Phil Lilley

OAF Dots... Just PM me your name and address and I'll send you a few.

I wonder if there's a market for publishing a journal like these? Or putting several together...

No. Only trout parks because that is all there is - trout. Other waters have all kinds of fish. You can keep fishing and catch other species. I guess if you caught every game species in the lake in one day, you'd have to quit... but that would be a trick! Culling if a different subject altogether.

I think you are right.... not many do. I don't. I will though. Yea if you keep a lot of fish, different species, multiple family members, that would run you in to some complicated storage issues! And costly!!

If you caught the fish, your name, address and permit # goes on the ziplock bag, regardless of where the baggie ends up. If a person, who does not fish say, is given crappie, he or she cannot possess more than his or her possession limit of 60. I have to confess - I've never written anything on a ziplock bag except the date... I need to change that practice.

Trout Parks are a different animal. You can't fish after you have caught and possessed (stringered/processed) a limit of trout.

Right. Daily is daily... you can't harvest more than your daily limit even if you give them away. I see this occasionally on this lake. I've had a gentleman years ago go out and catch his limit, come back to the dock and give them away to someone not catching fish, then go back out and catch and keep another limit. Sometimes he'd give 2 or 3 limits away in the same day... he thought he was doing a good thing. May be... but it was against the code and he could have been ticketed for it.

You're right- you are by code over your limit, regardless of your intention.

We were discussing possession limits for crappie on another thread and I wanted to repost it here so that it gets more exposure. We all want to stay legal when possessing our catch. I think there was some assumptions about the legal possession limit for crappie only being 30 fish when in fact it's 60. http://mdc.mo.gov/blogs/fresh-afield/limiting-confusion Here's an article that talks about limits. I don't think a lot of anglers know certain lake limits vary from statewide limits. When a lake, like Taneycomo, isn't listed with special regulations on bass and crappie, the default, state limits are in play. So there's no length limit on bass or crappie on Taneycomo and the state daily limit of 30 crappie and 6 bass, 60 crappie and 12 bass, possession, is correct. So many anglers only fish Table Rock and/or Stockton and abide by the special limits for those lakes- that's all they know and might assume the limits are the same statewide. Many think they only can keep 30 crappie in the freezer because it's twice the Table Rock daily limit when they can really keep 60, the statewide possession limit. As for giving fish away - I believe once those fish are out of your possession, that's exactly what they are and you can replace them. I would advise you to cross your name off those baggies and instruct the blessed friend you're giving them to to write their name on the bag before putting them in the freezer. I wonder if they need a fishing license to have fish in the ice box...?

I'm surprised, after all these years of forum jargon, this hasn't come up. Or may be it has and I missed it. I'm going to start a new topic under General Fishing Discussion and see if we can get more comments and, more than that, get the word out about what exactly possession limits are and how to stay legal. That's a great article - thanks for finding it.

Tried something different (for me) tonight. Left the skin on the crappie fillet and grilled them. Held together fine. No skin - they fall apart when you take them off the grill.

That's a real good question... giving fish away. Also marking your fish/bags correctly. Another question - is the possession limit 30? The STATE crappie daily limit is 30. Possession is twice your daily limit. The code, at least on MDC sites is not clear about possession unless it's a simple as mud... 60 is the possession limit for crappie, period, regardless where you catch them. I'm on Taneycomo where there is no length limit and the daily limit is 30. But I caught my limit on Table Rock. I have 30 crappie in my freezer (minus 9 I grilled tonight). What if I wanted to go out on Taneycomo and catch more crappie (which is very possible because they have been catching them in front of the Landing). Can I keep more crappie and be legal. The way I read the code I can. I for one never want to get sideways with MDC enforcement... I want to be and stay legal. Some of these questions are good ones and should be understood clearly by conscience anglers like ourselves. http://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/regulations

