Kicknbass

I can't believe no one has call BS on the 300 fish in an hour and a half. But, if you believe giggers take this many fish in an evening ya better look in the mirror on the whole naive concept. You could take this many fish if you were gigging in the hatchery. 300 fish in 1 1/2 hours is a quicker pace than one every 20 seconds. I'm sure w/ your personal experience, you have never even seen this many fish in a 90 min time frame on the water. 10 - 20 fish is a good night for most boats (2-4 men per boat). 20 - 40 is a great night. The limit is 20 per man. 300... Wow, I can't believe anyone would believe this. Ignorance is a dangerous thing. I agree with the whole education thing. If you have never tried gigging, or been with other while gigging, you might consider a little education before you keep bashing the sport. I'm sure that there are a few in the gigging community that aren't the most sporting of sorts and will take game fish. Not unlike there are folks in the rod and reel community that keep more that their limit or keep fish out of season. Bad apples are bad apples. I just don't get the folks that would (if given the opportunity)ban the sport with out even having 1st hand knowledge of the sport. Gigging is a tradition that is unique to the ozarks region due to the low gradient of the streams, the water clarity and the abundance of suckers as well as a variety of other reasons. I doubt gigging has the impact on the mortality of SMB in streams that tournament fishing has on the same streams. How many large bass die out of a 20 boat tournament after been yanked from their habitat by their lip (or gills), beat about in a live well all day (bleeding from the hook-set and worn down from the fight), driven 10 miles up or down stream from where they were caught and then released at the end of the tournament (or when culled) bearly able to swim. Tournament fishing is the direct targeting (legally) of the largest bass in the stream. I doubt starting a thread on the woe's of tournament fishing would get the attention that gigging has in this thread.

yes, that worked pretty well. That's the first time I tried that one. I may use that again. The fish shows much better. It does make for a slimy arm at the end of the day..

Soft Plastics. Deep and Slooow. All of the bites came from on the bottom at a current seam in rocks. The river was so clear that I could see the fish in 18' when I set the hook. Pretty Cool.

Ya gotta guess. You know locations are not discussed on the forum.

January Smallmouth..Wow..I had a rare occasion to get out on the river in January. The weather was unseasonably warm as was the fishing. I fished about 3 hours hooking 9 and landing 7 fish. All but 1 exceeded the 12" length limit w/ the largest fish exceeding 14".

I would agree w/ this.

There is good reason for this. It is extremely difficult to tell the difference between suckers and trout at night, from above while gigging. In addition, the trout and suckers inhabit the same open moving water. SMB tend to hang tight to cover, and you rarely see them while gigging. I would say that they would be at greatest risk in deep rocky cover when they are at the limit of visibility. Suckers are typically found at the top or bottom of a run similar to where you would find trout.

