chub minnow

Got in a couple hours fishing after work the other night. I was able to land 14 smallies in about 1.5 hours. They are definitely getting aggressive; I had several fish following the ones I hooked for awhile. Caught 5 fish in 5 casts! Nothing with any size though.....

Mainly smallmouth down by Big Sugar, but I've seen a few nice bows in Mike's Creek just above the confluence (accessed from Creekside camp). Either way you win because those 12"-14" smallies are a blast on the 4wt!

I think saying the city is broke is generous. The way I understand it the city has been grossly mismanaged and it's finances are in shambles....

Korkers - you can switch from studded to sticky rubber, depending on conditions. Don't like to wear studs inn the canoe, but love to have 'em when wading all day.

I always considered it the White upstream of any MAJOR tributaries, so upstream of point 22 (Mouth of the Kings). The water quality and temperature usually change upstream of Kings confluence because there are no major tribs other than Beaver tailwater and Roaring River (both cold and clear).

Small spoons - silver, silver/blue, rainbow

My Pflueger President has outlasted two Shimano Symetre reels that get the same use - canoe fishing on rivers and some lake fishing with heavy lures. I love them both. The Pflueger is better on the retrieve and I think the Shimano casts a little better. But from a value standpoint, the Pflueger beats the pants off the Shimano, it costs less and lasts twice as long!

Ditto on flat creek. Great goggle fishing- as well as sunfish and smallies. There are a couple of deep holes closer to Stubblefield that we have also caught crappie mixed with gog's.

Unless something has changed, you don't need a daily tag to fish during C&R. You would need trout stamp to keep fish outside the park, otherwise you should be fine with your license and trout stamp. Kids don't need anything at RR (during C&R only).

My aunt's husband recently passed away and she asked me to help her liquidate some of his fly gear. Most of this stuff, except the spinning setup and Prestige combo, are in nearly new condition. I have listed what's available along with some photos below. She is hoping to get around 60% of retail value for the nicer stuff. More room to negotiate on the spinner and Prestige combo. If anyone is interested in any or all of this you can message me or send an email to jason@naturalstatelandcare.com 1) 2 piece equinox rod with Shimano Spirex reel: 2) Cabelas Prestige 9' 5wt with reel: 3)Cabelas PT model 764 7.5' 4wt 2 piece with Orvis Battenkill BBSII reel: 4)Cabelas SLi-908-4 9' 8wt 4 piece with Orvis Battenkill Reel (One of two below): 5)Reels - One of the large arbor reels will probably go with #4, the other is for sale. I believe the Battenkill IV has the bonefish line on it:

The Roaring River arm is another great place for a small vessel. Start at the 86 bridge over RR just north of Eagle Rock and it's a pretty easy paddle all the way to the confluence with the main lake. Lot's of K's chasing shad, crappie, white bass, and the occasional rainbow.

Yes -the topwater bite Saturday at the Knob was the best I've ever seen! We generally had our choice of 4 or 5 boils of fish to cast at. I caught all of mine on a small fluke, partner caught 'em on white crappie jigs. Hope it's that good this weekend!!

Depends on what you want to catch. The most surefire way to get into fish is to go out before sunrise to any transition area and just wait for em to start hitting the top chasing shad. You'll catch a bunch of dinks, but it's a ton of fun. Easiest way to catch fish in August that I've found. Action is over by 8:30.

yep - at least an anchor or strobe light if you're not under power.

I stopped in there one time in early spring looking for white bass and found a huge pod of trout, most of them over 14", under the bridge. I'm not sure if they were from the stocking truck, or moving back up from the lake. I gotta say they were pretty big for stockers. I do know that they were pretty easy to catch ;-) I've also caught some goggleye in that area. Lost a huge (5#?) bass right under the bridge there. It turns to lake about 100 yds downstream. There are some trout tucked in pockets all the way back upstream to the park. The float from the park back down to the lake is pretty steep,narrow and technical most of the way. I think it's only 4 miles or so. It's impossible right now -might as well walk. It's a great time in the spring if you're into floating tiny streams during high water. The fishing between the park and lake is much better during higher flows. I don't think they do any stocking below the park when the water is this low.

I've done it with similar flows - and it seems like we scraped big rocks quite a few times, but not so much it was aggravating. I'm pretty sure Monett's effluent in combination with Capps Creek upstream keep it moving pretty well all the time. Definitely a long float. There are some shorter floats between Granby and Neosho. I'm not familiar enough to tell you exactly though.

