Tightline

Put in at the Conservation access by the bridge at Galena Thursday evening.I was with my brother-in-laws in their Tracker boat. We started catching fish right after we unloaded and caught them all the way down to the Shoals motel. We were catching males and some were pretty small but it was no problem keeping just the good eater size.We thought we had our limits but ended up with 42.Went back Friday mourning and just slayed them.Don't know how many were caught but we kept our limits,45 decent 11-14 inch males with one 19 inch sow that had empty egg sacs' Lots of boats came from down stream with limits of sows,some were all the way down to Taylor shoals.Two guys at the loading ramp were fly rodding thursday evening had some huge whites,said they were way down and caught all on Clousers. Lures,didn't seem to matter,or the color! The pic is some of Fridays catch.

Wow what a variety of fish,and,at the upper end of Taney! I was down there sunday afternoon just looking at the water and there was a fellow fishing right at outlet 1 and he had a white bass that was around 18- 20 inchs,a big ole fat sow. Leonard if you start catching more of those Walleyes, I'll be down to fish with ya. Can't figure out how them Wallys got in there,must have jumped the dam at Powersite.

Gobblergetter,its good to see you on the forum.Slider talks about you all the time.I hear your his #1 scout for suckers.Keep your eyes peeled and we'll all get after them! Scheetz ,by the way thats a really nice Northern in your picture or is it a big Muskie?

I know a few giggers,and like some of you have stated they would't trade 1 yellow sucker for all the bass in James river,and I don't blame them,nothing better than deep fried yellow suckers.Grabbing and gigging are definatly a old time tradition in the Ozarks and if you think its like shooting fish in a barrel then you are badly mistaken, try it some time you'll find out its not easy. Except for the late night hours giggers are probably the easiest to catch up to and check,they light up the river banks for miles and are easy to spot with all the leaves and vegetation gone. I think your 1-2 time a summer wade or float fisherman that takes his kids with him and wants some fish to eat does more harm to the bass population than anything else. As soon as slider finds us some suckers I'll be down on Bull or Swan grabbing away!!

Coyote,we ran into the same thing thursday evening at Beaver.It was jammed packed with boats up stream,so my brother-in-law and me opted to stay further down out of the mess.About dark we started catching fish from a brushy part of a little inlet to a slough.The more we caught the more boats piled in around us,till finnally a PONTOON decides to go between us and our little brushy bank.This guy stoped and carried on a very friendly conversation while sitting right on our spot. The lord must have been with me to keep me calm,because not long ago I'm afraid it would have been a bad scene. It shouldn't have mattered because there is alot of fish in the river,but we only caught 1 more after that. We all just need to remember 2 things while fishing in a crowd,COURTESY AND RESTRAINT!

I believe your guys next venue will be the (Fishing with Bill and Phil show) or should it be (Fishing with Phil and Bill show).Great video,but Phil I would demand equal time on camera. You know we haven't had a good local fishing show in years.Something to think about!!

Great report,glad to hear you put some females back. Now I am really undecided on where to go this weekend,their hitting in Swan,Beaver,215 bridge and I heard a HOT report from the Blunk hole on the James just today!Oh and my nephew found 10 morels last night. Whats a guy to do.

There are alot of (ifs) involved with high water,yes if they drop the water drastically right when most of the bass are spawning we'll lose some nest.but I have always thought flood years were the best for spawners.Some of the best years on Bullshoals were always 2-3 years after a big flooded spring time.They have more cover to spawn in,and the fry can hide from predators.The whites are usually so scattered in all the big water that not as many are caught which in turn produces more fry. Of course when Bullshoals floods big in the spring it takes a long time to draw it down,unlike Tablerock. Now if it turns off cold right in the middle of the spawn like last year,I think that is worse. All we can do is just hope for the best.

Materman,just go down to the bridge below Swan to get to the River Run side.After this water clears up a little get after those wallys.The Forsyth side is probably your best bet with all this water,unless you have a boat,then you can fish where ever. The tackle shop at the top of the hill in Forsyth is a good place to find out what exactly the walleye,whites or crappie are biting on,he's usually right on the money. Creek chubs are hard to beat for walleye if you like to bait fish. Hope this helps a little.

Way to go, Goforth,I hope to have a pic of a big brown someday.I'm just green with envy!

I agree Dutch,we all need to remember what the last 4 or 5 years have been like down there and try to put a sow or 2 back to spawn.We are blessed in this part of the country in that our White bass can grow to enormus size compared to the ones in the south or north. One of our 18-20 inch sows can lay up to a million eggs,with 20-30% making it .You do the math,thats alot of fish. Me, I will throw all females back this year from Bullshoals.Thats if I ever get to go and catch some. Good luck to everyone this year!!

Thanks Zander,I appreciate that,and I did have a good one.

Good pic's Jim.I was wondering what this last round of rain had done to it down there.Maybe this will bring some of the fish lurking in the Barker and Johnson holes on up! Should be just right for fishing about Fri or Sat.

I wonder what the response would have been if the womans letter wasn't about the killing and trapping of animals but about catching,killing and eating fish?

We are a huge force Trav,but getting us all to agree on a specific thing to lobby or vote about is a different thing. Me and slider have talked about buying and old van or a bus so a bunch of us could carpool to the fishing hole. Hey, it may come to that!

Well,we can all just cry on each others shoulders.Guys I was down there also,in a boat anchored behind the rock pile.I also think I seen you Zander,just below the big rocks on the Forsyth side? I didn't even have a bite.My brother-in-law caught 1 trout. We fished from there all the way to Swan in all my favorite spots,nothing! Talked to a couple of guys at the ramp,they had caught 12 whites, but they came from down stream.

Awesome pics chub,what color!Those belong on a calender!

Took this pic a couple of weeks ago on a cloudy rainy mourning at Powersite.The original full size photo just shows 2 tiny white spots,I need to get me a tele- lens.I have seen more Eagles this year than ever before.

Finley is getting a well needed flushing,this first pic is the bottoms west of 160,the 2nd is off of Hawkins bridge,the 3rd is Riverdale dam.[attachm ent=2266:pictures_370.jpg] Finley as of 3:00 pm hadn't crested. James is out of its banks too.Table Rock ought to get a good rise out of this rain.

Trav has got a camera,he posted a pic of an old Jim Beam bottle that he got at a garage sale.Right Trav?

Nice Jack,Bill, they are tasty and are one of my favorites,right behind Flathead cats to eat.Glad to see you guys have some luck, thanks for the report.

Interesting, Zander I had been trying to figure why my wooleys that I tie wouldn't catch fish nearly as well as some that I bought at a local fly shop because mine weren't that much different, the hackle on mine didn't look as good so I thought that was it. Well I finally got smart enough to tear one all the way down to the bare hook and found that the bought one was heavily wraped with lead, mine weren't.Since I started weighting mine down I have been doing much better. Love the wooleys and jigs!

You got it Vonreed.I would like to have a dollar for every animal they (especially Clark) have trapped.I guess you must know them,aren't they true versions of real mountain men.

Bill I know a couple of guys that have trapped for long time.They both work at SDC,so they have most of the winter off.Don't know if they make it down to Taney or not,but if they did,they probably cleaned house.

Bill, if the three of you guys can't take the chill off things down there, then there's no hope for the rest of us.If you go, let us know something. Thanks TL