top_dollar

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.

It wasn't really much of an "attack". 1 of the 5000 bears in Arkansas smelled their hot dogs and checked it out. They scared it away, it came back a few hours later, and they scared it away again. It would be scary for the campers, but hardly an attack. Now they have a cool story to tell.

I have also caught bass suspended at the kimberling city bridge that were spitting up craws. Unless crawdads suspend at the bridge those bass must swim quite a ways to get them. I also have routinely caught crawdads in our traps out to 30 FOW. Seems like the biggest ones are usually deeper than 20FOW.

I fished this past weekend around Terre du Lac. I just put in and paddled up a mile or so to a few spots I like to target. The water is low and slow with a few feet of visibility. Leaves on the surface are getting to be a problem. I didn't bother to count, but I caught a bunch throwing a size 75 berkely choppo. I caught a few on a jig, including a largemouth about 19 inches, and a few on a small plastic craw. With the leaves on the surface I think a normal buzzbait would have worked better, but I didn't have one. Mostly smallmouth and largemouth in the 10-14 inch range. No spotted bass.

Correct, and it was fun!

I got down to fish a few days last week. WT in the mid 80's and clarity about 5 or 6 feet. It seemed dingier than normal. I have always stayed at Kimberling City, but this year we were at Indian Point. I think the creek was called Jakes Creek. Sunday and Monday we went out and trolled crankbaits, pulled spinner rigs, and used live crawlers. That creek is full of trees and the bottom bouncers kept getting hung up. Trolling crankbaits worked pretty well, but we did hang up several in tree tops. We also caught some on live crawlers about 20-30 feet down. A few off the ends of the marina docks in the morning, but most on lake point just off the bottom. I did lose a smallmouth in the 17inch range at the boat on a Keitech scrubbing the bottom in about 20FOW. Monday afternoon, as I was backing my boat out of the slip, the trolling motor head caught the dock post and broke it, so that messed up fishing the rest of the week. I still wanted to fish so I called around and found a guide willing to take me out last minute. His name was Ed Phillips. I was thinking we may go do something that I hadn't done before on a part of the lake I hadn't been before, but of course, he said his best deal was hanging crawlers at Kimberling city. So I met him at Port of Kimberling at 6am and away we went to do the same thing I have done, in the same places I had done it, for 30 years. I caught about 15 bass or so that morning, but missed quite a few bites. We used the livescope, and I was not used to seeing the fish on the screen. I got jumpy and didn't let them eat it fully, which resulted in quite a few missed bites, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. He was also using much heavier equipment then I was used to using. He had 8# line, to a 6#, with a med or med/heavy rod, a 1/0 drop shot hook and a 3/8 oz weight. I use 4# line, med light power rods and 1/8oz weights. Other than the equipment, it was pretty typical. Fish the deep docks until about 8am, when they quit biting at the docks we went to fish deep trees. I personally always go to the bridge when the sun comes up, but he didn't like the bridge he said because so many people fish it. He also had a bunch of trees that he had as waypoints, so we just went right to them. My electronics are not good enough to locate the trees he had marked. The best was a giant tree with huge branches all by itself in the middle of cove in 60FOW. It had several fish on it, and there is no way I would have ever found it on my own. The livescope did show me quite a few things I never really realized. First, I had always assumed that the bass came out from under the docks in the morning, and went back under the dock shade when the sun got up. In reality, the bass were under the dock the whole time, they just were willing to swim out from under it early, but as the sun came up they wouldn't leave. Another thing I realized was how many fish ignore a live crawler. I had always assumed that when they stopped biting the crawler they had left, but in reality, they were still there, just ignoring it. This was the first time I have ever hired a guide, and I think it was worth it just to fish out of his 90K bass boat, but I was also able to ask a million questions that I had wondered about for the last several years, and I sure felt like I learned quite a bit so I would say it was money well spent.

