SKMO

I live on Kings River near Shell Knob and have seen this for many years. Local story is that a pilot's Mom lived in SK and he buzzed her house but I was never sure that was the case. Mainly because they always flew the same exact pattern time after time, usually see them about twice a year, but I am not home during days. I think there are some A-10's based out of Whiteman but not sure on this. Anyway they are real cool aircraft, always sounded to me like a giant Hoover vacuum cleaner. Low and kind of slow and always making hard banks and flying sideways.

Well the cooking forum does not get much attention here but thought I would share something I recently discovered that is awesome. First of you need to have a good quality beefsteak (KC strip, porterhouse, t-bone etc) and know how to cook it. Hot and fast right? On a good quality cut I used to use just a splash of worcestershire sauce, maybe a dab of soy or teryiaki, and a lot of fresh ground black pepper. Take the same deal and then dust it heavily with espresso ground coffee. (Coffee ground almost like flour) Gotta be cooked on a real hot fire and it blackens and makes a great crust. If you have cheap meat and/or do not know how to cook a steak forget it. Anyway this is really good, and makes a good blackened crust. You can barely taste the coffee, if at all, but it does add a real rich flavor. You can find a lot more involved coffee/steak recipes online but a bit of salt from worsc or soy, some black pepper and coffee grounds works good for me. I have also done this on burgers with good results. Trick seems to be tossing the meat on a real hot fire and charring the grounds. Try it, really good.

The Spoon plug right? That dates me I guess. I have 5 spoon plugs on my wall. Most won't get it as we older farts might. Buck Perry = Spoonplug and structure fishing. Nothing new under the sun I guess. \

I can assure you putting anything in the lake is forbidden without a permit from US-CEC, Little Rock You might disagree with the whole philosophy but think about what the lake would become if every Bubba could dump his junk in the lake. Car bodies and bedsprings are great habitat.

For what it's worth we have been fishing the 35-50'++ water the last couple weeks AT DAYBREAK. Shallow jig and topwater fish have been scarce, i.e. non existent. I am relating experiences from Shell Knob to KC. Our only concern is getting run over in the dark as we are parked in the middle of the lake. Seems silly to hang junk in 45 feet of water a half mile from shore at 0500 but it works. Like Bill B said work the roll-offs. Every cove (as you face it from the main lake) will have a shallow side and a deep side, right or left as you face it. Find the deep break side and look for where the bottom breaks suddenly, like from 24 to 40 feet in a boat length (as an example). I.E. underwater ledges or mini-bluffs. Home in on these underwater breaks, the same abrupt structure can run for hundreds of feet or a mile, it is old geology. Seriously... look for abrupt vertical drops... fish hang out on these places Stick with it and you will find some sweet spots where the fish hang out.

Yep this is for sure true, just as Jay Bird said. The young kid was/is actually the son of the DNR Park Manager. He ended up flown to KC from Cassville. He was a sick little guy for a week but came through it OK. He got bit as he was climbing up the ladder at the chlorinated swimming pool right next to the DNR park office. Lots of snake stories around but this one is for sure true. I got it first hand from the kid's father.

Ah well... I showed her your definition and she rolled her eyes and did the little foot stomp thing and advised me that metaphysicist that I am, there was still the lawn needing mowing with subsequent weed trimming involved before I got to go fishing tonight. She still cannot figure out the nice riding mower I bought her a couple years ago, but yet reminds me often that I trained her on all the handguns and she has her own stash of ammo, so I am in a continual pickle here. Plus I seem to be short one Browning Hi-Power which makes me nervous. Anyway Mowing this evening it looks like, before hitting Baxter area.

All good info, keep it coming. I was the one that said reeling against the drag caused twist. Yep, limp line is good on a spinner. I have one rod rigged w/spectra type line and am getting used to it (10/6 I think). I usually use 8# Trilene XL(extra limp) as mainline with 6# floro below the swivel. I have some light / short rods I use 6# floro as mainline with 6# floro below. Would prefer a leader lighter than the mainline but 4# is too light in my experience. Does anyone know of a more limp mono type than XL? Another thing I am sold on is large diameter reel spools. Bigger is better due to less kink and roll. They might be high capacity but spool on some 12# or bigger junk first to take up volume and leave room for a couple hundred feet of the good stuff on top. Another tip that you may like is to pre-tie all your dropshot rigs, here is how I do it, pic hopefully attached, this saves me a lot of time and aggravation on the water, especially as my eyesight is not too keen these days. 1) When the wife and kids are not watching cut off a chunk of their swim noodle about 10" long. 2) Make a longwise stripe on the tube with a Sharpie. This is just a visual reference mark where you will sink the hooks. 3) Make several shallow cuts maybe 1/4" deep on the circumference of the piece of tube. In this pic I have 9 of them. Darken them by dragging the sharpie in the slit you just made, again just so you can see the slits. 4) Tie up your d-shot hooks in the middle of a 4' floro leader. I put swivels on the top of a couple of them but usually when you break off you will still have your swivel on the end of the line so just have a couple with swivels ready to go, one less knot to tie when you do lose the whole deal. 5) I tie a big figure 8 knot on the bottom of the line (18" below hook) and use simple pinch-on split shots for weight, #3, 2 and 1. Split shot is much cheaper than specialized weights and works fine for me. Plus you can add or subtract weight instantly as needed. Another really good thing is when you get a head-shaker drop shot-type mess you can pop the splitshot off the line and get untangled pretty quick, usually. 6) When you have your pre-tied hooks and leaders made up just stick the hook near the index line and wrap and embed the line in the slits around the piece of noodle, they will stay neat and tidy. I guess it is my age and poor eyesight showing but I have bounced around way too long at times trying to make up d-shot rigs in the middle of the lake for several minutes while missing fish. If I have pre-tied them at home in the comfort of my den I can get back to business a lot quicker. Also when they get a bit frazzled just cut off and tie a fresh one. Easier to do if it is a 45 second operation, otherwise I just tended to get lazy and let the line fail and lost fish and hooks and weight. Anyway this is my best dropshot tip, works well for me. Saves a ton of time and aggravation on the water.