I'm not doubting that Al and others have seen an occasional Gigged SMB. I personally have never encountered one while fishing, maybe that's because I'm too busy deer hunting and duck hunting in the fall to bother with fishing during the gigging season. I have seen on many occasions while trout fishing below Tablerock Dam, Bullshoals dam, Norfork Dam, or any of the Missouri trout parks is dead trout floating down the steam. Some big ones, some not so big. I see dead trout floating on "nearly every trip". This occurs due to deep hooking fish, miss handling fish, fighting fish too long and countless other reasons that increase the mortality rate of the fish. Funny thing, none of these fish have gig marks. I don't hear an outcry to stop rod and reel fishing in these areas. Somewhat hypocritical IMO. Unfortunately, regardless of which method that you choose, all sportsman impact the resource by injecting themselves into the equation. Giggers gig an occasional game fish. (I don't condone intentional poaching) Most do not do this intentionally. Fly flingers deep hook (I don't condone intentional deep hooking) an occasional fish, same w/ spin fisherman. I think it is extremely selfish for one group of fisherman such as the SMA (used for example only) to lobby banning another method gigging, just to improve their sport. It's not as if the river systems are not producing SMB. The streams are full of fish. I'd love to have a larger population of large SMB, but I'm not willing to ban Gigging (or fly flinging) to catch 1 more 20 inch fish per year. Particularly when the state wide limit is 6 12" fish. If you want to improve the size of fish in the streams, let's lobby the state to decrease the daily creel, and change the size limit to improve the number of larger fish in the streams. I like a slot limit that protects the spawning size fish. A slot limit 13" to 20" (or 22")would be great. And a 2 or 3 fish limit. This would allow you to float and fish a stream, keep a couple smaller fish to eat (they don't taste like sewage) and improve the size of the fish in the streams in general. I practice C&R on most trips, but on occasion, I will take someone fishing that will want to have a fish fry at the end of the day. On those trips, we will keep enough sunfish and goggleye and a couple of smaller SMB to make a meal. I have a self imposed slot limit and keep only smaller legal fish releasing the larger fish. This past year, I went w/ a buddy of mine and he wanted to have a fry. The first fish that I caught was a 15+ fish. He about had a cow when I release that fish. But at the end of the day, we had enough fish for a fry and only kept a couple of SMB. He happen to catch a 15" fish at the end of the day and had no problem releasing that fish. We caught and release our limit several times that day. My biggest pet peeve w/ the MDC is they current river isn't managed for SMB. I can't believe that the best river in the state, (The only one singled out to be a National park)isn't even on the list for consideration. The section of river in the ONSR given the SMA status is on the Jack's Fork, and is too small to float at many times of the year. I don't understand why a section of the river that is larger and more capable of sustaining a large population of larger fish isn't considered. I would like the section of river below Round Springs to the end of the park considered as a Smallmouth Bass Management Area, but its not on the MDC SMA radar. Just my 2 cents

Stay in the channels, it's a tough lake on lower units. Lots of shallow flats and the lake is full of standing timber. If your not familiar w/ the lake, you may want to stay off plane. I've fished w/ a guide on the lake on several occasions, and he knew the lake and would take some strange routes up the lake to stay in the channel or in the cut of a highline or old road right of way. When you get in the upper stretches of the lake arms you may have a desire to cut across a point on plane. Don't do it.

You have a ton of gear. Do you take all that down river in the canoes, or do you have a base camp shuttling vehicles? Is that a wall tent and a wood stove? That's not exactly roughing it. Cool Stuff.

Do you hunt from a boat blind or from the bank? How deep do you need your decoy lines?

Thank's for sharing. Looks cold. I'm not that tough.

Let’s see if I got this straight. Below is a list of laws or changes that have been mentioned in this thread. Outlaw Noodling Outlaw Spot lighting Outlaw running deer w/ dogs Outlaw Deer hunting Outlaw Gigging in the SMA Outlaw Gigging Outlaw motorized watercraft Ban Jet boats Ban jet boats after dark ban jet boats on certain rivers during the winter months Limit the lighting Lumens Catch and release only Bait restrictions I have a few others to add Catch and release only Single hook only Barbless hooks Ban fires Ban wood cutting Ban ATV use Ban Canoes on the rivers Ban the use of the resources No Hunting No fishing No gun ownership No eating meat No getting fat (that guy in the boat is in trouble) No smoking No drinking (by making all the other rules this one is going to hurt the most what else will we have) No having fun No having money No freedom. No freedom. No freedom. Don’t you love incrementalizm. This is how it happens, one rule at a time. Divide and conquer, get the Indians fighting among themselves, and the anti’s will take over. Guys, we are all sportsmen. Some groups annoy the others. But, we have had enough erosion of our freedoms already. Let’s not keep losing our freedoms one issue at a time. The law breakers don’t care. The laws aren’t enforced anyway. Law enforcement would have a chance if it was funded, but the lawmakers choose not to enforce the laws in place, just make new ones that the law abiding will follow (easier and cheaper). They don’t have the courage to enforce the laws, and wonder way the laws don’t work. Then what? Make more restrictive laws because the first laws weren’t restrictive enough, therefore, didn’t work. It’s a cycle the keeps the lawyers wealthy. Quotes from Forsythian: ”Al, you and I have tangled on this topic before. Come talk to me when you get the goofy 5-smallmouth daily limit changed. Until then, you're going to have a hard time convincing people it's a true management issue rather than an anectodal "my sport is better than yours" issue.” “I don't doubt for a minute that it happens... no more than I doubt other kinds of poaching takes place. But, if you're gonna ban a sport because of the poaching element, we all might as well take up knitting.” “I suppose you're right. Nowadays, it's backwards to favor personal responsibility and enforcement of existing laws. It's somehow more "progressive" to pass more and more laws. Punish the class instead of the student. “ “I'll take backwards any day.” “Oh, and keep an eye to your left, because there's plenty of busy bodies who don't care much for your "sport" either.” I agree with you 100% Forsythian. I hope it never happens, but if the fly flingers don’t wake up, they may someday wake up and wonder why they can’t go out and rip hooks through the lips of those poor fish. The fish are living creatures that have feelings too you know. You evil fisherman. Let’s stick together as sportsman instead and stop bashing the “legal” use of the resources.

