jimithyashford

Well Jesus dude, that seems kind of smug. Not, I dont think that costs to much. I river float maybe 3 to 5 times a summer and hire and outfitter everytime, but when i have a free morning or a long lazy afternoon, or just a few hours after work, and feel the itch to go fishing, I'd like some advice or guidance on how to get better at doing so. It's not like wanting a good way to fish that is a BIT less of an investment than a weekend float trip makes me some kind of mook, espeically when we have such an abundance of fishable waters on our doorstep.

So I've been trout fishing 2 times in my life, both times at Montauk, both times waking up crazy early to be there when the whistle blows, and both times I got skunked. I spent the whole day staring at a stream full of trout, literally bouncing my bait off thier faces, and nothing took. Those 10 collective hours of putting scores of casts right in the faces of score of fish that didnt seem to even notice REALLY turned me off of trout fishing. And my buddy that convinced me to try it out only caught 2 one time and 3 the other, which seemed terrible to me given that the stream was choked with fish you could almost just grab, but he seemed thrilled with that haul. Now if trout fishing isnt normally like that, then no i am not opposed, i love to eat trout.

Howdy All, I am a bad angler who lives in Springfield. I say I am a bad angler cause I almost never catch fish, despite spending a heck of a lot of time on the water. I made a seperate post for Lake Stockton, but this post applies to general fishing anywhere within about an hour of Springfield. I have fished Lake Springfield and James River up as far as the 60 Bridge from a kayak many times. I usually cast crankbaits and rooster tails around structure and up under overhanging trees or as close to vegetation as I can get. I've caught one decent bass in probably 10 or so hours on the water doing this, and a dozen or so little panfish or occasionally a small crappie. I have sat under the south Campbell bridge and north of the Kinser bridge late at night with chicken livers sitting on the bottom for hours trying to catch catfish, and have never caught a single one. The only catfish I cause was once while using a ned rig to try and get bass. I have sat for many many hours at Fellows lake with chicken livers soaking on the bottom at night and never caught a catfish there. I feel like I've spent at least 9 hours on fellows and seriously don't think I ever even got a bite, but that was like 4 years ago and I gave up on that lake. I almost always fish in the summer. Now I know fishing is very hit and miss, very feast and famine. Sometimes they just don't bite, sometimes they do, but I have a hell of a time trying to get on to fish. The majority of my fishing trips result in me getting skunked, or maybe if I am lucky one fish. In years of trying I have literally NEVER had a "good" fishing trip where I "catch my limit of keepers" or even get more than one or two decent fish. I feel like the only time I can get some decent fishing is if I pack up and make the longer trip to the Gasconade or Jack's Fork or Piney or Northfork, but then I have the added expense of having to hire and outfitter to shuttle me. Now, I am going to assume that the rivers and lakes within an hour of Springfield aren't just devoid of fish, and that in fact I am just a terrible angler. But I read articles and watch videos about what kind of bait to use and what kind of water to put it in, and I feel like I follow that basics, but I just cannot seem to catch any fish. So, if anyone has any advice of just, ya know, how to catch some fish in the Springfield area, what I could be doing better or different, I would dearly appreciate it. I understand getting skunked happens, but it's gotten to the point that I go out expecting to get skunked and am pleasantly surprised when I occasionally catch one fish.

I really appreciate the input, I do, and it sounds like you really know your stuff, but I now have to go google three terms to understand your reply. I have no idea what a TRD or Plug Knocker, or Shaky heads are, but I'll figure it out.

Can you help clarify for me a few things. So fishing a long tapering point? I still don't know what that means. So lets Imagine a this long pointed V as our point. Do I paddle out to where the water gets about 10 feet deep directly in a strait line off the point of that V and bounce a ned rig along the bottom there? Do I do it off to the sides of the V rather that strait out off the tip? And when you say to fish a ned rig, help me understand if I am doing it right. I rig up the elastec body on the ned jig hook, cast it out, let it sink to the bottom, and retrieve it slowly across the bottom, giving a few jerks, let it sit, give it a few jerks, let it sit, reel for a couple of second, let it sit, that kind of thing. I've only fished a ned rig a handful of times that way, but got no love and kept getting hung up so I switched off.

