MOBass

Sarcastic fringe head, midshipman, mantis shrimp, wolf eel, octopus, various rays, skates, and guitar fish, angle shark, remora....There are a lot of oddities in the ocean. Most will bite, horn, sting, or otherwise ruin your day.

Guys have been paddling baits out in kayaks and before that surf boards. This takes it high tech.

I helped chaperone a dozen or so young men and women for a fishing outing at Fellows. Not much to report in the way of catching. We stayed in the catch and release cove behind the marina. One nice blue gill, one catfish, lots of drowned worms. Overall a good time was had outdoors. I did see 'Elvis' though. A very nice musky cruised the bank, but faded out before I could get something in front of him. Cool to see never the less. Bugs were bad. Skeeters and some ticks. Put on the bug juice if you are going to bank fish.

Cool. Discussing greater restrictions with no facts to indicate a declining bass population or that said restrictions would necessarily improve the fishery. Just making sure I was up to speed.

Is there any factual evidence to indicate the bass fishery at Table Rock is in decline and in need of protection? I looked at the MDC page and it appears that the bass population is healthy.

The forums are a great resource. Pick your 'home' body of water and start reading. Go back a couple years for the same season and you will see some patterns emerge. This will take the edge off what can be a steep learning curve. My advice for gear is to stay pretty general with your first few rod/reel combos and learn what you like and then you can buy more specialized gear for what you really like to fish. Shameless plug.....I have a fair amount of gear I will be parting company with next month so keep a weather eye on the buy/sell board.

Good 'catch' on getting those fish out of the barrel. Bad thread derail on the smoking thing. We don't need a law/regulations for everything. If an establishment believes they can make more money catering to either smokers or non-smokers then they should be free to choose as I am free to choose not to be a customer of places that I don't like their environment. Tread carefully when asking for more laws/regulations as they may adversely impact you at some future time. Now back to discussing scurvy dogs that need to walk the plank for putting fish in a barrel.

I believe keeping your scent off stuff is more important than adding scent. I try to thoroughly clean my hands with some Berkley hand wash if I have to touch sun screen, bug spray, ect...I treat it like deer hunting.

Up by Fresno. Trolling for Kokanee is a thing there. Also rainbows and of course bass. I don't know much about the fishery beyond the Kokanee thing being pretty popular.

The watermelon looks good. Don't underestimate clear baits. When there is just a hint of something swimming buy bass can get really mad at it. It would also made a good blank to play with custom paint.

Folks I know closer to Table Rock use Ulrich. I have my boat at Top Gun in Nixa at the moment as they were closer to me and came highly recommended from several people that I know and trust.

Hit some shops and get your hands on some rods. Grab a $50, $100, and $150+ rod. Hold them, see how the balance with a reel, flex them, shake them, ect... You'll probably find a point where feel and price intersect for you and that will be the one to buy.

Seems to me we need to contact our elected representatives in Jeff City and explain that they need to cut through the nonsense less they get fired from their cushy jobs. In some districts it wouldn't take much to oust one if they got complacent. My buddy went through the flaming hoops of getting his outboard registered. It took about two months of run around with various agencies. Put me in the run it and deal with the paperwork later camp. Odds are the enforcement officer won't even know how you're supposed to get things done right proper.

I'm looking for a reputable shop in the Springfield, Ozark, Nixa area, but may go a bit further. Please share the good, bad, and ugly if you have any firsthand experience with a shop. Thanks!

I wish this board was around 15 years ago when I got my boat and started fishing Table Rock. It was a pretty steep learning curve. I fish a lot smarter than I did before thanks to reading the contributions of Babbler, et al. I was so very guilty of parking the boat on top of where I should be casting to. I made a lot of other mistakes, but that was my most common. It's pretty amazing what you find if you take time to pull off the bank and just look around.

I figured out quickly that the RC is another tool in the box and not a replacement for the wart. It runs a bit deeper, runs true out of the box, seems a bit more snaggy at times. I'll have both tied on and let the fish sort it out for me. One advantage to the RC is that it seems less temperamental. I fish with a lot of folks that don't go much and having a bait run straight for them and not have to be tuned up is really nice.

Take aways from the recent tragedies- Be aware of your surroundings. I try to eyeball my truck and the area as I get to the courtesy dock. I have idled back out before because I was night fishing and my rig was the only one left in the lot and there was a car with a couple guys sitting at the ramp. Were they just shooting the breeze or planning bad stuff? Don't care, I left and fished a bit more, came back and hustled up to my truck when they were gone. Hindsight, I should have called the man to check them out. Call me a coward, don't care, I like going home to my family. If someone is messing with your rig even though you may want to intervene, roll back out and call the man. Stuff, even expensive stuff is cheap compared to your life or lawyers. The stuff between the ears and good cel phone coverage go a long way. Sometimes even when you do things right though bad people decided to do bad people stuff. That is where each person has to decided for themselves the best course for their well being. Carry, don't carry, makes no mind to me.

Phil, Will you have the shop open? I need to get some jigs to help break in a belated Christmas present for my dad. Picked him up a new rod and reel and figure some jig would round it out nicely.

11ish? I can sleep in! Probably be up early chomping at the bit though.

What time are the festivities starting? Did everyone catch the venue change to Lilley's? Since we will be below the trophy area I'm bringing some crappie jigs. Hopefully Phil will have the shop open and I can pick up some good jigs.

Are we officially relocating to Phil's pavilion? I don't want to eat my buffalo chicken dip alone. Might have some other stuff also.

I'm up for a get together. Hopefully we can get some other hardly souls to chime in. I plan on fishing somewhere, somehow on the 1st.

I'm still game. Good food, good company, and potentially some fishing. What better way to start the year? Is there any place to safely make a few cast? Thoughts on what to throw?

For those affected by the high water I hope that they stay safe and that the water recedes quickly so that they can begin the process of rebuilding.

I'm in. Buffalo chicken dip, crackers for the dip, something sweet, maybe some cheese and summer sausage type stuff. Not sure why everyone is laying low this year.