skeeter

Got to chime in here on the snake issue. The far back end of Little Indian, which is what Dogwood Canyon Spring Creek flows into, has always been a Copperhead haven. There are so many of them back in there in certain years you can smell 'em. They have a distinctive sort of a metallic odor (best I can describe it) that is not at all pleasant. In the high water in 2008 you could run all the way up to the Hwy 86 bridge with your troller and they were everywhere. Guess they bred successfully. Our oldest Grandson, who is really good at identifying snakes, reported seeing three of them along the lakefront below our home. I'll have to load up the handgun with some shotshells since those things can be really territorial. Those Brown Watersnakes are just curious and always looking for a place to "haul out" of the water. They swim right up to you, if you make no sudden or threatening moves, and will check you out with a long stare. Often have to slap the water with the rod tip to make them leave. And they love to come over transoms especially the sloped back transom styles. Since the question about Threadfin Winter kill was addressed to Bill B., I'll let him respond. All I can say to Sportshop is you should have been here in Feb and March....We had some very fat Gulls.....

Had the usual crew down for the three day weekend and got out at 5 Sat. morning. Fished deep cove across from Pt.19 and no topwater action, period, on Spook or Fin. Couldn't raise a fish even that early. Small cold front went thru Fri. night and heavy dew falling soaked the boat. Switched to 3/8oz. War Eagle jig in MO Craw color with large Zoom Pumpkin trailer and started catching fish on chunk rock banks. Had one nice 6 & 1/2 (guesstimate) LM and several 16" K's and one nice 3 lb. or so SM. The fish were actually HOT in comparison with the air temps. when we released them. Reminded you of Fall fishing. Back out late Monday morning about 7ish and, on a tip from a buddy, went directly across the White from Saturday's trip over onto the flats. Again, no topwater, lot's and lot's of big gar and again switched to same jig and pig combo and started catching nice 17 to 18 in. SM in 10-12 ft thanks to nice cloud cover. The fifth, and largest of course, SM hit the jig directly under the boat and zoomed at flank speed to the surface not six inches from the gunwale of the boat clearing the water by a good foot or two at least ! Thought it was coming aboard and actually jumped back 'cause you don't want to be smacked by a fish with an exposed hook. Didn't have enough line out to control the high speed SM run and it jumped again throwing the jig and we laughed our "you know what's" off at both mine and the fish's antics but at least we all got to see the fish twice ! Also had some really nice bull bluegill on white with black spots and silver blade Rooster Tail the young man in the rear of the boat was throwing. Came in about 1 PM due to Battleship and Aircraft Carrier activity in main channel throwing wakes over the transom and gunwales.

If I'm throwing a Spook from the front of the boat and a lot of fish are missing it or following without striking the guy in the back usually picks up a fish ( maybe it's the same one, maybe not ?? ) on a blade of about the same color. Works pretty often but sometimes a Rat-L-Trap beats the blade. Many times just changing the rhythm or speed of the Spook or stopping and starting it erratically works too. If you're around structure like pole timber, try half-stepping it. Drives 'em nuts.

That gentleman is lucky to be alive without head or spinal injuries. He should be thanking his Maker. Watching his hands on the steering wheel in the one earlier pass trying to drive the boat out of the "chine walk" it was in is enough to convince me he did sorta know what he was doing but trying to cross that wake from astern at full trim up was just insane. Trimming down and slowing long before crossing the wake would have prevented a nasty accident. As regards Hydrotec, they are the best !!!!

Yep, yesterday morning they didn't seem to want anything on top that was moving much. Fished a redfin type wakebait and they wouldn't look at it if it was moving. Cast it, let it soak and then just twitch it and they slurped it. Not bedding fish but around docks and timbered channel bank ends out over 25 - 30 '. Had a 5 LM suck it down and I thought it was a bluegill the hit was so quiet. Switched to a baby bass pattern fluke and had fun with a bunch of 15-16 " K's in same locations. Had to let them run with it before setting hook.

Found that the Humminbird outlet store is selling 997c's for $1499.00 including dual beam, side imaging transducers. 998Csi combo with transducer for $1735.95. I heard there are pre-loaded maps on the 998 and an Ethernet connection that you won't get on the 997 and the 997 is being superseded by the 998 but some $$ savings may be worth it to you depending on what you are wanting. http://humminbird.factoryoutletstore.com/cat/1376/Humminbird-900-Series-Fishing-Systems.html They also offer extended warranties and free shipping on current orders.

