podum

Mitch, never use a Smiley Face after you talk about getting chiggers. is more appropriate.

Salt: bull reds in the marshes. Big fish in shallow water = long runs and air shows. Fresh: wipers. I love the surprise when fishing for whites on LOZ. A take. Hook set. Pause. ZZZZZZZIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG!

Got a Yeti earlier this year. We stay in a place in Colorado for 5 days of our 10 day trip with no fridge. Yeti kept the meat frozen on the bottom (one pound of dry ice on the bottom) and the veggies and condiments cold on top for the full five. Added one bag of ice to the top during that time. It's a great cooler. It better last 30 years. That said, I paid more than half with Cabelas points so Im not nearly as invested as the full price.

First, take a day and leave the spin stuff at home. You wont get confidence until you catch a few and you wont catch em until you leave the fly in the water. Second, get some wooly buggers in black and olive (multiple sizes). Third, learn how to mend your line. The natural drift is a key with most flies, but you can practice it with a bugger, which will catch fish on the swing, with a twitch, with a strip or drifting naturally. While you're learning to mend, the bugger will get more bites than other flies. Good luck.

Oh snap Wrench! Must try. Great camp recipe. To Lowe Down: I fry whites a lot in the fall and love them. I agree with wrench. Some people just don't like 'em.

Find a windy riprap bank near a bridge (easy access) on Stockton or Truman during late Sept through Nov and you can catch all the white bass you want.

I'm against releasing 9 inch + Crappie unharmed. Nice report!

There is a state park campground very close to the dam. It's up at Table Rock level, but a short trip down to Taney. Can't help you with the float tube regs. Seems that it would work when they aren't running tons of water (assuming it's legal). I think they are running too much for that right now.

fantastic!!

You're right about that Wayne. On a Niangua trip this past April, we had a gully washer on Friday night. Went down Saturday morning to see if it was fishable. The river had come up 7 feet and I watched as a fully leafed out 50 foot cottonwood tree slowly drifted down stream. Wished I had a video camera.

yep. bring a six pack and wait. look for the birds. get sore arms. come back tomorrow.

me likey

There is some good wadable water at NRO (it's between Bennett and Barclay) - especially downstream. I think they charge a nominal (less than $5) if you want to fish for the day and you aren't camping or renting. Barclay and Bennett are also fine. There is another riffle downstream of the parking lot at Barclay, but it takes some effort to get there. Worth it, though. There is a spring down there that helps congregate fish in the summer.

Clinton Lake

regular tackle. surfacing at dusk. we caught whites and a few smaller walleye spooning and trolling before dusk but the show started around 730. 730 till 9 was off the hook (or on it). Nine of the ten came in that span.

Pure fish porn. Caught 10 of these last week. All between 21-25 inches.

Some fish are still way shallow. We camped at Orleans Trail over the holiday and there were several nice fish spawning under the cables at the courtesy docks by the camp ground. I caught lots of fish in the 13-15 inch class by the willow bushes just screwing around with a roadrunner jig in the evenings. Lots of healthy fish in the lake.

What Lucky said. Except I start in late September . . . This time of year through the summer ... follow the gulls.

18.5 inch brown trout 2009. Weighed no more than 3.5 lbs. Nice fish though.

also roadrunners. plastic or marabou. white and chartreuse.

Think my reference was wrong Wayne. It's Indian Creek. Way up stream from any big water though. Near 435 and Antioch. darn this snow and cold . . .

Ok Troutnut, so Im biking with my daughter this afternoon along Tomahawk Creek in OP, KS. We pull off the trail to look at the creek and found pools with dozens of large carp (15-20 inch fish). Im gonna take a shot this weekend. PM if interested.

Our 8 man group hit the Niangua Thursday through today. Man, was there a lot of water. In the river and in the sky. When I arrived Thursday, I was worried because the river had popped up after the storms on Monday and Tuesday. The Windyville gauge was still showing 700. To my surprise the water was very clear. High, but clear. We fished mainly in the area around NRO. Fishing was excellent both Thursday (sunny and nice) and Friday (wet, wet, wet). The river was blown out on Friday night (7 foot spike) so we fished Bennett on Saturday. There are lots of really nice sized rainbows in the river right now. 14-16 inch fish. The best lure was a rebel crawfish. I was using the long rod and decided to streamer fish the whole trip (I havent done much of this and wanted to get some experience). Man was that the right call. I only used one fly - a size 10 articulated (double) olive circus peanut. I had the three largest trout I've ever caught on a fly rod. Two encouraging observations: First, there were many more fish in the river this year than in any of the last 4. Maybe we hit right behind the stocking truck this time, but I fished the river this winter and saw more fish than in recent years. I'm hoping that the conclusion of the hatchery work means more fish for the lower river. Second, we caught 6 browns over the course of the 2 days. We had none last year and one the year before. No keepers but 2 were in the 13-14 range (likely not recent stockers) and the rest 10-11. I hope they get smart fast and avoid the meat hunters. Cheers!

Gotcha. Will be down for a quick stop on Thursday morning. Will post report.

every bridge is a public easement so you can walk to the river at the bridge. You can fish at the bridge, but not much up or downstream unless you wade or stay below the high water mark. the water levels right now will make wading tough.