watermen

oh man why would you want to go and make a mess of the walleye fishing like MN, WI, and MI. For now there's fewer picky fisherman and better fishing here than most places other than the dakotas (no Season) Next you'll want to invite the netters and spearers down to thin them out. On the Menominee now you can catch one on the WI side and 6 on the michigan side and the fox is one trophy fish only when they can't even repeoduce.

last wknd they were on beds in BP and GAS

Too soon to get real excited, but during turkey season I heard more quail ans saw more quail than in quite a few years. Still don.t have the covey back below the house the big ice storm of 4 or 5 years ago got them. I did hear quail everywhere I went for 3 weeks and heard birds last two nughts fishing down by the river. Would like them to rebound some this year, they may have got a start last year and have even been seeing them getting grit in the evenings. May have to look for a Pointer the last lab has been gone for 3 years.

http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=sgf&gage=jrmm7 I think this is what your looking for Phil, Locally this is what we use on the rivers. Might be the same u use I don't know? Everyone knows when the good fishing is by feet on the gauges. South of me rivers are in good shape again so far, caught some again with the kids tonight.

A month ago that would have been a toad!!!

Up nrth after the spawn they move to deepwater flats or reefs and softshell crawdads or cradad tails and minnows work best to catch the bigger fish out of loosely schooled groups. If you find a pattern let me know had to drive 11 hours to catch these in january. the best eating freshwater fish there is.

If you feel more comfortable with live bait or have kids with you, find a shoal and catch some crawdads use the smaller ones whole or just the tail of a larger one and pitch it in the hole especially by root wads with a fine wire hook and a split shot. Last weekend they were in the rocks next to the bluffs almost on the bank. Hence their name up north of rockbass. worms and minnows work well also if you're serious about catching a mess to eat. Careful of the small bass though don't let the fish chew too much on the bait. A long wire hook works best for unhooking and pulling out of snags.

Fished yesterday afternoon and water was cold on my bare legs. Normal april temps seems to have put everything back to normal. Fish were not in usual spawning spots and fishing was slow. Maybe frost in a couple of days, anyone else seeing things in usual time frame. End of turkey season before it gets good again if this keeps up.

Fished down through top of trophy area this afternoon. The water is still a little offcolor for my liking, but isn't high to speak of. The river has changed alot again since the floods a couple weeks ago. Some of the good holes had changed and gotten shallower. As far as the fishing goes the gogleye were starting, but we couldn.t cathc a mess in 3 hours. The bass were not set up on their bedding areas, and still in the rocks or trees in slow water. Slow fishing overall,but getting close. The decent bass we caught had crawdads sticking out of their throats. water needs to clear a little. next week sould be good if we don;t get alot of rain.

There's allready tournaments on the Gasconade for bass, thankfully gas prices have put a damper on the shoalrunner crowd. I was thinking maybe I could put my sponsor patches on on my old tennis shoes that I wade fish in most of the time when I'm trying to have fun and relax. A rebel craw patch should fit just right on my size 15 xw foot, right before I put it up the backside of the first guy that tries to elbow me out of the way to fish a hole so he can win a tournament.

Relax, your making some ridiculous assumptions on all your parts. He never said he kept any just like bass anglers report how many of the fish were caught of keeper size. There might of been 2 people in boat or he might have threw three keepers backand only kept two. It's hard to pin someone as a poacher with a post that may be misconstrued. He may well have kept all five, but nowhere in his post does he state clearly he broke the law and any assumption he did is pointless and counterproductive. 9LB. thanks for the report and try and take your time before posting and realize not everyone thinks before posting their remarks. It's a report of good fishing people, take it for what it's worth and try and not jump on someone without a good verifiable reason.