Amen, amen to all the above. If someone gave me a new Lowrance unit or I won one it would immediately be for sale and I wouldn't sell it to a good friend or relative and would thoroughly warn any buyer. From prior experience with two expensive Lowrance GPS units I can tell you their next move will be to "obsolete" your unit and refuse to repair it. You will probably be very happy moving to "the other side", I certainly am. Try searching eBay for your antenna. Also, try contacting Bass Pro outlet store in Springfield, I found an antenna there for my "obsolete" LCX-15MT in a mapping kit they were clearing out. I think mine was an LGC 2000.

Interesting question. Going back several years, the Winter of '77-'78 was far worse than '09-'10 with many coves and even some creek arms freezing over for the first time in TR's history. The water was incredibly clear and if a person walked out on an ice-free dock it looked like the bottom was littered with Silver Dollars which were dead Threadfin by the millions. When that Winter finally broke in late March with a 3" plus warm rain the Bass moved up almost overnight to wherever the warm run-off was entering the Lakes and went Banzai crazy on anything anglers threw that resembled a crawdad. Here and on Bull it was a fish on every cast or you were in the wrong area where the run-off hadn't warmed the water yet. Never saw anything like it and probably never will again. So, if the current year's Bass are hungry due to depleted numbers of Threadfin why aren't they eating crankbaits resembling crawdads ? Is it because of the huge "Rock snot" bloom this year that we can't fish those baits or ??? Heard some reports of success on Warts but very few. I've been in many areas where we just gave up throwing anything coming even close to the bottom out as deep as 15 feet due to "Rock snot" covering the baits. Maybe the fish just grew accustomed to being able to easily pick off dying Threadfin and if an angler throws something resembling that, adding in the defense of their bed territory, they just can't resist. Anyway, even for a less-than-good fisherman like myself it sure makes for fun time on the water.

Jason, Most everyone is having trouble with Ethanol in outboards, outdoor power equipment and some cars. Suggest you only purchase gas at on-the-water Marina's ( high priced ! ) or 91 Octane at any of the gas stations up and down HWY 13 like Ha-Bob's, Rapid Robert's etc, etc. 91 Octane does not have to contain the State mandated 10% devil's brew of Ethanol and neither does the gasoline sold at Marina's. Guarantee you will save yourself a lot of expensive mechanical grief if you can avoid Ethanol blended gas. It's one of the worst things our wonderful Government ever shoved down our throats.

Hey JimmyB, I see your posts on another local site. Here's a further suggestion. While you are visiting Marine Repair, ask the guys which brand of GPS/locater they recommend. In other words, don't just zero in on the brand your post mentioned. They haven't had the best reputation for quality and customer service in the past few years.

Best idea yet and should be easily visible from a distance on the water. Also, good idea about the rear truck window. Always ready to meet and jaw with fellow anglers. You meet some of the nicest people that way. I'll be over to the store shortly. Thanks for all your efforts on this.

Like Whackem said, 65 is fine. It is now four lane divided from Springfield, MO to Harrison, AR. And if you should choose option # 2 in one of the previous posts, you would want to turn East ( Oopsie !) on Highway 60, not West.

In my area around mid-lake the heaviest rain fell when the air temperature was in the middle Fifties. Then the cold front came through and temps fell into the Forties but the rain also quickly let up in intensity and then ended about 3-4 P.M. I think it would be worth the time and gas to explore the backs of coves with wet-weather creeks and full time creeks for warmer run off. Just hope Thurs. night's lower thirties don't hurt too much. Very heavy fog this morning ! Good luck !

After yesterday's 1.9 inches, measured at mid-lake, of warmer rain you're going to have to explore. The first mud-line would be from the extremely cold (34 to 38 degree) rain over the 20th/21st weekend. I'm thinking that cold water won't help much. Seems to me the trick will be to watch your temp. gauge and find the leading edge of the warmer run-off from the 25th downpour.