I've spent some time bouncing a ned rig specifically, and something very similar to a ned rig, but with a crawfish type body, along the bottom near rocky shorelines or strait bluff dropoffs, and have only ever caught one catfish fishing down on the bottom. Maybe just bad luck? Maybe i'm doing it wrong? I cast it, let it sink to the bottom, and retrieve it slowly by giving it a couple of jerks, let it sit for a few seconds, couple of jerks, let it sit.

Hi All, any advice that could be offered would be greatly appreciated, cause I am burning tons of time and money into trying to fish on Stockton, and I just cannot seem to get on any fish. So I have fished there the past two summers fairly heavily. I've done bank fishing and kayak fishing. I usually go in the late afternoon until sunset for about 3 hours. I have fished where Turkey Creek meets the Lake several times (37°31'56.8"N 93°36'17.0"W) as well as in the sunken trees around the island north west of there (37°34'02.5"N 93°38'03.1"W) and also the inlet north of the High Point access (37°34'08.5"N 93°35'41.3"W). If I see activity on the surface then I usually cast crank baits or rooster tails towards the activity and around schools of bait fish. If I see no activity on the surface then I try deeper crankbaits around structure, usually submerged trees or up against bluff faces or rocky shore lines, and if that still gets no hits then I put a rubber worm or cray on a jig head and bounce it along the bottom near structure. So I have spent maybe 10 total sessions of around 3 hours each time on Stockton using that method in those areas I've listed, and most of the time I get skunked, I will sometimes catch maybe a fish. I think maybe only 2 or 3 times have I done this method and caught 2 or more fish. I really have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I feel like I'm following the bass fishing basics pretty well and just getting no love. I'm not even particularly married to bass, I like catching catfish and crappie, but I am also a very restless fisherman, I like an active style, so catfishing usually bores me. I once got the advice to try fishing "off of points" but I really have a hard time understanding what that means. Ok so I find a point...like do I fish right up against the shore where the point is? Do I go out 30 or 40 feet from the end of the point and fish there? I mean "off a point" is like...a huge area, that could mean anything. I don't really know how to follow that advice. Anyway, if any old fisherman on here has some advice for me, anything that can get my catch rate up to maybe more than an average of one fish per 6 hours on the water, I'd appreciate it.

Well, I get the definite sense that this message board leans a little bit to the Conservative side, so I don't want to open that can of worms. Not that I mind a good vigorous political diebate, this just doesn't seem like the right place for it. So, warranted or not, I was simply trying to say that I think it is not only natural, but healthy, for the salience and emminence of these kinds of events to fade with time, and maybe 9/11 is starting to reach that stage, and that's ok.

When I was on my way into work the other day, I had to ask the guy at the gas station why the flags were half-mast. Obviously I know about 9/11. I was 14 when it happened, I "came of age" in the post 9/11 decade. It was a pretty darn big influence on my life, but I still wasn't thinking "terrorism, 9/11, remembrance" that morning. It was just another morning. So that got me thinking. Eventualy tragic events do fade into history and stop being at the tip of the public concious. That is normal. That is how it should be. Nobody wakes up on Dec 7th and thinks "This is Peral Harbor day". Nobody put the flags at half mast on May 7th in remembrance of the Sinking of the Lusitania. These were important events that were very much in the Patriotic vein of the country at the time, but eventually the wound stops being so raw, eventually it fades, and eventually people don't really think about it unless it's brought up or someone reminds them. I think everyone understand that this happens, and there is nothing wrong with that. Eventually the day of tragedies should just fade back into just being another day, that is healthy and normal. The question is, how long should that take? Is it too soon for people to need to be reminded why the flags are at half mast? Is it too soon for saying the phrase "9/11" to be just a date? I dunno. It still feels recent, but its really not. There are teenagers out there who were not alive when the attack happened. I know that seems crazy, it doesn't seem like it's been that long, but if you have a 13 year old born the later part of the year, they were not even alive when the attacks happened. Maybe we can cut people some slack, maybe it's about time to let that one fade into the place of a historic event rather than a current and ongoing hurt?

