mzrealfish

Got down about 5 Friday evening. Picked up Andy @ rt.66 canoe and headed to the Hwy. 133 access. We put on and floated for 30 minutes first night. The water was cold, guessing 48-52 degrees, but have no real idea. Had some people on the bank say 45 degrees. Woke up and left camp about 11. Fishing was slow, but picked up a bit about 2. I was catching on a green and yellow jig with a pumpkin fat Ika. My buddy caught a couple on a texas rigged whiskey hula grub. Then he switched over to a suspending rogue and caught the big one of the trip. All said and done, he caught 4 smallmouth. I caught 14 smallmouth and 2 spotted bass. My largest were the 2 spotted bass at about 1 1/4 lbs. and 1 1/2 lbs. unfortunately my phone was dead by then so no pictures of them. All save the spotted bass were caught near rootwads in the off channel. Both of the spotted bass were caught just off the grasses in faster moving water about 3 feet deep. Almost all of the fish were using the shadows from over hanging trees as extra cover and hitting presentations along the edge of the shadows. I did not catch any fish open water with sunlight.

ColdWater, what you don't seem to realize is the debacle is indestructible. The Big Piney at 12++ feet! I'd like to see you on the Big Piney at 9 ft. and still here to post about it. Are there nicer canoes out there? Yes. Is the replacement cost of a 12 ft. fiberglass old town canoe over $1200? Yes. Is that grill worth more than $1200? Yes. Does that mean that one disposes of a perfectly functioning canoe because you don't like how it looks? No. Not sure what color the clouds are in your world my friend, and I'm not sure who is funding your trust fund my friend, but I do know I don't come on forums like this my friend and start bagging on people who work really hard to have what they have, and then take on a disabled dog when they already have 2, just to be talked down to by people like you. So did you have a point or are you just bored with your perfect life and felt like bringing the rest of us down to your level? My friend. signed, your friend

Aptly named in it's early years before the floats...I have had this canoe for 17 years. Bought it with a trolling motor and homemade motor mount for $150. 3 years ago did a 2 day on the Big Piney at 12++feet and scraped and cracked the keel from nose to tail. Finished the trip with a duct tape bottom. Patched it, sealed completely but ugly as all get out. The pictures attached here are my canoe partner Humphrey. He is a rescue dog that had an abusive owner before us. Lost a leg to that guy. Awesome dog going on his first canoe trip with me. He's been in the canoe on my pond but this is the real test.

If you see the Royal Debacle floating by holler!

Nice. We are excited. We usually do 3-4 canoe trips per year. This is only our 2nd this year. Life went and got a little busy on us

Hey all, 2 of us are coming down this Friday and floating, fishing camping this run and finishing up Sunday. 2 guys, 2 dogs and 2 canoes. Just wanted to see if anyone had any info or ideas for us. We are planning the usual arsenal of jigs, craws and flukes but wanted to see if there were any presentations that might suit us better for the season. Thanks, Mark

Thanks guys! I will report back on Saturday...

Good evening all, I was originally planning on the Gasconade tomorrow but had to revamp that plan. My buddy and I are hitting the jack's fork instead. What section should we be looking to do this early in the season? Fishing first, paddling second? Thanks a ton for any suggestions! Mark

Going to the Gasconade Wednesday through Friday. Would love to see 50 degree water. Will report back next week. Mark

I love the gasconade falling between 6 feet down to 3 feet. But, yes, with more rain that put a damper on things. Thanks

Good evening all. I am coming down next week for a 2 day canoe trip and was wondering if anyone had some idea of the river temps at Hazelgreen and Jerome or how I might go about finding out. Thank you kindly, Mark

I have a 20 year reunion to attend this weekend otherwise i would heading back out this weekend, but hope to be back out there sometime next week. I was out there this afternoon. The construction crew has leveled more ground around the pond, but I think we have some time before they cut it. I am going to target Saturday September 16th as my first big day of attempting to haul fish out of the pond. Please let me know if you are interested in joining my friends and I. I fished for an hour and a half and caught about 18-20 bass. Nothing over 2 lbs. Next time maybe. The pond is located just south of St. James Academy. Take Prairie Star road west from K-7 then south on McCormack. Follow aorund to the south and west to the concrete washout sign and drive all the way down to the pond. As long as you have a state license you are legal there. here are a few photos of the pond. The weeds are great right now. I caught 4 fish in less than 1 ft. of water today. The bass is only about 1/2 lb. but you can see the great weed beds. I am so going to miss this pond when it is gone! I am guessing that from the drought this year and the dirt that has been pushed into the north corner of the pond that it is about 4 1/2 acres right now. At its height, it had a couple of spots off the dam that were 16 feet deep. My guess is the deepest is about 11 feet right now. Fish weeds hard. Good luck, Mark

