Okiedog

well tjm, you did take away the value of a child being that you cannot differentiate a 13 year old from an 73 year old because both are gonna die. this is despicable. wtf is wrong with you I'm leaving. i officially give 2 sh*ts what any of yall are thinking because you dont. but please lets lose sleep over whether or not a striper may eat some trout while the clean air act has been removed among other environmental protections that enable there to be wild trout and streams and stripers in the first place. fml.

just so people know.. that person that died was a 13 year old girl who was trapped in the turbulence created by the hole in the darn, created from the flood around 15'. my daughter went to school with her. That little girl, yes she was small for her age, swam out to help someone else that was trapped in it and in the course of trying to HELP ANOTHER PERSON, died in the process. A full grown man was pulling on her as hard as he could and couldnt budge the poor girl. The hole should have been fixed or the darn tore out once the hole was created. A quick look and one cold see that it was dangerous, and right next to a swimming hole, and canoers would get in trouble there every day. Pretty crappy for people on here to just willy-nilly throw rocks at the situation. Someones child died there.

I dont care the form of precipitation,,, rain, sleet, snow, ice, hail, tsunami.........I just want a LOT of it......after last Summer I will never complain about "all the rain" ever again.

or even the demise of Mankind itself, but meh, whose counting.

solution= keep the spots!!, and if you cant put pressure on the MDC to lower size so they can be harvested. Catch and release is great and I am a big proponent of it, but we got to start keeping the spots.

could also be due to factors such as spots inability to grow to harvest size, kind of like the lakes, so there population just keeps growing with lots of shorts kind of like a farm pond overun by crappie,......also there is more pressure on the rivers than there used to be maybe smallies do not tolerate it as well, or have a tougher time with successful spawns with all the traffic and pressure, also way too many smallies are harvested period. It seems every year when you talk to outfitters people are getting caught keeping smallies during the spawn, how many more are being kept and not being reported? I can say from my own personal experience that it is much easier to catch large smallies in april and may than any other time of year which is during their spawn> its also the time of year you find the heads of the carcasses poached............. and another problem, and I believe it is a big problem is the giggers. They gig whatever moves, smallies, browns, etc. and a lot more people gig now than they used to,,, simply a lot more people now...............I think the problem is mult-faceted, water levels? sure. Over fishing and harrassment during the spawn? absolutley,.spots simply able to grow huge populations while staying under harvest size?...see it all the time,,,, do we lack organized, strict, science based restrictions/seasons/limits with backbone and foresight not influenced by the wishes of a few when it comes to do what is right for most when it comes to our fish populations in Missouri?....of course, some things never change.

Txs

Dont need too many details but were u using minnows, jigs? Off the bank, or out of a boat?.......thanks

am planning on taking the kids somewhere to crappie fish, either the Rock, or Truman,, somewhere. Anyways any info would be greatly appreciated thanks

I have a question, or a concern, for those of you that fish a lot at night, do you have much of a problem with snakes sneaking in over the transom?

For what its worth at one time it was being considered to take Copperheads off the dangerous snake list, due to what was posted earlier, no one has been killed by one. They felt that young children and the elderly "could" die from a bite so they left them on the list. as far as Cottonmouths go, if you see a short, fat, black snake in the water, it is more than likely a Cottonmouth. If your close enough and can identify a small white patch/stripe under the eye, then it IS a Cottonmouth. By FAR most people mistake Banded Water Snakes or "water moccassins" for Cottonmouths. When I was a kid growing up in Oklahoma, Cottonmouths at times were as thick as flies, but even then you would see probably 10 banded water snakes for every 1 Cottonmouth.

Dont stress Bill because it didnt happen. It is good ole BS

not taken smart-alakey, I know wakin is what you do with your bait, obviously some work better at it than others, but my question was how were you fishing the Redfin? the reason I ask is that I know you use a lot of Jerkbaits as they are intended. Thats what I wondered, was this one of your modified jerkbaits(paint job looks that way, and obviously the feathered hook was added) that you are using as a jerkbait. I thought the jointed Fins were usually used as wake baits on the Rock. Seeing the unjointed one is why I asked how you fished it. if you are waking it, do you prefer jointed versus unjointed, particular times of the year? thanks

Bill, How do you fish the redfin? jerk it?, wake it? steady crank? all of the above? thanks, Okiedog oh, and PS, thanks for taking the time to have the Jerkbait seminar last Feb at the conservation center, really appreciated it.

I know this report is a little late, had to work since then and havent had a chance anyways here goes. Cricket creek found 60 degree water by the big island, was very windy, felt like I was on Truman, not Table Rock, water was downright muddy. didnt fish there long, no luck. then went to Beardsley, water was very clear, on 49 degrees, there were live and dying shad all over the place with several thousand birds dining on them, water was still and cold, didnt have much luck so I went looking for an area that was more of a mixture between between muddy cricket and clear beardsley. Went to Clevenger and found some 52 degree, off colored water blowing into a ledge and killed them. Caught at least 20 fish on about a 40 yard stretch, only two keepers though, a smallie and a spot. the others were close to 15 inches, a mix of blacks, smallies, and spots, maybe a few more even a little over 15 but I was not measuring, really didnt care a whole lot, was having a real good time and got a real good sunburn. caught em all on the grub. till next time, good luck and good fishing oh, and whomever filleted the 8 big ole spots at 86 and left there carcass at the ramp, would it be too much to ask to wait AT LEAST until after they have spawned??