Sam

Are they gonna eat my crappies?

I drove across the Lake Springfield Dam last week. It was after a big rain, there was lots of water going through the dam, and the James River was up and yellow-muddy. Downstream from the dam there were soapsuds as far as you could see, stirred up by going through the dam. That's all going down into Tablerock.

Soak white bass filets for two hours in the 'fridge in Club Soda or Seltzer Water before frying. You won't be able to tell 'em from crappie filets.

From a panfish point of view, and even though it's miserable fishing in the wind - that's when my best fishing is! Tomorrow is supposed to have wind from 11 to 23 mph with gusts to 30, and I'm going fishing. I think my aluminum boat is capable of going backwards and sideways faster than it'll go forward with the main motor in those conditions - I'm like a dry leaf on a pond. I do a lot of drift fishing, motoring upwind to the top of an area then drifting down with the wind, controlling the drift with my trolling motor and trolling a swimming minnow or Roostertail. I'll look for places where the wind has baitfish blown up against banks and points, and that's where the white bass and crappie will be.

I'm kinda 1980's in my night fishing. I've got a black light on the left side-rail of my boat, and I use Stren Flourescent line with it. When it's good and dark, that line looks as big around as a lead pencil. There's no problem getting around the lake at night. My new fishfinder has GPS with it, but I don't pay it much attention. I've always just followed the reflections on the water and watched the hills against the night sky.

I don't go after paddlefish, but I sure disagree with you there. Paddlefish won't bite on a hook, so if it weren't for snagging no one would get any good out of them. I DO like to grab suckers in the spring, and I don't think there's anything unethical about that. There are plenty of suckers, MDC has established a limit which we observe, and I don't see the problem. Anyway, I've spent thousands of hours of my life waiting for a fish to bite - and with sucker grabbing I don't have to, legally. I kinda like that once in awhile! Anyway, why do you think only hook-and-line fishing is "ethical"? I think any legal method is ethical, and I'm sure the vast majority of fish caught worldwide are commercially harvested with nets. Is that unethical, too? You've got me imagining a bunch of Norwegians out on the stormy North Sea, baiting little-bitty hooks for sardines!

I'm not signing any petition because I don't think they do any good. Also, I'm pretty much undecided when it comes to the subject of trout in the Ozarks. They don't belong here, they don't reproduce (generally) here, and my enthusiasm is directed toward native fish species. It's not that I don't like to trout-fish, but I've camped at 11,000 feet in the High Sierras and caught native golden trout, I've caught cutthroats and brookies out of western mountain streams, lake trout in Montana, and I've caught big vigorous rainbows, full of eggs, out of the Snake River. Here, I don't even buy a trout license - it's just not the same. On the other hand, I HATE it when people attack something just because it's not their thing. If you don't like guns lets outlaw guns, if you don't smoke let's outlaw smoking, if you don't like car racing let's put a stop to it, etc., etc. That's not right, and I know there are a lot of people who are really into trout fishing here. More power to 'em! With government budgets so out of control and so many painful cuts needing to be made, I'm thinking there must be some way to have trout fishing survive in the Ozarks on a private basis for those who are into it.

Snagging spoonbills seems too much like work to me - but best of luck to those who enjoy it! It seems like every spring, crappie fishing up the James arm, I snag a spoonbill on a crappie pole. They always jump when that happens and scare the heck out of me. Then within 5 seconds they break off the 6 lb. line. That always adds some excitement to the day.

Same as every year - start fishing in March, start catching in April. I know that, but it's like I don't really know it. Seems like I'd have figured it out before now.

You might try along the south bank of Little Cow Creek, among the stick-ups. That's been a crappie hole for me, at times. Also, it's getting about time for male crappie to be "staging" on rocky main lake banks just outside coves they're going to be spawning in later. Look for spawning coves, even little ones, with good pea-gravel - then check the banks just outside the cove entrances. If you find crappie on those banks now, you'll probably find a bunch of them all together.

I agree. The area around Cedar Creek is sandy flats, not very deep. That'll be even more the case with the water so low now. For bass, I think you'd do better by heading downstream to find rocky banks, steeper drop offs, and flooded timber.

Watch out when driving in there after a rain, it's the slickest place I've ever seen. That's the only place I've ever stuck a 4WD pickup truck without it even digging in. The mud was so slick I got stuck on top! I'm talking about 2 hours of hooking chains together to reach trees and cranking on a come-along to finally drag the truck back to where I could get traction - slipping around on slick mud the whole time. Not one of my better fishing days.