Good evening all, There is a pond just off of K-10 and K-7 in Lenexa, KS that is being drained to build a school. We have fished it for the past 7 years and the sign, stating "future site of an Olathe elementary school" has been posted the entire time. 2 weeks ago, they finally broke ground. The dam is intact, for now. They have, however, cut down all of the trees surrounding the pond and built up a number of dirt piles around the edges of the pond. I have spoken to the Johnson County, KS fisheries biologist about reclaiming the fish before the dam is spiked/cut and the fish flow into the dry creek below. It is roughly a 6 acre pond. He has told me that the state will not reclaim the fish because of the chances of diseases being transferred to other populations. Let's rewind. In the past 7 years of fishing this pond, my friends and I have caught and released to my knowledge at least 40 largemouth bass over 5 lbs., 5 of which were 8+ lb. bass. Yes, some were repeats I am sure. Last summer (2011) alone, I had 3 weighing in at 7lb 4oz., 8lb. 8oz. and 9lb. 10oz. It was also not uncommon for 2 of us to have 40 fish apiece in 2-3 hours. Attached you will find one 5 lb. bass that my neighbor caught on his first trip out there ever, on Father's Day of this year. The 2nd photo is from my last trip out 2 weeks ago. Didn't scale it but roughly 4.5 lbs. Sorry I don't have more photos avaialble. I was advised by the biologist to do whatever I felt was neccessary to save as many of these fish as I can. I own a 2 acre farm pond less than 1 mile away. I am trying to gather avid conservation-minded fishermen, like myself to fish this pond out and transport them to my pond. In return, I will grant access to my pond for as long as it is in my family. I plan to fish 1 time per week, (best my schedule can accomodate) until the dam is cut. Any fish over 3 lbs., will be transferred. Once the dam has been cut, our plan is to remove fish with throw nets and transport them in the back of our trucks in large, (clean) trash cans. I have a team of 4. I need a team of 20. I know this is not an ideal plan, but this our first rescue mission. We hope to do the best we can! We are open t If you live in the area, and are interested my Name is Mark Zukaitis and my email address is mark@bistrokids.com. Contact me, and I will give out all of the neccessary details.

Good evening all, There is a pond just off of K-10 and K-7 in Lenexa, KS that is being drained to build a school. We have fished it for the past 7 years and the sign, stating "future site of an Olathe elementary school" has been posted the entire time. 2 weeks ago, they finally broke ground. The dam is intact, for now. They have, however, cut down all of the trees surrounding the pond and built up a number of dirt piles around the edges of the pond. I have spoken to the Johnson County, KS fisheries biologist about reclaiming the fish before the dam is spiked/cut and the fish flow into the dry creek below. It is roughly a 6 acre pond. He has told me that the state will not reclaim the fish because of the chances of diseases being transferred to other populations. Let's rewind. In the past 7 years of fishing this pond, my friends and I have caught and released to my knowledge at least 40 largemouth bass over 5 lbs., 5 of which were 8+ lb. bass. Yes, some were repeats I am sure. Last summer (2011) alone, I had 3 weighing in at 7lb 4oz., 8lb. 8oz. and 9lb. 10oz. It was also not uncommon for 2 of us to have 40 fish apiece in 2-3 hours. Attached you will find one 5 lb. bass that my neighbor caught on his first trip out there ever, on Father's Day of this year. The 2nd photo is from my last trip out 2 weeks ago. Didn't scale it but roughly 4.5 lbs. Sorry I don't have more photos avaialble. I was advised by the biologist to do whatever I felt was neccessary to save as many of these fish as I can. I own a 2 acre farm pond less than 1 mile away. I am trying to gather avid conservation-minded fishermen, like myself to fish this pond out and transport them to my pond. In return, I will grant access to my pond for as long as it is in my family. I plan to fish 1 time per week, (best my schedule can accomodate) until the dam is cut. Any fish over 3 lbs., will be transferred. Once the dam has been cut, our plan is to remove fish with throw nets and transport them in the back of our trucks in large, (clean) trash cans. I have a team of 4. I need a team of 20. I know this is not an ideal plan, but this our first rescue mission. We hope to do the best we can! We are open t If you live in the area, and are interested my Name is Mark Zukaitis and my email address is mark@bistrokids.com. Contact me, and I will give out all of the neccessary details.

