top_dollar

Probably the 2 sets of treble hooks in its head and my terrible handling of trout. 🤣 I caught it on a shad rap. It swam off, but probably died later.

I fished Stockton this weekend with my brother and son. We fished out of mutton creek the whole time and never left the cove. Air temp was in the 40s in the morning, and 60's in the afternoon. Water temp was mid to upper 60's and clarity about 4-5 feet. It was just perfect weather for being outside. There was some slime throughout the water column, but it was manageable. The lake seemed full but not high. Just barely in the bushes. Everything was biting and Stockton is fishing really well right now. We got our limits of walleye pulling bottom bouncers and jigging crawlers in 15-25 FOW. Seems like the 2 year old fish are all about 15.01 inches instead of 14.99 like usual, which made for full coolers. I did catch 1 big one that was 21 inches, but all the rest were 15-17. We barely did any crankbait trolling this time, but did spend an hour trolling mutton cove and caught 5 or 6 crappie so I am sure you could do well trolling crankbaits at 1.5-2.0 MPH with cranks about 15 feet down. We stumbled on a white bass pattern by trolling small swimbaits at 2.5-2.8MPH just under the surface. Sunday evening from 6pm-7pm we caught 20+ white bass doing that with several doubles. After thinking about it more we ALWAYS catch white bass when we inadvertently troll things very fast and high in the water column. We weren't there to catch whites, but it was too much fun to resist.

I floated the 11 point with some friends back in early April. We did Greer to Whitten. We spend a few hours on Friday hiking back to, and hanging out at, the spring. It is one of my favorite spots in Missouri. The river was a foot or so lower then it was the last time I had been there. Fishing was pretty good for trout and goggle eye. A few pickerel and bass were also caught. Friday afternoon and Saturday morning I fished mostly with a 1/16th and 1/8th oz maribou jig. I only caught a few trout, but caught 15+ goggle eye. Most of them came out of one little area. Saturday afternoon I tied on a shad rap and immediately started catching trout. I wish I would have done that sooner! After about the 3rd fish though I began to cringe every time I hooked one knowing I would have to try and dig the treble hooks out of it without hooking myself. Once we got to Turner mill and soft plastics were legal, I switched to a small swimbait which worked great and was less of a hazard. The 11 point is pretty far from where I live, and I really don't care for trout fishing that much, but it probably is my favorite river that I have been on. It is a pretty incredible river!

My experience is in the Kimberling city area, but Dana's BBQ is good, so is Pizza by the chef. Both are in Branson west. While you are there, you should get some cinnamon rolls and Danish's from the Old Fashioned Dough company. Just down a ways on 13 is Ma's diner. I assume they are still open, but they have been there forever, and are pretty good. All of my old favorites have long since closed. I used to eat at the Hillbilly Bowl all the time. They had pretty good pizza. Also we ate at The Bearded Clam and Ahoys quite a bit. Ahoys had a really good Jamaican Jerk chicken sandwich. Kind of an odd place to have that, but it was good. There was also a little old BBQ that was just south of the bridge off of 13.

What makes you say that? I hope you're right, but it seems pretty popular still.

If they are the size of a pencil or bigger you can go ahead and eat them. There will be several waves of shoots that come up later in the month and into April. If they are thinner than a pencil, you should probably wait another season, but even taking a few shoots probably wont kill the plant.

My brother and I fished out of Beaver and K dock this past weekend. Water temp was in the upper 40s for the most part, and visibility of a few feet. Friday we fished out of Beaver creek from 1-5ish. We ran up beaver creek to the first bend, and fished around with jerkbaits and swimbaits with no luck and didn't see much on the graph either. Went back out to the main part of the lake and drifted/casted swimbaits around the channel drops. Ended up with 4 keeper crappie, a short walleye, and a handful of spotted bass. Saturday we went out with a guide out of K dock (Jesse Cockrum Tri Lakes Guide Service). He said crappie were biting well, and walleye were tough. We scoped up 30 solid keepers and a few shorts in about 2.5 hours. They were all scattered fish, either solo or in pairs. Its amazing you can just target the big ones with a live scope since he could tell the size and species of most of them. Also it would be almost impossible to catch those fish without a live scope. They were swimming randomly 4-40 feet down, over 15-50 FOW. He also showed us a spot that had 100+ walleye on it, but we were only able to make 3 of them bite. They would just follow it most of the way back to the boat and turn away when they got too close. Saturday afternoon we went back to the same spot with the walleye and were able to graph them with our 2d, but only caught 1. We did manage about a dozen or so bass which kept it fun. All of the walleye we caught were 17 inches, except for 1 baby about 10 inches long. We caught almost everything on 3-4 inch swimbaits on 1/8-1/4 oz heads. The guide used basically identical tackle, but also used some half oz heads to get down to the deeper crappie.

