RSBreth

If you're a good paddler there's no worries until you get behind Riverside. Although, the further upstream you go this time of year, the further you get away from good sized fish - if you know where to look.

If you were going to limit yourself to catching whatever you come across Bass-wise, I think the lighter weights are fine. But to be serious about Bass on fly gear I set two "minimums", that is, the basic rod/line weight to cast some of the flies needed to get hooked up with the big boys. For Smallmouth it's a 6-weight, and for Largemouth it's a 7-weight. You can fight a big Bass easily on a lighter rod, but it's casting the flies needed to entice good sized specimens versus the average "pounder". Yes, you can catch a big Bass on a bugger or something cast on your 4-weight, but generally, bigger flies=bigger fish.

There's another access close by, just look at the road maps or drive around. It's not as good , but you can put in there if someone drops you off.

Great report Bill. After seeing that nice looking 'Bow, I was I could have been down there, wind or not.

Yeah, once Mr. Smalljaws latches onto you, the gig is up...

At the lower price point, I can't think of anything else that has as much value as far as a solo rig. I wish I had gotten in on the "Kay-Noe" thing when it was available. Basically a Disco for about 3 bills, sure can't beat that. Save some wear and tear on the old Pack when portaging isn't an issue.

I've fished Dahlberg-type divers on a sink tip around submerged timber, sort of a fly rod crankbait type thing, strip until you get the fly near the snag, them do a strip and pause thing where the floating fly dives toward the cover on the strip, then floats up on the pause. It's a neat trick, but like was said, a huge pain in the butt to cast.

You could check the river levels on the Gasconade...Gasconade River Levels

I was downstream near there several years ago when a Security dude yelled something my way. I may or may not have yelled for him to come and tell me a little closer. O.K. - I actually told him to swim his @%# over closer to tell what he was trying to say to me. He eventually went away. CU doesn't own the river.

Or even better, you could get what I use to haul duck decoys behind my other canoe, the inflatable kayak. Inflatable Kayak I've taken it on a couple of wading trips to bypass deep water where you couldn't get out on the banks. I filled the bottom chambers with expanding foam to make it a "semi-rigid" boat. Just about impossible to sink now.

I 've fished out of tubes a lot in the past because they were easy to transport, cheap, reliable. I have two in my garage right now, but haven't used them in ages- solo watercraft like kayaks and solo canoes are just so much more mobile, it's hard to go back. I have done a tube float/wade thing on upper Beaver a few times, but not on the Finley. As far as I know, there aren't any restrictions on their use on any of the bodies of water you mentioned.

What's safe to eat and where to avoid them... PDF pamphlet of the same thing, more or less... There you go...

It already gets plenty of pressure. I would challenge you to go and try to duplicate what I did on that day from my post. It's already changed. I'll guaranty someone went there this past weekend and threw a suspending jerk where they think I was using it, how they think I was using it, and still drew a blank. Then they'll ask for more specifics in a personal message off the main board here. Trust me. Anyway, back to the Rogues that are sinking. Take them back. If a suspending jerk won't float up slightly in cold 40- to 50-degree water, it'll sink in 60-degree water. And I never want mine to sink. Ever. They should sit absolutely perfectly suspended. That's my way, at any rate. Seems to work.

XCaliber Zell Pop. Lucky Craft Gunfish. LC Pointer, XCaliber XS4 and XS3 Booyah Baby Boo jig, V&M Football jig.

Yeah, sorry, I haven't made it up there yet this spring. I usually take the chain saw the first trip, or after high water. As for the other question, they usually have the park open by about 6:00 in the summer, but it varies. You can park just over the mill dam bridge next to the old mill, and take out under the bridge to avoid the park if it's not open, or during the middle of summer. People tend to mill around and block the park boat ramp in summer. I do that trip a least a couple of times every month in warm weather - get dropped off at 125 with the boat, and float back to the truck at the park.

It's pretty good for numbers of Smallmouth, and lots of Rock Bass, too. Usually you don't get very many big fish, but it's a small river, what do you expect. It's an easy float from 125 to the park at Ozark, and very popular during summer. There's some small log jambs sometimes, but usually us locals (and the Ozark Mountain Paddlers) remove them if at all possible.