Good evening all, There is a pond just off of K-10 and K-7 in Lenexa, KS that is being drained to build a school. We have fished it for the past 7 years and the sign, stating "future site of an Olathe elementary school" has been posted the entire time. 2 weeks ago, they finally broke ground. The dam is intact, for now. They have, however, cut down all of the trees surrounding the pond and built up a number of dirt piles around the edges of the pond. I have spoken to the Johnson County, KS fisheries biologist about reclaiming the fish before the dam is spiked/cut and the fish flow into the dry creek below. It is roughly a 6 acre pond. He has told me that the state will not reclaim the fish because of the chances of diseases being transferred to other populations. Let's rewind. In the past 7 years of fishing this pond, my friends and I have caught and released to my knowledge at least 40 largemouth bass over 5 lbs., 5 of which were 8+ lb. bass. Yes, some were repeats I am sure. Last summer (2011) alone, I had 3 weighing in at 7lb 4oz., 8lb. 8oz. and 9lb. 10oz. It was also not uncommon for 2 of us to have 40 fish apiece in 2-3 hours. Attached you will find one 5 lb. bass that my neighbor caught on his first trip out there ever, on Father's Day of this year. The 2nd photo is from my last trip out 2 weeks ago. Didn't scale it but roughly 4.5 lbs. Sorry I don't have more photos avaialble. I was advised by the biologist to do whatever I felt was neccessary to save as many of these fish as I can. I own a 2 acre farm pond less than 1 mile away. I am trying to gather avid conservation-minded fishermen, like myself to fish this pond out and transport them to my pond. In return, I will grant access to my pond for as long as it is in my family. I plan to fish 1 time per week, (best my schedule can accomodate) until the dam is cut. Any fish over 3 lbs., will be transferred. Once the dam has been cut, our plan is to remove fish with throw nets and transport them in the back of our trucks in large, (clean) trash cans. I have a team of 4. I need a team of 20. I know this is not an ideal plan, but this our first rescue mission. We hope to do the best we can! We are open t If you live in the area, and are interested my Name is Mark Zukaitis and my email address is mark@bistrokids.com. Contact me, and I will give out all of the neccessary details.

My neighbor and I made it down on Thursday for another installment of the PDT. We put in at the Hermitage access at 7:30 am and pulled out at the Cross Timbers access at 3:30 pm. We caught mostly spotted bass again. Not nearly as many and not nearly as well sized. We had a couple that were 1 3/4 lb. to 2 lb. Most were 3/4 lb. to 1 1/4 lb. All told 30 to 34 bass and a couple of sunfish. We saw a 4 lb. catfish swimming around in one of the 12 inch deep riffles. Also saw a couple of 3 to 4 lb. bass in the last pool above the pull-out as well as a very large 6ish lb. bass in the same pool. We threw everything at the 3 of them and came up with nothing but small spotted bass in 30 minutes. Most of the fish were caught on zoom senko style worms in baby bass and sweet potato no weight. A few others on jig and shad but not like last trip down. The water was more stained than last trip, I am assuming from higher water temp, lower water level and algea stewing up a bit. I google earth mapped our trip and identified a potential hazzard at the 3 mile marker. I am glad we were at least mentally prepared for it. There were very large trees down across the river in 4 specific spots. the 1st we took of the outriggers for and floated under with little issue. The 2nd, we had to drag the boat through a mud run for about 20 feet between the fallen trees. The 3rd we had to stand on top of and then lift the canoe up and over 2 separate trees across the river. The 4th we had to lay down inside the canoe and float under. We had about 3 inches to spare! I was planning on doing this same run this Sunday with my 10 and 8 year old daughters as well as 2 other dads with their 4 girls. I am glad that I did a trial run! That would have been far more than any of them were up for... Instead, we are going to put in at Cross Timbers and do the 4 mile float down to Sapp's Landing. We did encounter a conservation agent at the Cross Timbers access when we pulled out. I asked him about the downed trees. He said they have been down for over a year, but that they didn't have the resources to fix the problem right now. It seems to me, that if the word got out, like right now, that could hurt their recreational $$ being spent in the surrounding communities. Now I understand limited resources, but a year seems to be plenty of time to fix the problem. If not, then post a sign at the Hermitage Access notifying paddlers of what lies ahead. As it stands right now, I will not float the dam to Hermitage or Hermitage to Cross Timbers again if the water levels aren't better or if the trees are not dealt with. That only leaves Cross Timbers down as good options for floating on the PDT river. I paid $20 at Angler's Resort for hauling to Hermitage and $25 for hauling to Cross Timbers, both fair prices, but I expect to pay significantly more this weekend for the haul to Sapp's Landing. That is going to be more than I pay on the Niangua, Gasconade, Piney or Current rivers. The PDT has proximity for me being in KC, but it has a few issues that might get me back to the others quickly. Good fishing trip all in all, but not without it's serious issues. Mark

I am headed back down tomrrw morning at 4 am. Hope to be floating by 6:30. We are putting in at Hermitage this time to avoid the 4 miles of regular dragging I dealt with below the dam last time. I considered bringing the trolling motor and running all the way back up to the 1st riffle, but I am confident that below Hermitge will be productive as well. I have thinned the tackle bag down a ton. I am loaded with jigs for the powerbait shad, some tubes and craws, zoom frogs and a couple of topwater options for the opening bell. I will post pictures when I get back. MZ

