Dave Cook

I usually fly fish jig and cork for crappie in the brush near shore.. I do that starting in Feb when the ice melts and keep fishing until the moss gets bad. Woolly buggers (unweighted) work pretty good in April for crappie and bluegill. If I can't find crappie near shore, then I'll try jig and weighted cork over the brush way offshore with a spinning rod. The neat thing about trout fishing at Coot with a jig and cork is if you start catching crappie there, then you have some idea about when to fish the other lakes. You can catch a bucketful of crappie at Coot but most are under 7 inches. The lake with the biggest crappie is Jackrabbit but the numbers are down on that lake. The best all round fishing lake is probably Nell. The other trout lake is Plover. Besides trout in the winter, there are a few big crappie there. It mosses up first with algae and can be a mess to fish. Most people fish both lakes. It seems like one winter you will do better at a certain lake and the next year it could be the other lake. Spin fishing is good in both lakes with things like rooster tails or little cleos. There is some nice sized redear fishing in all the lakes at JAR but you don't usually find them in big numbers. During their spawn, shady banks seem to hold them. You need a pair of rubber boots to keep your feet dry in the spring. They keep the area around the lakes mowed so you stay out of the chiggers and there is usually room for fly casting.

It's 5 minutes from my house. I checked Tuesday and the lakes still had ice on them. I could break it easily but wasn't willing to open up any holes on Coot for trout. There were some already off of the handicap dock. On Wednesday I figured there could be some open water after the warm night. I was ready to go out there around 3pm but then the thunder started. So I cancelled that plan. Whatever wasn't frozen this afternoon (Thurs) will be frozen all next week and then some, Highs in the teens for the next couple of days, and then it is suppose to turn colder. When it isn't frozen, I usually fish olive mini-jigs (like a John Deere) about 12 -18 inches deep under a cork. I start at the boat ramp. That is where the trout are stocked. Fish the brush close to the bank. If that doesn't work, just a short roll cast out is far enough out. If you don't get bit, just keep working the shoreline to your right. There are a few fly fishermen out there that know some hot spots. If you see anyone with a fly rod --- follow them. They probably have a honey hole. Talk to them. We're a friendly bunch. If you a thinking something other than trout or fly fishing no problem. I spend more time crappie fishing out there than I do trout fishing. Dave

That reminds me about fishing for walleye at the Osage - Missouri confluence. Good thing he isn't looking for walleye.

Here is one my son caught below Broken Bow Dam, Ok on the Mountain Fork. He could spot more than one in the stream but the water was not clear enough to spot the regular rainbows. I don't think anyone has to worry (pro or con) about them becoming part of the gene pool in stocked waters.

Grizzley jigs come from the Grizzley Jig Company in Caruthersville,Mo. http://www.grizzlyjig.com/index.html They are also a great trout jig. I think the duck hunters rule the lake now but I bet there still are some winter fishermen out there. I've seen a Bill Dance program on bass that was made during the winter there.

How was the water clarity at JFK?

I'd like to see the channel that is opening up (cutting across) the gravel bar below outlet 3 rocked in at the top and stablize the bar from erosion. Doesn't have to be big rocks that boats have to worry about, just something to help stablize the bar so it doesn't erode and load more gravel into the channel. In general I'm against stream dredging but something should be done to take the gravel that was stripped from the banks last year and deposited into the stream back to the banks or bars that it came from. It was at least a once in 50 years event that helped messed up the stream, plus around 50 years of "wear and tear". Even though there was a historic flood last year, the majority of water came from the spillway not the river channel. So near the dam, the dymanics of a river flood just weren't natural. So manual intervention to help reverse the negative effects of those changes to the stream is welcome.

Ditto Thom. Why do I worry what other fishermen do? Because I would hate to see someone on vacation have to pay $100 or more for a fish or worse be hauled away in front of their kids. I've seen way too many violations at Taneycomo. In every instance where I have approached the person I treat them as if they are ignorant of the rules, tell them what the regulations actually are and where they can do things like bait fish. And I have never had one of them thank me for trying to save their a$$. The cold hard fact is that anyone illegally taking fish is stealing from me and you. Next time you see a 16" brown put on a stringer, think about it. If any of you that have witnessed gross violations (like keeping fish in the slot,caught on bait, in the restricted area) and never approached the person, give it some thought and approach the person. It will change your perspective.

By Dec 1 the surface (or near surface) water temps should be low enough to be healthy for trout and the DO will be high and it should help dilute any oxygen starved water coming thru the generators. It sounds like a good plan. According to the COE page (http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/Repo...rofiles/do1.txt) for Norfork as of Nov 10 the DO is between 0.24 & 0.28 at the generator intake. With the vents open they have been maintaining about 4.5 - 6.5 ppm of DO. If the vents weren't open to draw air in as they generate, all that would be let would be the gar. I remember how sad the trout we at Taneycomo in Sept after the great flood (great flood part 2) and the trout were just about boiled alive by the spillway water.