This.....is hilarious

I keep an active license and I spend a lot of time each year on the water because, even though I'm not much of a fisherman, I am a hell of Frog Gigger, Turtle Hunter, and Crawfish trapper, and the same license applies to all of those activities as well. When down at Delaware Access a couple days ago, I had an agent show up and ask to see my license and check my stringer for the first time ever. So it occurs to me that in this state, holding an active license is pretty much just a show of support for the cause, since you can effectively fish for 5-6 years, in fairly public places, and never get checked. Have I just been lucky to miss agents all this time, or are they really rare as unicorns? And is that just Missouri or is that true of most states?

I may not be much of a fisherman, but I am an old pro at mushrooming.

Went out on Saturday for most of the day. Spent about an hour fishing the hole below the Rivercut golf course parking lot. I used a crankbait and a Ned style rig. I didn't actually have any of those stiffer worms that the Ned calls for, so I used brightly colored (since it was overcast) worm rigged the same way. That didn't get me anything, either across the bottom or up higher. So I switched to a very small crankbait and that got me.....a catfish? Very suprised to get a catfish jumping up and catching my crankbait, but he did. That was an average sized channel cat. I was glad to catch him. After that the Golf Course hole gave no more love for about 40 minutes and I called it quits and headed off to the Delaware town access, which I had never fished before. That place was snag city. I tried putting out a catfish rod with crawfish tails on it while actively bass fishing, but I got snagged every time, so I gave that up. When I was bass fishing I had to stay top water cause anything even kinda low got snagged. I started by fishing off the boat ramp, nothing there. Moved down and fished below the first set of riffles, nothing there either, then I lost my crankbait to a snag. I was very annoyed. So I switched to something cheap that I didn't care to lose, a little yellow fuzzy jig, and headed off downstream to find a better spot. There is a place wher the main river heads to the right, and to the left is a little soggy stream bed that you can tell only flows when the river is really high, but is cut off from the rest of the river when it's not the rainy season. I went back there and fished my jig in the series of isolated pools on that side and caught loads of little perch, which are fun to catch but not exactly a prized quarry, and I also caught one baby smallie and one larger smallie, probably 10 inches or so, out of one of those isolated pools. Everything in those pools was super hungry. So, I wouldn't call the trip a wild success, but I did much better than I have yet this year. I caught one decent catfish, one smallie who, while not a monster a least wasn't a baby, and got to jerk about a dozen ravenous perch out of the water. Also, while exploring the partially dried out bed I found an absoluty mother lode of oyster mushrooms, but they were all babies and need a few balmy days to grow. We are supposed to get a few more nice hot days later in the week, after those days I'm heading back to harvest. If you like wild mushrooms, Oysters are the best, and I am thinking I will walk away with like 10 pounds of them. Hyvee is the only store in town that I know of that sells them, and they charge $8-$9 a pound, so finding a huge wild harvest is a good score. Feel free to take the tip and go get some, but if you take them all and don't leave any for me I will be very disappointed.

I have considered a guided trip, and I would love to go on one, but it's just outside of my price range. Well....outside what I WANT to spend. Also, I don't own a boat, and guided trips are all on boats, so anything I might learn or discover on a guided trip would be difficult for me to apply once back in my own boatless bank-fishing world. At least that is what I was assuming. My assumption might be wrong though.

Thank you kelroy. I am really hopeing the rain and cooler temps makes things a bit more active.