Phil, What is the finish flooring to be? Google s-1837 quiet comfort underlayment and see if this might be a product that you could use. This is a thin foam that is used w/ the installation of laminate flooring. This might be able to be installed under a 1/4" luan plywood underlayment to give an extra deadening layer to the floor system. Then your pad and carpet could be installed for your finished floor. Another way to deaden the impact of sound is to install RC channel on the ceiling below, and then install another layer of drywall. You need to think of it as a floor / ceiling assembly protecting from sound transmission from both directions. As to the floor squeaks, they are typically caused by rusty nails in the sub-floor. In addition to installing screws to the subfloor plywood, you need to consider pulling the original nails. The plywood has shrunk away from the nails and any slight movement will squeak. Remove the nails and the squeaks will be gone.

yo

here

When did sunfish become game fish? The're fun to catch, but I don't think the MDC considers them game fish, other states may, but not the MDC.

I always skin the blue gill and googleye. Take your fillet knife and cut across the back just behind the head but in front of the dorsel fin, then split the skin from the cut to the tail along the dorsel on both sides, take a pair of pliers and pull the skin of each side, cut off the head and pull off the dorsel and other fins and your done. I don't tak the time to gut the fish. Normally when you take the head off, I cut the bone and pull and the guts come w/ the head. I have found this method to be faster than scaling or filleting the fish.

I've tried and stopped buying them. They do last longer, but cost a considerable amount more the standard bulbs. My biggest problem w/ them is they don't fit in the sockets as expected. I have a vanity fixture that I can get 3 of 4 flo bulbs in the fixture. They're kind of a pain.

Sometimes I think the lawmaker's create new laws just to make them feel that they are helping the people. I can't believe that there are not law's currently on the books to curb this lewd behavior if the $$$ for the law enforcement was available. Adding more law's w/o adding $$$ for enforcement, is a feel good waste of time. The rivers basically have little or no law enforcement presence. On the areas of the rivers that are serviced heaviest by the canoe outfitters you have the greatest concentration of users and therefore the highest number of occurrences. A heightened presence on the primary weekends at the heaviest use areas, then a task force hitting random locations on the weekends would go along way toward cleaning things up. The revenue from the fines collected from the citations issued would likely pay the cost of the task force.

Get to love Greenies and Carp.

I had a meal of morels tonight as well. Good eats.

Surely you jest. The dog is the man's "Property" if he desires to dispose of his property by capping him. It should be his right to do so. Why is it OK to take the animal to the Vet and have the dangerous dog "put down" but not OK to cap him with the firearm granted to him by his 2nd amendment rights.

I doubt "they" stocked spoonbill in this lake unless you count the flood as a stocking. The meramec is full of spoonbill running up from the Mississippi. Any fish that is in the meramec will be in simpson. I would imagine, it just received another recent stocking last week.

I received mine. They look great. Thanks for hosting. EB