Recently heard that Humminbird is suing Lowrance's parent Company for infringement on Patent rights to side imaging. It seems H'Bird claims Lowrance stole a lot of their SI technology. As far as cost of H'Bird units, I hear you loud and clear. If it's any help I got an email earlier this week that Bass Pro is running their "six-pay" plan again where you can divide the cost of anything you buy over a certain dollar amount into six equal payments on your plastic. H'Bird also released a FREE software update in January 2010 to registered owners that updates certain existing SI units to the 2D technology Lowrance is yapping about. I've seen both and they are pretty much identical in results. Neat stuff !!! All you have to do is download it to a SD memory card and follow very simple and concise instructions to install. The unit boots back up at the end of the install and your new 2D view is there !

IMHO, save your money and get the Hotmaps 2010 and not the Premium. Last Spring a VERY kind gentleman at BP Springfield put demo's of the 2009 Premium and 2009 Non-Premium cards in a sales counter mounted H'Bird 1197si identical to what I had just installed. There were only minor differences in the Premium vs. non-Premium which certainly wasn't worth the extra $$ for my needs and then he showed me the 2009 vs. the 2008 Navionics card for TR and, other than the 2008 being $75 less expensive, there was no difference at all. I see you are in the Nixa area....maybe you could drive up to BP on Campbell and go to the Electronics dept. and ask to see their demonstrator cards in action ? That would answer your questions first hand. Nothing like seeing the real thing. Good luck, hope you enjoy whatever you decide on.

IMHO, warm(er) rain will be the key along with Sun and wind, but we need the wind to come from the South. It's been blowing out of the North for so long I think it forgot where South is. Another good sign is the nighttime temps have not been falling below freezing. With the strong sunshine Monday, I think a lot of the weekend run-off still flowing into the Lake got warmed up. The Sun was so strong I had to put a hat on my "follically challenged" melon while I was scraping paint off our old siding.

Jason, Like you, I am concerned about what this 1.5 inches of super cold rain will do to water temps ? Can't be anything good... Found only 43 degrees on main lake in Baxter area late Friday afternoon and 49 back in only a couple of coves. Shad were everywhere we looked in the coves, you could just about walk on them and nothing was into them. No predator fish visible on electronics and we searched, fished and struck out for six hours. Used PB&J jig n'chunk, swam three different color single tail grubs on 1/8 oz. heads in varying depths and had one angler in the boat throwing a wart. Nothing, not even a bump. We did notice a large school of bluegill had moved into a shallow cove just before sundown but this cold has probably run them back out.

Phew !! At first glance at your unknown fish I thought " OMG! It's a Bighead Carp in TR" then I noticed the placment of the eye above the jaw line. Landowners who stocked the "White Amur" in farm ponds for weed control were told they were vegetarians only, then they discovered otherwise when the weeds were all eaten.

Very nice ! Thanks.

We used to catch Walleye and Sauger just above the old Gravois Road bridge up to the new Highway 30 bridge at this time of year. There is a lot of bedrock on the bottom in that stretch of River. Haven't been there in many years and I see where they blew up the old Gravois bridge and dropped it in the River and are cutting it apart. That probably spooked the fish pretty badly. Another decent place was downstream from the Winter Park gravel mining operation where the River first flows back into it's original channel and creates a fast riffle at low water. You had to be very early to do well at either location and with the recent, although late, warm-up it may be over and done with there.

Thanks much for the info about time it takes to transmit/enter brush piles on MDC maps. I understand. Always appreciate replies and information. Maybe they figure the fishing season hasn't started yet ??? Really thought the cove we saw them working in would benefit from their work and the placement seemed well thought out. But....four months as of next week ?

Having watched the MDC work boat late last Fall place brush in local coves and seeing the pink ribbons they tied on shoreline trees to indicate where the off-shore brushpiles are, I can tell you for sure their map is NOT up to date. Have no idea what the problem is about updating the interactive map on their website but I can tell you one cove where there are far more brushpiles than what the map indicates.

Well said !

Good answer Techo and I have the same experience. Beware BP Reels unless you go with the very high end. If you buy, put your receipt somewhere safe. Just my two cents and experience with their products since Brown Derby days. Johhny Morris signature rods are great on sale if you get the ones with the titanium guides. Again, keep your receipts.