I got to soak a PMS a couple of nights at the North Fork during the Conclave. Arkansas trout love a PMS. It's an incredible fly. One fish might hammer it and another may just pick it up and slowly swim off with it. You never know.

I've seen that Western Auto one night this summer. Hope I run into guys this fall. Dave

I'm curious about the fish you lost. Did the line break or the hook pull out? I wouldn't worry about how long it takes to land a fish. For me, it's how much pressure can I apply to end this as soon as I can AND in my favor. But I let the fish tell me how long the fight is going to last. I practice maximum pressure techniques on smaller fish so that I know my limits for when a big one is hooked. I fish a lot with a 5wt 5x tippet and most my fights last less than a minute if the fish is under 14". Those 14-15 inch trout make a perfect size for practicing how hard (and quickly) to fight a fish. I put as much pressure as I can on the fish after the initial run to test my rig. I have a lot more confidence in my knots and tippet strength and how well a hook will hold by doing this. If you can get a practice fish early in your day, then you will know the feel of strong pressure. When a good sized fish does happen to take more than 5 minutes to land, then you can re-evaluate how much pressure you have been applying. But as I said earlier, I let them dictate how long it will last.

Congratulations.

I have not yet done the homework as many of you have done to know what is in the project. But I would like to add some info (for you youngsters out there) that I hope encourages those of you that are opposed to damming Ozark streams. Congress approved a COE project to dam the Meramec River. A large number of people wanted it as a recreational facility and had a lot of popular support. This was stopped around 1978 even after the project had begun.

I think Cedar Creek is your best bet near Columbia for creek fishing. Take the road to the airport, 'H', keep going east past Englewood until the road ends at the creek. A better bet may be for bluegill on the "South Farm", off of hiway 63 south. Take the road that runs behind the Channel 8 TV tower to a trophy, catch & release bluegill pond.

As a wade fisherman I'm pretty skeptical that mimimum flow would benefit me. On Taneycomo, there are about 2 miles of wading water (river) and the rest is not. In Arkansas it's all river. During the past 10 -15 years we have had more drought years than flood years and I can see boaters on the White looking for some kind of help to make it thru the drought years. There is also a huge benefit to having extra water releases thru the hot weather months. I would think that protecting the temperature of the water to keep it below lethal levels 'x' miles downstream, would be a more important cause than just expecting minimum flow to fix everything. My biggest concern is not how many cfs come thru Table Rock at any given time, on any given day, but the quality of the water. We are already fishing with low oxygen levels (less than 6ppm DO, see http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/Repo...rofiles/do2.txt) and it will only get worse for the rest of the year. This is an issue that impacts everyone, is easy to quantify, and really shouldn't have any subjective opinions (as mine is on minimum flow). People may want to debate what the best remedies are to resolve the problem, but improving our quality of water (at the source of Taneycomo) to get the DO above toxic levels, will help the fish in upper Lake Taneycomo.

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I have been there in about a month and haven't noticed. Stop in at the HQ building and ask for Bob Mattucks. He is the fisheries guru there. He can tell you if anything is going on.

You can also see it at http://lilleystacklestore.com/xcart/produc...at=0&page=1 If you are going to tie it, it helps to have an original in hand. You know, Leonard sightings are about as often as the Giant TaneycomoToruist Eating Squid. Hmmmm.. When was the last time anyone ran into that squid?

Biggest rainbow of my life (so far) caught and released at the Rocking Chair. 27" long, 17.5" girth. Caught on a John Deere, 6x tippet, 5 wt fly rod. My wife measured it and then we returned her (the fish) to where she came from and thanked God for the experience.

I ran into Leonard and T7 Thursday night. Good to see you guys. I was fishing with my regular partner in crime Darrell. When the water dropped the fishing turned on. I was fishing a couple of hours with a "Poor Man's Hibernator", meaning I tied it with what I had, so it was close to a hibernator. Nice sized fish from 14 - 18 inches all night. The best one was about 20". Later on I changed to a purple PMS and finished the night with it. It worked all night. Using the PMS, I hooked the twin to one pictured but he launched himself skyward and thru the fly back at me.

Using your 4wt and size 10 & 12 woolies/leeches on a full moon night is a good strategy. You need a slow enough retrieve for them to hit the bottom. If you are doing that, then you will get lots of strikes. Now for fishing the 7wt or 8wt and the #6 PMS - you bet-cha. I like to do both. But you can fish the PMS just fine on a 5wt or 6wt. If you want to stick with the 4wt, just try tying some #8 PMS's and use at least a 4x tippet.

I remember those days. No internet forum to warn you back then. Must have been below that last channel divide upstream of Riverton.

I've never had one last more than a year. I've bought them at Wal-mart, Westlakes and the Hy-Vee grocery store (with rebates from KCPL), from 40 to 100 watt equivalent. They have all burned out (with a pop) and put out a really bad smell. I have not seen any warnings on the packages about how toxic they are. I would not recommend them to anyone.

Leonard, you catch em, and I'll clean all the 15 - 19 inch walleye you got. You know I'm really concerned about protecting all those baby trout they release in Taneycomo from those nasty, toothy, no good for nothing walleye.