats partying it up. To my surprise, it was one person - a retired guy named Steve. He had pulled his car up to the bank with the radio on, and was sitting in a lawn chair with a cooler of budweiser and his trusted companion - a grizzly old yellow lab. I planned to give him his space and was fishing the far bank. He cut the radio as soon as he saw me, and soon after called me over to his side of the river. He was enamored with my kayak rig, asking all sorts of questions about it, then revealed to me what I perceived as the secret to true happiness.... He said he has owned that land for 27 years and is retired but comes down to the farm almost every day to 'work' while his wife actually does go to work. If 'working' means pulling up a lawn chair by the side of the river with a trusted 4-legged companion and cooler of beer on a Wednesday afternoon, then I'm doing it all wrong. When he called me over, he said I was fishing the wrong bank and should try a series of lay-downs that were right along his bank. 3 casts and 3 fish later, I figured he'd been 'working' that bank (and the passing fishermen) for all 27 years of his tenure. Steve - if you're out there, it was a pleasure to meet you and I enjoyed our conversation! Lunch was at the mouth of a big cave along the river, and I saw quite a few bald eagles throughout the day. I also saw a flock of turkeys fly across the river and struggle to climb a steep bank on the other side. I can't get a horny Tom to cross an ankle-deep, shoulder-width creek during turkey season, but yet here was a flock that willingly flew across a wide and fairly swift section of the river to a steep bank that any human would have needed climbing ropes to ascend. Story of my life chasing turkeys, but I digress. The weather, scenery, solitude, and fishing all exceeded my expectations and I still have a grin on my face. I consider myself a guest on this river, so I won't reveal my exact location to the innerwebs but if you've floated this stretch you'll probably recognize it from the pictures. This post has been promoted to an article

Saltwater: tarpon, redfish, marlin, swordfish, and Goliath grouper. Freshwater: any of the salmon species, Muskie, smallie over 20", LMB over 7 lbs. Crossed off pike (although it was a little one) and brown trout on a recent trip to Colorado.

I put one on my kayak earlier this year and really like it. Still haven't figured out all of the features yet, but it's pretty user friendly. I really like being able to have three screens up at the same time -- CHIRP, side scan and down scan -- which makes it real easy to cross-check what is going on under the boat. As Jim said, there is a waypoint / tracking feature, but I've found the GPS signal to be hit-or-miss, especially if its cloudy. I have the transducer mounted at the stern, and it has stood up to some pretty heavy abuse so far (dropped, dragged, kayak flopping off the roof, etc).

The biggest one I've caught (19) lives just a couple hundred yards from a public river access. It was the best hole I found all day. Saw the same thing on Milford Lake (KS) this weekend. I didn't have to go 10 yards from the boat ramp before my sonar lit up. I stayed within a few hundred yards and did just fine. Seems counterintuitive to me. Nonetheless, the search for a remote honey hole that you can (try to) keep to yourself is half the fun!

"Banner" day, homemade crank, and a paddle measurement. Masterful trolling, Al! And clearly a great day.

Count me in that camp, along with the wealth of information shared here by Al, Mitch, Smalliebigs, Johnsfolly, Billethead, Wrench, Plug, Phil, and countless others that make this one of the best forums around. For whatever reason, you seem to take pleasure in childishly trolling some of the best contributors. Don't ruin what many of us find to be a good thing because you have a chip on your shoulder. Absent this community, I would have never started fishing rivers and creeks but perhaps that's your objective - close the door on new anglers. Whatever the end game, this forum obviously supports some people's livelihoods (full disclosure: not mine). Troll posts will impact the voluntary contribution of content and thus page views, and ultimately someone's income. If you don't like a post, skip over it but for the love of all that is holy please grow up.

Did I miss the thread drift into a discussion about seining for minnows?? Good grief. I guess you can add 'KVD of Troll Fishing' to HogWally's psuedonyms. He can find the troll bite like none other.

Search all content for "wart and eBay" and you'll find a shipload of threads. The phenomenon boggles my mind.

I've seen a few over the years. Here's one example:

I'll be driving home from a CO fishing trip in about a month with my kayak in tow, and would like to camp somewhere in Central or Western KS where I can launch and fish for a day. Wilson Lake looks beautiful, and is close to I-70 (though wind appears to be a major issue on that lake... as it likely will be on any body of water there). Anybody familiar with that area that can recommend other lakes / rivers I should consider? I will have had my fill of trout fishing by then and would like to target SMB / LMB. Thanks in advance.

What kind of rig are you in? It gets shallow quick if you're running on a prop.

Ha ha. Good effort. You had me until I clicked through to the story. Not too far of a stretch, as bulls have been found this far up the Mississippi.

Read to the bottom of the story....

I'm meeting up with some college buddies just after Labor Day and we're renting a house next to Eleven Mile State Park. I'm hauling my kayak out to fish the Eleven Mile Reservoir, and will also hit the South Platte river downstream of Eleven Mile Reservoir. Anybody familiar with that body of water and river? From what I've read, it seems to be good fishery for pike, trout and salmon, all of which I have very little experience chasing and I've never picked up a fly rod. Any tips for a bass fisherman trying to adapt to a foreign species would be appreciated.

I was down this weekend and had a real tough time. Only managed a couple of small whites trolling a little squarebill behind my kayak. Couldn't get the bass to bite on anything else, and I threw nearly all I had - topwaters, cranks of all depths, rattles, spinners, senkos, flukes, swim jigs, swim baits, and craws -- at all hours of the day. I marked tons of shad schools and observed feeding activity on the schools, but couldn't buy a bite. The only success I had came with the kiddos targeting crappie -- they were hitting minnows hard at 6-8 feet down all around the dock. At the 31MM / confluence of Niangua and Osage, surface temps were 68 at dawn and spiked to 75 by noon. Color was still very stained. And, I look like a lobster now. Don't forget the sunscreen!

With my apologies for starting / contributing to the thread drift into politics, I've truly enjoyed reading the various opinions. Even the ones that differ from mine. I'm stubborn but I'm not completely close-minded.