podum

Glad to see Im not the only one with this problem. After the beasts invaded the attic, chewed on the deck posts and ate the Christmas lights, I declared war. Bought a one pump break barrel Gammo Shadow (.177) about 3 years ago at Walmart for about $100. The thing has been (and still is) absolutely money. I've only sighted it in once. I couldn't count how many have fallen (im in suburban Overland Park, KS). The stopping power of a single pellet with this rifle is really good. Happy Hunting

I was up 10 days ago and we spent the day fishing for whites on the windy main lake points. It was still a little too warm and really windy but there was a bite if you were persistent. With the cooler weather since, it should be good now. If nothing else, there will be far less of the big boats than we had to deal with. As for the blacks, we found a decent spinnerbait bite in the back third of the coves off of dock corners. Color didn't matter so long as it was white. Good luck and give us a report when you're done!

CMAC, I'm heading down for this weekend - in the Horseshoe Bend area - any tips on that part of the lake? Your report is appreciated. Where abouts was your trip on the lake?

Thanks Don. Took your advice on the performance features and found a bargain at the Bass Pro web site. I got a Browning Midas (aluminum frame, 10 bearings). The reviews of the reel are excellent across the board. Plus, the in store price at at the Olathe, KS store is $159, but they honored the website sale price of $99. I appreciate the education.

3 days creek. I'm not young enough to do that in a day . . .

Took our annual trip to the Niangua last weekend and fished the accesses at Moon Valley, Bennett, the NRO Campsite, and Barclay. No floating as there are some older guys in our group. Water was swift but clearer than expected. We did reasonably well at all stops, with most of our fishing just upstream from Bennett Access (near the 64 bridge). Lots of Smallmouth, but little in the way of size. Most were caught on Rebel Craws and Swimming Minnows. Trout were much better with a lot of rainbows in the 15 inch range. Fishing the riffle at Bennett resulted in stocker size rainbows, while moving up near the bridge brought much better fish. We caught very few browns and the ones we did were small. Those of us fly fishing caught them on a "Jimi Hendrix" egg pattern (combo of pink, chartreuse and white) and on olive woolies. Spin fishing was good with rebel craws and in line spinners (with a maribu tail).