Martin

On that first photo I put up from last year, I had to go home and get the camera before "harvesting" those. It's rare I walk into that many in one spot. Now I try and take the camera with me.

Wife and D-I-L found 23 last evening in approx an hour or so. Nice photo's Chris !

I haven't downloaded the photo's from the last few days yet, but I found some photo's from last April that might get everyone in the mood. I'll see if I can get them up.

Only in Missouri...... I have photo's of the heavy snow here yesterday evening and today, I have photo's of the 43 morels we found. LOL ! It sounds good, but there was alot of walking that was unproductive. My feet are kind of wore out but I'll get some photo's up tomorrow. (if I can figure out how). (max size, etc). No black pointy tips that we usually find early. ?????? Alot of what we found were very small, but some good ones too. We're just a few miles north of the AR / MO line.......Get ready you guys !!

A friend of a friend reported finding over 100 black tip morels yesterday up in Aurora. They found them in their yard. lol. I just got back from checking our early spots and found nothing. We'll be checking everyday now until they show up. Can't wait !

Daughter-in-law found ONE yesterday near here. Southern Taney or Stone or Barry County. Is that close enough ? lol

Met my buddy Friday, noonish, and fished from the Houseman area down a few miles. Threw jigs and jig & minnow for 4 hours or so with nothing to show but one very small bass. (We were targeting walleyes). Decided to troll cranks at about 7:00 p.m. and caught a fat, heathy, walleye keeper 10 minutes later. Had another fish on within 5 minutes of the keeper eye but it came unbuttoned before we even got to the rod. Oh yeah, the walleye was an 18 1/2 incher, so, nothing to scream about, but we were happy to get one in the boat. Put the walleye back since it's spawning season (read: I was too lazy to clean one fish when I got home) so I don't know if it was full off eggs or what, but it was F A T . Very little boat traffic for a Friday afternoon / evening run. All the boaters were very curtious and gave each other as wide of birth as possible. A very nice day of fishing !

Quillback, what did you catch your walleye on ?

Moduck, I have a 1992 9.9 HP Evinrude, but it is a long shaft model. In fact, it's an extra long shaft. It was a kicker motor on a walleye boat. It was running great when I took it off to upgrade in Nov. '07. Contact me if you'd like a photo.

I second the Mustad Triple Grip trebles, especially on crankbaits that are trolled, but they are great on just about any crank or jerk.

Excellent stuff Brownieman !! Very cool indeed !

Nice fish Randall !! As for the original question, a few years ago, Powerdive and I got to spend an evening netting walleyes in a MDC shocking boat on upper Bull Shoals. Most of the night was spent between River Run ramp and Powersite Dam. It was March 11th, and there were a few HUNDRED walleyes shocked, measured and tagged. So, if that was a normal year, the walleyes are up there pretty thick by March 11th. Back in Kansas, everybody used to start fishing the dam's on March 14th. I now think we started too late and could have done better had we started earlier. I say, start TODAY !

Stingin' Lizard --- Common Ozark Scorpion Juicy --- JUICY the size of that Walleye !! Ground Rattler --- Pygimy rattlesnake. Goodyear Pattern --- Catching bass from an old tire in shallow water.

Well, I guess I should have followed Phil & company to Bull Shoals. We didn't connect with any eyes on upper Tablerock, we put a whuppin' on the bass....lol.... What a great day to be on the water. Tee shirts most of the afternoon, which felt weird because of the frozen ice flows coming out of the rocky bluffs. Normally I'd be working like most, but work is S L O W right now. (Commercial buildings with steel)... Looks like the crummy economic situation has trickled down to me.(and I don't like it).

We're headed to extreme upper Tablerock. Maybe from Holiday Island on up to at least Houseman. Looking for whatever we can catch but hopefully a walleye or two.

How about a parade instead ? I'll go first. lol

RPS, I'm really not qualified to write the archive article. Heck, with you being a teacher and Powerdive having a PHD in English, one of you guys could do a much better job. (The only PHD I have is a Post Hole Digger) lol And yes it is great to live where a 15 pound walleye is a real possibility. My best was 1 oz shy of 10 pounds. Sept 2006 while trolling the upper lake. Big Reef Runner, 10/4 Fireline, 2.7 mph. Can't remember exactly where though. lol.