by Darin Schildknecht Fishing in the trophy area has been really good this week! I got out a couple of days and did very well both days. Both days the water was completely off. The Southwestern Power Administration has not really kept to a predictable schedule so it was nice to get down there and do some wade fishing when I had the chance. The first day was either Sunday or Monday I can’t remember but the water was extremely low. I was fishing at the top end of the island just above Lookout Bluff and both trees on the opposite side of the lake were just barely in the water. I stood on the hump in the middle of the lake and the water was only four or five inches deep! This made if riffle there at the top end of the island more prevalent and it moved a little faster. The fish were all around me to the left and right, upstream and downstream, it didn’t matter where I looked there was fish. I was using a yellow Miracle Fly under a Palsa about 4 inches deep with 6x Rio Fluoroflex tippet. The fish were so active I got a strike almost every cast and if I missed the first one I would just let it keep drifting and another one would pick it up. Most of the fish were around ten to twelve inches but they were still really fun to catch. I fished between 10am and 12pm and it was sunny and still. The second day was yesterday and the water was not as low but there were no generators running. I fished the same area at the top end of the island just above Lookout and didn’t do as well to begin with but I still was catching a lot of fish. I was still using the Miracle Fly with 6x and under a Palsa but I had to go a little deeper because the water was deeper. The Miracle Fly needs to be within a couple inches of the bottom to be really effective. After I fished from the middle of the lake for a bit I moved over to the back by the two downed trees where my dad was catching them and I did a lot better just above the trees. Again most of the fish were small but I did catch a couple males that were fat and around sixteen or seventeen inches and dark colored. I fished from 12pm to about 2:30pm and it was windy, cloudy, and cold. Not a nice weather day but a great fishing day! I did see a few redds in the area so be careful when walking around not, to walk right in them because they might be full of eggs!

How does that work? Driving all the way to Tulsa with fish in the livewell... then back to the lake. This may be an obvious, dumb question but isn't that hard if not lethal on the bass? I'm not up on BASS or any other bass tournament practices... so I don't know these things.

No cover - just open water.

You should do good using PB or night crawlers. Lots of rainbows in the lake. Short Creek is another hot spot.

13 females out of 45 keepers today.

I think I've cleaned enough crappie for a while.

I may have been misled... I'll reactivate Tapatalk and see if this new update solved the conflict.

It's the old electric purple. Purple minnow with blue flake. I bought 10k from Mark at Cricket Creek when we thought the original swimming minnow people were going out of business.

Got on the water and up to our spot by 7:30 this morning. Crappie on the first cast. Had 3 limits by 10 am. Same technique - slow retrieve right on the bottom in 7-9 feet. I forgot (or lost) my crappie measure tool so everything that went in the livewells were at least 11 inches. We were checked yesterday at the ramp and was expecting to see him again today (did not). We threw back quite a few "keepers" along with some short of 10 inches. Yesterday's crappie I cleaned - 11 out of 30 were female. I have not cleaned today's catch yet. My temp gauge was incorrect yesterday. My new gauge this morning said the water temp was 43. Pics to follow.

Did not set the get together date.... need to.

No whites there but did hook one upstream on flats just above point 15 last week.

We fished an area where me and Bill had caught crappie in the past. I followed Josh's report that he was catching his fish in 8-10 feet and it was right on. Many thanks for sharing that. Last week, we fished deep (18-20) thinking that was the winter bite pattern. I think they're there too but not as easy to catch as in 8-10 for sure. We're going back tomorrow. I'm taking a fly rod and fish a jig under a float. Should work. It'll be the last time I get out this week. Weekend - we're covered up here at the resort. Taking the Grizzly. If you see me with Jackson (black lab), wave and say howdy.

Put in at Bridgeport at 8:30 this morning and headed up with my fishing pal Bill Babler. We hit a couple of places close to point 15 before heading up in to Flat Creek. Had our limit at 11 am. Just like Josh has reported - 8-10 feet of water on the flats. Fished a long area - not all in one spot. Had to be on the bottom. 1/16th oz head with purple/red flake swimming minnows. Had probably 15 shorts, half dozen smallies up to 15 inches and a few small largemouths. Water temp 41 and good color. Paul and Martin met us there from Neosho. They had their limits by noon. We were the only boats in sight. 3 rigs at the Flat Creek ramp and 6 at Bridgeport. Agent Akin checked us as we were leaving. He was there last week too. Better be legal if you're fishing over there!!