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and get the pictures from our trip off of the old iPhone. Unfortunately my good, waterproof camera gave up the ghost right before the trip, so the camera pictures are a bit blurry. We started Friday at Marble, bound for Rockhouse - 27 miles away. The first day was nice and relaxing, albeit with a bunch of dragging. We caught the most and biggest fish on the upper sections. At one point I had on a beauty, probably 18"-20", but it was not to be. I saw him working around a rootwad on a tight bend and joked that there was no way to hook him. On my second cast I proved myself wrong and managed to crank him to the boat on 3 consecutive occasions. Unfortunately once Lance stuck the net in the water he jumped, did a violent head shake, and it was all over. It was one of those "one that got away" moments that I'll never forget. What a great fish! Right after that Lance snagged his little brother. We were really worried about finding a good campsite that night and just kept going until almost dark. Lance and I were ready to stop at a pretty good looking beach, but Seth insisted on pushing on just a little bit more. I'm sure glad he did, because here is where we camped Friday night: It's an insult to call the float on Saturday spectacular. The bluffs and mountains from here all the way to Rockhouse have to be experienced in person. This float definitely rivals most sections of the Buffalo. We didn't fish much because we had lots of ground to cover and the water, for the most part was SLOW. We didn't mind much, given the view, though. Saturday evening the storm clouds were looming. Once the rain cooled air started hitting us, we stopped to set up camp just before the confluence with dry creek. We all ended up getting soaked and cooking dinner under the the blue Wal~Mart tarp. Not a bad dinner, but everyone was ready for bed after 13 miles of paddling. The next morning I awoke to dark clouds, but surely they were remnants of last night, I thought. Pretty soon I was moving the breakfast fire back under the tarp. We got soaked again, and ate in the rain - again. The upside to all of the rain was the river was up about half a foot from the previous day. I can honestly say the float on Sunday was one of the most spectacular of my life. The weather was perfect, as was the water level. Just high enough to get by everything, but not fast enough to have to really pay attention. The river really heads downhill on this section. We did the easiest 12 miles of river floating I have ever done and were back to Rockhouse before dinner time. If you haven't done the Marble to Marshall ford or especially the Marshall Ford to Rockhouse section, you are missing out on some of the best that the Ozarks have to offer. Don't let the long mileage scare you, you can do either the 11 mile upper, or 15 mile lower section in a single day - no problem. There are some pigs in there, but it's hard to fish when the scenery is so great.

Yep looks like my prediction of 300-400 should be right on. I think we're gonna be dragging!

Trigger Gap (kings river outfitters), Rockhouse, Grandview bridge (hwy143) or Stoney Point are your best options. I'd avoid hwy 62 bridge even though (actually because) it's the closest to Eureka. I've had good luck with smallies and walleye between Grandview and Stoney Point. Water starts getting deep after Stoney Point.

Anyone hear who won and what the lengths were? I wanted to do this, but just couldn't justify it with a long trip coming up next week.

It's time for our annual three day float trip. We did all of Flat Creek last year so this year we're gonna hit the King's. We are planning on doing most of the upper half from hwy 21 bridge to Rockhouse. It looks like the flows will be somewhere around 300-400 cfs (at Berryville gauge). I've done Marble to Marshall Ford at similar levels and it was fine, but we were wondering what the 6 miles above Marble and the 15 miles below Marshall Ford would be like at these flows. Any advice on new obstacles, portages and fishing for these sections will be greatly appreciated. I'll post a report after the trip.

I44 to 265 at marionville and on through Aurora to Crane. You'll need a map to het around town to all the various access points. Never been so lost in such a small town!

Indian is on the high side of normal right now. Those levels are ideal for floating, but will make fishing on the fly a challenge.

I think we saw that same (resident?) eagle when we floated Big Sugar a couple of weeks ago! Wife caught about 8 little ones and I got skunked! First time in a long time I didn't catch anything - still a great day though.

Interesting, I have seen the same thing off a bridge on the upper Spavinaw in Benton County (another wild trout stream) but just assumed it was someone cleaning or dumping fish they caught elsewhere, however I suppose it could be a vast, otter based, global conspiracy backed by people in the highest levels of government.