Flysmallie

I hear you guys on the work part. Between that and the floods I haven't been any where in awhile, except a little crappie fishing on Stockton. I was supposed to float the James a couple of weeks ago, it flooded. And I was supposed to float Flat Creek Saturday, it flooded. And of course I've been three times as busy this year. Dano, I'll see what I ca do about reserving you a spot. Maybe we can fence that part of the river off for you!

Dang Tim, it sounds like they will hit just about anything. I gotta get down there and get in on some of that beetle action. Is it better early or late in the day? Hey Dano, wanna go beetle fishing? I'll let you stand in your favorite spot all day.

When are you going? And are you spin fishing or fly fishing?

Nice fish! It looks like Buddy and I have a lot in common.

I've caught some big bluegill out of there and the fish I saw on nests last week weren't huge but probably around 3 pounds. Not a bad sized fish for that little pond.

I was down there last weekend with the kids and saw all of the no fishing signs. I wonder why they closed it to fishing. Did see some bass on nests when we were walking around. And a very fat otter that was eating bread that was thrown out to the ducks.

That childrens book is the one that Terry was referring to.

I spent about an hour and a half down by the 215 bridge this morning. The water is still a little murky but it looks a lot better than what I thought it would. Didn't do very well before I was called away to work but I did catch one white and a two huge shad on a chrome & black husky jerk. Didn't try anything else. The shad were actually longer than that one little white I caught. Should be a good weekend down there if we don't get anymore rain today. Did find a few shrooms hiding in the woods! P.S. If you go please take a trash bag and carry out some of the garbage that your fellow fishermen have left behind. I have nine empty rooster tail packages in my tackle bag and had a Walmart sack full of cans and one wild turkey bottle.

Looks great Terry.

I have never fished the park in Ozark either but it looks good and I've heard good things about it. I have waded up around Linden. It's not bad fishing but the party crowd gets out of hand sometimes. You can park at the 160 bridge south of Nixa and wade either up or down stream. And it's pretty good where the Finley meets the James. There are a lot of places that you can get to for an evening wade on the James too.

Dang Phil you are gonna make me give up all my secrets!! Fished with two other guys and they caught their fish on white rooster tails. I was using a 3 1/2 inch jerk bait. Bronze on the back and white on the bottom. If you go you gotta get some of those little jerk baits. The rooster tails brought 2 fish to the bank and I caught 11 whites and one largemouth on the jerk bait. Of course it was the only one we had and when I lost it in a submeregd bush it was over. I caught 3 whites on consecutive casts. I'll be back there later in the week with all the jerk baits that I can find. You know what that means? Yep, they will be hitting rooster tails. I didn't try the flyrod but if I could just get my hands on one of those Duane Doty Clousers I think I could set a record. But seriously I think a heavy weighted streamer might do the job. They just couldn't keep those rooster tails down deep enough in the current to get into some fish. And nothing else they had seemed to help. Did find a morel too. Didn't spend much time looking but there has got to be a bunch around there. Good luck.

Fished up around 215 Saturday. Left after 5 hours with 13 males. Still seems to be a lot whites up there, saw many nice stringers.

I agree

Sequiota Park is the first place I ever fly fished. Nice size bluegill and some LM. Last year they had up No Fishing signs. There are a couple of little ponds on South Scenic between Sunshine and Battelfield. The one on the west side of scenic has some nice fish in it, but it is usaully covered in weeds pretty early in the summer. And you gotta watch out for the golf balls coming from the driving range. You don't want to get hit by one of those, trust me. Valley Water Mill has been another good one, but they are doing so much work around it with walking trails it may not be the same. They have removed most of the brush that was long the bank where the fish held. There are several small places to fish close to Springfield you just gotta search them out. I haven't ever had any luck getting to fish a golf course pond.

Sounds like a good plan Leonard. Let me know when we are going.

Well at least you got out and had a chance to sit by the fire. I love just sitting around the campfire at night. So how was the maiden voyage of the pontoon?

If your in IT you might try O'Reilly Auto Parts. Their home offices are in Springfield and as far as a big company, they aren't bad to work for. They just acquired another 1,300 stores or something like that, so I know they are busy. I worked there for 17 years before I escaped! I liked it and have a ton of great memories from that experience.

