Trav

DC Haha, Speak for yourself with the redneck stuff...I was born in IOWA. As far as the Fourth of July, I dont even waste my money on the fireworks. Why should I? Rockaway shoots thier display right at my house every year! Haha. My late Grandfather was from Texas and he used to shoot fireworks and firearms every New Years in the winter time. Of course he was a huge Heston fan. Haha It does say something about a group when tourist-eating squids gets votes over dynamite. Haha It also says alot when "artificial only" leads this poll. We can pat ourselves on the back.

I love to muskie fish. I was hired on as a guide for a couple seasons up on Lake Eva in Ontario in the late 80s. Primarily for guests that wanted Smallies and Pike. They had a dozen guides like myself specializing in different species. Anyway, when there were no guests particularly looking for the species I(at the time I was under 20 years old) was hired for, I would tag along and help the guides hunting walleyes, muskies and lake trout. Those trips were mainly fly-ins to timber lakes where they had boats established at a make shift clearing. On those trips I (being the "new hire") did the bulk of the loading and unloading of gear and gas so it was a job but I did alot of fishing too. Learned alot. Muskie really sparked my interest. That job is what gave me my creds to continue guiding until 95. I went all over the place but the bulk of my time was spent in Panama guiding Lake Gatun. Did 3 1/2 solid years of guiding there for Peacock Bass. Thanks for the feed back. Like I said, I only get to Pomme a few times a year when Dad invites me up. Against popular belief I do get off the Lower Taney quite abit, but usually when I am invited. I do alot of fishing Tablerock since my brother is one of those guys with one of those 50k bass boats we love so much. Haha. He is a decent fisherman but I think he likes the idea that he can get a free guide when ever he wants. Plus we try to plan a yearly trip out of state every year. Last two springs we went to Guerrero and Lake Fork.

DING DING DING...FOLKS WE HAVE A WINNER!

Can I put images on my blog page? If so how is it done? I dont see any options for attachments. Also, Am I able to edit and delete criteria after I have submitted it? Again I dont see any option to do so. Would appreciate any feedback on blog design.

Went down to Norfolk a couple summers ago and couldnt bribe a striper to bite. Saw alot of dead ones floating all over the place though. Anyone figure out what was the problem? Would have been Sept 05.

My Father lives and breathes Pomme (since he lives in Urbana) and he swears that trolling is the only way to go. The only times I fish Pomme is with him a few times a year so you can guess what we do. He seems to have a method to his madness (catches plenty of Musky) but I am preferably a structure kind of guy. Guess I like the hum of a Minn-Kota over the rumble of a Johnson outboard. Anyway, is trolling the only Musky money-maker on Pomme as my dear old Dad believes?

Kind of like fishing the open water of the Pacific and then coming back home huh phil? At least when you get home you dont have to keep your knees bent in case of a squall wave hitting your boat. Haha

My Father breeds and sells show birds up in Urbana. He was always having problems with falcons, chicken hawks, and the occassional eagle swooping down and snagging his precious hundred dollar chickens. Eventually he ended up netting over them all. They still tried but either got caught in the netting or crash landed in the ground. Was funny to watch. Once they had the netting figured out they quit trying.

As a kid I took some taxidermy classes and still have the little air brush I bought. I use it to paint solid colors and use sharpies to add some minor details. Not perfect but its fast, cheap and I still catch fish off them. Only downside is the paint job dont last long if you use it alot. But with an old rag with some acetone and you can do it all over again.

Hey Al, I totally agree on the fishing lure perspective. I wont even hesitate to drop $15 on a good bait. Even if I knew I was gonna loose it in the sticks eventually. As far as rods, I break a couple a year and draw the line there. I agree on reels to a point, I mean, a good reel will last for years but I start to feel the pain once they get near the buck fifty mark. And if you saw my rig you would know for sure appearances dont mean squat to me. Haha Like I said, the fish dont know the difference.

You need an excuse for that? All this time Ive been saying I had a friend with the flu. Haha. Nice to meet ya Bob.

Hey JS Like all good things come sacrifice. Too increase your odds of a bigger creel size, you have to give them what they want and go where they are. Bigger presentation and deeper water is the only way to go. Of course your sacrificing your smaller "sport" fish and your daily numbers will decrease for sure. I hate to go without a catch and somedays even I will resort to fishing micro-jigs for goggle-eye and bluegills to say I caught some fish that day....Haha Its all about personal pride and as big as my ego is, a big fat egg is worse than a dozen bluegills. Haha

