Smithvillesteve

Thanks boys! I will forward him this information. Stay cool!!

A good friend of mine is in the market for a new depth sounder. I told him i would go on here and ask you boys what you think. This guy is very cheap! His wife gives him an allowance!! But lets not go there today. He just needs a very basic unit. Water depth with contour and a temp gauge is all he needs. I always value your opinions on fishing gear here on Ozarkanglers.com. Thanks.

Amen Champ!! Very well put!!

Very interesting. But I too will stick with my boy Dave. I love his jig heads and he has been good to me!! Responds to my questions, gets me my order in a timely fashion. The only thing wrong with Dave is that he is a Jayhawk!!

Cant thank you enough Mr Babler. One of these days i would really like to come down there and fish with you. How long are you booked in advance?

Great report. Informative as always. I have never fished that deep before. Jeez!! One question for you boys: How are you fishing that Whopper Plopper? I finally broke down and bought one and used it up here at Smithville Lake the other day. Do you guys pop it and let it sit? Kinda like a Pop R? Or do you buzz it like a buzzbait? Or just mix it up and let the bass tell you what they want? Thanks. Stay safe this weekend.

Unfortunately, I agree with Champ. The bottom line is change is hard. But its also inevitable. Most of us on here love to bass fish. And we love that wonderful resource. When I hear of big fish kills at these weigh ins because of extremely hot weather it really bothers me. We need to keep pressing the issue!! Keep talking about it! Hopefully, someday even the old school will come around and realize this is the best thing for our resource that we love.

I read yesterday that the MLB tournament at LOZ was a huge success. I guess the fishermen have swore to secrecy about totals and winner. All for the tv suspense I guess. The best thing I read was that they weighed fish and released the bass immediately! My hat is off to them!! With the unexpected high temperatures for June we all know it cant be good to haul bass around all day in a livewell. Sure wish we could get more tournaments to follow this lead. Anyway, I just wanted to give them a shout out for doing this.

Congrats on your big fish and good for you releasing that big female. I hope you find a quality taxadermist for your needs.

I just want to give a shout out to lmtout for being such a nice guy. I had the opportunity to speak to him last week at the boat ramp and he gave us some very valuable information. A lot of walleye guys are very hesitant to give up info. Not lmtout. Thanks lmtout.

Sweet!! Look like the Rock Crawlers. Did you tell him I want a care package??

As always excellent information posted here. Thanks very much. I just find it kinda interesting that the manufacturers dont list anything on the package. As far as jigging v casting or fluttering.

Speaking of spoons. What is the difference between "jigging spoons" and "casting spoons?" I realize what the fisherman does but I never see anything on the package when I am shopping for spoons. I love the spoon bite, fish usually hammer the thing! But i have not done a lot of it. Sometimes i will vertically jig a spoon on Truman for hybrids. Thanks boys. Sorry Donna. And girls!

"I do my best work alone!" Elias to Chris in the movie Platoon

Thanks for the report. I posted on here about 2 weeks ago about the green slime. I fished the main lake area and Mutton Creek area 2 days last week and I also had to deal with a lot of the green slime. Couldnt throw a crankbait shallow. Jig fishing was difficult also. I finally concentrated my efforts in 15 fow or more! Is this a common thing at Stockton this time of year? I dont remember dealing with this in past years.

Nice story VJMAC. Congrats on a beautiful fish. I just want Stockton to be the best bass fishery we can make it. I've been to Table Rock twice this year and we caught a lot of Kentuckies. The majority of our fish were Kentuckies. They are taking that lake over. They are fun to catch. Fight like a freight train!! I'm just concerned what they are doing to our Large Mouth population. All interesting points Walcrabass. Love the idea of making the Kentucky its own category. Put a 12" minimum on them and let people harvest those fish. Love the Lunker Program idea too. Why is Missouri so slow to change?

A Lunker Program would be a great idea in my opinion. I have to be very careful here in what i am saying, I dont want to cause a big stink here. It is a touchy issue. Two weeks ago i was cleaning some walleye, whites and crappie at Mutton Creek Marina. Two Ol boys came in with 6 beautiful Largemouth bass in a 5 gallon bucket. All the bass were in the 3-4 lb range. It broke my heart to see these beautiful fish being butchered with a fillet knife. Now, maybe these guys were putting meat on the table for a family that is in need. And to be sure they were not doing anything illegal. I'm just saying I hated those fish being filleted up. I believe the spotted bass are taking over a lot of our lakes. I wish we could reduce the legal length of those fish to 12 inches and let people keep some of them to eat. I have heard they are pretty good table fare. Now, we could have issues with fisherman not knowing the difference between a largemouth and a spot I guess.