It's been really good the past couple of years. I fished it once about 15 years ago. The fishing was great. My dad still goes down once at least once a year. He has a buddy that's guide on Falcon and some of the lakes in Mexico. He had a tripped planned a few weeks ago but got stuck in Dallas when the canceled all of the flights because of the weather. Never did make it to the lake and it took him a week to get his luggage back including his rods. He hasn't been in a real good mood.

Hey Trav, either you have jumped ahead a day on the calendar or I'm really late for some things that I needed to do on the 26th.

Dano, we need to set a date. It's just about time and I almost have all of your flies ready. Hope you are ready to chunk some bigger stuff!

Okay, here is what I know. System Three makes very good epoxies. However they make many different kinds. You have to make sure that it is a resin designed for laminating and NOT a quick cure resin. The quick cure will not allow enough time to completely "wet out" the fiberglass cloth. The process that jdmidwest is talking about is plastic welding. You are basically melting a plastic rod onto the repair. This is the best method to repair plastic but it's a bit tricky too. jd had the fortune of being able to talk to the manufacturer and they sent him the plastic welding rod he needed for the repair. There are many different types of plastic and you have to use the right rod or it will peel off. I have a buddy that has a plastic welder that he uses for bumper repairs. He must have 10 different rods for all the different plastics. If you want to drag that thing to Springfield I know he would fix it up for you. But I do know that a fiberglass repair will work, I repaired one like this when I was in High School. I looked tonight in Walmart and they do carry a small fiberglass repair kit for around $10 that has the material you need. You can also pick up a quart of acetone there for around $6 that would be good for cleaning the repair area before applying resin and afterwards for clean up. If you follow the instructions on the box you should have a pretty solid repair. Just make sure you clean, clean, clean and clean again before applying any resin. And afterwards you have to paint it. I will pm you my phone number in case you need me to explain this in more detail.

The boat is made out of a type of plastic. Fiberglass cloth and resin will work for awhile but will eventually become brittle and fall off. A lot of it has to do with the mold release agents that are impregnated in the plastic. There are products out there that will repair the plastic but you are looking at spending about 2 to 3 times what you paid for the boat. Your cheapest bet is to go the cloth and resin route. Just make sure that you sand and clean the surface to be repaired very well. I would clean with an alcohol based cleaner, then sand, then clean again. This will remove most of the release agents. Then apply the resin and cloth keeping the repair as thin as possible. If you can find a small amount of epoxy resin it would be much better that the normal fiberglass resin that you typically find which is a polyester base. The epoxy will be a lot stronger and will give some flexibility. Make sure which ever resin you use to coat it with paint. Aerosol is fine. You just want to make sure the resin is covered. Resins have no UV inhibitors so the sun will break them down and make them very brittle. Other than that, great deal on a cool little boat!!!

Seems to be a lot of people that like the Launch. I have cast one once. It did cast nice, but that was in a yard with no fly. Some of the smallmouth flies can be a little heavy and/or bulky to cast, but if you will slow down and let the rod and line work for you it can be done with a 5wt. The only reason I say that is because moving to a larger weight rod will not eliminate all of the problems associated with casting larger flies. Several of years ago I had the same thoughts. If I would buy a bigger rod the problem with casting these large flies would go away. I purchased a 7wt. TFO, great rod at a great price. But it only seemed to make it more frustrating. But all it took was slowing down a little and being patient. Well once I had the rod figured out and was starting to enjoy it, I decided to release it to the waters of the Eleven Point River so that it could be free. The only positive thing about that is that it was one of the most spectacular canoe crashes of all time. All I use for smallmouth now is a 5wt. But it is a very nice 5wt with a very high quality line. The combo that you have probably has a less expensive line that isn't helping you either. I guess my recommendation would be to get a 6 or 5wt. and spend some money on a quality line. A good line can make a lot of difference.

That makes sense. I fished yesterday and caught the majority on a #16 Griffith's Gnat. Did have a couple on a San Juan worm. Lot's of people, but we found some room to squeeze in and caught some fish. A little windy, but other than that it was a beautiful day.

You can't say that on here, dang Trav you just never quit. I told you guys that Trav was a liar didn't I?