Sam

That ESPN fantasy thing sounded like fun, but I didn't understand what it was. I took a look, and found that it has to do with pairing up with top bass tournament fishermen. Ha. I know (and care) as much about top tournament fishermen as I do about whoever the country's top lacrosse players might be - exactly nothing. Have fun, guys.

Bill mentioned that surface water temp was 39 yesterday. While I was sitting in a car repair place yesterday instead of fishing like I'd planned, I learned something I didn't know. I was looking at an old Missouri Conservation magazine with an article about lakes turning over in the fall. It said that water is densest and heaviest at 39 degrees - colder than that it expands, gets a little lighter again, and rises to the top. The article said that's why lakes freeze on the top and not on the bottom. We all know ice is lighter than water, and I guess that process of becoming lighter starts just below 39 degrees and continues until the temp is 32 or less and it freezes. That should mean that when the surface temp is about 39 like now, then the lake is 39 degrees all the way to the bottom - because if the water at another level was either warmer or cooler than 39 then it would be on top. Now, I didn't know that.

Bill, I'm sorry you had that trouble with your boat. I hope the part comes quick and you get things back together with little delay or expense. Yesterday must have been the bugaboo day alright - maybe sunspots or the phase of the moon, or something. powerdive - it drives me crazy, too, that there's no shoulder on lots of the roads around here. It not only makes it dangerous to pull over if you've got car trouble, but I'd like to walk or ride a bike more for exercise. I'm not doing that out in the traffic lanes, though. Up where you're from it's flat and the ground is actually dirt. They can make wide safety shoulders on the roads with a couple of passes of a road grader. Lots of places around here, they'd have to blast those shoulders out of a bedrock mountainside or at least deal with a bunch of big rocks. That probably about doubles the cost-per-mile of building a highway, so they don't do it. I'm already looking forward to the next fishing trip - my boat and tackle are all ready to go, and I'll get on the water yet!

Boy, things happen, don't they? Looking forward to the nice weather today, I got everything ready last night. I didn't want to freeze early in the morning, so I waited until about 8:30 before leaving Ozark, heading for K Dock. Everything was fine until my truck started to miss, bad, on the upgrades after I got off Hwy. 65. It kept getting worse, and I didn't know if I could make it to Forsyth. You don't notice how that highway doesn't have shoulders or anyplace to get off the road in lots of places, until you think your truck is going to quit entirely any minute. I made it to Forsyth, and knew I couldn't go any further and I sure couldn't get my boat home. I stopped where Ken (Forsythian) works and asked him where I should take my truck around there. He suggested Carls Auto Repair, and he was right - they're nice folks and they did a great job. Thanks, Forsythian. Long story short, after a LONG day of computer tests, fuel pressure tests, road tests, and my truck getting worked on between other customers who had appointments, I got home about 5 p.m. with my rig and a new fuel filter, distributor, coil, and rotor. $300+, but my truck runs great and at least I didn't get stuck out on the highway and it didn't happen in the middle of the night. That was my fishing trip - I didn't get to wet a line!

I really enjoyed the seminar and learned some good things. Thanks, Bill and Phil, for putting it on. I wish we could have introduced ourselves, and matched up screen names with faces better. I did get to meet a few people afterward, and I know there were others there I would have liked to visit with if I'd known who they were. Looking around that room, I could tell there were a bunch of good people there. Anybody there, I know if I had trouble out on the water they'd help me out and I'd do the same for them. We may not be the prettiest bunch of people I ever saw, but I think I could jump in a boat and go fishing with anyone there, and we'd have a real good time, too.

After this cold winter where temps have stayed 20 degrees below normal for weeks at a time, I've got cabin fever. All I can think about is spring fishing, and if we get big rains and the lakes get 30 feet above normal like two years ago, I'm gonna hire some guy to hang me.

Since some of you guys are using superbraid, I've got a question. Have you noticed how LOUD it is when you're fighting a good fish? I don't mean sound made by friction from coming through the guides. It just sings, loud, when it's under tension and even when it's not moving through the rod guides. It's vibration of course, like a fiddle string - but I wonder why. What are the forces that cause that? If that vibration continues all the way down to the fish you're fighting in the water (and I don't see why it wouldn't), then it's making a real racket and I wonder if that scares other fish.