Was down last wknd looking for turks. didn't fish but the river level is fine and clear. Last weds saw the stocking truck at LP so if you have kids it's guaranteed to have good fishing, the techs put 300 in as I watched they float them down with nets in inner tubes to drop them off at individual holes. GENIUS!! The blue ribbon section was good early in day the fish go tight to cover by 11:00. Good luck

Rock creek is full of nice graling or was. Used to float it for moose, it''s over by cantwell if I remember. lot's of 15-18 inchers which is nice for grayling. You just have to walk and not fish for 20 minutes to get away from the road. Just take the gravel at cantwell and go east from the park, A delorme atlas should put you in the spot. The peterson road south of the park has good fishing as well, it's an old mining road and will be on the atlas. A milepost will tell you the fishing lakes stocked by game and fish and some of them have great fishing. It's alaska hard not to catch fish just stay away from the touristy spots farther south that time of year and you will catch fish. Btw the lakes in the middle of the paxton road have lake trout acessible to the fly rod. goodluck.

Niangua looks good, upper gasonade is so so, maybe fishable but high up by 44 still too high down by 63 crossed them all yesterday. don't know about farther west.

No1 is a green pumpkin gitzit tube with weedless hook one chugger, 2 buzzbaits, a rebel wee craw, several bown cranks, and a couple of black or brown road runners, and a couple beetle spins. one rod and lure choice depends on water depth and fish target size. All my big fish seem to come on a crank or the gitzit. It all fits in a little river box that fits in a fanny pack. big boat means more rods but the lures stay the same

Looked hard today, but didn't find any in the usual spots.ground is getting cluttered with all the greenery. Saw some at the sporting goods store so they are up in the middle of the state.

Saw some strutters near Montauk this morning, but haven't heard any from porch yet this year. Always do on both sides of me in years past. Have been fishing early and listening every morning this week and either they're way down or still mouthing it this year.

wife had day off so we went to montauk this morning because FiL said rain was not as bad south. Guy at the lodge said they only had 1/2 inch and heard about rolla getting pounded. Water was off just alittle in color fishing was 1 per 20-30minutes of fishing, bait. Drove by bp and little p on way home looking for turks. water is too high to fish. current is only fishable river in this neck of woods for weekend. west of here didn't get any though. good luck

Fished Lp yesterday, the water is low and green for this time of year but very fishable. Fishing is ok with lots of little wild trout in the blue section and most of the holdovers gone from the white ribbon. Partner did better with yarn than I did with nymphs in caddis or generic searchers. The better fast water fishing was early in the morning with the only fish to be found after 11 coming out of the brush. Pretty typical for later in season. Fished Bp up around duke this morning. Again good water conditions (we actually need some rain) The smallies were still in the holes and I did better slow with tube jigs than cranks. No google eye to speak of yet, I didn't bait fish and probably would have done better this early for goggleye with a minnow. Cool water felt good through waders. On a side note I've heard fewer turkeys than for a long time. Numbers are down for sure of mature birds.

You can have the snow. Does the Brule still open early?

I don't understand the problem with lowering the daily limit to 2-4 fish on streams. Nobody needs to keep more than this on a daily basis imo. Trout was reduced to 4 recently. Goggleye have a size limit, crappie have size and possession limits and their panfish not gamefish. I don't keep any bass and probably never will, but ridiculously complex regulations take the fun out of fishing for alot of folks. i don''t think reduced possession limits would be hard to defend or implement for the MDC. The fishery would improve somewhat, and everybody gains and loses a little. Sounds like a compromise of sorts. I've seen the same thing at meremac that cricket has at Bennet and it is always the usual suspects kaiser soce included. It is very hard to swallow, and not get angry about.