If memory serves me, a big Hellbender will hit 20 to 22 feet deep with 120 feet of line out. I haven't used the Hellbenders as much in recent years because I started catching more walleyes on Reef Runners and Cabelas Walleye Runners. The Hellbender depth I just mentioned was using 10 pound test mono. It was before my linecounter days. I used to hook the HB to our dock walkway and walk out to the deep end of the dock while letting out line. I knew this was 120 feet and I'd use a magic marker to put a big fat mark on my line right in front of the reel. Then when fishing, I'd just let out until that mark was just off the reel. I also remember that I could hit the bottom in 30 feet of water with about 145 to 150 feet of line out with the Hellbender. Again, 10 lb mono. Quillback asked about the Bandits. I have the 6th edition and 7th edition of the Precision trolling book and neither one has the Bandits in it. However, a Deep Wee R is almost the same size and shape as a Bandit 300. The book shows the Deep Wee R will hit 16 feet deep w/ 124 feet line out. 17 feet w/ 180 feet of line out. BUT ! A 6A Bomber will hit: 17 feet w/ 121 feet out 18 feet w/ 150 feet out A 7A Bomber will hit: 18 feet w/ 132 feet out 20feet w/ 200 feet out I'm not sure if Mann's still make the "PLUS 15 model, but that little rascal will hit: 22 feet w/ just 116 feet out. 24 feet w/ 161 feet out 25 feet w/ 220 feet out Storm Hot N Tot (medium) will hit: 20 feet w/ 128 feet out 22 feet w/ 165 feet out Storm Hot N Tot Magnum will hit: 26 feet w/ 121 feet out 28 feet w/ 142 feet out 32 feet w/ 198 feet out 34 feet w/ 232 feet out Storm Wiggle Wart will hit: 16 feet w/ 114 feet out 18 feet w/ 156 feet out 20 feet w/ 223 feet out Storm Wiggle Wart Magnum will hit: 24 feet w/ 135 feet out 26 feet w/ 159 feet out 30 feet w/ 220 feet out Reef Runner large deep diver will hit: 24 feet w/ 120 feet out (29 to 30 feet deep using Fireline) 26 feet w/ 151 feet out 28 feet w/ 198 feet out (about 35 feet deep using Fireline) That's just a few depths on a few lures, but they seem to be many people's favorites. A footnote here. These depths were all based on using 10 pound test mono. You can add 20 to 25% to those depths if you go to a superline such as Fireline or Stealth. I use 10 lb test Fireline (4 lb test diameter) or Spiderwire STEALTH in 15 lb test.(4 lb test diameter). Personally, I troll mostly between 2.0 mph and 2.9 mph. You just have to kind of experiment with speed. Some lures work better at 2.7 then they do at 2.0. Again, spend some time on the water and try different speeds. Be sure and set your drag to slip when using superline. If you get hung-up, it needs to slip or stuff will start breaking and it probably won't be the line. lol. Hope this helps and isn't too confusing.

Hey good idea(s) Ealy. This particular area has yielded some nice crappie in the past, but none yet so far (by me) this winter. I'll give the grub a shot next time though.

Have you guys got any secrets for when the spoon fish come streaking up out of the deep tree's and race to your spoon, and then not bite it ? lol. Then they just hang with it and I can almost see them looking at it like a bluegill looks a nightcrawler when the grandkids are fishing at the dock. I've tried just holding it still, tried barely shaking it, tried jumping it again. To no avail. I probably should have cahnged colors or shape ??

In the spring of 2006, we caught a few really nice Rainbow's while trolling deep for walleyes. The bow's went back into the lake. If memory serves me, we had a couple that went about 24 inches and some smaller ones. These fish were hanging in the deep tree's in the Fool Creek area. Month of May. Good luck ! Hope this helps.

You will catch a ton of bass while trolling for walleye. lol. I have never (well, in the last 20 years) actually targeted bass while trolling, but if you're fishing Beaver, Tablerock, or Bull Shoals, the bass will find you. Trolling is a great way to catch White Bass also.

Very cool Sam Kam ! Nice fish too.

I agree with RPS and Powerdive. The Trollers Bible (nickname) is actually called "Precision Trolling", and you can get a copy from Cabelas or go straight to the www.precisionangling.com website. The link to Cabelas is http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...&hasJS=true (wow, that's a long one). Tablerock walleyes like # 5 Shad Raps alot but you should start learning about leadcore line to get it deep enough to do any good. In fact, with leadcore trolling line, you can put any small or shallow running bait WAY down there in the 15 to 35 foot range. Seems like some days the walleyes like small lures and some days they bite that big ole Reef Runner. My best luck with the Tablerock walleyes is from mid-April clear through July if you can stand the heat and all the ski boats. lol . A couple of years ago, the walleyes put on the feed bag in early Sept and it lasted a few weeks. I caught the 4 biggest walleyes of my life in one week. This year I couldn't even catch one in Sept. (Darn walleyes) lol

Don, I live at the lake, but don't get the time to go alot, but I've been breaking away from work as often as I can in the late afternoons. The spinnerbait in the cedars has been on the downswing for me, but yesterday and today, the crankbiat bite has saved the day. Well, saved the hour. lol. I rarely get more then 1 1/2 hours on the water. Yesterday, I had more time and went out at 2:00. Not a bite for 2 hours on the SB.. Went to the crankbait and moved in close. Like - boat in 5 to 6 feet of water, fishing parallel. Started catching Kentuck's and smallies WAY up shallow......Gotta bang that crank on the bottom to get bit. Some of the prettiest smalljaws I've ever seen. Make you crankbait look like a big orange crawdad and you should get bit. Now, this is like from 4:00 till dark. It might work all day. Wish I had time to test it. lol. I guess I should get out the jig. Don't forget the big orange crawdad CB !!