We've got a toad-strangler predicted for Sunday night into Monday, which seems like it's starting awfully early this year. I just hope it's a spring when we can fish, and not like too many springs around here - yellow muddy, parking lots under water, round bales floating in the middle of the lake. When we get days we can fish we better do it, 'cause it can be over real quick and stay that way for a long time.

"Chasing the boils" for white bass - that's a fun way to fish, for me. Whatever I'm fishing for, I usually keep one rod rigged with a 1/4 oz. Roostertail that I can throw a long ways, just in case I hear that "waterfall" in the distance. When conditions are right I've chased bunches of feeding seagulls on these lakes too, because that usually means some shad are trapped on top between the gulls and the white bass. It's like a smaller version of fishing the Pacific, where diving gulls often show where barracuda, bonito, or yellowtails are feeding on anchovies. Fun.

That sounds about right. The James arm has a lot of short crappie every spring, mixed in with some good ones. The recent high water years should have made an extra bunch of short ones for now, and that's good in the long run. If I've gotta catch 90 to keep 15, that's even more fun. I'll have sore hands for a few days after - I never realize how much I get finned unhooking crappie until later. After a long winter, I'm ready for some sore hands. There were a whole bunch of 9 1/2 inchers last year, and they oughta be keepers now!

That's it. I'm busting to get down there - I know dozens of spots where we've caught crappie in early spring in past years, from Virgin Bluff almost up to Galena. When things settle down after this rain, maybe Tuesday or so, I'll sure check it out. What I've found before in March is that crappie there aren't associated much with cover. They're in great big bunches concentrated along an area of the bank or on a flat in a bend. They often run small on the James arm, with 2 out of 3 too short, but with some real nice ones among 'em. Come back to a spot a day or two later and they probably won't be there - but they'll be a little ways further upstream, still in a big bunch. Last year we found an enormous bunch on a flat at McCord bend, and we stayed around it with the trolling motor casting white swimming minnows into the spot. The crappie were mostly just under 10" and we must have caught over 100 to get two limits of 15, but there were some up to 14" in our limits. All that time we thought we were fishing a big brushpile about 25' long, 'cause that's what the scope showed. Two days later we came back and the crappie weren't there - and the brushpile wasn't either! It was all fish we'd been scoping. We finally found them that day about half a mile farther up, and I bet it was the same bunch. In all the previous years it's been mid to late March when we've found big bunches of crappie in the James Arm. I've never known it to start this early - but if that's what's happening this year, it's OK with me!

mrgungho - That's the same as the first link to the National Weather Service I gave above, it's just a roundabout way of getting there. Save the direct link for this area, http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/ , and you'll save yourself a couple of clicks and some typing.

A friend here in Ozark caught over 100 and kept a limit of crappie out of Tablerock yesterday. If it was me I'd tell ya, but he asked me not to post the location so I won't. He launched at Cape Fair. You might want to take a light rod rigged with a swimming minnow along while you're bass fishing. It's starting - and crappie filets make a lot better supper than throwed-back bass!

When I'm planning a fishing trip, I get my weather reports here - just click the map on the exact spot where you're going: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/ The best weather radar I've found is here - zoom in to the area of the map you're interested in, press "play", and it shows the movement of storms. This is what I look at just before we cower under the workbench in my basement shop: http://www.intellicast.com/Local/WxMapFull.aspx Here's another handy one for planning trips. Type in the name of any town around the lake, even little towns (Cape Fair, MO), click "Find Weather", then click the "Hourly" tab. That will show a diagram of the temperature and chance of rain for each hour in the next couple of days. I only wish it gave the wind velocity hour-by-hour. http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/airportprofile/SGF?from=search_vert Usually, weather reports on the Springfield TV stations agree with the National Weather Service. When they don't agree though, I've found it's the NWS that's right about 90% of the time. The TV stations are proud of their "meteorologists", but in my opinion they could save a lot of money and increase the accuracy of their forecasts by hiring someone at minimum wage, part time, to look up the NWS forecast online - and then have somebody read it on the air! The Weather Channel is the least useful of all, for me.

I've had some good, and even great, winter trips over the years - rarely. But as a general rule, every year it's the same thing. After a long winter I'm anxious to get out there, so: I start fishing hard in March - and I start catching good in April! Just sayin'.

