Gatorjet

I can't say for sure with all the water, but don't race straight down to the Gold Mine. Things may be different now, but I have done pretty well around the mouth of Roark creek, along the docks below Roark creek, and in the middle in front of Camp Kanakuk. Further down, and before you get to the Gold Mine,I have had success between Blue Haven, and Taneycomo Lake Resort. Like I said, don't know about now, with all the water. Everything I have caught in those areas has been on straight jigs, jig & float, or a Trout Magnet under a float. I do have an idea I haven't heard used that I will post in another thread. Gonna give it a try if they are still running water this hard when I'm down there next week 4th-7th.

Thanks Phil. I'll let them know. I already td them to just watch this forum, or your facebook page because you do a great job of relaying the information.

Maybe like catfish dip bait, try some corn star h, or maybe cattail fiber to thicken it, and help stay on the hook. OR Just buy some Berkley Gulp Garlic eggs!

Phil, I've been asked if someone can sign up for the emails about Table Rock releases, or does the Project Manager just send them out to esort owners and those that could be effected by the flow rates.

Heard Plaza View s not what it was when Jack Hamilton had the restaurant there. I think his new location, called Pzazz in the Point Royal office is still open. That would probably be the prime rib you heard of at Plaza View. Buckingham's on the strip is suposed to be famous for prime rib, but pricey. Montana Mikes has a good prime rib. Possibly Charlie's Steaks, Ribs, and Ale, but I haven't tried it. All but Pzzaz are right on the strip.

James Foundation/Maramec Spring Park 1 hr · Even though Bill chose to track in a different direction than originally predicted, we are still feeling his effects on Maramec Spring Park. As we had anticipated the rising Meramec River began to cover areas of the campground overnight. At this time the campground remains closed until conditions improve and it will be safe to allow camping. The Spring has risen several inches overnight and is flowing out of its banks in the lower one-half portion of the fishing area. Fishing/wading is not recommended in this area in the swift current and higher water. With more rain falling in the area these water levels will be on the rise throughout the day. We will continue to post updates as conditions change. As always, you may call Maramec Spring Park at 573-265-7387 or the James Foundation office at 573-265-7124 for more information

OK, found the Stevens 59a. Looks really good, but been kinda touched up. Doesn't really matter, who that looks really good at over 60 years old hasn't been touched up? A couple problems that aren't that difficult, or expensive to fix. The main one being a left extractor worn badly, and not gripping the case rim. Parts ordered. In addition, I found another couple shotguns not on my list. But I just had to have them. First, a Mossberg 500 pump in 410. Don't have a clue why, but I've really gotten interested in those little 41 caliber shotguns. It's a light little pump gun, and a whole lot of fun to shoot. The other one I bought was a kinda, sorta gun from my past. My Dad had a Browning Auto5 that I really liked, but he never liked the inside the trigger safety of the early model he had. What I found wasn't a "real" Browning, but a Remington Model 11. Built in the US by Remington under John Browning's patent. It had some surface rust, and the bore at the muzzle end looked quite rusty. But a good cleaning, and some light buffing with 0000 steel wool brought out a mirror like bore, and a nice finish, worn by a century of use, but mostly still showing a nice blue. The stock is very nice walnut, and has an amazing few dings, and dents. This also has a minor repair needed for which I have the part ordered. It needs a new carrier spring. Not a big deal I really enjoy handling this shotgun at, or near, 100 years old. Just thinking about how it was used. By a sportsman enjoying the outdoors collecting ducks, rabbits, and other game. Or a tool used to gather food for a family. In it's long life, most likely some of both.

I don't fish the trout barrels, ah I mean parks, but on Taneycomo when I take someone out that isn't real experienced I will rig them up with night crawlers, or PB Gulp. I use #4, or #6 at the smallest circle hooks. Plenty of hookups with very little swallowed bait, and injured fish.

Anyone know a place to catch lots of cats? Open Door Pet Sanctuary in House Springs! But seriously, the lakes in the MDC Urban Fishing program can be quite good. http://fishing.mdc.mo.gov/reports/st-louis-urban-fishing-program-lakes http://stlouisco.com/ParksandRecreation/MapsFacts/FishingLocations One tip, call the fish stocking hotline at 636-300-9651. A recorded message will inform you of when, and with how many fish each lake in the program was last stocked. Of course, the closer to the stocking dates, the better your opportunity to catch fish.

Interesting concoction. Add some chicken blood, squished up livers, and some cattail fiber and it would make a great dip bait for catfish! I haven't fished the "Springs" in many, many years. While you are on natural bait I have to ask if anybody still uses the old standard.....Velveeta cheese. In my loathsome 40 or 50 years ago a #14 treble hook embeded in a tiny ball of Velveeta, and a small split shot 18" up the line ruled!

