Old dog 417

Very well done! Those are 2 fine wallys...and you refer to 40 fish with 17 keepers as a "pretty good" day? I think many of us would call it great! lol. od

Thanks for the report. Well done! od

Mighty fine! Yup,...Mighty fine! I like those rod holders too. Thanks for the report. od

Good job and a good report. I haven't run a smile blade in a while...guess I need to! Do you mind sharing which side you fished? Big or Little Sac. Thanks od

Evidently these really can happen anywhere.... od http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/06/11/boater-dies-after-sinkhole-creates-whirlpool-on-arkansas-river.html

A fine example of making lemonade out of lemons! Well done. od

Well done again!! od

Way to go lmt out and mike! Of course the walleye bite would be turning on and the Holiday traffic has now diminished. That's why I've been called to jury duty! My luck is hard...so very hard!!! od

I'll bet that's it. I was thinking possibly clown but I think your answer makes better sense! od

Is "crowded" a typo?? I'm not getting it...but the walleye sure are! Somebody please fill me in. Thx. od

Well done and a nice fat walleye for a bonus! 9 days ago I was trolling #7 Flicker Shads in Uncle Rico and Pink cougar in about 28-32' and had the same luck as you (Mr Giggles). Fire tiger has been a long time favorite color of mine but they didn't want that or a solid purple. The Uncle was as close to a purple bait as they would take. I was trolling with braid, 1.5 mph, about 12-14' deep in clear water with a temp of 76-78 south of twin bridges. I had several shorts but the majority were decent sized females, all with eggs when we cleaned them. Evidently, they are moving deeper which I guess isn't surprising. Thanks for the report Mr G ...especially the heads up on getting back to fire tiger. od

Good job and thanks for the report! od

I don't know about Cabela's bait casters but their Depthmaster III line counter reels and rod/reel combos are still available. Although a couple of reel models are out of stock they are listed as available via back-order. Perhaps Cabela's has a glitch in their website as to how it processes reel searches? od

I had no idea they were that motivated to make their run upstream. Great video. od

Well Done!

Well done! OD

Launched at Ruark a little after 11:00 AM. The weather people were right...there was definitely a south wind blowing but air temps were moderate. I found a close by creek that the wind wasn't blowing directly into and decided to start there. The plan was to troll deeper water for staging crappie rather than casting the shoreline. Started out with Rebel Deep "R"s (yes, they are old baits) in firetiger and caught a few but ultimately decided the baits needed to run deeper and switched to #7 Flicker Shads finishing out the day using them. The deeper presentation and larger bait produced better sized females in the 12-13" range. The bonus walleyes came early on while turning around on the windy point at the mouth of the creek in shallower water with the Rebels. I probably tossed back 5-6 shorts and a couple of bluegill in the 4 hours of fishing. It was important to retrieve the baits every few minutes and knock the slime off acquired from the globs of it that were floating/suspended throughout the creek. Often, immediately after throwing the bait back it would get bit so that said a lot. The numbers: 14 crappie, 10-13" 2 walleye, 16-17" Water temp 62.5 degrees Contour Depths trolled 12-16' Speed 1.3 - 1.5 MPH. Last but not least...Please park your trailer responsibly!! Tight lines to ya, OD This post has been promoted to an article