Oh, we do that. If he catches the situation in time, he'll take off the Roostertail and let all his line out behind the boat while we run down the lake at speed. That untwists the line. Other times, though, he'll get his line into a twisted mare's nest of monumental proportions, to where he can't strip line off the reel and the tangle has grabbed everything within a couple feet, including the reading glasses out of his pocket! It's a joke between us, and he's stubborn enough he won't spool just one reel with superbraid for trolling in-line spinners. He always brings about 5 poles on a fishing trip, so he just quits using that one and cuts the line off later at home. Ya can't change him. I'm like you, I use mono on my bass rigs and superbraid on my light spinning outfits. I may tear up some rod guides and bail rollers in time, but I think the advantages of the line are worth it.

I've been using first FireLine and now PowerPro superbraids for a few years, except for nighttime bass fishing where I still use Stren Flourescent mono with a black light. Trout are sensitive to line that's visible but I don't fish for trout anymore, and in my experience other species don't much care if they can see the line or not. I've tried switching back to mono a couple of times with spinning reels. I just can't do it. Now that I'm used to braided line, monofilament seems so stretchy it's like fishing with a rubber band. I can't feel a doggone thing with it, and I don't like breaking off so much either. My usual partner stuck with monofilament, and we've had trips when crappie were biting real light and I've had 3 or 4 times the bites (and fish) he has. We were using the same lures and I'm sure he got as many bites as I did - he just couldn't feel them. With superbraids, I can troll a Roostertail for white bass, too, without the line twisting. My partner has to quit using a pole for the day after about a half hour of that. No, I like those superbraids - a lot.

I haven't fished the King's much, and Roaring River not at all, but I hit the James River white bass run hard every year. It'll be the same. First off, you won't have much trouble finding white bass if they're running. Just look for all the bank fishermen and boats that are catching them! Still, I like to find my own bunch of fish when I can. White bass don't come up the rivers all at once, they come up in bunches over a period of weeks - and the bunches tend to be all the same kind within the bunch, small males, medium size males, big females, etc. That means there are fish of different sizes bunched up all up and down the river at a given time. I like to get away from the big concentration of fishermen and work other riffles and deep holes against the bank like fishinwrench said, usually a little downstream from them. Slow-troll with a Roostertail or a swimming minnow against the current to cover a lot of territory, then when you find fish stay and cast in that area. Lots of times that's all it takes to get a limit in short order.

I'm just talking thru my hat here, 'cause I realize there's big money involved in these big tournaments and rules will always favor big money. Still, from a kinda philosophic point of view, I've been trying to think of ONE other example where a substantial public resource is allowed to be used for private gambling. I can't think of one. Gambling is what a tournament is, you know. Competitors place bets that they can catch more/bigger fish than the other competitors, then sponsors back competitors who win to get publicity and advertising for their products. A great deal of skill as well as some luck is required to win, of course, and I think the sport resembles the professional poker tour more than anything else. But the difference is the use of a public resource for this game - a fishery that belongs to the people. I can't think of another example of that, anywhere. To draw a far-out comparison, what if there were big DEER tournaments on public land and how would that be accepted? It'd be exactly the same thing. Competitors would pay an entry fee (place a bet) with some association and go out in the national forest with tranquilizer guns so the deer would (mostly) live through the "tournament". The winnings would be paid to those shooting the most and biggest deer, and spectators would get to see trucks full of tranquilized deer carcasses being hauled to the weigh-in for measurement. Then the groggy and hopefully not-too-injured deer would be released back to the woods, miles from where they lived. Wow, that'd NEVER be allowed - and people would go nuts if someone tried it. But it's the same thing, in my opinion.

