CBNMO

I realize you have already gone, but for future trips, you might check out Hide A Way campground. The store, pool, cabins and main camp ground is up on the ridge, but they have primitive camp sites down by the lake, near the boat ramp. Not sure of the price for those sites but they are not utilized very much from what I've seen. Road was rough going down there, but I haven't been there for a while. I would keep an eye out for slithering creatures down there, or anywhere camping around the lake. We enjoyed camping at Starkey Campground, but saw two large Copperheads come through our site one night. The next morning when we took down the tent, there was a small one coiled up under the tent. The wife hasn't wanted to go back . . . . ? Also killed one in front of our garage door the other night.

There is a gas/convienience store north of Cape Fair, and west of Galena, at hwy 248 and 173 called Crossroads, Stan sells hooks, sinkers and usually has snagging rods n reels there, plus the general fishing stuff and live bait found at a good country station near the lake. Don't know about the prices ?

First, snagging with multiple hooks on a line can be tricky or dangerous, especially for anyone not experienced. 10/0 or 12/0 is a big hook, should be real sharp, and these fish seem played out when you finally get them in, if your using a gaff, it would be safer, but when you grab a fish by the tail, they usually come to life and thrash around and make another run. You don't want a large treble hook in you or your kids when this happens. If you use multiple hooks, be careful. When I have new people out in the boat I prefer we use a single hook on each line. The boys get pretty excited grabbing a 80 pound fish to pull it into the boat. We usually use 6 to 10 ounce sinkers when trolling depending on depth and trolling speed. Casting from the bank 3 or 4 ounce sinkers are usually good. We use 10 to 12 foot surf (big spinning) rods from bank or boat. Line should be at least 40 pound. If using mono, don't buy the cheap 50 pound line, it's way to large and makes casting harder and wears out the line.

There is a large pile of big rocks in the city park and another over by the ball fields. Are these going in the creek or along the bank ?

We finally made it out yesterday, put in at the canoe rental below Blunk, was a few carcass's laying by the ramp, we snagged from Blunk ramp down to Walnut Springs ramp. No fish. Might have hit a couple on the end of the snag? Not sure. My new transducer is broken on the fish finder so it's out of commission. Trolled, casted to both banks and notta. Had fun anyways. Met some folks with a jet drive and they said they had been fishing the upper part of the river and didn't do any good so they had come down there. Stopped at Blunk the night before and a couple guys had a mess of Whites. Said they were only catching males around there. No rain yet ?

I wasn't sure how far upstream they had made it by now?

River gage is down to about 4.4 feet and falling slowly. Anyone have any tips on where the Spoonbill are holding out? Some friends are coming home this weekend and they say after they wash off the foreign sand, we ARE going snaggin ! But where to start ?

bajacoop, if you look on Google Maps or some other, zoom in on Galena. There is a boat launch and public access on one side of the river and I believe public access across from it also. The Shoals motel is downstream about 1 1/2 miles? Follow the river downstream and you'll find where Blunk road comes down to the river, also public access. Down from that you'll see McCord Bend. Used to be pay access there, not sure if they still allow folks or not? Next road that comes down to the river (going down stream) is the canoe rental place (pay for access). Follow the river going upstream and you'll find the other public access areas. There is also a road that now dead ends into the lake where Flat Creek comes into the James River (further downstream).

Stopped on the bridge yesterday afternoon at Galena and only saw one person snagging. Didn't see any fish tied up. Went up to Kerr access and put in. Went down stream to the hole by the cabins and fished until dark. We only hit one fish but didn't catch it. Stopped by Blunk on the way home and everyone was gone by then.

Yes Blunk is a pretty good place to put in also. It is limited on space so can get crowded especially on the weekend. With th water at this level th road is (was) still open to park and turn around on. If you launch there, remember your leaving your rig parked at the end of the road in the woods. I don't know of any trouble down there but there is always th chance you could get broken into? I was told folks were catching them from the bank at Blunk yesterday. Now's when I wish the bottom of my boat was flatter and I had a pump to put on my motor. Maybe I'll go down Sunday, who needs to sleep anyways?

The river gages I watch are from the USGS, here's a link to James River at Galena. It shows the river is up from 4' to about 9' right now and still climbing. Should crest soon and start back down. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00045=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_default&period=4&site_no=07052500 Then there is a link on this page to the National Weather Service with the river forcast. I'll be off Monday so I'm looking forward to your report from this weekend. The 3 fish we caught Tuesday was by McCord Bend. I heard that the boat launch and camping at McCord Bend was closed ? The canoe rental place is pretty nice if you don't mind the rough road getting down there. Depending on the water level and where the Spoonbill might be, we'll either put in at the canoe rental or Galena next time probably. It's slow running back to Flat Creek in the dark. Oh yeah, what will the rain do to them? I'm guessing as the river rises they start moving up, then as the river starts to fall, they will start finding pools to hang out in again and wait for the next rain ?

Is it correct that the 'no snagging refuge' is only on the Spring River, but snagging is still allowed on the Neosho from Twin Bridges up to the state line?

If you trust th National Weather Service, the forcast for the James River at Galena: River will drop between now and 7 am to 6.8' (from 7') then start to rise until 6 pm Friday night at 8.3'. Then start going back down. By Tuesday morning it should be close to 6'.

To me the meat is exactly the same as a Sturgeon. Other than the scales on the Sturgeon and the bill on the Spoonbill, its all looks and tastes th same. I cooked some for a friend in Washington (state) and he said it's was just like Sword Fish? (I wouldn't know about that) I was taught to pull the spinal cord before steaking up the fish. Supposed to put off a bad taste if you cut through it. Don't know if it's true, perhaps an ole wives tale, or just a joke on me? We always pull it, everyone is amazed to watch it come out the first few times anyways. In Missouri we can use multiple hooks, they can be barbed, can use a gaff, limit of 2 fish/day. In Oklahoma they can only use one hook and must be barbless or the barbs bent down at least, no gaff allowed, limit of 1 fish/day. (I think these are correct ?) Last couple years we used two hooks, but this year I've gone to just using one hook. A lot safer when you go to pull a fish into the boat, depending on how experienced your crew is. We use 12/0 hooks, 4 to 8 oz sinkers and 12 foot spinning rods from the boat or bank. From the bank if the water is swift and you can't walk down the bank, I'd use anything over 40 pound test, from a boat anything over 20 pound test will be fine for a 80 pound fish. Depends how much you want to play or horse it. My favorite setup is 50 to 80 pound braid tied to a good barrel swivel. Then lighter mono line tied to the hook and sinker. Get hung up and you break off hook sinker and 10 foot of cheap line.

focused fishing, 2. Over charge with a manual charger at least once a month How much do you over charge them? Is this th same as putting them on equalize to clean the plates ? I think industial chargers have an equalize setting that charges the battery at a higher voltage for about 24 hours, perhaps once a month? This is ok to do for trolling and starting batteries too ? Sealed or not sealed ? I bought a charger that claims to do this, but it's all automatic and only overcharges if it senses the need. Not what I wanted. Do you just take a full charged battery and put it on 2 amp charge for so long, or how do you do this?