top_dollar

I fished the same stretch again yesterday. I specifically targeted bass and tried my best to actually count without a clicker. This was harder than I thought it'd be, but i was solo, which helped me focus. Anyway, I caught 37 bass and had 8 come off. 6 of them came off in a row before I realized my hook point had rolled over. Doh!! I did catch what I am pretty sure is a spotted bass, which would be a first for me so far upstream. I'm no expert, but it had a rough patch on its tongue, and it sure looks like a spot with the jawline. Most came on a worm, biggest was a 19ish inch lm on Mitch F's shark tail worm. Also had 4 smallies bigger than 15 inches. I did catch a few on a finesse jig and a jerkbait and caught 1 on a top dollar.

It is not really a prediction, there will certainly be some exactly where I said. Idle around the gravel at point 7, or the points around schooner creek. They will be there. I don't know why, but in 25+ years of fishing for bluegills at table rock in the summer that is where I have found the bigger ones. I don't often see them suspended in the middle of the channel, but they do suspend around the Kimberling city bridge. I never fish the back end of any coves in summer, so I couldn't tell you what is there. I have fished docks and brushpiles quite a bit, and as I mentioned, they are generally smaller fish.

Generally, in my experience the bigger eating sized blue gills will be on flat gravel points between 15 and 30 FOW this time of year. IDK about livescope but they are usually pretty easy to see on the 2d, just off the bottom. I use drop shot or split shot rigs with whole crawlers. Docks also hold a bunch, but they tend to be little guys especially in the shallower slips, and suspended under the floats. The bigger ones still seem to set just off the bottom in deeper water, but underneath the boat slips. All that said, my experience is limited to the Kimberling city area in mid/late summer.

The shark tails in cajun melon have been working for me on the upper big the last month or so. In fact I need to hit Denny Dennis to see if they have more cuz im down to my last 4 or 5. I just rig it on a 16th oz jig with a #2 hook, so its basically a "nerd" rig, but it works for schmucks like me. It works at least as well as the chompers DS worm I normally use. The smallmouth my son caught in my last post was caught on it, although the worm isn't in the pic. It is a bit too soft for my liking to fish on a shakey head, as I generally prefer a more durable worm when tossing into brush piles and such, but on the crappie jig it is dynamite. Ill also be at table rock in about a month and will certainly give it a try on a drop shot.

Been out the last few weekends n the mounts to TDL stretch. More of the same. Few feet of visibility. Lots of sunfish have been spawning the last few weekends. I spent one day throwing a panfish rig, but mostly using the same baits as always.

Do you use a clicker or something to count bass? or just can remember really well? I have a hell of a time remembering how many I have caught, and I am never anywhere near 75 bass in a day. I feel like once I catch 8 or 10 bass I really start to lose count.

Yeah I agree. Catching lots of fish when I fish sucks.

Hot N Tots sure are a nostalgic bait for me. Glad to see you caught a mess on them!

His website says he does.

Another thing to remember about renting a boat is that if you are only doing it for 1 or 2 days, the marina wont open until 7 (or whenever the hungover college kids lumbers in) and you wont be fishing until 8 or 9. If you can rent it for several days, or you can get the keys in advance you may be able to fish early. When it comes to pontoons, party boats, and jet skis, renting is the way to go, but for fishing renting seems impractical for me.

Yeah I have my sticker, so they don't bother me any. I understand the lake usage requiring a sticker, but I don't understand why they police the river access like they do. It just seems like another way to squeeze some income out of the local population in the form of tickets. I just looked at the guys website, and it looks like it is 5$ per adult to launch there. You got that right about charging to launch there, it is an easy cash grab. I'm not exactly thrilled about the excess people there, but since I cant do anything about it, Ill just deal. I do think most people who float that stretch once will be inclined not to do it again. https://www.facebook.com/p/Big-River-Outdoors-Campground-100083020016409/

The access is still fine. You just have to pay the guy 5 bucks to launch. He did put in a group of 10 or so, just before I put in. I didn't pass them until "Brown's Landing" right about the TDL take out. The TDL gestapo was waiting for them with tickets in hand when I took out. I would think the guy running the campgrounds at mounts would have a deal with TDL to use the access, but it looked like the cop was gonna harass them as he was parked directly behind their truck preventing them from leaving. The TDL cops have NOTHING to do, so they just go around looking for people without stickers to bother. That dumb cop was probably sitting down their for hours just playing on the internet and waiting to ruin someone's fun day.

Not just kids, but sub par adults! It's about the only way goobers like me know how to catch em!

I fished Mounts to TDL this past Saturday for the first time this year. It was low, and seemed a bit dingier than usual. I could see bottom in about 3 FOW. It was a pretty good day for me, although I was solo which makes fishing that stretch way easier. I caught about 25-30 bass and a few sunfish. Most came on a worm, but caught a handful on a jerkbait and top water. Also caught some bigger fish than usual, I caught 3 bass 15+ and another bass was 17+. I did catch a large redear, almost 11 inches long, it was probably a personal best for me. I fished a megabass X-nanahan +1 instead of the usual X-rap 8. I dont know if it caught me any more bass than an xrap would have, but it sure looks good in the water. Ill be picking up a few more of those.

I met him a few times, and he sold me a canoe that we just used about a month ago. He was a super nice and knowledgeable guy. Very sad to hear about his passing. It seems like he had a very positive influence on his friends and family.