How deep were you fishing for them? Granted my only experience comes from 3 specific places in kimberling city, but my experience is that they like to sit right on the bottom in about 25 to 35 fow in mid summer. I think they also like a whole nightcrawler more than a chunk of one. I've tested that out multiple times. My best places have been in dock stalls in the afternoon with about 30fow under them on the bottom. Little ones suspend around the floats but eaters are on the bottom. They also suspend at the bridge pilings with the spotted bass in the afternoon, but its more bass than bluegills mostly. Since I'll be at Indian point this year and am not likely to run my POS boat to schooner creek, ill post my favorite summer time spot. The eastern most point at the mouth of schooner creek is shaped like a thumb. The whole point is good, but there is a spot where the schooner creek channel swings in close to the run out, and for the last 20 years that spot has been 100% for me. As you are idling in. You'll be in 90+ fow, the it will abruptly come up to 25fow and your graph will go crazy. Everything will be there, but there is usually a big school of bluegills there, you just have to graph around a bit. They are pretty distinctive on the graph right off the bottom. I use a drop shot or split shot rig with about an 1/8 and a size 4 hook with a whole crawler.

I've been on the river the last few weekends. I wanted to go to Stockton last weekend, but my truck was having trouble and I didn't wanna endure the heat at the lake. The river is finally down to its normal summer flow. You can see bottom in about 3-4 FOW. Saturday it was clear in the morning, but it stormed around lunchtime and started to get a little dingier throughout the day. The tree that was blocking the river is now gone. Fishing has been pretty typical. Catching mostly smallmouth, with an occasional largemouth up to about 17 inches. No spotted bass. Best baits have been a worm, a jig and a crankbait. Anything will probably work though. Usually a jerkbait works well, but the crankbait has been better so far this year. I threw a top water for a while with no luck so I stopped. The bluegill and longears are very aggressive right now as well. You can catch quite a few on a small jig under a float.

This is just the type of boat I want in the next few years, maybe a bit bigger. I keep wanting an upgrade, but my current boat seems to be pretty bulletproof and easy to work on. I am scared to get something more complicated. I can certainly speak for the longevity and durability of Crestliners. I have a 02 Crestliner Canadian with an Evinrude. No wood, No carpet, just jagged metal edges. Because of that, everything is super accessible and easy to work on. I generally try to just replace rubber/plastic components every few years, and keep fresh gas/batteries for it.

I'm gonna buy some snap weights. Do you mind divulging some info? Do you just use your bottom bouncing rods? How much weight and how much line out? I want to get a flicker shad/shad rap 4 or 5 down about 15-20 foot.

Crappie will probably be difficult unless you're way better at it then me. I've fished around Kimberling city in the summer for about 25 years and in that time I've seen more trout caught then crappie (2 to 1 if I'm keeping score). You will be right by point 7. If I were you Id run over there and fish it using split shot/drop shot rigs with live night crawlers. It might be early for that yet, but there will probably be fish on the steep side in about 20 or 30 feet down. The points at schooner creek, and the bridge pilings are also good. You'll catch a variety of species, and sometimes stumble on a school of big bluegills, but unlikely you will find crappie.

I fished Mounts to TDL Saturday. I live in Saint Louis and lost power with the storms. Fortunately, I didn't have any damage from the tornado that ripped through. Hopefully nobody on the forum had any damage. Anyway, I headed to the camper, which has power for the weekend. The river was up about a foot and half and had a lot of current which made for easy floating. Fortunately, the water was still clear down about 3 feet, but it was FREEZING. That stretch has changed quite a bit since last year with the flooding, and there are some new obstacles and quite a few new large trees down. A few miles down from mounts there is a large tree that completely covers the river from bank to bank, and the sides are steep making for a challenge. I tried, unsuccessfully, to weave through the branches at the top of the tree. I eventually had to get out of the boat, stand on the trunk, and slide the boat over. The fishing was pretty good. I was with the girlfriend, and didn't really even fish too much, but still caught about 15 - 20 bass and she caught several panfish on a plastic bug under a bobber. The best bait was a jig with a Deps cover scat as a trailer. I was having trouble keeping the jig down with flapper craw, so I put one of those on the back and it sank like a missile and worked great. I also caught a few on a crankbait and a swimbait. The worm and jerkbait weren't working, I had trouble keeping them down in the current.

