Johnsfolly

Good luck to you and your son. It's great that you will get to spend that time together. I hope that you two do well.

I'm glad that you had pictures of fish and game associated with you comment ! Definitely a nice stringer of fish. I still personally have no confidence that I have cooked suckers the right way in the past. Still had lots of bones. Willing to try them again. Or just catch and release !

Ness - Before I saw your fruitcake, I had the theory that fruitcake was neither made nor lost and that every existing fruitcake was just re-gifted through the ages !

Those are a couple of slabs! Hopefully you know where he caught those Crappie!

I know that I have at least one copy of the smallmouth waters. I haven't used that one as often as the trout maps. I was obsessed with trying the naturalized trout streams, which were more likely to be able to wade fish. I'll see if I have a second copy for the SMB.

I've seen quite a few trip reports from Table Rock and LOZ where they didn't do as well as you did on your trip for the 5 or so hours that you fished. Never apologize for having a good day fishing, be it based upon numbers of fish or just pure enjoyment on lippin' a few.

It's a decent program in Texas. You can't spend the money on this type of program without being selective on the species. So what does this program look like in Missouri, river smallmouth, northern largemouth bass, walleye...? I would not advocate further stocking of Florida strain largemouth bass just to build trophy waters across the state. I would rather see this cover a species that is native to Missouri and develop the genetics within the state. I would also imagine that this would be a rather expensive program in order for it to be successful. That would require sponsorship. Texas probably has Toyota cornered for their program. I don't see this being viable just upon a fishing fee. Maybe set up a trophy goldeye fishery!

What a great multispecies trip! You guys just caught them that day! Comgrats! That's the kind of day that I dream about. You caught a few species that I would love to catch. A bit jealous. Thanks for posting. Also for showing guys some of the issues with multispecies trips in terms of the different rods and gear you needed to bring to be successful.

Inspired with the jerk seasoning, my Betterhalf coated a pork roast with the jerk seasoning. She seared the roast and cooked it for about an hour and a half at 350 deg. Once done she served it with cooked rice and green peas . She also made a crock pot pumpkin pudding. Served it with a bit of whipped cream.

I've been in contact with Oneshot over the last couple of years but never met him. Maybe one day I'll meet up with him on the Niangua☺.

Have to agree with Wrench that the parks can be considered a target rich environment. You a can learn a great deal by casting to and seeing the reactions of the fish in these creeks. It will definitely prepare you for the time you are fishing one of the wild trout streams and you only encounter a few fish all day. You can make that experience count on that first cast. In terms of the people you meet, that's a different story. Always good to be away from the crowds☺.

Congrats on a great TN bass! Great job!

We had some chicken, legs and breasts, in-house. I boned the chicken pieces while my Betterhalf mixed up a double batch of jerk seasoning. We took half of the mixture and added it to olive oil and marinaded the chicken for a couple of hours. I sliced a red onion and a green pepper and cooked with in a little goose fat (thanks BH). Near the end of the cooking, I added some of the jerk spice. I removed the vegetables and put them on a plate. Added more goose fat into the pan and then cooked the chicken on medium high heat. Just before the meat was done, I squeezed the juice of half of a lime. Served the chicken on tortillas with a little sour cream and sliced avocado and drizzled with hot sauce. Maybe more like a fajita, but really tasty .

I have been on a reboot kick lately. Been watching the originial and the reboots. Watched the Hitch Hiker and maybe becuse it was the 50's was not as good as The Hitcher with Rutger Hauer. (Won't discuss the reboot of the reboot). In my opinion the first Total Recall had a much better plot and back story than the reboot. Corporate greed and oppressive power pretty believable premise. Trying to displace and destroy your workforce made no sense. I'll probably get some grief on this one, but I liked both versions of the Longest Yard.

I have to add an addendum to my bucket list: 100+ lb alligator gar from the Trinity River!

Sounds like a great trip! Glad that you were able to get fishing with your friends and family! Love seeing smiles on kids when they are successful in landing fish.

