RSBreth

I only harvest a couple on my trips - same with Crappie. It may not be possible to really dent the population with regular fishing methods in the long term, but you sure can decrease the size of the overall population by keeping a large number those big breeding females year after year.

I'm surprised there isn't more response - shy folks or won't click the link?

This was posted at Jay Kumar's Bass Parade blog - pretty funny. http://www.bassparad...ne-rod-one-bait

Well, that's some good news. The other owners were, let's be charitable and just say less than helpful. We'll see how it pans out as time goes forward, but I'm always willing to give some new blood a shot.

Depends on what you're fishing for. There's more Smallies in the river sections (above and below) than the lake at the park, but I like the the Linden and above for Smallies, Linden down to the park for all three black bass species and rock bass, and the area just up from the confluence with the James for Smallies again.

The James is very floatable below Galena - it's called Table Rock lake. But you do have boat traffic to contend with, so most folks just take out at Galena. At any rate, I've fished pretty much all the floatable water on the James, both above and below Lake Springfield, and if I were to do a multi-day float I'd do it somewhere else. It's not that there isn't good fishing and floating on the James, but much of the river below the dam down to about Shelvin Rock isn't all that scenic, and if you live close why not go back to the old homestead and sleep and fish the next section the next day instead of camping on a gravel bar downwind from Floyd's chicken houses?

As soon as my son got big enough to wander around every firearm is in some kind of locked storage. One is an instantly available safe - so I'm not really hindered by them being locked up. When he's bigger and well-trained (well regulated?) I may be able to relax the current status.

Taney's an amazing place - but with the generation it has it's quirks that the only way to really get a handle on it is time on the water. Nice Brown!

I think you've got plenty of good advice to mull over, but if I was limited in what I could carry... A walk-the-dog topwater (Sammy, Gunfish, Spook) A popper (I like the XCaliber Zell Pop) A compact spinnerbait (not the little tiny ones) Some shallow and medium diving cranks (I like the Bober 4A, Strike King Series 3, Norman Middle N) A good floating jerkbait (my new favorite is the Rapala Flat Rap) I like a 1/8th or 3/16th finesse jig, and for plastics - a finesse worm or slim "Senko" like worm - especially for wacky-rigging some 4"or 5" grubs in a couple of colors and a fluke-type soft jerkbait. Pretty much my regular tackle for river Smallies.

Then you're ready to roll. Lots of good Smallmouth water close to home with a solo watercraft. And Spring's almost here.

Smallmouths this time of year on the fly will be a challenge. Taney is not quite "a sure thing" - but it's pretty close.

Yeah - I figured it would be a color I don't have. No tan wrapping thread - just black, green, orange, couple of others. The only tan I have is flat waxed nylon - you don't want to use that.

What color thread? That would be the hardest thing - matching thread color as there's only about a million of them. I'm too far away anyway...

The "Before the season closes until May" part of your question has me curious - are you planning on keeping Bass, or do you think you can't fish for them during that time? You can, you just can't (legally) keep Black Bass during that time. I try not to pester them during the actual spawn, but that's at least two months away.

I surprised anyone still uses straight mono... But that's just me. All I use mono for is topwaters...

30 minutes doesn't do much - but an hour can get you to some cool spots. P.M. sent.

That's a nice Caddis pattern - I use a modified Elk Hair Caddis a lot fishing Crane, and use the skittering presentation like you said if a dead drift upstream dosn't work. I think the key to fishing Crane was already mentioned several times, but to restate the point it comes down to one thing - stealth. Taney, the bigger river like North Fork or the Current, the Parks - all of them don't require the stealth that a small creek with wild trout does. I don't use smaller than 5X - but I rarely wade IN the creek except to cross it, and I probably have worn out my hip waders knees fishing Crane. It also helps if you can cast with both arms - it seems like the best pools require a left handed cast.

You mean March 10th? That's the BFL tourney up for 2012. I'd really think suspending Jerk, grub, finesse jig, shaky head, smaller swimbaits or.... with a big warm rain, crankbait and spinnerbait, or some combo of all of them. I was thinking about fishing it, too.

Nice Brown! I can't wait for my camping/fishing trip this spring to the White.

That doesn't have to be the case - there are canoe rentals on the lower James that can hook you up - float through the faster water and get out to fish the riffles. There's some other wading Smallmouth water close by too, just depends on how far you want to drive. I'll probably send you a P.M. about that tomorrow - Smallmouths on fly gear is just about my favorite fishing.

Cool - I'll try one out when the sticker price comes down - anyone know of an inexpensive (under 70-80 bucks) rod? Addicted - Tenkara is basically a long fly rod with no reel - sort of a fly rod cane pole - check this out: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/N40BOFYKR38" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't think it works that way.

I use superline with a leader, sometimes Sufix or Power Pro 4/15 or Fireline 4/10 both with fluoro leaders about 8' long or so in the 10-pound test range.