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50 fish weighing just 15lbs 14 ounces?

Not 100% new. Minn Kota came out with the Genesis around 10 years ago. Same deal, auto stow and deploy. As I recall it was plagued with problems, mostly the stow and deploy feature. Pretty cool though. If they can get the head turning speed issues fixed with those I can see those being on more and more boats including bass boats. BTW, from what I've heard, that TM's release has been slightly delayed due to "issues". Not sure what the issues are but with a price tag of well over $2000 they better make sure they've got the bugs out of it or they'll have another Genesis on their hands.

Biggest part of the reason LOZ is loaded with giant boats is the lake was built and owned by UE and they sold the land right to the waters edge to whomever wanted to buy it. Hence you have massive development on the bulk of that lake and absolutely no control over the number of boat docks, marina's or anything else that goes on there. COE lakes are a little different. I know Table Rock has gotten bad over the years, due mostly to the corps relaxing development rules on that lake, but I doubt you'd see the big boats on a lake closer to ST Louis like you see at LOZ. It just isn't really feasible to tow a 38' Fountain back and forth to the lake every weekend and deal with launching and loading it. I have a feeling had that Union lake and one of the larger lakes been built on the Big river we'd have a couple of nice lakes used mostly by fisherment in the spring and fall and only have to share it with recreational boaters during the summer.

A ton of quality water? You're grossly over exaggerating even if you're talking about rivers. And yes, I was talking about impounded waters.

Bass Pro Larry Nixon also lost fishing time on the BASS trail due to tendinitis back in the 90's. Rest, Physical therapy to restrengthen the joint and then an elbow support after he came back was the only real cure. You can go the injection route but that isn't a long term fix either.

Here's a good site that gives a pretty acurate and un-biased historical perspective to the lake. Lots of pictures too. http://www.rollanet.org/~conorw/cwome/article69&70combined.htm It also shows the map of the 31 lakes that were originally planned. The Meramec being the largest. I don't remember exactly what the biggest objection to the lake was back then. I know most bass clubs in the STL area were actually against the dam primarily due to the probability of the thing leaking and the costs escalating because of that. ie: now defunct Hales Barr dam in Tennessee and the problems they've had with Lake Cumberland in KY. I think that site indicates the original site for the dam was closer to St Clair, MO. instead of Sullivan. Apparently, the geographics for a St Clair dam would've be far less likely for it to leak than the Sullivan dam. It's a shame that at least some of those lakes didn't get built. Especially the ones on the Big river and the Union lake. I think it indicates that one of the larger lakes planned near Salem, MO would've also been a probably leaker. STL has a real lack of good quality fishing water available to it. and please, don't bring up the Mississippi.

They stock the thing with catfish for their Arnold days fishing derby in September. Otherwise the lake only see's new fish when the river floods. I've fished it before. Caught a few small bass out of it. I don't remember if they ever dredged the lake or not, it's been badly silting in over the years. I know they had to dig out around the fountain in the middle because when the lake level dropped just a little it started sucking in mud. Personally, I wouldn't waste my time fishing it.

Hate to tell you this but.. You have to stop fishing and immobilize the arm as much as possible. Probably 6 months or more. I had the same thing. You'll just keep re-injuring the problem if you continue to fish. I probably took 8-10 months off of fishing, did the various stretching exercises, kept my elbow in a brace as much as possible. Then, even after the layoff I was really careful about any activity or work I did that could over extend and re-injure my elbow. That was probably 20 years ago now. I haven't had a problem since.

I've found the best as a 6'6" light action/fast tip. All Star used to market that as a Zell Rowland topwater special. Most of the manufacturers make a 6'6" light with fast tip rod. They're outstanding for jerkbaits as well as topwaters. Good multipurpose rod and don't let the light action fool you. I've caught my share of 5lb plus on that style rod and it's got plenty of backbone to pull in the biggest of fish.

I still have about a dozen Pre-rapala warts left. I sold the bulk of mine about 4 years ago. Wish I had waited. The prices those things are going for on Ebay are insane. You've got bass fishermen who know how good the old baits were competing against the lure collectors for a dwindling supply.

I don't know about Ozark streams but lake and reservoir fishing gears up into the fall and yes, there are sometimes feeding frenzies that take place. I think that's more a matter of the fish following the food, aka shad. I'm speaking of bass here, don't have much knowledge of other species but I've caught my share of bigger bass 4-6lb range in the fall to late fall season. I will say this, finding the fish and patterning them is often a little harder in the fall vs the spring.

Before dumping money into a new rig of a fishing style that you may or may not like after trying it a few times, I'd like over you're current rod arsenal and see if you don't have something already. Just about any 7' mhvy-hvy action rod would work or even a flippin rod for that matter.

I imagine a fountain in a pond may or may not be an attractant to fish or not. As for a deterrant? I don't see it. The water coming down from the fountain spray would be no different than a rain shower. What it does do is 2 things. Helps oxygenate the water and, depending on the winds at the time, breaks up the water surface creating less light penetration thereby creating a possible edge some predatory fish like bass could use to their advantage when feeding. It would help is there was some sort of underwater structure around the fountain but even without that, the oxygenated water tends to draw baitfish which in turn draws in the predatory feeders like bass.

Water temps are still pretty high in most lakes right now. Because fish are cold blooded, their metabolism is geared to the water temps but once temps reach a certain level, they go into shutdown modes else they'd have to be feeding almost continuously. I would bet if you went back to that pond after midnight and fished it you find you'd hit another feeding period. Getting those fish to bite when they shutdown is tough. Enjoy the short time they're biting and understand that as temps begin to fall with the beginning of fall, the fishing bite will become a little more consistant.