i believe any fishery that is overfished should be shut down in order to recover. Those paricular streams with the exception of the Danforth property, which i could fish at one time, are over fished or the size of the fish in the streams would equal what they used to. yes, no rainbow is native this far east, but they are sustaining and have been present in the area since before the turn of the 20th century. i doubt warmwater species would do well in either, little smallmouth rarely venture farther than a few holes up from the confluence of little piney. The spring branches I mention are overfished from observation and the fact I used to catch large western class wild rainbows in them and they no longer exist in any reasonable numbers. As far as a small population of a unique species i agree they should be protected with stream specific regulations, however statewide slot limits aren't needed, smallmouth in missouri in general aren't overfished to the point that large representations of the species no longer exist. I fill out the MDC survey most years and answer the questions accordingly. I personally feel smallmouth mgmt is pretty balanced. If you want to catch big fish and pracice catch and release you can, if you want to catch a few eaters you can with little effort or expense. True good smallie fishing is 50 fish days with anything less than pound not counted. i've never seen this in missouri, ever. if you time the big piney or Gsconade just right after the start of a rise you can do half that. More regulations would just increase the fish size a little in most streams, and benefit just a few guys who think a 18 inch smallmouth is a much bigger deal than a 16 incher when a smaller rod would accomplish the same thing. i do agree the limit should be lowered on smallmouth in general. It's ridiculous you can only keep 15 crappie, yet you can keep 6 bass only 2 inches bigger. Trust me theres still decent sized smallmouth in the middle of the state if you look for them, but to make a fishery mostly catch and release so you can flop out anywhere and expect to catch a 3 lb smallmouth is like deer hunting behind a fence and telling everyone else they can't shoot any deer. i know it's a ramble, but I got to go down stairs and put another coat of contact cement on 4 pairs of wading boots, i could be under the influence, but I'm just trying to keep up with the law never mind the laces or tongue crease or mesh on them. There's worse issues to face than smallmouth not being the biggest they possibly can be everywhere. It's supposed to be fun as i said, the MDC is just trying to balance the fishery for everyone. i'd push to have those little creeks protected over there though.

Interesting thread gentleman, I myself fail to see how any of the proposed regulations relate to conservation. Smallmouth numbers are not in danger anywhere that I'm aware of. I think you are trying to make a world class fishery where one does not exist nad never will. I live right down the road from the Gasconade trophy area and yes there are way more bigger fish in the trophy area than above. I have access to land and cabin right below the line, The fishing is much better once you go under the bridge, both for numbers and size. it is not hard to catch fish over 18 on this stretch of the Gasconade. Most good anglers can catch a 20 incher every few trips, I've seen 3 boated the same day. Some stream sections will not produce fish much over 16" the big piney in the upper stretches has never even in my great grandfathers day produced fish much over 16. There were few fisherman by todays standards. Pressure has more of an effect than anything, Mill and spring creek used to be full of 5 or 6 pound trout and I see pictures of 8 inch fish all over like they are unique. i feel fishing should be stopped entirely on these rivers, the trophy blue ribbon section has done little to maintain the trout populations there. Most small 10-13 inch small mouth are male and none of the regulations other than a slot limit addresses this biological fact. I feel a daily catch limit of 2 fish over 10 inches makes more sense and should leave more fish in the water overall and allow people to keep enough to eat if they choose. 3 people keeping 2 fish is enough for a mess. Missouri will never be a world class smallmouth fishery on the streams, if someone truly wants to catch numbers of big fish they go to grand or little traverse, cedar river in the U.P., canadian shield lakes or the missouri up by pierre S.D. or the strawberry in eastern oregon or the new in VA. I've fished them all and what is here at home will never compare no matter what the regs. Strict catch and release is unfair to most anglers and all the regs proposed increase fish size only a little and do little in the conservation arena as far as i can tell. It's a hard sell for these reasons, little potential gain for everyone involved. Stream fishing is fun and you don't need alot of expensive equipment to do it on a hot day. That's all it needs to be and all it really should be.

put two trailer loads of horse $$$$ on last weekend and it is mellowing as I write this. Question for crowd how long does the manure aid your garden. put alot on for several years and this is third since last batch. My soil seemed to go right back to ridgetop clay in three years. It can't wash out cause I've got the whole garden surrounded by rr ties. I'd like to have nice soil before I'm 90. Is there anything else I could add to help. Put leaves on every year as well.

Thanks for walleye post guys