shaker

760++ pounds in a 10 ft home made boat? That do sound a bit dangerous to me but if you are brave enough I would suggest to go 13 Hwy to the town of Deep Water on the right is a recational area called the Cooper Creek Access if you follow the road all the way east there is a boat ramp called the Deep Water ramp. Unload there and go back to your right that would be Cooper Creek that is a very good fishing area and if you can get up in the creek I have caught some decent white bass when there is some run off. Also great crappie fishing and lots of areas to throw bass gear at. One thing I would like to warn you about is that the wind could be problem with so small of a boat and for every tree, limb, stick, or stump that you see above the water there is probably ten times that many just under the water surface. Please be carefull and take your time to learn the area. As for lures just about any kind of crappie jig will work for the white bass with the Road runner variety as one of my favorites. Rooster Tail spinners also work very well and if the water is not too muddy small crank baits and Rebel Minnows work too. White, charteruse, pink, grey or any combination will catch fish. Good Luck! RB

I'm guessing that you are coming up from Springfield there should be some around Oseola and then north to Deep Water might be a few more. If you were to go to the Sparrowfoot Camp ground area there are several around there. And on north to Cinton go East of MO 7 toward Bucksaw and Long shoal there are lots of storage places. As for fishing guess bass fishing? I can't help you there I'm more of a crappie, white bass, and hybrid type guy. RB

I put in at Bucksaw and headed up the lake hitting a few favorite spots and a couple of creeks. At first could only catch "dinks" with a 9" one every now and then. Finally hit one area that I managed to pick up five nice ones and kept checking creeks, finally found a creek loaded with shad and finished my limit of really nice fish. These were located about half way back in a major creek 6 to 8' deep with the fish coming just off the bottom. Black and chartreuse, blue and chart. red and chart. were working. The shad are definitly headed for the creeks the water has excellent color with the temps 68 to 70* this fishing should only get better as time goes on. Richard

I would like to see some myself haven't been in a while. Richard

COE says 704.49' at 19:30CDT 08-20-12 that's 1 1/2 feet low I have never seen Truman lower that 2 ft down. Might this year, everybody is so use to seeing Truman above normal that's it hard to adjust to the present conditions. There is a lot of shallow water on Truman when it's normal now is the time to get out and look around and find some things that you have been missing. Richard

Let me be the first to welcome you! Hope to hear some fishing reports from Truman it's been real quite lately, I haven't been in a couple weeks just to dang HOT! The weather guesser is saying that it might cool down to 95 or so toward the end of the week I may give it a shot. I fish mostly for crappie and like to chase after the white bass and hybrids when they show up. I fish up around Bucksaw mostly for crappie and the others where ever. Richard

Put in a BS yesterday morning and headed up the lake found crappie on the channel edges around trees in 15 to 25 FOW most were caught 8 to 12 ft. down on Blue and Chartreuse and black and chartreuse tubes on 1/8 oz orange head jigs. Nice limit of fish but did have to wade through a lot of small fish to catch a limit. They are eating well it looks like and starting to fatten up, lots of newly hatched shad in the area. Summer time pattern is a coming! It's just going to get better and better! Richard

I wouldn't fish a jig without one. The best way to use them is to buy "The Bait Pump" you put your nibbles in the pump and insert into a tube and squeeze out a little bit in the tube. If using a solid plastic tube bait I poke a hole in the solid part with my pliers and the insert the bait pump and give a squirt. Sure does make a bottle last a long time and keeps pesky perch from stealing precious nibbles. Richard

Looks like a great stump jumper, just kidding. Probably the best thing to do is get some really good lake maps that show the river channel. I feel fairly comfortable while I'm in the channel but just as soon as I leave the channel slow way do as in idle speed and trim the back motor up so that if you do hit something with the motor it will tend to raise the back of the boat and slide over the stump. If the boat runs up on a stump just keep going push it on over maybe even goose it a bit you don't want to pull up dead stop on the stump you'll probably cause more damage that way. If in a really bad area or one that I don't know well I'll shut the big motor down and get up front and run the trolling motor on in to where I want keeping a close watch for stumps. They can sneek up on you in a blink of a eye believe me. A really big problrm on Truman that I see is that it use to be the river channels were well defined by the large trees that lined the original banks. Now most if not almost all of them have broken off just under the waters surface. So if you don't really know the area well you can wonder off the channel and tear up some expensive stuff real guick. You can look across the lake now and it looks like all open water IT ISN'T a good GPS system isn't a bad idea. And wear a life jacket. Be carefull and good luck! Richard