Finally, on the eleventh day of the season I filled my first tag. I admit, it was starting to work on my mind a bit but perseverance paid off. I had hunted the cold windy opening day and the only bird I saw didn't gobble, wouldn't work, and walked across the middle of the field eventually meandering off into the woods. I was unfazed and thinking to myself "that's turkey hunting...there will be another" but there wasn't, and that nonproductive hunt was followed by five more and still no Gobbler harvested. Oh sure, I was seeing some but they were either with hens out in a field or there was the one that hung up at about 75 yd and had me mumbling to myself on the way back to the car. By now I'm starting to rethink everything. I switch caps thinking this one must be reflective or something to the big boys. I even put my Jake decoy away with the thought the birds I'm hunting are all lovers not fighters so I should just use my 2 hen dekes! Fast forward to Thursday morning the 26th. I'm hunting a friend's farm in Maries Co where he has seen 3 strutting in his hay field several times recently. The farm has a small wood lot in the center adjacent to a lake but that area is surrounded by 300 acres of open pasture. Luckily, a fence row surrounding a hay field near the woodlot had 3, 10 ft cedar trees with the lower branches rubbed off by the cattle. It seemed workable, so that's where I set up hoping the shade from the morning sun would help hide me. First light came and no sounds were to be heard except that of 2 geese flying over. I called to the wood lot in hopes of attracting a gobbler that must be roosted in there but if they were there they had lock jaw. An hour passed with no sightings or sounds and now I'm starting think they must be elsewhere today. For whatever reason I quit focusing on the woods and looked to my left, the west end of this 20 acre open hay field. There was something out there. A long ways away but it was dark colored and moving my direction. It seemed like it took forever for this silent creature to cover that distance but he did and finally I could see it had a beard. Up until now he was just walking, stopping to occasionally peck at the ground, but he was not in any hurry to come see my 2 hen decoys. At about 70 yards he stopped and began strutting. He preformed his best show and moved a little closer but was not motivated to "coming in". After 10 minutes I'm now estimating 10 yard increments between him and me and I'm concerned about my open location and if I'm about to be noticed. I decided he's got to be within 55 yards and I'm shooting 3 1/2" Hevi-shot that I've patterned out to 50 yards so another 5 yard can't make that much difference. Right? I decide it's now or never and bring the 870, 12 ga. to my cheek for the shot. Sure enough, down he goes and flops twice before I can get to him but is motionless when I arrive. I do the usual...check beard length, spurs, coloration of his feathers and then look to where I had been sitting. It seemed further away now than when I was looking at the bird from there. I started stepping it off and it turned out to be 63 yards. Says a lot for my distance estimating from a sitting position! When I had originally patterned the Hevi-shot a friend made the comment that based on the holes in the plywood target he thought it was lethal to 70 yards but at the time I just chalked that comment up to wishful thinking. I picked up my gear, gun, and bird and walked back to the car feeling pretty good about my day. As I drove along the edge of the wood lot I spot a mushroom sticking up about 5" located less than 10' off the farm trail/road. I can't believe my eyes so I stop and get out to see for sure and as it turned out it was on the edge of a decent patch of them. No bag with me so my cap (now my favorite) had to suffice as a container. It all worked out and after the gobbler was processed and in my cooler with the mushrooms alongside I realized I was still smiling. Imagine that! The older I get, and I've gotten to the age where people now hold doors for me, the more I think about good hunts and fishing trips in the days gone by but, I also recognize how rewarding it is just to be out there in the great outdoors. They've all been good whether a harvest or catch occurred or not. Obviously, this OAF membership gets that and that's why we share our special moments with each other. To that end I say...enjoy it and share it with all you can while you can, OD

From a guy that came home from a Canadian fishing trip 3 days early and..... is now divorced. You've got a great one there. You are rightfully proud. Congrats to you both! OD

Just do what ya gotta do when turkey hunting! Good job!!! OD

If those that parked at 5:30 AM in the dark can get their rigs parked straight the rest have no excuse. Perhaps, the COE should repaint the lines to help the "parking challenged" since they are quite faded and have been for several years. Several years ago...I had a friend along that offered to pull my rig out and park it when we launched. When we were done fishing and returned to the ramp, I walked up to retrieve the car and trailer and found he had parked it basically at a 45 degree angle covering 2 stalls. Ever since then I always remind fishing partners to "swing wide turning into the stall to get it straight". As I viewed the mess At Ruark Tuesday I wondered how many owners had no idea their rigs were parked so haphazardly or at the very least....I was hoping that's what had happened. od

55-56 degrees today lower Sons Creek. Saw some large floaters there also. Overflow lot was nearly half full at noon at Ruark ramp! Must be a lot of pent up Spring fever in SW Missouri. OD

Excellent! Great report. Good bird, good shot, and a bunch of fish for dinner. Your thread title is right on. Now if I can just fill my first tag real soon! OD.

Great day and good report! Just curious...Were you hunting COE land around lake? I've been thinking about hunting the AM and fishing the afternoon with a possible side excursion of mushroom hunting. Thanks for the report. OD