Tag end through front of the eye, wrap main line (leader 7 or 8 wraps from the eye toward the tag. The video shows a overland knot tied on the end of the tag. After wrapping the main line, insert it through the eye from back to front. Pull tight, and it looks great. UNTIL you give the main line a little slack, and the whole thing starts to unwrap. I've tried it over, and over. I've watched the video over and over. I've looked at the diagram over and over. That is exactly the way I am doing it. Still comes apart when you give the main list new slack. What am I doing wrong? Here is the video. https://m.youtube.com/?rdm=1ku7fs6kv&client=mv-google&rdm=1ku7fs6u4#/watch?v=NzM4UxvMXLw

Unless you want to camp by the causeway it looks like a motel in Macon is it. I never went down to the warm water arm before. We ideled up through the winding channel to what looked like a levee dividing the cold water, and warm water. There were a string of large floats, some of which looked like they had broken loose, and floated to the levee. I assumed that was the end of the area accessible to the public. Interesting area. Very river like. We caught one small channel on a tube jig, and had a few hits. Looks like a good prospect for fishing though. Especially when it's cooler.

Yes, we launched Saturday, and this morning from the ramp off Hwy 3. No problems, but the lake is a little high. Friday we put in at the camp ground ramp. My friend likes it better because there is a dock to tie up to. But with the bridge closed, even though we can see the lights, and campfires from the cabin, it's 30 miles away! The other ramp is 7. First off, I didn't drive down to the cabins because I didn't know if I could get turned around without a lot of trouble. But set story I got from my friend is the husband passed away, and the wife has they place for sale. Fishing was OK. Lots of people on the bridge. We caught a dozen or so crappie, and a few small chamber cats on tube jigs from the boats Friday. Didn't fish a long time. He sold his Stratos to another friend that wanted to learn it a little. Never had a boat, and this is a Stratos 201 Pro with a 175 Evenrude, so he's got some learnin' to do! We fished off the bridge Saturday morning for a while. Another dozen crappie, acouple 15" channel cat, a 18" Hybrid, and an 8 pound flathead catfish. All on blu/white or red/white tub jigs. Set weighted pool noodle jelly vs on the shallow area at the mouth of the warm water arm, and in front of the causeway. Had a small channel at the causeway before we got the other jugs set. Checked the other ones that were "up" by the warm water arm before we took out, two empty, and one small channel. Took the jugs out this morning. Windy, and rough. The ones along the causeway were tough to get to without getting slamed into the rocks, and no fish. Tried crappie, but way to windy. Had one nice cat about 5 pounds on the shallow hump, but that was it. Still a fun weekend, and enough fish for a couple meals. I did hear that they were catching giant flathead in the warm water chute on live perch. Not really into catching giant flathead. Cats, and crappie. Quality over quantity!

Thanks for the heads up. You talking about the ramp off of Hwy 3? I'll keep that in mind. Sometimes I have to get the Gator down the ramp quite a ways to float it off the trailer.

Don't remember exactly, somewhere around a few pennies less than seventy bucks. Phil can correct me if I am wrong. Don't know anything about St Croix, just know the Lilleys rod is a great jig rod!

MDC stocks Rainbow Trout throughout the entire lake. I'm not sure about Brown Trout, but I would expect they stock them from top to bottom as well. But most of the Brown Trout I hear of being caught are above Branson. One thing I would say if you are running down to Rockaway Beach, you are running past a lot of good areas. Maybe instead of "running" down there you could fish your way down, and run back.

I have an auto inflate from Bass Pro. Very comfortable, and you forget you have it on. More than once I've left the boat, and walked up to the room, or office still wearing it. The only down side is the price of the recharge kit. About thirty bucks. I learned early on, after a replacement or two, to not store it in the boat. Under the boat cover the humidity and heat can be enough to trigger it. So I have a "boat bag" I keep it in when not in use, and bring it in the garage instead of leaving it in the boat when put in storage.

There were some cabins down the gravel road from the campground, but I have heard they were closing. I'm going up this week, and will be making the twenty+ mile trip around to the ramp a mile away from my friends cabin. He doesn't want to put the Stratos he is selling to another friend in at the South ramp off of Hwy 3 because there is no dock, and you have to pull up on the rip rap, or concrete ramp. Don't make any difference to me, the Gator has bounced of off of rocks that hard @60mph! LOL. I'll try to find out about the cabins. Other than that, the only other accommodations I know of is motels in Macon.