Gregg, Haha, I dont want to appear that I am picking on you or any other upper-lake flyfisherman. I am an "in your face" kind of guy. My family considers me a mix between Dennis Miller and Dennis Leary. I just call things as they are. I am a very black and white/right and wrong personality. I never concede and am aware I can be abraisive with the truth. My comments may have been "a little" offensive, but no more so than if I called your Dog ugly. If its ugly, Its ugly. Thats not at all being inaccurate though. Tightline, HeHe, Dont bite that lip off. I will admit that I am extremely arrogant. Almost to level of entitlement. But no more so than Charles Barkley, Terrell Owens, or even Muhammud Ali. You know why they are that way? Because they are good at what they do and know it. I have dedicated my entire life to excelling at the sport of fishing and not just Bass. I have worked as a guide in 3 different countries and have been in more tournements than most people spend days fishing in a lifetime. I brag because it is what I am proud of. I Know I am a prolific fisherman and with Taneycomo being my back yard for 3 decades, you can count on the fact that I spend more time on it in a year than do any 4 fishing guides combined. As far as digging out my dusty old flyrod and standing elbow to elbow to wait for my turn to fish the Rebar hole, I will pass. I agree that there is an art to flyfishing and it is more than just landing fish, but if I have to share a pool or a riff I can not enjoy myself. I took a relative up to the fall creek/cooper creek area like 3 or 4 years ago because he wanted to see it and there must have been 25 boats just stacked all over the place. Literally 30 feet from each other. Its insane. Not my cup of tea. Thanks for the offer anyway. Phil, I totally understand how the upper lake is. Thanks for not assuming though..HaHa. Do yourself a favor, next time you cant get those fish up there to bite, Grab yourself some spinning tackle, drift your boat in the channel from where it starts to get deep, just up from fall creek, on down past cooper creek before you get to the ramp. Then repeat. Jig white feather roadrunners just off the bottom. Now heres a little hint I tell everyone. In Taneycomo, no matter where, upper or lower, there is something about a little touch of blue. Take a sharpie and either tip the feathers blue or pin stripe the spinner. Or do both. Trust me, you will catch a few fish. Enough to say you didnt skunk out anyway. I never skunk out. Better to suck a little pride and fish the easy way than to catch nothing at all. Right? Bill, To me, if the MDC dont monitor the fisherman, then the fisherman should monitor the MDC. It is our taxes. Should be full circle. There should be a minimum of two officers on the lake at all times. One for above Roark, and one for below Roark.

DC...I know those birds! I havent seen them in a week or two though. Might be afraid of the big Bald Eagle that has been roosting above my dock the past week or so.

DC.... you have that right. I won a boat load of money doing local tourneys back in the early 90s. After being a spectator at the 1994 BassMaster Classic, I thought I would try the BASS tourney trail in 95. I did 5 events and decided it was a little too political for me. Wasnt my scene at all. Maybe it was cause I competed as a non-boater or something, but it seemed that the guys I was paired up with were just way too serious. I did learn alot and fished with guys like Rick Clunn and Dion Hibdon to name a couple. Cost 12 grand to fish those 5 tourneys if you lump in travel,food and lodging. It hasnt hampered my interest in the BASS any, just prefer to be a spectator.

I use $100 reels and $60 rods. I have a 1983 SeaKing with a home-made deck, front and back trolling motors from the late 80s, a hummingbird graph from 1991, and it is all pushed by a vintage 1961 Evinrude Fastwin. I have more money in my Tackle cases than I do my rig. I drive a 93 Chevy pick-up and live in a house that was built in 1921. My property has had a dock on it since shortly after powersite was built so it's Grandfathered back so far that I dont even have to pay to have it in the lake. The funny thing about it all is, the fish cant tell the difference. I dont worry about scratching up my boat when I move way up the creeks. Nobody is gonna steal anything off my dock cause theres nothing worth stealing and if I break anything, I dont care, for everything is easily fixed or cheaply replaced. All that fancy stuff is just status. Oh...and I have a cool OA bumper sticker too. Haha

HEY HEY Dont be so touchy feely! After all we are all men right? Greg, Let me apologize if I blew cold air up your skirt. I was in no way criticizing novice anglers. If you would have gotten passed the cheese trout referance it might have came clear to you that the core anomosity of the statement was totally aimed at the way the government looks at Taneycomo. It is a revenue driven ideal to stock trout in the lake. No matter if it is underlined with sportsman in mind. Also, the other half of that issue was the fact that the MDC puts down restrictions on thier golden goose and fails to enforce them. The topic of this forum is Taneycomo Restrictions and you dont get more government than that. What is the old saying about politics and religion? Oh yeah, they both want your money and both promise things they cant achieve or prove. Haha Im just kidding guys...no Replys on that please. Even if that were true I would stay a Republican. Haha ( Go McCain ) Thanks DC for having my back on that. Nice to know someone is attentive enough to read the story past the headline. So what does a 3+ pound Bass every ten hours add to over 31 years? Haha. Did I ever mention that I never have a day where I dont catch fish? Does that sink my boat? Gotta have fun guys. And I do believe Phil was trying to be impartial. Phil, Your probably right that my Reports on the lower lake will draw more attention. I dont mind, most people that come down here to fish just try it a day or so and leave. Haha. Those two days probably being saturday and sunday and I dont go on the water on weekends. Still, I freely share my knowledge and opinions of the area without very little concern to others. Obviosly. Haha Plus with the way the human anthill is growing, Taneycomo is gonna eventually be some kind of park where the rich people take thier $1200 dogs so they can watch them take a crap. Just hope they remember thier pooper scoopers. Rich dogs stink like the rest of them. Haha. And heed my warning...stay of my land....my dog dont know the difference between a varmint and a pomeranian. Just higher class of varmit to her. Haha