Ok, well, it is forgiven then. I find it fishy myself, or distinctly not fishy as the case may be. I don't always get totally skunked, about half the time I do catch SOMETHING, just never anything even remotely entering the "keeper" range (I don't keep bass, just a general expression for a good fish). I've only caught 2 fish all summer longer than my hand. Maybe 20 fish or so total if you include all of the baby smallies and perch. And way earlier in the year, when it was still cold enough I needed gloves to be out fishing, I caught a bass a little longer than my hand out of the warm water outlet at lake springfield. And that is it! No word of it a lie.

Well, that does make me feel better at least in knowing that I'm not specifically cursed.

Mitch F, is that any different than some of the dough bait out there? Is it cheaper to do it that way than to buy the premade dough bait? Or is that just the secret weapon recipe you swear by? If so, thank you for sharing.

Yeah, It was a great weekend, just terrible fishing. I am compartmentalizing here. I wont let the bad fishing ruin the whole weekend, but I also wont let everything else being awesome convince me the fishing was good when it wasn't.

What do you mean by "the backs of creeks and coves" I'm not familiar with the jargon. Rip rap? That's just a lot of junk and structure like by bridges right? So if I wanted to make a day out of catfishing on stockton like, what, put all three poles in the water, wait and hour? Move if there are not bites. Just keep driving around to different areas until I find some fish?

I've been spenidng most of my summer trying to catch Smallies, which is great fun, but my first love is catfishing. I always feel bad about keeping smallies, they taste great (I think) but are a catching fish not an eating fish, Cats on the other hand make a great meal, and you only need to keep a couple of nice fat cats to make a good dinner as opposed to 3-5 smallies. Anyway! I plan on trying some catfishing soon, since i've only tried once this year, but I want some guidance first. I tried catfishing a LOT last year, and only caught 1 catfish, so I don't want to make the same mistake again this year. Here is what I HAVE been doing, please tell me if this is wrong, what I should do different, or if all the parts are there and I just havn't been lucky. Last year I fished Fellows (at the fishing dock) and Lake Springfield (below the dam) and Crieghton Fishing access a lot. I spent many many hours at night with three rods cats out in a kinda fan pattern from my lawn chair, just waiting for a bite with no love. I usually used chicken liver, although I tried soap once and crawfish a few times. I would rig a bell weight about a foot up from the hook, cast it out, reel until the line was tight against the weight, and then prop it up and wait. I got one catfish out of Crieghton doing that, and I caught him on a jig while I was fishing for bluegill out of boredom while waiting on my actualy catfish poles to catch something. I have only gone out once this year, and it was to stockton, and I found a spot with a slow sloping rise from deep water to the beach with a little alcove/inlet to one side and the open water to the other. I let 4 poles sit there for probably 3 hours before I called it quits. (this spot right exactly here 37.580526,-93.634554) SO! I was operating all last year on the idea that catfish are drawn to scent, and if you just leave your stinky bait there long enough, a cat will come along and take it. So I would plop myself down and wait an average of 3-5 hours before packing up and heading home. Again I used soap, liver, and crawfish, but mostly liver. So, catfishermen. Any advice on where I can go and what I can try that will give me a pretty good chance of getting a good cat or two as long as I am willing to invest 3-5 hours of wet-line time?

I've heard that you have to hit trout really early to have the best shot at catching them. I was actually camping at Bennet (other than the bad fishing it was an excellent weekend) so I was right there and had every intention of being on the water when the buzzer went off, but a late night of camp fire stories and beer kept me in bed until about 8:30am the next morning. I told myself "There are thousands of fish down there. There will still be plenty, I can sleep in a little." Guess that's a lesson learned. I will be heading out tonight after work to fish a nice pool near rivercut. I caught one good smallie there a couple weeks ago, and I could see loads of other fish in the water, I just couldn't coax any others to bite. It's been cooler and we've had rain, so I'm hoping they are one fire this afternoon. Wish me luck.