I can't say I notice any loss of sensitivity with the 2Lb Maxima. But that is with the Lilleys LT600 rod. With the Microlite rods I don't have quite the same sensitive feel. Not so much on strikes, I still feel them, but on feeling my smaller (3/32oz) jigs when they touch the bottom. If I use 1/8 ounce, and bigger I can feel the bottom with them on the less sensitive rods.

My very favorite rod for jig fishing 3/32, and 1/8 ounce jigs is the 6' Lilleys LT 600. I tried the 6 1/2' LT 660, kinda by mistake in fact, and found it a bit too "Woodley". The 6' seems to have the perfect blend of sensitivity, and backbone. Any decent reel will be fine. I have an older Quantum Catalyst PTi that works great. For all my straight jig fishing I use Maxima Ultragreen in 2Lb. Even in dinger water where others go up to 4LB. For lighter jigs like 1/16 ounce I use a 7ft light action Fish Eagle II rod from Cabela's with a Fish Eagle II reel. On the other side, if due to heavy current I want to go with a jig a little heavier than 1/8 ounce I use a BPS 6 1/2' Microlite.

I just saw a pic on another forum taken this morning showing all ten gates open some. Maybe with the predicted rain they are letting even more out.

A friend an I fished the East causeway Friday mid morning until about 1:00PM. We caught 21 keepers, and another dozen or so smaller ones. We started out pretty slow with one fish I caught on a chartreuse crappie spinner bait. My friend had caught a limit the previous week casting a tube jig out as far as he could, and letting it sink to the bottom. Then drag, and hop it along the bottom. Mostly casting from the middle of the bridge. (More on that later). That didn't work too well for him this time. After an hour, or so, another angler joins us, and had his limit in a little over an hour. Before he left, he showed us his what, where, and most important how. He was using similar tube jigs, two jigs about a foot apart. But he wasn't letting them go completely to the bottom, and dragging them along. He was near the bottom, and swimming them slowly with an occasional hop. He also was fishing the corners of the bridge, not from the middle. Fan casting from near parallel to the bridge to about ten feet off the trip rap. That's when we started catching a lot more fish, and had we not needed to return to the cabin to meet some friends I'm sure we would have caught another 9 keepers for our combined limit. Two more guys came along, and we're also catching some crappie on tube jigs with crappie nibbled added, crappie spinners, and white jigs. They also caught a drum of about 5 lbs on the tube/nibbles, and a Hybrid about 15" on a white jig. Now, as to the bridge fishing. You are saying it's posted, "do not fish from bridge". Well, thanks to MODOT wanting to punish the residents for not increasing road taxes, because of a small hole that could have been temporarily repaired, the road is now closed. Barricades at both highway C in College Mound, and highway 3 at Caseyville. Open to local traffic only, and completely barricaded, and dirt piles at each end of the bridge, and at both Golden Ave. on the West end, and Glider Ave. on the East end by the camp ground. Now the boat ramp that we can see from my friends cabin is 20 miles away!!!

Was that you by Short Creek last night!

Just wondering how much trolling you could do with a "trolling" motor. I think that is somewhat of a misnomer. With a small car topper, I would think you would only have one battery, and how long would the charge last with constant use. Possibly some different techniques would give you longer on lake time. Jigs, jig & float, stick baits, and spoons could be fished in productive areas not far from a boat ramp. I also would not want to be down lake from my launch point with only an electric motor if generation started, and you hadn't arranged for someone to pick you up down lake. Even a good wind blowing against your direction could turn your "trolling rig" into a drift boat pretty quick. Third, I'm not sure a 12' car topper would be the safest boat to be in on Taneycomo during times of high boat traffic. I remember a couple friends bringing a little 12' Jon with a small gas motor one year for the R.A.W.tournament. after launching, while one of the guys was pulling over to the dock a couple boats went by. Not close, or anything, just normal traffic. I was bit worried for my friends safety, but non the less amused by his reaction while he held on for dear life as the boat bobbed like the proverbial cork in the ocean. He said Silver Dollar City didn't have a thing on that ride for thrills, and chills! Luckily, Phil had a cancellation, and they rented a bigger boat for the tournament.

My only problem is incidental inflation. I've bought enough recharge kits to buy a couple top of the line non inflatable PFD's I learned to not leave it stored in the boat because there could be enough humidity to cause moisture significant enough to discharge. Once it was just laying on the deck in the driveway in hot sun on a humid day. I came out of the house to find it opened up. Now I store it in a boat bag with the bottle unscrewed, and the cup covering the little melting disc unscrewed as well as to not trigger it.