RSBreth

Hey - great bit of info - I haven't been up there in about a month.

Like Al said - depends on the canoe and the truck. I've hauled a solo canoe (12') in the bed of a short-bed compact pickup (GMC Sonoma - S-10) right-side-up with the front of the canoe right behind the driver's side and the canoe angled out of the passenger side of the bed for about a decade. Works great, but you have to figure out your canoe and your truck.

It's a custom one built off of lurepartsonline.com's "Hidden Weight" spinnerbait head - the smallest one with more weight added so it's about 3/8 - shad colored (white with a dark back) with an Oklahoma blade stolen off of a Terminator. I'm still not happy with this one - so I'm still tinkering with my spinnerbaits. I was up from the dam, away from the crowd.

I fished the Finley for a little while Sunday - lots of people at the park section with the nice weather. The water is still up just a little and a little milky green from all the runoff, but clearing. I caught my first two spinnerbait Bass of the season - to me that means it's officially Spring. I think I saw 6 different people with one or another Bass Pro "Ascend" kayak - it seems to be the solo watercraft of choice these days.

Funny - but like Al always says it's just frustrating that people think of canoes only as the big barges that you and your "friend" paddle around in and kayaks are the only solo watercraft out there. Uh Oh - I'm thread drifting - call the interweb police.

It's changed very little in that stretch - mostly just a few trees in different places. You'll do just fine floating downstream in a Jon.

Most of my river Smallie rods are 7' or so, the exception is a 6'6" crankbait/jerkbait rod that I just bought. Brands? Name one. I have all kinds of brands represented, lots of older Cabelas and Bass Pro rods and reels, Diawa, Fenwick, St. Croix, etc. I use Braid or Fused line as a main line for everything so none of my rods are really heavy power, most are medium or medium light. I like the reach of the longer rods, but since I use fly gear so much a 7' spinning or casting rod doesn't seam long, and I CAN reach around the front of my solo canoe when a fish isn't trying to swim circles around it. (There are such things as solo canoes) Several of my rods are two piece, and a couple are three piece travel rods. When I hear someone say they would never buy anything but a one piece rod, I realize they probably don't travel far to fish. Fly rods settled the "multi-piece versus one" rod argument years ago. Speaking of fly rods - if I was looking to get a Smallmouth rods for the Ozarks it would be a 8'6" or 9' 7-weight.

If we are limiting it to "kind of floatable" then I'll throw Bull Creek in there - super clear water, at as clear as Swan, after a few rains it stays clearer, longer.

That part of the Finley does have a really good number of Goggle-eyes. I'm glad someone is enjoying them and letting the Smallies go.

Nope. Anything smaller does, but I've used braid with 10 or 12-pound mono diameter on my spinnerbait rods for years - works great and lasts a long time.

I rarely use smaller than 10/40 braid for spinnerbaits, 14.5 fluoro (Orvis "Mirage" 1X tippet for leaders with superline) for cranks and jigs, but somtimes 8-pound P-Line Fluoroclear for leaders with 4/10 Fireline when just small creek fishing. Another victim of too much advertising.

I've always caught better fish in the upper part of the lake versus further upstream in colder water - but hey - you guy might like to answer questions from Springfield P.D after finding the body vs. actually fishing.

Welcome aboard! The HP limit on Lake Springfield is 6 HP. No "big boats" allowed, really.

Maybe around the hot water outlet - otherwise it's way too early.

Yeah - you won't stand up and fish from a 119 - everything in life is a compromise of one sort or another.

No, I used to hual my big tandem canoe down into the Fall - which was not fun but necessary - the Fall isn't all that deep but has stretches with steep mud banks that just aren't wadeable.

The 119 is a very close cousin to my Pack - and although it has some shortcomings I just love the little boat - if you can swing it I'd go get it - what's a little time and gas versus all the time on the water and the freedom to go wherever you want, when you want, in your own solo you'll enjoy after you get it?

I used to hit the Fall River above Fall River Reservior and the Caney River (actually pretty small like a creek) but both were back in the 90's before I moved to the Ozarks. I fished a few other's a couple of times but not enough to get a real "pattern" on like the other two.

Tread carefully - as soon as a got my Pack I started using spinning and casting gear more - just easier to do correcting strokes with one hand while using conventional tackle - I can't remember my exact words but I said basically you need two hands to flyfish, and you need at least one to do do correcting strokes when paddling - that means unless you have three hands it's pretty hard to do. I still use my fly rods out of the solo - just in the right time and place. And a longer rod is better, not shorter. anything to keep your backcast from slapping the water. Gavin is absolutely right about having someone else paddle while you cast in a tandem canoe - it's one of my favorite ways to fish. But that's not the answer you're looking for.

Reminds me of the story on my local news in Wichita about a poor guy that got mugged and beaten by two thugs armed with a brick and a scrap piece of lumber - behind the anchor they showed the image of a revolver and loose ammo around it as their general "crime" picture - I guess the didn't have an image of a brick and 2x4 to put up there. Close enough for "journalism".

I used to fish a couple of those Flint Hill creeks - I'd try suspending jerkbaits (try the XRap in the 08 size, the Husky Jerk in the 10 size, or the Suspending Rogue Junior - all of these have two trebles, not three) and swimming grubs or smaller swimbaits. Slow deep pools with timber near the deepest part of the pool was usually the best shot.

One thing that spinning or baitcast has over spincast is faster retrieve ratio. You really can't burn a spinnerbait or a crank with spincast - you can reel it pretty fast, but not real fast. If I had to start branching out from fly gear I'd start with spinning, too. A good 7' medium action rod with a decent reel can be had for around that price range pretty easy. Pflueger President is a great inexpensive spinner most would recommend.

Yeah, I saw this coming. No RiverBassin' events this year.

I've talked to my county's agent about this plenty of times - I'm sure they know about it but just don't have the manpower or don't think it impacts enough people to be an issue - but it is. I don't think gigging should be outlawed - they need to actually enforce the laws as they are - which they aren't, obviously.

I like the single and double strand wire weedguards - but you can alway trim down a thick plastic "flippin" type weedguard as thin as you want it - but you can't make a single wire one harder to snag as easily. It's also all about what kind of tackle you use to fish the jigs with, too. A light power rod with 6-pound mono doesn't have the hook-setting power that a slighlty heavier power rod does, and the same rod with super line has an even better chance of "sticking" them. There's really a lot of variables at work here, more than just the type of weedguard used on a jig - we aren't even considering that the barely moderate quality hook like the Arkie stand up has. Good hooks equal more hook ups, and the Arkie is O.K. - but just that. EDIT after watching the video again a couple of times I realize it's easy to get the jig to hook the wood "jaws" easier than the other jigs if you cut the double strand weedguard really short. And - I don't fish for wood Bass with perfectly parallel wood dowel jaws. I guess I'm the resident cynic for today.