Chief Grey Bear

Thanks to you here I have just received my copy of Chuck and Sharon's book on trout fishing. I have only had this book two days now and have read just about the whole thing. Great book! I'm not a fly fisher yet, but am slowly working on it. Anybody out there feel like giving some free casting lessons? If you are on the edge of becoming a flyfisherman like me, find you a copy of this book. It will send you over the edge to never return. Are Chuck and Sharon still with us? Does anyone have an email address for Spencer Turner? Buy the book. I got my autographed copy for $5. It is brand new condition too. When I ordered it, the description said in used, fair condition. Ha! Whoever had this book before must have forgot to read it. Chief Grey Bear

Gonefishin said.... "I understand the restriction of fishing from the docks but I sure don't understand the restriction of fishing from a boat near the docks. Does this mean that every dock on Stockton Lake has a 200' no fishing zone around it??? Does this also include every dock on every public lake in the state? At what point does the 200' rule start? Is it 200' when the dock is at the high water mark or 200' at the low water mark?" I think that is a good question. I always just assumed that it was from the edge of the dock. I never thought it was from the bank. How do they measure it? I'll add just a little to stir the pot. My dad has a dock on Grand Lake. We have had numerous people fish around it over the years. Most are very courteous and do not fish there if we are fishing. Some will fish the opposite side. I don't have a problem with that. I don't mind people fishing around the dock if we are not. A dock should be treated with the same respect and courtesy as if it were a boat. My dad had a run in with a fisherman in a boat at the dock, which is a pretty rare event, a couple of weeks ago. Dad was crappie fishing off the back side of the dock when a boat came up and started throwing in where dad was. Dad said "I'm sorry that I'm in your way." and the man in the boat responded "I'll fish anywhere I Gxx Dxxx want to" Well, a few more words were lobbed back and forth between the two and then the boat left. I sure do wish I would have been there!! Now that with that being said, I do view private docks differently than I do Marina's which in my book are a form of public fishing. But I wouldn't fish in the vicinity of someone fishing off of a marina dock. Chief Grey Bear

...."I have heard of them stocking nearly every kind of fish I can think of. Bass, Bluegill, Redear, Channel cat, Spoonbill, Carp of all kinds, Sturgeon........ It would be easier to list the fish they havent stocked and the only one that comes to mind is Gar and I would bet at sometime and someplace, those have been stocked too" In urban area CA's, you are correct. Due to the high fishing pressure they have to. But on the state as a whole I don't know of any stocking that is taking place of those species you named in large lakes or streams and rivers. But then again I don't know everything. I like to think I do. My wife says that I think I do, but since she doesn't read this forum, I will admit that I don't. I have not heard of them stocking carp. Being a non-native envasive species, it sounds skeptical to me. The MDC does provide free of charge all of the species you mentioned for stocking your pond. I don't count that as per our discussion though. Cheif Grey Bear

I would like to respond to a couple of your points: "Compared to other species, not a lot of bass actually get harvested these days." Not exactly correct. Most if not all MDC CA's have a slot limit for bass. Wonder why? Over harvest of big bass? That is part of it. Especially in urban areas, most bass caught any where close to legal size get harvested by the "city folk". "Ever hear of MDC stocking largemouths? Of course not." Nor have I heard of them stocking any other native species. There is are exceptions though. Spoonbill and Walleye come to mind. Chief Grey Bear

Thank for all the reporting that you have been doing Marty. I know it takes a lot of your time and effort to continualy do this. I greatly appriciate it. ....."I have fished with biologists in the past who say if the fish does get back to the nest, in most cases, the eggs or fry, have been eaten by other fish, primarily blue gill. It is obvious when these fish are caught in tournaments that the nest is guaranteed to die. Your big bass publications rarely comment on this...I wonder why? If any of you has any information on this subject, please email me." I would like to add that I would like to see the state of Missouri step up and become the first state to limit the number of tournaments on lakes. I have seen as many as 2 or 3 torunaments on the same lake on the same day. I don't care what anybody says there is a higher rate of mortality than anyone will admit. I understand that this is a good revenue source, but at what cost? Good Luck Chief Grey Bear

I got a report from a co-worker whose brother and two friends fished the Neosho on Thursday and Friday. They bank fished(too much work for me) at the Conner Bridge and snagged about 40. Largest was 55lbs. of the 6 they kept they stated all were males. This is just what was reported to me. I have no connection the the parties involved. Good Luck Chief Grey Bear

I would love to join you but not exactly sure what I will be doing on the 37th of March. Good Luck Chief Grey Bear

Ahh, shoot, you got the better deal. Look at the memories you are making? Boats will always bring pleasure and rings just bring misery. Ask any man. Ok Ok so that is not really true. Just funning. Good Luck Chief Grey Bear