They are probably more trouble than they are worth for those lakes, but I have done way dumber things, so Id say try it and see. Honestly though, at Stockton, I cant see a reason to get a bait down more than 20 or 25 feet and it is easy enough to just longline a crankbait. The sweet spot at Stockton seems to be 15-20 feet for crappie and walleye. That is why you see most folks longlining flicker shads and bandits. They may have more use at Table Rock or the deeper White river lakes, but even than, I cant imagine they would come through tree tops very well, so you would have to stick to fairly open areas. Regular trolled cranks hang up in the trees just fine by themselves, so I would think that adding a downrigger would make things worse. Seems more of a niche deal. I troll at table rock, and with thin braid, and deep diving cranks I can get a bait down about 30 feet. Generally the thermocline is between 20-30 so I have no need to go deeper.

It is a public access.

I talked to a local fishing out of a jet boat and he said the same thing as you. He told me the St. Francis river walleye are Black river walleye. He said when he gigs he will see schools of walleye occasionally (he specifically said he doesn't gig them), but that they are pretty difficult to catch and actually target. According to him they are worth targeting on the lower black. Ill have hit that stretch sometime.

I doubt I will catch another one this spring, as I have only ever caught 2 out of there. If I do, I will certainly take more and better photos. It will give me an excuse to actually target them, although I'm sure I'd still have better odds of catching one a crappie jig. Since Lake 35 is so small, it probably does give someone the best chance at actually catching one in Missouri. I think the conservation department surveys them with the zapper boat, maybe someone from there would be able to get you some good photos.

I haven't been up to Busch a bunch this winter, but I have been a few times, and my brother has gone quite a bit. It has been borderline froze up the last month or so, but when there is liquid water, the crappie have been biting. Looks like this coming week will be good. Crappie have been pretty typical. At 33, they are best along the brush on the dam. Small jigs 1-4 feet down. Most will be dinks, but some eaters are in there. 33 is always stained, and those fish will stay shallow even in the coldest weather. Clearer lakes will have generally bigger crappie on brush but they will be less numerous, and generally deeper. 4-7 feet. Target the dams and steeper banks. I have not done any bass fishing up there all fall or winter. I did catch a solid musky at lake 35 yesterday afternoon on a crappie jig. I didn't measure, but I would guess 24 inches or so. That made for an exciting fight!

I did this same float again the weekend after Christmas (12/26, 12/27, 12/28). It was ridiculously warm out, so I thought I had to spend a few nights on the river. I fished Friday, Saturday, and half of Sunday. The river was at least a foot low, and I could see the bottom in about 5 or 6 feet. I caught my fish out of the same few winter holes I have the last few years. Apparently I wasn't the only one who wanted to enjoy the weather, as there were several guys in jet boats fishing the same spots as me. It didn't matter, we were all catching fish. Nothing bigger than about 15 inches, but if you were in the right water, and put a bait near them they ate it almost 100% of the time. I found a nice school of crappie in one of the holes, and caught about 5 or so on a 3 inch swimbait. I'm sure I could have sat on them for a while with a crappie jig and caught more. Other than those crappies, and a few largemouth and spots, it was all smallmouth between 10-15 inches long. The best bait by far was a 3 inch Keitech on a 16th oz jig. I also caught them jerkbaits, crankbaits, jigs, and worms, but I caught them 5 to 1 with that little swimbait. Color didn't seem to matter much. The wind was blowing like crazy on Sunday, so just fished a few hours and headed home before the front came through.

This is quite a bit late, but I floated the Big Piney from Boiling springs down to Slabtown back in late October. The weather was unseasonably warm, and we had to sit through some pretty heavy downpours, but otherwise it was a nice trip. Even with all the rain we had, the water remained pretty clear. Everyone I was with was catching lots of smallmouth on whatever we were throwing. My best bait was a Choppo 75 and a small maxscent craw on a 1/16th oz head. No real size, but good numbers. They were scattered everywhere and were pretty easy to catch. Jigs, spinnerbaits, worms and swimbaits all worked well. It was a fun time and I am always glad to float a new (to me) river.

I have never felt the need. By and large I think I am the monster that other creatures should be worried about. I am large, hairy and make horrific sounds both awake and asleep. I tend to be tangled in a mass of treble hooks or winging them around dangerously. Like a skunk I also have the ability to generate an incredibly fowl odor when frightened.