Smithvillesteve

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.

Bill: My friends and i enjoyed meeting you at the OAF tourney. And like everybody else we always appreciate the valuable info you put on here. Let me ask you a question. If somebody hires a guide to take them out on a lake on a fishing trip, is it ok for them to go fish those spots the guide took them to in the next following days? Or is that kinda considered improper? Thanks.

Thanks for the report Bill. Always appreciate your valuable info. I fished the Rock wed thru sat with 5 other buddies. Wed was 30 mph winds with 40 mph wind gusts. But our group caught a lot of fish. With several keepers. Nothing too big. Thursday it was cold!! Low 40's, still windy and cloudy. But once again we caught several fish. One buddy of mine caught a 7 lb fish on the front hooks of his crankbait and a 2 lb on the back hooks. I would put the pic on here if I knew how? Dont laugh. I'm 64 yrs old and all this technology eats me up!! The guy I was fishing with caught 25 bass with 9 keepers. The biggest was 18.5. 3 others at 18. Great day of fishing even though he kicked my butt!!! Friday we had the high sky after a front. Low 60's light winds. One of my buddies son caught a nice 5 lb. But the bite slowed. Saturday we didnt get on the water till around 3 oclock and fished till around 6:30. We were just plain wore out. Of course, staying up till 3 am playing cards doesnt help!! It was a nice bluebird day, good golf day, and we didnt do much good. One nice brown fish. It was a great fishing trip to the Rock with several good buddies.

I too really enjoyed my first OAF tournament. It was really nice to get to put some faces to some names. Enjoyed talking to Mr Babler and Quillback. Thanks to all who did a magnificent job with the food and the organizing. Congrats to Joe Lane for winning this year. I really thought it would take a 6 or 7 lb to win with the coniditions we had. Moon phase, clouds, 50 degree water temps, light winds and steady air temps. Great pics. I wish i could have personnally met M&M, Ketchup and a few of you other regulars here on the website. I just wanted to say "thanks" for all the valuable info you guys put out there for us that only get to fish TR on a limited basis. Oh, i did get to talk to RPS and he gave us some valuable walleye information. He is a good guy!! A great time spent with good people!!

Quillback: I tried sending you a personal message but not sure how all that works so I will repeat myself here. I am going to fish the OAF tournament saturday. I will probably put on up around Viney Creek instead of coming over to Eagle Rock in the morning. Just trying to make sure i am getting registered. Thanks for all you do for this tournament. Smithvillesteve

Thanks for a great report Bill and the awesome pics!! I'm going to try and come down wed afternoon. Fish thursday, friday and the OAF tourney sat. Hope to anyway. New moon begins tuesday. water temps look good. Hoping to catch some bass.

Hazbin: It was the ramp across from Turkey Mountain. There is a spaceship looking thing there. They are not golfers so dont look around any courses! Didnt touch my golf clubs. Took my clothes bag and some food. My truck was the only vehicle in the lot. Right after July 4th holiday. Thieves stole my buddies transom saver out of the back of his truck at Orleans Trail at Stockton last year. Some guy came back to his trailer at High Point at Stockton and his lug nuts were all missing on his trailer tires. Police told him they were probably stealing his tires when he pulled his boat in and scared them off. Story about that kid getting killed at the boat ramp a month ago was very sad. Point is we all have to be smart, be alert, help each other, report suspicious activity. Pretty sad that a guy gets an opportunity to go out and enjoy the outdoors, get away from the "rat race" and has to deal with this kind of crap!!

Last year in early July they broke into my truck at the ramp for Emerald Beach people. Stole my clothes bag. Pain the butt to replace shoes, orthotics, clothes, clean up kit. But thank god they left my golf clubs!! But yea, pisses a guy off!!!! I wont leave anything of value in my truck anymore. And its not just Table Rock. I think its these "crack heads" stealing anything they can get their hands on to buy crack!!

Smalls!! I got a question for you since you work for Bass Pro. My batteries are going on their 4th year now. A friend of mine told me to replace both batteries, starter and trolling motor, after 3 years. Both batteries seem to be fine but i had a starter battery go dead on me all of a sudden 3 years ago. Is it your recommendation that i bite the bullet and go get two new batteries?

I would love to come down and fish the OAF with you guys. Trying to talk a buddy of mine into going down with me. Just not a 100% deal with us right now. Can we just show up around 7 oclock and register? Or do you need to know beforehand?

Nice fish and nice boat! I bought a Lund boat back in 2002. I go to Canada every year and like to fish Stockton a lot in the summer. Handles rough water extremely well. Mine is only a 16.5 with a 40hp. Would really like to upgrade to one like yours. But would have to hit the lottery!! Thanks for the report.

No Revo Bearing sunglasses at the Sams Club in NKC.