I think my main problem is that I am on bad water. Maybe a really good fisherman can reliably pull fish out of the James, but I am not a really good fisherman, and I just can't get a darn thing out of the water right around town. That's why I was excited to try Bennet Springs, but man was that just an aggravating encounter! Now since last weekend when I spent a whole day throwing lures right into a trout's face to only have one take the bait, I have been looking up tips on catching trout, and I have some people going on about how trout are easy to pull, while I have other accounts that seem to match my own, of spending all day standing right over Trout without being able to get any to bite. At least that lets me know it's not unheard of. Also, on reflecting about my time spent at Bennet, I saw hundreds of angler casting constantly all day long, I dunno how many thousands and thousands of casts I must have seen, but I only actually saw maybe a dozen fish landed. I dunno what that means, but it makes me feel less cursed. I think I will go down and try near Rivercut tomorrw or the next day. It's the only place I've actually caught a decent fish, and hopefully the rain and cool nights will make them more eager to bite. I think this fishing issue is so frusterating to me because back when the Mutton Creek fishing dock was open, I could alway count on catching fish. I would go there, drop a hook with a minnow over the side, and I would for sure catch fish. I remember a few evening there pulling 14+ inch smallies off of the water by the dock on almost every cast, and then spending all night catching my limit of crappie. Even a terrible day at that spot still guarenteed you a few fish, and on good days you could hardly keep your pole baited. But that place has been closed for the past 2 years, and since then I have beat miles of shore line and waded a lot of river in search of SOME spot where I can head out to fish, or take a friend who is new to fishing, and have a good expectation of catching something. Not only have I not found a good replacement, but apparently even expecting to find something like what I experianced for the two years I fished the Mutton Creek fishing dock is an unrealistic pipe dream. That place must have been magic or something. Now-a-days I can't catch anything and I don't even dare dream of taking a friend out to try fishing, cause all I will do is make darn sure they get a bad impression of the hobby. So I am sorry if I seem frusterated and at my wit's end here, I am those things. It is just driving me nuts how something that seemed so easy at one point is now darn near impossible, with just the closing of a dock? Boggles the mind.

Where! Where did she catch them? Let me know and I will be there! Please stop talking about me instead of to me. I have been poliet and respectful of the advice I've been given no? Should I just excuse myself until I am able to successfuly catch things and then re-join the conversation? Rather defeats the purpose of joining I think.

....what the heck? Has the consensus become that I am a troll? I am faking not catching any fish? I did not even remotely anticipate this. I assure you I have been earnest and consistantly trying what I've been advised to try. I fished that Crawfish on a hook set up like 5 trips in a row. I fished the NED rig all day once, that was the day I actually caught a nice bass. I don't know what I've said or done that has come off as trollish, other than not catch fish. Or is my ability to catch fish so abysmal that it seems I must be faking cause nobody could have THAT hard of a time catching fish? Well I assure you it's real, and it sucks. I had no idea fishing a roostertail was a weird thing, it just seemed like a good active lure, and it gets me the most consistant hits from little bitty fish, so I usually start using it as kinda my last hurrah before I call it quits. And as to what Fishing Wrench said, that sounds like me, in the sense that I keep casting and casting and not getting bites, and advice like "pay attention" or "learn to anticipate a strike" sounds great, but I don't know what that means. Pay attention to what? To where the eddy is? To where you see splashes? To where the water seems to have deeper channels? And what on earth does learning to ancitipate a strike entail? When I feel a bump or jolt that seems like it may have been a fish that just didn't bite hard enough to get hooked, I usually stop, twitch it a little, and then keep reeling. Is that what you mean? Trust me, if I knew what I was doing wrong enough that me being a fake is more believable than me catching this few fish. I would have corrected it. But I get the sense I am overstaying my welcome. I had no intention of that. I apologize.