Drew711

Terry, there is some good wadable water downstream from both places. At Hootentown, downstream from the highway bridge down past the campground has good water. When the water is up the long riffle/run by the campground can produce some fun fishing. I fished Shelvin Rock on Wednesday and actually caught a nice smallie right at the access point right off the bat. Did well on flukes by the way. I've only gone downstream from Shelvin Rock, but there is good water there. My personal opinion is both areas get slammed but they are an easy get away and close proximity to Springfield to wet a line

Fish Bork, I think you shocked up some beautiful trout. Thank you for the news and the wonderful pics

Fished the James yesterday afternoon. No topwater action to speak of, but did very well with 4" double tail grubs in pumpkin and watermelon colors. Using the lightest weight the current would allow also helped I think. Caught some really nice smallies and a few largemouths and goggle eye. The fish were active that's for sure.

I fished the James down by Galena Wednesday afternoon. I couldn't find any whites and I did quite a bit of walking, but that was before yesterdays rain. I know lake springfield came up a lot, so I can only speculate on the lower James. I used both fly and spinning tackle. No whites, but the smallmouth were more than willing to cooperate. Nothing of any size, but still a blast.

I fished Beaver Creek on Sunday night and did very well, much further upstream from the maiden hole. My fishing partner caught one sow white that went over three pounds. We had our best luck on black swimmin' minnows and smaller, floating rogues, black and gold. We didn't want to fight the crowd at Swan Creek. Good thing, b/c we didn't catch any "small" fish. Not the best night numbers wise, but the quality of the fish made up for it

Now that the weather has begun to act like winter again, I have a little more time to type up an introduction. I've been reading lilley's reports religiously long before the forum started and figured it was time to contribute whatever I could. I'm a student at Missouri State and try to fish as much as possible, even though school gets in the way sometimes. Hopefully I can help some folks out as much as the past reports have helped me. Now I'm just looking to get back out on the water. Thanks, Drew