I had a great day fishing my old home pond, one of the best days ever fishing Springfield Lake. If you get a good warm-up, clear water, and the right day off, you can hit it right for a change. I fished from just before 10:00 A.M. until a little after 2:00 P.M. - a pretty short trip, really. I was trying several newer things including a swimbait, but wound up catching most of the fish on a suspending jerkbait. I was using both a Rogue and a XCaliber XS4, both in orange belly silver sides/blue back. Nothing huge, just a good dozen or so above the couple pound size, and 6 or so little guys. Here's one: Most of the fish would hit the jerkbait after you let it sit suspending for 15 seconds or more, then move it again, at which point they'd crush it. No dainty "tap tap" stuff. Just weight on the line, then a split second before the fish realized something was wrong, then screaming drag. Most were like those two before, but this guy was a beast. Just fat and hard fighting - such a hard fighter I snapped only one quick (and kind of crappy) picture before sending the worn out fish quickly on its way. Got that one on one of the newer XRap Shad cranks in "Purpledescent". Just a hunch about a deeper spot that panned out. Slow stop-and-go retrieve. Again, it hit after a pause. I won't bore folks with a bunch of pictures two-pounders, so the details. Just about anywhere I found submerged timber on deeper banks there active fish. Fish hit after the pause, and I did catch another one (besides the one picturered) on the crank worked the same way. Missed one on the swimbait due to the dam belly-weighted hook. I hate those things. Also caught a couple of smaller guys on a 5" Kalin's grub in pearl swam on a 1/8 ounce jighead, but nothing big. When I was leaving and finally got the solo canoe wrangled back into the truck I looked around in the bed and realized someone had "liberated" my bungee cords while I was fishing. Well, isn't that special? Of course I had back-up methods of tying the boat down, so the jokes on you, anonymous bungee thief, the jokes on you. It didn't faze me one bit, I just shrugged then tied it down with my back-up ropes, and off I went.

If you're really concerned about storage access, and access to multiple rods, you still ought to check out the solo canoe thing. I'm biased, but the bias comes from experience in 'Yaks versus solo's.

Be quiet. You're giving away the secrets!

I think that is where lots of people go wrong when using superline on spinning reels- they use way to heavy (and thick diameter) line than they need. I use lot's of 3/8 and 4/10 Fireline for deep water fishing, and would use the 8/20 Fireline or 8/30 Spiderwire more for heavy cover fishing, like flipping jigs around docks or timber. Use some thin stuff and you'll get down quicker than you would with mono or straight Fluoro.

Yeah, it's not a huge secret that people who aren't afraid to try some new stuff are switching - even old dogs can learn new tricks. For example, Guido Hibdon. Lake Champlain. Skipping docks. Win. Hibdon Takes Champlain... The part that's relevent to this thread? "His skipping jig was a 3/16-ounce jig teamed with a brown Guido Bug trailer. The jig was tied to 15-pound-test Trilene braided line on a spinning reel. "I use bright yellow braid so I can see my line better up under those dark docks," he revealed. "I color the first few feet of the braid just up from the jig with a dark green marker, but the rest of it is bright yellow so I can see when one of those big suckers starts swimming off with it." And just to clarify, I'm not calling Mr. Hibdon "an old dog"! Maybe "Legend" would be better.

I like the cheap bulk line you can get at wally-world for backing. Like Eric said, 8-pound is good to keep the connecting knot small.

And then after bushwacking in there you'll find very limited access from the bank. Upper part of Lake Springfield/James River isn't bad fishing, but this time of year it would just be a surveying trip. You can fish it pretty good from a canoe or kayak. You could rent a canoe or kayak from the boathouse there on Lake Springfield in the summer: Lake Springfield canoe/kayak rentals

The easiest (and most likely to injure you) way to access Linden Lake is climb up the front of the dam with your boat. I'm not kidding. I had access on the Lake from one of the folks who lived up there, but they moved, and I'm out of luck on that now. Floating from Linden to the park in Ozark is a super easy float, but during warmer weather I wouldn't leave my truck up there (lots of drunken "partiers"), but others do and don't have any problem. It's just easier for me to leave my truck at the ramp in the Ozark Park, then get dropped off with my canoe up there, then float back. Some of the best fishing (and some nice views) are in the Linden to Ozark stretch anyway. A little busy in Summer, but most folks don't fish very seriously, so you can still catch them. As far as floating down and paddlin back up, in low water it would be possible, but it would be a real grind to do if the water was flowing. Other rivers? Beaver and Swan are just off to your east, and Bull Creek is just to your Southwest. A good combination is the DeLorme Atlas and Gazeteer of Missouri DeLorme Atlass and Gazeteer (you can usually pick these up at Wally Word or any book store) and then GoogleEarth. Great tools for finding access points.

Yes.