I really wasnt trying to make a point....well...maybe I was, and I wasnt trying to reintroduce the subject of adding new species(I want channel cats!!), I was just making an inquiry that if it dont spawn here why have it here. I know that answer too, government boasting rights and the hoards of disillusioned trout fisherman who think that Taneycomo is soooo perfect when it really isnt but a government-run pay lake. "Stock them and they will come." DC kicked the mule in the mouth when he said that fishing the upper part of Taney was like fishing out of an aquarium. I will step it up one and say its like scooping minnows at a bait shop. If anyone can catch them on bare hooks then why bother? I never fish above roark and as any local can tell you it takes a little more talent than luck to catch Big Brownies in the Lower Taney. I am willing to bet that there isnt many if any fisherman who can locate and catch as many brownies as I do in a year. I wont get into the subject of the 200+ Bass over 3 pounds I picked up either. Of course not many can say they spent approximatley 3000 hours on the water either. But I stray from the Topic. I read a few comments on the idea of having enough government restrictions when everyone forgets they are catching government fish. Might as well call them cheese trout for they are nothing but welfare for the inept fisherman. Weekenders and tourists. That goes for every trout stream in Missouri. Step down below mile 7 and see if you can catch them one right after the other. Not gonna happen. And if you bring your fly rod down here expecting a fish over 20" you would be better off fishing the bird bath in your back yard. Takes heavy tackle and some big lures to catch the Brownies I catch. Going back to the topic of restrictions. A slot limit is to protect the brood stock. Whats the point when they dont spawn? If the government wants more big fish in the lake all they would have to do is stock them. If they want them to grow big in the lake then they have to stop people from taking any fish until they are 20",24" or even 26". The issue of bait should be a no brainer. Bait kills released fish. Mainly because dumb*ss inept wanna-bes dont know how to set a hook nor can they buy a cutting tool to cut the line instead of saving thier precious hook. Anyway you look at it. Like the government or not. We got to have restrictions. Rigid restrictions. Not just a guidelines either. I mean seriously enforced rules. I know the upper part of Taney gets some (not much) oversight by law officials but Lower Taney gets next to zero attention from the MDC. I have seen plenty of times where people had undersized brownies or 8 fish stringers. We got to have enforcement of even the silliest restrictions or we have angler anarchy.

DC...400 to 500 brownies over 20" a year huh? You are counting the 42 I have caught and released since the end of 2006 right? Thats right, 42 over 20" this year alone. And probably twice that much between 16" and 18". And I am primarily a Bass guy. I only fish for brownies about a third of my time on the water. QUESTION EVERYONE!!!! Since we know that Trout dont spawn in the lake, what will happen to the fishery if they quit stocking trout? Still a trout lake in 5 years? In 10 years, In 20 years? Do we talk about what other species go in the lake then? Will the trout still rule peoples hearts and minds? If Taneycomo was to be managed with only spawning fish, self-populated. Makes one wonder. Doesnt It? Haha...good thing I know where all the Bass are at....

All is good DC, I knew you were joshin because my dock is in the channel. Lots of current. The structure is mostly designed to be a "feeding station" more than a home. Just a little ambush point. Thats all. When the water is on the rise is when it gets the most visitors.

This is always an interesting topic

Didnt get on the water till after 3pm today. What a great purple sunset. Anyway, threw at some docks for most part. Caught 12 sport bass and two that went almost 3 pounds. 2.10 and 2.11 on the digital. Was observing some of the current under the docks. Somebody has been buuusy! I located 3 brushpiles under docks that were not there last month. Haha. It is that time of year. Sink em while the leaves are gone. In another month there will be Xmas trees under half the docks I fished today. They only last about 8 months but I guess that gets ya through the summer. I have a reef system with all hard woods weighted with steel and connected to a 1/2 inch cable. All the logs are eyebolted in, so that I can replace them when needed. Pretty nifty system. Also cleverly disguised so the competition wont hammer my honeys. Wink

What ramp you referring to Bill? I have seen up to 6 or 8 boat wait in March but never so bad to get up at 3am.

Welcome and Good Luck

Haha, your right. I didnt have a clue.