Speaking of Lake Springfield, that's been a gripe of mine for years. It's about 10 miles from me, and it's a pretty good (and mostly ignored) bass and crappie lake close to home. I can't put my boat on it, though, because of the size of the outboard motor. ALL the stuff I need is in my boat - compartments full of tackle, depth finders, ice box, live well, etc. I could get along just fine with the trolling motor alone on Lake Springfield. But I called the city office responsible for the lake once and explained that I'd be happy to leave the ignition key at home, keep the big motor kicked up out of the water, and even remove the prop if they wanted - anything to prove that I wasn't running the motor on the lake. Nope - they said they'd give me a ticket just for POSSESSION of a motor that's too big there. Period. Now, I fully understand that they don't want the noise and wakes of large motors on that lake, fair enough. But when you're willing to disable the outboard and use a trolling motor only, and they'll still write you a ticket - that's not right.

That's a GREAT catch! Congrats. I'm still trying to adapt Bill's "The huge fish seemed to rise from the center of the tree in somewhat of a mystical appearance" thing to a 16" slab crappie. I know it can be done!

I've got no bone to pick with big tourneys, I just head the other way. I figure if I start griping and wanting rules passed about the things other people like to do, it won't be long before people start restricting what I like to do, too (which is to put the elusive Missouri crappie in my live well). Instead, when I catch a much-recycled bass out of Tablerock with half a dozen hook-holes in its' lips, I like to think that some of the holes may have been put there by those impotent (er, important) big-tournament guys with the nifty patches on their shirts. I'm just downright honored to come that close to fame.

Yeah, I'd avoid that K Dock area at all costs. I can't even guess on how many trips over the years I've caught limits of various species around there. Lots of 'em! Crappie and white bass mostly, but also bass, walleyes, and there were even a couple of good catfish trips. I guess we're all most comfortable in an area of a lake we concentrate on, and I'm usually to be found somewhere between Cedarcreek and Mincy. Last year I had a bunch of good trips within sight of my pickup right there at the K Dock launch ramp. That's just me, and I like that area better than up around Beaver, Swan, and the dam.

"Thanks for the imput, but what I looking for was the depth of the brush piles around the K Dock area on some of the other Bull Shoals maps thats on this thread." ----------------------- Continuing from another thread. The thing about crappie fishing in Upper Bull Shoals is that it mostly isn't about brushpiles. Sometimes it is, and I've spent a lot of time locating them - but more often it's about areas along a bank or at the edge of a flat with flooded stumps, brush, and trees. The water level on Bull Shoals fluctuates a lot, and crappie-bearing brush is at all levels. Sometimes when the water is low I can see some of my good crappie cover sticking out of the water, or even up on the bank. Those are the times to find and mark such places, because the water will come up again sooner or later. Other than during the spring spawn, I mostly catch crappie in 16-20 feet of water - but sometimes that's in places that are usually in 40 feet, and sometimes that's places that are usually up on the bank. For me it's toughest when the water is so high it's way up in the land bushes, because then there's just too much cover for crappie to hide in. I figure the "normal" lake level is 653', so when I mark crappie brush on my GPS I do a little arithmetic and add a note to the coordinate with what the depth WOULD be when the lake is 653'. Then when I go fishing and I know the lake is at, say, 665' - I visit the spots I've marked where I've noted that the depth is around six feet. Does that make sense?

Joe and jeb - I just sent you the list. Sorry for the confusion. Yes, my mailbox here must be full. Now the site won't let me go to my personal messages to respond to or delete them. I'll have to contact Phil about that. I've sent the list to all the requests I've received. Let's do it this way - if you want the list of dive sites, or if you sent me a PM I didn't respond to, just email me direct at ozarkbrew@yahoo.com and I'll send it to you.

I've never understood why bass fishermen use casting rigs for lures that don't work along the bottom - topwater, jerkbaits, Senkos, and spinnerbaits. I guess they're real good with casting tackle, which I admire. It's awkward for me, and I use a medium-heavy spinning outfit for lures that don't drag the bottom. I feel so awkward with a casting rig that I've even tried, over and over, to use a spinning outfit for soft baits worked along the bottom, Texas rigs and so forth. That just doesn't work. I think the difference is the hookset - when I "cross their eyes" with a casting reel I put my thumb on the spool so there's no give. I can't do that with a spinning outfit, and I don't want to tighten the drag of the spinner so tight that it won't give any line on the hookset. If I did that, I'd have no drag operating and I'd probably break a rod if I got a big fish on. Switching to a left-handed casting reel will help me a lot, I think. At least I'll be reeling with the same hand I use with a spinning outfit. I've got to say though, there's another thing I miss when using a casting reel. With spinning tackle, I back-reel a lot when playing a big fish. I use the drag too, but by back-reeling on hard runs when I have to, I can keep just the right pressure on the rod and the fish. I can't do that with a casting reel, and have to rely on the drag alone - so that's a feature I miss. But if I switch over to a lefty reel, at least I won't feel like I'm fighting the fish bass-ackwards as well.