No worries on the wind. We catch almost all of our crappies in big coves where the wind is no factor. Mutton Creek, Googer Creek, Hawker cove, Hartley are all good. I'm pretty sure every cove in the lake will have them scattered and suspended. At Mutton creek, and Hartley you can just start trolling right outside the bouys. We don't even start the big motor. There is quite often 1 or more boats trolling circles around mutton creek cove and they catch em pretty good.

It is working. Generally trolling the middle of large coves about half way down will produce. Go about 1.5-2.0 mph. Usually 10-20 feet down over about 30-40 FOW. I think the clearer the water the deeper we tend to find them, but a good rule is about half way down the water column. Bandits, Flicker Shads, and other deep diving small crankbaits will work. Usually natural colors work best. We have our best luck with 3XD's in green and blue gizzard shad.

I also have this book. It is a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in the history of the area.

This is great. It is so important to keep moving!!

My brother, son and I fished Stockton this past weekend. We fished all over the lake. Water temp was in the mid 60s about everywhere. Orleans Trail, Crabtree Cove, Hawker cove, and Masters all were all clear down to about 10 FOW. For some reason Mutton Creek had some stain and was clear about 4 or 5 feet. We did our best walleye fishing out of mutton creek, pulling spinner rigs in 20-30 FOW. We caught lots of shorts, but had plenty of keepers to bring home. We pulled spinner rigs at the other launches mentioned, but it was sporadic at best. Green and Gold was far and away the best color spinners. Also, yellow/clown type color worked. We are all in on those northland baitfish spinners, they are great. We caught a few walleye also with a jig and chunk of worm. We caught crappie and walleye trolling crankbaits, and "strolling"/swimming crappie jigs and small swimbaits. My son caught a smallmouth and a white bass at the same time on the a double rig. Generally we were using a 1/8th oz jig on the bottom, and about a foot above a 1/16-1/32 oz jig, or 2 1/16oz jigs at about 0.5-1.0 MPH. Most of the crappie came suspended in the middle of coves, and walleye when we would drift shallower and the jigs were closer to the bottom.

Some friends and I had planned on floating the Big Piney last weekend, but with the 6 inches or so of rain they got we quickly made back up plans. We ended up just fishing the banks around the lakes at Terre Du Lac. When all this rain comes in, the little lakes and ponds in the area get really hot, especially just above the spillway where the water is leaving the lake, and in any creek that is coming in that is not chocolate milk. It is usually a dink fest, but this weekend we caught some really nice ones. I got 1 that was 22" long, and 2 that were 18" along with dozens of dinks. A buddy of mine also caught one that was 22+" long. Mostly right in front of the spillways throwing crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Some of the clearer lakes jerkbaits and swimbaits worked better.

Hopefully the BPS in St louis has some this weekend.

I think its a great idea. I know that bass and other fish swallow plastics. I've cleaned bass before with swollen worms in their guts, and I've seem them with soft plastics coming out of their rear. Ill try a few packs and see if they work. Looks like they are 5.99 a pack which is fairly cheap.

Since I do fish table rock does that mean Im allowed to opine? I didn't realize those were the rules. By your metrics, you and all the C&R folks shouldn't get an opinion because you don't keep any bass. I do fish table rock, and I do keep the bass, so technically Mr Bush and MDC should regard my opinion the most. Anecdotes dont equal evidence. The article very clearly states that the spotted bass population has increased yet the size of 15-inch fish has decreased. As i already mentioned there are too many c&r anglers anymore for it to make much difference, but there is no denying that removing smaller bass will result in a higher % of larger fish. Its just basic math. Bass fisherman just love bass too much to bring themselves to harvest one, but it is against their best interest in most cases. If they did limit the length to 12 I'd keep more of the 12-14 inches and throw back the 15+, but the current regs force me to keep the bigs that I'd rather toss back.

