top_dollar

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.

Sure no problem. It is pretty rare that someone has a question about chemistry, so I am always happy to chime in. It tends to be a largely useless skillset except for very niche applications.

They are all common household detergents. Soaps and detergents all work by the same basic fact that you can easily dissolve salt in water, but cannot dissolve oil in water. The molecules you listed are large, generally linear, molecules that are very greasy (non-polar) on one end, and very salty (polar) on the other. Most debris that needs to be cleaned is made of organic material that is largely non-polar. Water is a very polar molecule and a polar solvent will not dissolve a non polar solute very well. Since detergent has both a polar and a non polar end, it forms what is called a micelle around organic particles where the greasy end surrounds the particle, and the salty end can be dissolved in water. So when you add soap to dirt and let it set for a few minutes, it forms micelles around the dirt and it is easier to clean with water.

This is fascinating. Thanks for the write up. I'm sure you've done this, but if you do the Bonne Terre mines tour, you can actually see all of the old excavating equipment flooded about 100 feet down.

Cant go wrong with Chompers. The 4 and 6 inch worms in brown purple catch a large percentage of the bass I catch. I just thread that dude on a crappie jig and toss it around. Great report!

You are correct, that is the bone hole. It is a local hangout, and because it is rural Missouri there are gonna be some fights and shootings, but I have never had any trouble there. I have left my vehicle there for day trips, but never overnight. If the river is really up, and you are not fishing, you can do mounts to the bone hole in a day, but the river is generally slow and that is lots of paddling. You will have to portage at the low water bridge at leadwood, and the last mile before leadwood is basically a large pond with very little current. Also, mounts is not a public access and the people who own it may charge 5$ or something to park your car there. That fee may just be to camp or leave your car overnight I cant remember off the top of my head.

That is a heck of a walleye btw. Great fish!

To each his own, but when I go meat fishing, I generally toss every legal fish in the cooler, I just learned not to post those pics on the table rock forum 🤣. I am not a livescoper yet...but in a few years they will have one for 200$ dollars and we will all have one connected straight to our smartphones. There are tons of fisherman like me, who suck, and even if we keep every fish we catch we cant do any harm. On lakes like table rock or stockton, for me, finding fish is the hard part using paper maps, lining up trees and rocks on the bank, and using 2d graphs. Ive often heard that with livescope you still have to make them bite...but we all know that on deep clear impoundments, finding them takes WAYYYY more time than cycling through baits to see what makes them react. I could very well be wrong (I guess I hope I am too). I just think that this new technology is really going to take its toll on lakes that set up perfect for it with lots of roaming suspended fish.

I read the article, but not the particular study. That said, I do know quite a bit about PFAS. 1.) PFAS/PFOS is an extremely vague term that covers thousands of different compounds. 2.) Generally they are extremely stable polymers that accumulate to high levels because they do not biodegrade quickly. 3.) They are already in you, and there is not sufficient data to determine the level of toxicity. They are obviously not acutely toxic because people aren't falling over dead, but like anything long term toxicity has to be determined the long way. ****my opinion!!**** I am not a doctor, but a chemist. My personal opinion on them is that they pose very little risk due to their inherent stability. Generally toxic compounds are toxic because they react with something in your body. Fluorinated alkanes just do not react with much. Like all microplastics, it will take several generations of these accumulated molecules for us to know the full effects, but in the meantime they are cheap, convenient and ubiquitous. Other facts about PFAS : Teflon is a fluorinated polymer, which is largely the reason nothing sticks to it. Also, "CFC's" which are also fluorinated alkanes, are what poked a hole in the ozone layer. Due to their inherent stability they do not react with molecular oxygen (o2), but when they move higher in the atmosphere they react with ozone (O3) which caused that hole (ha!) disaster.

I think eventually we will be seeing conservation put smaller bag limits as guys really hammer the crappie with the new technology. I also wonder if the pro-FFS tournament bass fishermen will change their tune when crappie guys are filleting out 5# bass cuz they could see it on their livescope.

I could not agree more. This is refreshing to read and very well said.

Ignore doug. He is nothing more than a troll, and an unfunny one at that.

Congrats on that walleye BTW. That is a real trophy fish!

Ya know, I get bored when I fish the same bodies of water over and over again. I like to mix it up and fish for different species, and use different techniques. That said, the reason you're one of the best at catching walleye out of the Meramec is because you're always fishing it. I would love to catch a 12# river walleye, but doing so requires all the time and effort spent fishing that one particular fishery. If you're willing to put in the hours, you're likely to be rewarded with something special. I fish all over Missouri, but generally no one body of water more than say 10 or 20 times per year, so Ill never really get to master any of them. If I fished one lake or river 100 days or more a year, id probably be one of the best at fishing it. It kinda seems like you wanna see something different, so go for it!

I'm glad that place is still in business. They've been open for quite some time. I make sure to spend a hundred bucks or more every time I am in Kimberling.

Thanks. Seems like that has been the trend with so many jerkbaits lately. I tend to like a slow floater, and I can add lead strips or split rings to make is suspend or sink.