Weds brought another north wind and a drop in temperatures. So Jamie and I took off early from work to head out and try again for the elusive fish of a thousand casts, the muskellunge! I brought along my new baits. We were only the second boat on the water when we set off from the launch at 4 pm. I got a feel for what my baits looked like in the water and how to make them twitch and swim erratically by casting around the launch area. The water was a bit dingier than on our last trip. Jamie felt that the bucktails may be the most effective baits this evening. We first fished the main lake point and the cove with the standing timber where we started fishing on our last trip. I fished the Mr Whiggley around those trees and brush and did not get a follow. At least none that I could see in the dingy water. I switched to a twin blade bucktail with the gold and copper skirting and I made a cast into the same spot in the timber that Jamie caught his 40" fish on our last trip with that same bait. About 5 to 6 feet from the boat I could see the bait and two feet closer, a big musky was following. She broke the surface going after the bait and was gone. I never saw her while doing figure eights by the boat. I quickly made another cast and had another follow right at the boat. I started my figure eights and she was intently following the bait. On my second pass she hit the bait on the outside turn, but I didn't get a hook set into her. Within two casts my heart was racing from these encounters. Jamie and I both had a good look at both fish. I don't know if they were the same, but both were big fish, close to 40" and thick bodied. I kept fishing alternating between the soft bait and the bucktail. Jamie switched between a crappie crankbait and other bucktails. We fished a lot of wind hit banks along the south west shore of points and coves. Made lots of casts along and around trees and laydowns and across points. No encounters nor follows. We crossed the lake to the north east part of the lake. We hit some of the best brushy areas on that side of the lake. We made lots of casts in what may be considered one of the best spots for musky on the lake. Finally Jamie got a hard follow on the crankbait, but she didn't hit. We headed into a long cove and I had a soft follow with a smaller musky that flashed on my bait. We kept fishing and casting to little avail. On a long point Jamie got another hard follow at the boat after casting almost onto shore and pulling the crankbait by a deep stump. We fished for 40 or 50 minutes in other areas down lake. It was about 7 pm when we got back to that same point. I was fishing the bucktail and cast towards the bank and pulled the bait pass that stump. 4 feet from the boat I saw the fish following. I started a figure eight and on the second pass I saw her hit the bait and set the hook with the bait in her mouth. She must have opened her mouth at that time. I felt one of the hooks stick into her lip and then just as fast I felt the sickening pop of the hook popping loose. I was heartbroken losing this fish. We fished lots of other spots including the standing timber where we started earlier in the afternoon. No more follows. We left the lake by 8:30. This is musky fishing!! I may be hooked! Jamie and I have a trip planned to fish Pomme for our next trip. I plan on bringing the softbaits for the cleaner water. Likely to fish the bucketails on that trip as well.

That is an awesome musky! Fantastic story as well.

During our last trip to Montauk trout park, we caught plenty of fish on hook and line. Livie loves to catch sculpin. She caught plenty with her baits. Then she decided to try to get a few by hand. She caught several by hand including this fish.

Last year my daughter and I really started multispecies fishing in full force. Now my daughter gets really excited about rod and reel fishing, but even more so catching every possible critter on the bank and in the water with her bare hands. On one of our trips last summer Livie got me to promise that as soon as she caught some fish by hand that I would set up a hand fishing thread on OAF. Now I am paying off that debt. When we were fishing the Big Creek with JestersHK and his daughter, Livie caught frogs. toads, a lizard, and a western mosquitofish on that trip. So here is the first hand caught fish of 2017. So if you are so inclined to catch some fish by hand feel free to add to this thread.

If you like that I have some jumbo shrimp to sell you !

I caught more trout than she did, that's because she wanted to catch the sculpin . She caught 16 sculpin to my 5. She also caught a few by hand. So I owe her the handfishing thread that I had promised her.

That's a great average size fish! congrats! If I lived a lot closer, I would be hitting that lake pretty hard this fall. Keep posting!

Good Luck on your fall LOZ trip. Sounds like you are well armed. Looking forward to the report!

I liked the Smothers brother's show as well as Laugh-in. Got my first crush on Goldie Hawn watching Laugh-in. I also loved listening to Bob Newhart's phone bits.