Flysmallie

I only dress that way because I love cheeseburgers!! They aren't supposed to be skinny jeans. Men in skinny jeans and flat billed hats drive me crazy.

^^^This unfortunately. Last time I was going to go down there I was having a conversation with a guy about it and he told me to make sure I took a gun. And this is not a guy that you would expect that from. I'll pass. But I will say that the entire James is getting bad like that. I'm not knocking JRO because they are great people and do a great job and I'm sure I will use them for plenty of trips this year. But that great job is bringing more people with low or no morals to the river. It's not their fault that people don't know how to act. It's just hard to make it down that river without witnessing something you shouldn't have to.

I like me some oysters but man I am leery of them. I think I have only eaten them in North Carolina. But that's once a year at least. Good stuff. Not those. Stayed up late the other night to smoke some pork butt for my brother in law's birthday. So delicious.

You can't just drop a photo like that and not tell the story!!

My dad and I had spots named all over the country. Nobody else would ever have a clue where they were. And you never had to even say what lake they were on. You could just say the ditch. And we both knew that was on Pomme. Or the highway, which is an old road bed on Fork. Or church which is an old submerged town on Falcon. Rarely did we use any names on a map or names that other people gave them. It wasn't to keep it a secret, it just happened. By the way on Stockton the State Park Pond is one of my favorite smallmouth places of all time. It is neither a pond nor a state park.

Personally on a Summer day in a canoe I would never be on the Current. Is the fishing good? Yep. But the level of douchebaggery is extremely high on that river. The upper Big Piney is much more pleasant. I have no idea about the special management area but up above Boiling Springs it is awesome.

Give me a couple of weeks and I will. I'm going to start breaking it down tomorrow for a thorough cleaning before the new residents arrive. Right now there is only a freshwater dragon eel, a goldfish and one lonely snail. My youngest daughter won that goldfish at a fair about 5 or 6 years ago. We kept it at home forever and it was a couple inches long. After I released my gills I put it in the office aquarium and now it's around 8 inches. He has to go. The dragon, which isn't really an eel at all, was dumped in there by another guy here at work. It's became a bit of a fish rescue center. A school teacher had 17 guppies that I took in, they even had babies, but the dragon definitely has an appetite for guppies and they are all gone. So it's out with the fish humane society and back to some fish from the Ozarks.

Depends on what that cheeseburger looks like.

They fish and you don't. Keep your attention on them and it will be a good day regardless if they catch a bunch of fish or not.

I haven't used a chiller for the sunfish, but never saw the water temp over the mid 70's. I use good filtered water when topping off or replacing after a water change. I actually got it too filtered at one point and they had issues with their fins. I backed off a bit and it seems fine now. Never had a problem with coloration and I just have creek gravel in there. Some wood and big rocks. Meals consisted of shrimp pellets mostly (it's easy), mealworms, worms from the garden and grasshoppers in season. I actually had a pair go through the spawning process twice that I witnessed. Made the nest, did the dance, the whole deal but it didn't produce any off spring. Right now it's pretty empty. I let the inhabitants free before fall, there were only three of them and were starting to push the boundaries of what that 90 gallons could do for them. It's about time to take the kids out to find new smaller guests.

Totally understand that. My fire went out about 15 years ago. I enjoy fishing way more now than I ever did back then. I get the urge every once in a while, never enough to do anything about it though.

Yep, I keep a few buddies in my office.

Maybe we can get a deal on two.

Jeff from Ozark Sweetwater was Brighton tying at a show so we made plans to hit the river as soon as we could get him out of there. Made a run up the river and found a few fish. i know this is a lame plug for my buddy but if you need a fly fishing guide you can't find much better. Jeff Trigg is an awesome guy to be on the water with.

I thought it was a toon but hadn't seen that color before. Sweet ride.

Cool. What kind of boat is that?

JRO will shuttle you and your boat. They are great people. The big question is trying to get ahold of one of them right now.

Looks like it's starting to make the turn to level out but it's already climbed to 2,270.

Lost my dad the same way about a year and a half ago. It's a tough time for sure.

Stockton is probably the best spinnerbait lake I have ever been on. Me and your FIL would have got along just fine.

1,880 cfs and still climbing.

Me and a buddy were fishing a tournament on Table Rock and of course it was raining. It wasn't stormy but it was a good steady soaking rain. We pulled into an open spot on a dock near where we were fishing just to eat some lunch. I think we had made it in there before a truck started heading down the hill from the house above. He slid to a stop next to the ramp and came running towards us with something in his hand. Turned out to just be a big thermos of coffee and plenty of cups, sugar, and creamer. Super great guy.

Still lots of chunk rock on Stockton. I really wouldn't consider it any less than Table Rock, but it fishes very different. My experience has been the opposite of Ham's. My average size has ALWAYS been better on Stockton. But if you fish it the way you fish Table Rock then that could be part of the issue. I grew up fishing shallow and Stockton is better suited to my style than Table Rock so that's why I've probably had more success there. Stockton is not your friend when it's windy. Totally different animal than a lake like Table Rock when the wind get's up and it can be a very dangerous place. Just have to be smart about it.

300 boats isn't that many on Table Rock. It won't be any busier than what it normally is this time of year.

A weber with a pizza stone works pretty good for that. It's as good as an egg. Not nearly as good as a brick oven. It's not really the wood as much as it is the brick oven. it's all about the heat. It doesn't really matter where it's cooked as long as it's hot. Shouldn't take more than 5 to 7 minutes to cook.