Wheatland, Mo. Good people. Ask for Laura. Her husband has a higher pay schedule... I paid $15 to have my truck hauled from Wheatland to Hermitage. My floats lock in at a 90 degree angle. I suppose I could see some benefits to both setups. Mine have only caused 1 problem in all of my trips. I was in heavy current through a tight chute and hit the log dead on to my right float. I knew if I pushed off, my float would go under the jam and pull me under. I jumped off on the left side and swam myslef and canoe out. Lost 1 tackle sleeve but everything else was safe. On a lighter note, the floats, for fact, saved my life on the Big Piney. Channel split and I couldn't tell main channel from flood. I chose flood and watched my life flash before my eyes a dozen times in the next 2 minutes. I feel very fortunate that I was at home and with my wife and daughters 2 days later. No more float trips above 6 ft. for me and the "Debacle"!

Here are the pictures of the trolling motor mount and my Spring Creek stabilizer floats. I bought the 12 foot stillwater, the mount and a trolling motor from a guy at Lake Quivera for $250 back in 2000. It has been an awesome canoe and has been through some serious battles. A couple of years ago we did the Big Piney at 12++ feet. We have also done the Gasconade at 8 feet. Thank god for the floats. Mark

I haven't sanded The Royal Debacle down yet, but here is the most recent fiberglass patching session after my PDT float. This is the 6th time in 10 years that I have had to patch it. Keeps coming back for more. Mark

I would skip the dam float entirely. Unless there is rain right before you get there. Angler's resort will charge you $20 totake you to hermitage and drop yur car off at cross timbers. I was floating about 5 hours and bailing water for about an hour of the trip. Dragging was pretty regular through the first 4.5 miles.

That is the mount that came with my boat years ago. Hand-made deal. I will take a better picture and post it tomorrow.

I had time to drive down from KC and float from the dam to Hermitage Thursday the 14th of June. The river was beautiful but low. I put on at 8:30 am. In the first 4 miles, I only caught 4 spotted bass and 2 largemouth, mostly on poppers. I punched a hole in my fiberglass patch on my stillwater canoe from dragging so much and had to resort to bailing water pretty regularly. Then, the river changed and got deeper. At the 1st falldown in the river, I threw a powerbait shad into the shade right where the bank and the falldown met. Instantly, the lure shot out of the water in the mouth of a 5lb. ++ spotted bass! I fought it for 4 minutes before it tore through the gears on my light action reel. I was still able to fight it for about 30 seconds before it jumped out of the river and shot my jig back over my head. I switched poles and threw my popper as well as a suspending rogue and a jig and craw back in the hole for about 10 minutes before giving up on the cause. The last mile and a half had tons of falldown structure to fish. I rigged one of my medium action poles with the powerbait shad and fished every falldown. I ended up catching 24ish spotted bass and 8 largemouth. Almost all in the last mile and on the shad. Best was about a 2 1/2 lb. spotted bass. After all of this, I was still in my truck heading back to KC by 4:00 pm. I have repatched my canoe. Next time, I am putting in at Hermitage, trolling back up river to the 1st riffle and then floating back down and heading to the Cross Timbers pull-out. I am going to try and get back down the 2nd Thursday in July. Here are a few of the pictures. All of the bass had nice full stomachs, so even the 12-14 inches were packing some punch.

I appreciate the input and am excited to get on the river tomorrow afternoon. We had to cancel our April 6th trip on the Gasconade because I had an emergency appendectomy on the 31st of March. Way overdue to get back in the action. Thanks, Mark

Hey all, I am hitting the Current Wednesday and Thursday and hoping to beat most of the crowd down. It has been 8 years since my last outing down there. How is the smallmouth fishing right now on this run? What is working? I have my usual Gasconade arsenal ready, but would love to thin out my bag a bit... Before we all started having kids, my group used to float Baptist to 2 Rivers a couple of times per year. I have missed the Current dearly but with maximizing time on the water being a priority, we had settled on the Gasconade, BP, Pomme and Niangua quite a bit in the last few years. Love them all but I am excited to get back to the Current. I am just feeling like a rookie all over again since it has been so long. I know the last time I was down there jig n craw, tubes, craw cranks, wiggle and some sticks and rogues were working, but I am hoping to cut out some of the guessing game on this trip and get right to it. One of the guys at Akers said to bring my minnow trap. He said that is what they use most for the smallmouth. I would prefer to go artificial but may resort to live if the fishing is slow. Can I throw my cast net for minnows on the Current? Thanks, Mark