Jason, I don't have any fresh reports - just a general tip from past years. Starting this time of year and continuing into spring and early summer, I've had some good walleye trips along that straight stretch including Barker Hole to the next bend downstream, and a little beyond. That area has some deep pockets and big boulders on the bottom, and walleyes lay in there during the day. My method is to slow-troll a 1/8 oz. chartreuse or orange Roadrunner tipped with half a nightcrawler at about 1 mph with the trolling motor. Let a lot of line out, and let the lure bump the bottom - you'll get hung up on rocks some. If you find a pocket holding fish, then stop and cast the same rig to them. Walleyes show up real well on the scope, and lots of times I'll see 1 or 2 just off the bottom as the boat passes over, and when my lure gets to that spot I'll get a hook-up. The problem now may be that the water's so low - the pockets holding fish among the rocks there are usually 17'-20' deep. There won't be that much water now, so the fish may be further downstream to find that depth. If that's the case, I'd go downstream a little more - past the bend where the lake turns to the east toward Beaver Creek. In that area, there are numerous little rocky coves on the south (west) side, and off the mouths of those coves there are deeper rocky pockets. That's where I'd look for 'em. I hope this helps.

No need to apologize, about all we can do right now is think about fishing and wait for the temp and the ramps to improve. It looks like a good warm-up is coming. I used to brave the winter weather and fish in some real cold conditions. I'm thinking about a trip on Bull Shoals years ago, back when I only had a 12' aluminum boat. I went out on a cold day and got to catching a limit of crappie so fast I was throwing them in the bottom of the boat. They all froze to the boat, and I had to leave them there as I drove home. When I got the boat home I tried to get the fish loose, first with a big screwdriver then with a crowbar, and I couldn't do it - trying to pry them loose was tearing up the meat. I was young, poor, and didn't have a propane torch in those days, so I had to put the boat in the garage overnight to get the crappie off the bottom of the boat the next day. Then I had to leave them in the kitchen sink all day before they thawed enough that I could finally clean them. Good times!

I'd say only in a dream would you be catching bass out of flooded bushes with the lake at 906. The bushes are 'way up on the bank in the snow, and how'd that wet line work for you at ten below zero this morning?

It's snowing today, but that'll be gone next week. Highs in the 50's are predicted this weekend and after. We could get more snow by your trip in March, of course - there's no telling. Going by past years, chances are good that the ground will be snow-free and the weather OK for a March trip. If your trip does get messed up by weather, chances are that it'd be by rain, not snow. It seems like about one year out of three around here we get real heavy rains in March and April, getting the rivers and lakes up high and muddy. The Corps has let the lakes get real low now, which makes me wonder if they've done that expecting heavy spring rains.

gitnby - Our thinking's about the same on this, some of it. Yes, there are a couple of drawbacks to the method I described. Since I'm using a slip bobber and there's several feet between the sinker and the hook, I don't have a direct connection - and I'm sure bass sometimes suck the bait in and spit it out and I never know. I like to feel everything that's going on in most of the ways I fish, and that's why I favor PowerPro superbraid for a lot of things. Also, I don't much like worming the center of a nightcrawler onto a hook, because that leaves the worm in a "U" shape with two ends wiggling rather than in a more natural shape. I wish I could wacky-rig it like a Senko or finesse worm (another way I fish), but a nightcrawler's too soft for that and I do want the tip of the hook covered. I've got to use a circle hook, of course, because I'm fishing with a slack line and can't feel the "taps". I'd gut-hook every fish otherwise. Drop shot rigs and tight lines are great, but I think I'm more of a believer than you are in a nightcrawler falling slow and weightless to get a bite. Sometimes I'll just bait a circle hook with a big gob of nightcrawler with wiggling ends, on a lighter spinning outfit with mono line (because I can see it and it kind of floats). Staying away from the little bank perch, I'll cast that with no weight or bobber beside stick-ups, give it slack, and watch the loops of line floating as the 'crawler slowly sinks. When that line twitches and starts to get pulled down I'll reel up the slack and set the hook. Sometimes it's just little perch that bite, but a lot of times it's not - and it's surprising the variety of fish that will swallow a slowly-sinking worm that way. Once in awhile, even crappie - though when that happens I switch over to a crappie jig or swimmin' minnow real quick. However we like to fish, it's all fun.