I think the following quote is a direct result of more C&R fishing and less folks keeping spotted bass to eat. “We have extensive data going back to the 1980’s that clearly shows the decline in the number of 15-inch spotted bass in Table Rock Lake,” said MDC Fisheries Biologist Shane Bush. “This data also shows a steady increase in the spotted bass population since that time, and it’s increasing every year.” I think the length limit should depend on the management goal of the fishery. If the goal is as many spotted bass as possible, keep the 15 inch limit, however, If the goal is trying to make the spotted bass in table rock larger on average, there is no doubt removing more smaller fish will accomplish that. There is only so much forage to go around, so if you remove smaller fish, there will be more forage per fish, which = bigger fish at that age class. Personally I don't think enough people keep and eat the bass for it to make much difference at this point. There is such a cultural aversion to eating a bass anymore that if you do and tell someone about it, they will certainly let you know how offended they are. The general consensus seems to be that bass are for sport, and other species are for food. I personally don't feel that way, but I am certainly in the minority there.

For the better part of a decade I talked about hiring Buster Loving to teach me how to catch walleye on upper bull. Now that he is gone, I really regret talking about it for so long and never actually doing it. Now, when I want to do something, I am just going to do it and not be all talk. I really regret not going with him just once, and I don't know of any other guides who fish that way. Anyway, I finally pulled the trigger and came down. Its the first time I had ever been on bull shoals. My brother and I stayed in Forsyth and fished out of K Dock Saturday and Sunday. The water temp was 38-39 on Saturday, and 38 warming to 42 on Sunday. I could see the bottom in probably 6 FOW. We threw jerkbaits and swimbaits up on the mud flats. Saturday between the 2 of us we caught 5 bass and 1 walleye all on a jerkbait. My brother did better than me throwing his jerkbait on a spinning rod with 6# while I was using casting gear with 10# line. Sunday we did the same thing and didn't get a bite all day long. We never left sight of K dock ramp, but the flats we found dropped off into the channel at about 10-15 FOW, so I think the spinning rod was getting that bait a bit deeper. Buster's seminar said to target 6FOW dropping into 35, but we never found it, so we just made due with what we could find. Saturday there was only other boat out all day, but Sunday there were multiple rigs in the lot. A few guys were out on the drop offs, but most seemed to be way out in the channel fishing for deep stuff. I'm sure they all had way better electronics and know how to locate and catch those fish better. I just found the creek channels with a 5 inch 2D sonar, a paper hot spot map and marker buoys. I put 1 buoy in 10FOW, and the other in 25-35 FOW and casted from one to the other. I'm sure there are way more efficient ways to catch them with better electronics, but unfortunately for us we fish like its 1980. We graphed lots of stuff in the channel, and I tried to drop a spoon on them, but couldn't get any bites. I cant tell the difference between species and such though on the graph, but nothing rose up to even look at my spoon, so maybe they weren't game fish. It was tough fishing for 2 days, but I wasn't expecting much so I kind of feel like the trip was a success. I'm already planning for next winter, and will get better each time I go. We also fished a bit on Taney for trout, @Big Keene posted about what we did there.

Yeah that figures. I'm coming down to fish upper bull the end of next week, so murphy's law dictates it will be record cold. Hopefully its a bit warmer by the weekend.

Coldwater to Sam Baker is good for an overnight, maybe 10 miles or so. Sam baker to HWY 34 bridge is short and good for a day float. I don't consider it to be too slow, but I fish the big river mostly, which doesn't have much current.