I agree 100% with this reasoning. I have not killed a non-poisonous snake for 30+ years. I have killed 3 copperheads in our backyard over the last 13 years, mainly because we have 3 smallish dogs and wife and kids and I all walk around barefoot at night at times. I have seen and "passed" on dozens and dozens of copperheads in the woods, including one that crawled over my leg as I sat calling a turkey. Was already shaking due to the turkey and C-head did not have much to add adrenaline-wise, so snake lived and turkey died about 10 minutes later. I was bit by a c-head in 1984, never even went to a Dr. with the bite because by the time I got out of the woods and made it into town over 2 hours had passed and it seemed to me the worst was over and I did not have insurance. Ended up just like a really bad red wasp sting. (Also at the time had just had a lab bit right on the breastbone and paid around $150 for a vet to give him "treatment" which was nothing more than an antibiotic shot). I also very recently (2 weeks ago) dispatched a cottonmouth near the docks in our neighborhood in Shell Knob. This was in an area a lot of people swim, including a lot of kids and people I am responsible for. We have swam there for years and see water snakes almost every time down there, but this was the first C-mouth so that is how uncommon they are, in my opinion. I did not feel bad about sending it to meet it's maker. Actually my son ran up to my truck and got the 1911 and popped him in two pieces with a 200gr Cor-Bon. Sank like a rock and I did not feel bad about seeing both pieces of him spiral down. My boss and I both stepped numerous times within 15" of a large rattlesnake just yesterday. He got a pic and he is emailing it to me, hopefully it has a date/time stamp, in any case we left it where we found it, alive.

Hey pop to the top ! My original prediction a month ago proved true. Big Chicken Spill went away. It just went away. Hey DNR you got an opinion on this? Thought so. Just a layman's opinion but it would be nice to know someone gave a flip from MO DNR in charge of environmental health in this state. Maybe just a little inkling that someone, somewhere, gave a little bit of a dung about what was actually happening on the ground locally. Like I predicted this "major news event" just went away. Yawn.

Ah yes. A big black snake. Possibly a cottonmouth, possibly something different. It's got a cottonmouth tag on it on the Internet so must be true? To reiterate, there are a few positive moc ID's but you got to be up pretty close and personal for most all of them unless you are pretty strong on herp ID's. Not trying to stir up stuff or be cantankerous but there is a lot of mis-information about snakes in general. L

I am not sure where you live but if you think you have a bad Batt and before you get too torqued about the situation I would get in touch with Battery Outfitters in Golden, which is where they (Pro-Guide)came from originally. I have bought numerous vehicle and boat batteries from them over the last 15 years and to say they are generous with me is a huge understatement. Really good people to deal with, they have given me some complete replacements when I was a couple months out of warranty. Twice on 24V trolling batts. In other words twice I was right at or beyond my 24 month limit and they slapped 2 brand new ones in the boat no questions asked, nothing pro-rated, no tax, no nothing, just new batteries and man was I happy. They have a lot of vendors in the field in SW MO. I was up around Stockton about 4 years ago and my cranker went out. I found a boat place with a Pro-Guide sign and they made a quick call to Golden and again a new battery slapped in, no questions asked. Honestly, maybe a bit better batteries are out there but I doubt you will get better service from anyone, anywhere. I have no affiliation with them other than they have been A-Number One full time service for me, whenever I had a problem. I would recommend them without hesitation to anyone, so give them a call, betcha might be surprised. At least they will tell you if your amp drain is beyond limits. Good luck.

Back to the original question, as far as the mainline getting twisted..... Someone please explain how one line can twist more than another. You got mono and floro and superline and etc etc etc but the twist is going to always happen on the terminal end of the line, hopefully just above or beyond a swivel of some sort on a dropshot. Anyway I have heard forever that some lines twist more than others and I just can't see it. It's all in the reel and presentation. My baitcasters never twist, my spinners always do if I reel against the drag. Enlighten me, I can't see how the line itself has anything to do with twisting.

RPS - I had to look up metaphysical and as far as I can tell I resemble that allegation. It's a polite way to say I am wierd at times and generally quirky but I am fine with that. I've been referred to in lesser and more specific terms in the last couple hours by my own spouse in fact, and will remind her I am a "metaphysicist" during our next discussion. I am sure this will turn the tide in my favor. She may be calling you for clarification. Thanks for your support.

Number 1 & 3 for sure not poisonous. They both have round pupils. The one in the middle is hard to tell, bad picture, impossible to tell. Middle one does not seem to have the girth or head shape of a viper but without a better pic impossible to tell. Just another big black snake from the picture. Actually looks like the tip of the tail was chopped off and sitting a couple inches away. From the blunt end of the tail in general I might guess it as a moc, but head a little slender. I'll stand by my original statement a person needs to get a good look at the head/eyes which you cannot do from this pic.