Catching up this morning on reading the forum pages for Table Rock and Stockton, my two favorite lakes to fish in Missouri. Sounds like 2 nice bass were caught at Stockton lately. A 9+ and a 10+. One of the writers was asking about having a big bass replica mount made. Absolutely you can do that. The pleasure in that is that you get to release a big female bass. Get all the measurements. The length, girth and weight. Maybe hold her in the water for a little while between each measurement. The pros are releasing the fish and you will have a mount that will last a lifetime. Yes, I do believe it will cost a little more than taking the fish in. But well worth it. About 20 years ago I caught a nice 8 pound bass in a farm pond. Had it mounted. It lost its colors and I had to take it back in and have redone. I'm kicking myself in the butt for not having a replica mount done.

Yes, you are the "walleye man!!" I took my 2 buddies down fri and sat. Friday we fished the main lake area and it was slow. Caught a couple of keeper bass and a lot of shorts. 4 nice whites. One of my buddies is 75 years old with bad shoulders and wrists. He cant cast, set the hook etc. So we troll. He loves to get out and i get to fish quite a bit so its ok. But I so wanted to bottom bounce or jig and crawler. Oh well. Sat we put in at Mutton Creek and it was a zoo down there. But we found some fish. My 2 buddies ended up with their limits of eyes, all around 16 inches, with some nice whites and a few crappies. A good day on the water.

Interesting takes here from all you guys. I dont think there will ever be a time when bass fishing is closed for the spawning season. However, that is what they do up in Canada for the walleye. Season is closed and areas up creeks are off limits. Some of you mentioned a system where tournament fisherman can weigh a fish on the spot and then release the bass. Instead of keeping it in a livewell and carrying it around all day and hauling it miles away to be released. I really like that idea. Somebody mentioned bass released carefully will go right back to their bed. Very interesting. And why wouldnt we want that? Appreciate all your takes here on this subject.

Okay boys, not trying to start a heated argument or anything like that. Just want to get some opinions from you guys. Guys I respect about their bass fishing abilities and want to do things right. How do you guys feel about bed fishing? I read the reports in the KC Star this past week about the elite tournament at Bull Shoals and Norfork. A lot of those guys seem to be bed fishing. I was kinda glad the guy who won did not do that. I have never done it but I have never been able to go down a bank and see a lot of beds either. For whatever reason. And i dont know what the research says about yanking a big female off her nest and what that does. A lot of you OAF guys on here always talk about doing things right to make Table Rock the best it can be. I was just wondering how you boys feel about this after reading about it during the tournament.

You boys fighting green slime lake wide?

Thank you very much lmt out. Appreciate your info.

Great job lmtout!! And really appreciate your input here. I am taking a couple of buddies of mine down there tomorrow afternoon. Will fish friday, sat, and sunday till noon. Would love to put them on some walleyes. You mentioned main lake water temps so i will assume you are fishing the main lake. Are you fishing points? flats? gas motor or trolling motor? I put a spinner on a leader using a swivel and it still gave me big time line twist. Any advice on this? Hope i am not asking too much here and if so i understand. Most walleye guys dont like giving out their info. I, and i am sure others, really appreciate you putting your info out there for us.

Thanks for the report Bill. A friend and i spent quite a bit of time trying to fish last tuesday evening thru sat. We fought strong winds all week. Some gusts reported up to 45 mph. We couldnt find any fish in the wind throwing Rock Crawlers and spinnerbaits and jerk baits. We did catch quite a few bass, 42 thurs and 37 friday throwing the Ned in calmer waters. Mostly small fish, sorry Dave. 2 or 3 keepers combined each day. The Ned was the only way we could catch fish. So we stayed with it and caught a few nice 13-14 inch spots which is a lot of fun on our spincast setups. I had a nice 14 inch spot with the biggest belly i have ever seen on a fish. And he fought like a freight train! We figured with a new moon and water temps in the upper 50's we had a great chance to catch some quality fish. didnt happen and it sounds like it was tough sledding for a lot of fisherman. But we had fun in the great outdoors and cant wait to get back down there again. Life is good.