To answer your question, what is good fishing? It really depends on the angler and their experience level. Bill Dance once stated that anglers go through various stages and their expectations change, usually, as they move from a newbie angler to one of more experience. Stage 1 is just catching fish. Stage 2 is catching keeper size fish. Stage 3 is catching a mess of keeper size fish. Stage 4 is catching a large species of fish. Stage 5 is catching more than one large species of fish on an outing. Some folks keep advancing through the stages as they gain experience. Some are content with stage 3 and are happy if they occasionally get to stage 4. Some become obsessed with stage 4 and getting to stage 5. Some bounce around the stages and accept what the day has to offer and realize that the sport is fishing and not always "catching". My advice is learn as much as you can about the species of fish you're fishing for. There's plenty of information out there. Don't gauge your success against that of others, especially if they're more experienced than you. DON'T watch fishing shows and think that's what fishing should be like. Those shows are for entertainment and some educating. They're shot over the course of a day or 2 and editted into 20 minutes. They're not catching fish on almost every cast even though it looks like that. Each fishless trip should be a learning experience. It teaches you what not to do the next time you're faced with similar conditions. Good luck.

I'm sure everyone survived unscathed. Hopefully the local economies down there profitted due to participants spending their money there.

True. I remember a friend lived in a river house just off of Winter Park. We'd disconnect his dock and tow it up to the edge of the race course and reanchor it. Made a great platform for watching the races. On rare occasions, during the week in the evenings, the Seebolds would bring down one of their race boats for testing. They weren't painted but still in their greyish, carbon fiber skin. The only problem with that race and why they moved it was the flukey nature of the Meramec in the summer. It was either too high/flooded and they couldn't run the race or the river was low and they had to change the course layout because of it. Moving it to Creve Couer made sense.

The police forces are already stretched too thin in many areas. Pulling officers away to haul off some drunks, pot smokers and gals showing their boobs seems like a waste not too mention the lack of enforcement in the areas they'll be pulled from. And for what? Look, I've probably only floated a dozen times in my life. Mostly on the Meramec but the Current as well. This Bull float looks like a pretty typical weekend on that river in that area... just more people. I seem to recall on my floats in that area the same type of behavior going on on those gravel bars, I think it's time to realize that while that may or may not be your cup of tea, those folks are taxpayers just like you and have a right to enjoy the river too. If you don't like it, don't go to the river that weekend. I'm also getting a sense of self righteous snobbery from some on here. These rivers aren't museums, look but don't touch. They're meant to be used. How they're used is obviously up to those that are in charge of their care and management. Is anyone here in that position?

Yes, there's police enforcement. Most of the venue's listed are within the confines of a city where police have fairly quick access to get to troublespots or in the event a problem starts to get out of hand, back up LEO's can get to an area quickly. How are you going to do that on a gravel bar in a river where there is usually no access via roads? I can see writing tickets for public drunkeness, nudity, drug use, etc. but that isn't likely to break the crowds up. If you start hauling off the worst ones, where and how are you going to haul them off to? What happens if the crowd starts getting unruly because of it? How would law enforcement get the back up they need in an expediant manner? I suspect the police aren't terribly interested in getting too involved because of the logistics I just mentioned.

Not entirely true. Take the Mardi Gras event in the Soulard area of St Louis. Without heavy police enforcement, the debauchery would and has gotten out of hand quickly. Take a look at what happens at Panama City Beach during Spring break from March-April. Large amounts of alcohol and young men and women in swimsuits usually ends up in lewd behavior of some kind or another. The best advice would be to avoid it. Find another river to float. It's really no different than avoiding Lake of the Ozarks in the summer on the weekends, especially the Grand Glaize arm... and yes, party cove is within a Mo. State park.

In the summer, on the weekends, the rivers are busy. Some of them really busy. From Mon-Fri they aren't. The same can be said for our lakes. Seems the answer is obvious, don't go on the weekends especially if one of these events is going on.

I remember a time when some states wanted to ban the Lowrance Green boxes because they gave an unfair advantage to fishermen. LOL> You're much better off thoroughly learning the seasonal patterns of bass and perfecting your lure presentations vs spending thousands on electronic gear. The one thing about the good fishermen is they can catch fish whether they have $10,000 worth of 3D graphs on their boat or not.

We were looking at some lots about 3 years ago at Goose creek. I've not heard a single good bass fishing report from Goose creek. Seems they had some weed issues in the lake which they resolved and the fishing hasn't been the same since. There are also issues with the community wanting some of the upper lake dredged due to siltation along with the road system there needing to be redone. Lot's of money that the lot owners wind up having to pay for.

I used to fish Bee Tree lake in the early to mid 90's. It was a much different lake than it is now. The two arms of the lake were difficult to get to, those walk paths weren't there, you had to walk through the creeks to get to some of the other side of the lake. There was a lot of downed timber in some parts of the lake (due to beavers), a beaver lodge and a lot of submerged timber under the water. The Conservation dept, which manages the fishery, claims they used to shock a 10lber out of the lake. It wouldn't surprise me. I caught bass out of that lake up to 6 1/2 lbs and catching a half dozen 15" bass on any given trip wasn't difficult. Now? They basically ruined the lake. They contoured some of the banks, dragged all of the submerged timber out of the lake and put in walkways around the lake that makes access to the other side easy. I've fished there a few times over the past 5 years and have never caught anything. I suspect, with little to no cover along the banks the fish are hanging further off the banks and thus, making it difficult to reach them casting from the bank.