My brother and I did our May walleye excursion at Stockton this past weekend. We trolled crankbaits, pulled spinner rigs, and jigged worms. We trolled Hartley cove Friday afternoon, with only 3 keeper crappie to show for it. The few we caught came on deeper running bandit 300's and strike king 3xd's, about 20feet down. Lots of slime all through the water column. Saturday/Sunday and Monday we fished out of Orleans Trail. The water temp was in the low- mid 60's, and I could see bottom in about 10FOW. Also lots of slime throughout the water column. Saturday we caught 9 keeper walleye, several shorts (quite a few 14 7/8" fish), a handful of crappies, and black bass. Most of the walleye came pulling spinner rigs in 25-30 FOW, with a few on a trolled crank. We also caught 4 or 5 keeper bass and several shorts tossing swimbaits, and jigging worms first thing saturday morning. Sunday we caught 4 more walleye and 2 crappie pulling spinner rigs before 9am, then commenced to not even get a bite the entire rest of the day. It was oddly drastic how quickly the bite shut off. We were still marking fish in the same location, they just wouldnt bite. Monday we fished a few hours, it was slow, caught 1 white bass and went home.

You sure don't hear much about the Nungesser spoon, I didn't think you could buy them anymore, I have about a dozen or so in silver and gold. They are hard to beat for schooling white bass. The single hook design lets you get the fish off the hook and make another cast faster then messing with a treble hook.

Its possible that the fishing was great, but the fishermen suck. 🤣

A few friends and I floated from Hazelgreen to Mitschele over the weekend. Water was 62 degrees and I could see bottom in about 3 FOW. It was a little warm for camping, but still tolerable. Friday afternoon I even went for a swim. Fishing was surprisingly tough as I had high expectations. I only caught 6 bass on Friday, 8 on Saturday, and only 1 on Sunday before take out, although Sunday was 30 degrees colder than Friday and Saturday so I didn't really fish much. Despite the low numbers, most of the bass 15-17 inches. One of the guys I was with caught 2 - 18inch smallies, but otherwise also found it slow as well. He was throwing a jig and a spook mostly, I was throwing all kinds of different stuff, but did best with a jerkbait and shad rap 5. I did catch a few on keitech, a worm, and a jig as well. I didn't see any fish up shallow, or on beds or anything, and almost everything we caught was in bluff holes, or steeper chunk rock banks. We rode out a pretty wicked line of storms on saturday afternoon, but found a nice undercut bluff and stayed out of the rain (and hail) the entire time.

It is hypocritical that he says right away in the video that he is fishing the BFL that weekend. It is the same when he complains about all of the development. It seems like everyone just wants their own personal table rock lake that they don't have to share with everyone else. If you fish on table rock, or use table rock lake at all, YOU are part of the problem, myself included. Everyone wants to vacation there, hence the bulldozing of hillsides for resorts. Everyone wants to fish there, hence the tournament overload and fishing guides galore. Everyone wants to live there, hence the real estate carnival down there. Yet, those are the exact same people who complain about too many pleasure boaters, houses and fisherman. It is a catch 22.

Maybe the unusually warm February made them move a bit earlier than normal? The weather lady said that, at least for st louis, it was the 5th warmest February on record.

I prefer mono with jerkbaits for a few reasons. I fish my jerkbaits on a 5ft 6in casting rod, and because I use a short rod, I have less give when a fish runs, so the stretch of mono prevents me from losing fish. In fact, with the exception of long line trolling crankbaits, I use mono for every bait that has a treble hook. I often times fish a jerk bait with fairly long pauses, and I like that mono floats on the water so I can watch my line jump when I get a bite. Obviously every has their own opinions, but I think with a shorter stiffer rod you can work the jerkbait better, but if you do that you'll need mono line to provide your cusion because the rod wont.

My brother and I have been up at Busch to crappie fish in the winter time like we do. As usual you can catch them easily at lake 33 on tiny jigs about a foot under a bobber. 99/100 will be less than 9 inches long, with that 1 being 12+, that lake is weird. You can catch larger crappie at the smaller ponds generally about 4 to 6 feet down around brush. We mark plenty of brush piles up there for everyone, just look for snagged bobbers. I have my best luck on lakes with south facing dams, or steep banks that face south, but if there is brush in 5+ FOW on the north side of a lake it is worth casting at. It seems like in the winter time a jig and float works best, but as the water gets warmer you can just swim them around. I have yet to catch them very good on the dam at 35, but soon I think they will be catchable in the 4 to 6 ft range. That lake is comparatively deep and I can graph those fish with my castable graph about 15 feet down to the bottom in about 25 FOW. I cannot get slip bobbers to work at the depth I need and the distance I need to cast though, so they are safe until I figure out how to catch them. Starting around the end of February they will start to show up around the brush on the dam at about 6 feet down. I have not done much bass fishing at all, but catch an occasional one while crappie fishing. Yesterday we did catch a few bass at lake 35 on the outside of the dead vegetation just a few feet down. They were dinks, but we were using crappie jigs. That may be a viable pattern though a jerkbait or fluke.

Picked up some shark tail worms and hellgrammites over the weekend at Denny Dennis. They are good looking baits that will catch fish for sure. Colors and action are both great. They do not have any scent that I can tell, but I don't really care much about that. Also at only 5 bucks a pack they are a good deal, so stock up!

Not on an outboard motor or boat unless the cleaner has some abrasives or you're really scrubbing really hard. I actually work as a chemist for a paint company. Any paint that is on an outboard should be robust enough to not come off with detergents, and even most solvents/chemicals. Long term exposure to acids/bases, high humidity, and sunlight are going to be the hardest thing on boat and car paint. Everyone has seen the hood of an old car where the sun has turned the clear really chalky and white, that cannot be cleaned off as that paint is destroyed. If a painted part is left under very high humidity for long periods of time, water molecules will get trapped in the clear coat itself causing what look like water spots. Those wont get cleaned off though as by that time the problem is in the paint. If they are not too deep, you can sand/buff/polish it, but you need a thick layer of clear coat or apply fresh clear for that.