Wow, that's like a light bulb just went on - something I never thought about. I'm right-handed, and I've mostly been fishing with spinning reels since they first came out - casting and holding the spinning rod with my right hand and reeling with the left. 20 years ago we moved back here to MO, and I started using casting rigs again for the first time since the early 60's. My fishing partner showed me how it's done here, and he suggested equipment like his. All my casting reels crank on the right. That still feels awkward as all get-out to me, especially when I've got a fish on. I just went out to my shop and turned one of my bass rigs upside down so the handle was on the left. That felt GOOD, even though I had to reel it backwards. O.K., I'm looking for a left-hand reel, and why didn't I think of that in all this time? Thanks. Sometimes I'm not near as smart as I think I am.

If you keep fishing long enough (and I have), your equipment gets outdated. Less than 1/4 of my trips are for bass, and at one time I had pretty good rigs - BPS "Bionic Blade" rods and Daiwa "Millionaire II" reels. Those are still in good shape, but I've got a feeling they're 1980's technology and I'm missing out on some good new improvements. I'd like to get one new rig anyway, and based on what was posted above I was thinking of waiting for the BPS Spring Fishing Classic and buying a Pro Qualifier combo. Now CaptainJoe's recommending the BPS Extreme combo - which do you think would be better? Bear in mind I'm not a tournament fisherman or even a real serious bass fisherman. Much of my bass fishing is with spinning tackle, and I've got that covered. With a casting outfit I like to fish Texas and Carolina rigs, jigs and grubs, and spoons. I'm 5'10", and a 6'6" rod works better for me than a 7' one. I especially like to fish big worms on a Texas rig at night in the summertime, and I come up with a few real "hawgs" every year doing that. I'm thinking a "medium heavy" rod might be best for that deal? Thanks for any opinions/suggestions!

I kind of agree with Will Rogers' idea for cutting down on traffic congestion - don't allow a car on the road unless it's paid for! If that was applied to boats, most guys would be putting along on the lake at 30 mph in an aluminum Tracker like me. Ya wanna race?

The diver I contacted online just got back to me. He sent me a Word document with GPS coordinates and descriptions of many dive sites on Tablerock - including sunken boats, building foundations, bridges, and all the interesting underwater places they've found. There are some maps and photos included, as well as some side-scan sonar pictures. It's mostly about Tablerock, but it also includes some dive sites on Beaver, Bull Shoals, Stockton, and Norfolk Lakes. If you want the document, send me a personal message with your email address and I'll send it to you.

Personally, I think you guys oughta quit fooling around with those noisy, old-fashioned eggbeaters and get a 4-stroke outboard. I did, two years ago. Now I get three times the gas mileage, there's no oil in the gas, it runs smooth at all speeds including trolling, there's no smoke or stink, you can carry on a conversation while running, and people a mile away don't have to put up with my noise. Just my $.02 worth.

redbud - That's a great picture of the Kimberling City bridges. It's real interesting to me to see water I know so well - without the water! It looks like the photographer was standing at about the current water level near the top of that bluff that the campground is on now. That's one of the steepest and deepest underwater bluffs I know, but I still didn't realize it was that big until I saw the 1958 picture. Great stuff! I've been visiting Tablerock diving websites, too, but I haven't been able to find GPS coordinates for popular dive sites yet. I've even sent an email to a diver who says he's compiled a list to share - but no answer yet. Where did you find the Zebulon Pike GPS numbers, please?

How come nobody's including Senko/Kinami 5" worms, green pumpkin color, rigged wacky-style on a Kahle circle hook? Those were a big new deal 5 or 6 years ago, and now you never hear about them. I catch more big bass on those than any other way. Those never hurt a bass for c/r either - just a good solid hookset through the jaw.