Hey Bill, I would go with russ and float if you want to fish the riffles. Since the GRDA quit lowering the lake in the winter like they used to do years ago, the upper ends of Elk River, say from the old Shadow Rock and on up, has become so filled in with sediment that there is really not a defined channel anymore. By not lowering the lake like they used to, the Elk just doesn't have enough current to cut a channel like it used to. When I was a kid my dad and I used to head up there and catch a lot of crappie. I can remember this one spot(I could take you with in a 100 ft of it today) that just had one stick that stuck up about 1 ft out of the water. If you cast to the left of it you would catch nothing. If you cast to the right and let it drift back to the boat, you would catch a crappie every time. We would always pull 5 or 6 or so every time! We used to go up the river and hit the brush piles with blood bait and catch small channle cat all day long. Nothing big, but great grilling size in the 9 to 11 inch range. Anyway, before I get to far off track, you could put in and go up river, just be very careful. It will be very shallow. And yes Dylan, my son is very hooked on White Bass. He is a lot like me in that if it has water, its fishable. Some of the funest (is that really a word? Heather?) fishing we do is hit some of the smaller creeks and just fish the holes. The action is great and you will be surprised at some of the fish you can hook out of there. Oh yeah before I forget, yes we did catch some. We caught all three. I didn't think about it until you mentioned it. But now I think back and I did notice some that had very dark lines and I noticed some that had distinct broken lines. Next time I am down there I will pay more attention to that. Good Luck Chief Greybear

Hey gang don't forget that this Saturday is the clean up. If any of you can make to Neosho, please do. I want to thank Leonard for all the hard work and time consumed in getting this project off the ground. I tip my rod to him! russ; glad to see you are coming! It will great to meet you and all others that can make it! Leonard; is it ok to bring a rod? Good Luck Chief Greybear

I'm sorry to report that Buddy (Sir Six-Pack O' Budweiser) the dog is no more. He had found him a girlfriend down on Prospect st and that was his demise. After missing for a couple of day a nice lady came to our house to tell us what happened. Boy I gotta tell ya, that dog sure did love to go fishing with me! I think he thought he was a Lab! Just like a small child, if there was even a mud puddle, he was right in the middle of it! We sure do miss him. I'm guessing that Cody is the other half owner of the boat?? Good luck Chief Greybear

The water temp was in the 54* to 55* range. The fish were scattered as to what depth they were hanging in. Some would be as deep as 15ft to 20ft and others were right on top of them in the 5 to 10ft range. Some were in the channel and others were on the flats. It really didn't matter where you were fishing, they were there. We never did venture up stream from the bridge on Saturday as all of the fish were from the bridge to about 1 mile down. We never did see a boat that was not hauling them in. Every time you got a chance to look at another boat their rods were bent over pulling one in! It was great! Sunday we went up from the bridge and found quite a few there too. I talked to my dad this evening and it has turned off. He couldn't hardly buy a bite. He heard a report that the same thing has happend on Spring River up from Twin Bridges. We figure it must be the fronts coming in as it is calling for rain all week.

Welp, yer right. I guess that is why that lake is over run with them. Good luck Cheif Greybear

[Long story short....we ended up cleaning our limit of 60 white bass between 3 guys and trowing back a few dink's. Where did you see that there is a limit on White Bass in Oklahoma? Chief Greybear

I had heard some reports from my dad that the White Bass were sarting to turn on at Grand Lake. So I decided to take my son there this weekend and boy am I glad I did. We go every year down to Twin Bridges and go up the Neosho or Spring and do fairly well. We changed that up a little this year. Dad has a place at King's Point on the Elk river arm of the lake. He said that they are coming that way this year. Now I know a few run that way evey year, but I am here to tell you, there has not been a run up the Elk like this in years. Saturday we started about 8-9:00. We finaly gave out about 6:00 that evening. I kid you fella's not, we caught at least 200 fish. All in the 11 to 15 inch range. There were not a lot of boats. I would say in the neighborhood of 25 boats. All of the action as of this posting is right at the #10 hwy bridge. Shad looking crankbaits worked best. I tried some white grubs but, no takers. I did see a boat jigging a spoon and doing very well, but he wasn't getting very big ones. You can troll or you can sit and cast. We did both. Sunday was a great day too. It didn't really kick into gear until about noon though. Still it was a 100+ fish day. Not wanting to spend hours cleaning all of these, we only kept 75 fish. Thats still a lot of cleaning. My dad has been down there over a week now and I really don't have much of a crappie report. He has not had much luck finding them. Good luck Chief Greybear

Hello Heather. Long time no see. I used to live next door to you on River street. You know, the noisy neighbor that always had music blaring at all hours of the day and night? Nice fish in the pic. Hope to see more pics. As soon as I figure out how, I will post a couple of pics. Don't hold your breath though, I am not a fast learner with this computer stuff. Good luck to ya Britt

Hello to all of you. I am Chief Greybear. Chief of the Ozark Hillbilly tribe. We have 4 members. Myself, my squaw(she really is part Indian)Ronada, and two papoose's Dylan 8 and Sierra 6. We live in Neosho Mo. My wife is orginally from Joplin and I am from Carthage. I am a '67 model and she was born in 1975. We have been together now for over 10 years. That in its self is a record for me by about 9.5 yrs. We spent a couple of years in KC and about 4 years in Duncan Ok. Other wise I have lived my life in SW MO. I am an engineer for a railroad and she works at a Joplin Hospital. I have spent almost 40 years fishing the creeks, rivers and lakes of this heavenly corner of Missouri with my father. Now that I have a son, I spend every moment I can with him on the water somewhere. I hope to do a lot of posting here and I hope to hear of some new places for me to check out. Though I must say if it has water, I'll try it!! I also hope to meet a lot of you out there hitting the water. Best of luck to all!