Buzz

What Shadman said....You should be ok fishing on Thursday. The amount of traffic that river gets on the weekends is freaking crazy. Plastic worms are very good, green and motoroil worked pretty good last float, buzzbaits should be good early and late. Don't forget the crawdad baits, both hard and soft, you can't beat them. Buzz

Uh Dude, have you ever thought of selling your photos? Those are great. Thanks for the freebies.

Great report and pictures. I'd love to float that stream sometime. Those bluff shots are great. I've been looking forward to your report all week.

That's a good little getaway. Did you see any other fishermen?

I just forwarded the website to my wife. I would love it if she would quit. I quit about 15 years ago, smoking that is, maybe they can come up with some kind of electronic chewing tobacco. Or maybe not.

Ditto that. Something I don't think that has been mentioned is that if a reservoir was built on the proposed site on Highway 60 at Shoal Creek it would definitely effect Capp's Creek which dumps into Shoal Creek upstream. Capp's is only a White Ribbon stream, but I don't want to lose it. We have so few good places to trout fish in our area. Buzz

Yeah, me too. The boy is still talking about that fish. I guess he gets the back of the boat next time.

Hey Fishin', Where you been hiding? I haven't heard anything out of you since we went fishing at the pond. Have you been to Texas yet?

It was a really good float and we did it in about the same time you did, 10:00am to 5:00 pm. Man I'll tell you one thing I was wore plum out. The back of the boat is a workout on this stretch.

Thanks KC, It was quite a thrill. I had told them there was a fish by that tree about 20 yards upstream, but would not have ever guessed a fish like that would have come from it. I think you might like this float. It's not like most of the other Shoal Creek floats I've taken. Yes he did forward the e-mail to me. Thanks, and go ahead and bring the neighbor boy down, he'll have a blast. See ya next float. Buzz

I finally got to do a float with my two sons today. We decided to hit a section that we have never floated before. It is a really beautiful section of Shoal Creek, probably the most scenic stretch of the whole creek. Lots of twists and turns with good runs and deep holes. Some really good long stretches with a lot of overhanging trees to help with the heat. We probably caught 40 fish at least, smallmouth, largemouth, and a couple of good sized goggle-eye. The best and biggest was the largemouth my oldest son Shawn caught on a buzzbait. He pitched it up beside a tree which had some big chunk rocks all around it. The bait hit the water and he made one crank and the bass just blasted the bait. I couldn't tell how big it was until he got it into open water. What a hog. The biggest I've seen come out of Shoal Creek in many years. We had no scale or way to measure it but we guessed it to be close to 5 lbs. He caught most of his fish on the buzzbait and my other son Brad caught a few on it too. I had a few on including one really nice smallmouth that threw the hook right at the boat. My fish were caught mainly on spinnerbaits. Buzz

Yep, the same creek, but it never gets into Jasper county, close though ( south by about a mile or so ). Wildcat Park and The Grand Falls are all a part of the same creek. I haven't done it yet, but I keep hearing of some big Walleyes below the falls. Fish it and let me know how you do.. I want to do the float from the falls to Schifferdecker sometime, I just haven't yet. Buzz

One thing that stuck out in my mind was the concern for Monett. They are not near any creeks or rivers (except for the upper end of the Spring River)and they're wells almost went dry a couple of years ago during the drought. Like Flysmallie stated, Springfield has plenty of water around them. Joplin also has plenty of large creeks and rivers that are plenty close enough. We have Shoal Creek, Cedar, Center, and Spring River. I personally think that a large lake ( not a Table Rock like reservoir) for each of these areas would be able to take care of the added needs of these communities. They should also update the systems that are already in place. $400,000,000 would go a long way to update and repair all of the leaks that I'm sure are at least part of the problem. Not to mention pipelines that could be constructed instead of ruining some fertile generational farmland. They said that it would take as long as 30 years to get this accomplished. HMMM, what could be done in the next 10 years with that kind of cash?

No problem, I'll toss it in the truck. See ya then.

I'll put this here because it seems more of a conservation issue than general discussion. There are some possible locations listed for new reservoirs to supply water to S.W. Missouri. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_188215152.html Buzz

I'm glad he caught his limit and had a good supper. I on the other hand, caught 5 limits but they were all turned back as usual. I guess it's good you said something Ollie, I was planning on the 25th for some reason. I'll be there. 9:00am right? At the ballpark or down by the area near bus. 60 bridge?

Hey KC, thanks for your help. You know what I mean.

Looks like you had your hands full. Thanks for the post. It reminds me of taking my boys to R.R., 13, 11, and 6. The bigger boys did pretty good ,but the youngest seemed to want to drift off. I was always having to bring him back. When he got too hard to keep in line we would go to the swings and slides so he could work off some of his energy. Thanks for bringing back some good memories. Buzz

That is one difference between Chief and I. I can trout fish any time. Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year for catching bass ( and we've caught a lot this year ), but some of my most productive trout fishing days have been during summertime. Especially in late August fishing dries and hoppers at R.R. Sometimes you just gotta catch a trout, you know what I mean? Just nothing else like it.

A guy I work with has a Jeep that he covered with that stuff. It looks pretty good. Up close you can see the imperfections, but it looks better than it did before. The jeep was caught in a bad hail storm, bad enough that the Insurance co. totaled it. He bought it back and gave it to his son to drive. It did a good job hiding the hail dents too.

Looks like you guys had fun. I managed to take care of a few things at home, so I think I can get a day pass for next Sunday.

Nope he was off doing his own thing this weekend. I had some things that i needed to take care of at home, but I managed to sneak a couple of hours in each day.

Last year I fished Hickory Creek late afternoon and evening. This year I thought I'd beat the Islanders to the park. WRONG, I got to the park at a little after 8:00 am and they were already there with backpacks full of fireworks.. There was also a baseball tournament going on, so there was a lot of people. When I got there only one other guy was fishing, he was fly fishing and said he had caught a few. I started above the low water bridge and did pretty well. Another guy showed up with Powerbait and didn't get a bite. When he asked me what I was using, I told him, and he acted like he couldn't believe it. I managed about 20 fish there then decided to try the hole above the walk bridge where I caught another 5 fish. I only saw about 5 fish actually put on stringers. It was a pretty good stocking, but a lot of small fish in there too. I fished again today. Still more fireworks. No other fishermen around. I manage another 20 fish, plus 1 goggle-eye, in about two hours. There are some good sized fish in the creek. And they have already smartened up quite a bit, good for them. Still dodging the rockets red glare. It was fun. Buzz

I love it when they get on the Buzzbait. Wish I was there. Thanks for the report.

It's amazing that his waders didn't sink him like an anchor. If they weren't full of Taney water, I bet they filled up with yellow water.