Yep sounds like you're fishing Truman. I fished that lake since it was opened and never broke a transducer until last year, busted two, oh-well schit happens. I don't know how many times I have run my boat up on a stump but never have done any seriuos damage yet! I'm really surprised that there isn't a lot more tore up boats setting around, I do know of a few people that have ripped off lower units and put some bad gashes in the bottom of their boats. One couple from my home town had a tree limb fall straight down into the boat missed 4 people and punched a hole through the floor and also through the fiberglass hull. They weren't far from the boat ramp so ran the boat back with the limb through the bottom of the hull running the bilge pump all the time got her loaded on the trailer pulled the limb out the owner said that was a sight to behold! Guess that it immediately filled the boat with water. They were very thankful that nobody was hurt. Be carefull and go slow until you know where you are going. Then when the lake drops a foot you get to learn all over. Richard

Put in at Bucksaw this morning and managed to catch a nice limit by noon most were caught on a 2" black and chartreuse jig fished on a orange 1/8 oz jig head right on the channel edge where it breaks onto a flat around the smaller stickups. Water was 15 to 25 feet deep but the fish were holding 8 to 12 feet down. There were two fish that still had a considerable amount of eggs left that looked in good shape. There were a few more that had a very small amount of eggs left but that is normal I think. One fish on a stick if you catch one move on they seemed to be really scattered. Richard

MOPanfisher when things settle down let me know and we'll get together I'm retired so can go about anytime I perfer to fish during the week a but can make some weekends. Usually the second week of the month and weekend I am busy with some club activities and it's harder for me to get away. Richard

Thanks for the info oneshot! Richard

There's hope yet! Was that on the Pomme Arm wonder what the water temperature was I have a few times in the past caught spawning crappie over in that area very late when the Pomme Lake was dropping water keeping the temps down in that area. Richard

We could do that as long as you don't bring a white van full of Men Dressed in Black! How about a fishing trip on Truman we could meet there sometime. I have solved a lot of the worlds problems during a long hard day of fishing, well I thought I did anyway but that was before I discovered it really didn't make any difference anyway. I'll send you a PM latter if you like. Richard

Between Mother Nature amd the corps the crappie didn't have much of a chance on Truman this year. I know that the corps doesn't care one iota about fishing so don't want to get into that but everytime that the lake came up this year and stablized the corps started dropping the water levels. So I'm afraid that a lot of the fist that did spawn that the eggs were probably left high and dry. What bothers me is that will show up in fish numbers and size about three to four years from now. One thing that I noticed on the fish that I cleaned was that the eggs looked good yet, maybe some will attemp to spawn yet? I don't know how late a crappie will spawn the water is getting warm and all of the fish that I caught were a long ways from any bank and in water from 8' to 25' deep most were around cedars.I caught absolute zero off any bank just had to try just in case. It would be my guess that if a few fish did atemp to spawn that they would be very scattered one here and one there or maybe even spawn on trees out over deeper water. This something that I have seen in the last few years is that there are some fish spawning on big trees away from the banks. These are usually very nice and often the biggest fish of the day but not many probably there isn't enough suitable trees with big enough limbs or broke of trunks for a real pattern but something to look for. Richard

I caught some nice sized females last week about the middle of the Grand River arm and they were the same way. Most looked like they had dropped some eggs but still had 50% or more egg sac left.

I haven't been to the Sac since the middle of Janurary about the only fish that we found was down by Broyles Branch. We did catch crappie, white bass, and a couple decent Hybrids. The wind to suppose to have 30mph + gusts the rest of the week if you want to believe the weather guessers. Stockton hasn't been running much water this year so I would guess that the first good rain or rise in the river might really get thing fired up down that way. I'm not going this week but plan to head that way next week. Good Luck.

Yep forgot about that got to get LOZ back up to normal for Memorial Day weekend for all the high rollers.

Yep they do it every year let the lake come up until the crappie hit the banks to spawn then drop it a foot a day. Can't tell me that is not unplanned.

If you go north on 65 from Springfield go past Cross Timbers probably one mile turn left on CR50 its a gravel road follow it around to the lake before you get to the bridge that crosses the Pomme river there is a road that cuts off to the left that takes you down to the boat ramp and parking lot. Its a small narrow ramp but very useable and plenty of parking space. Richard

There is a fair springtime run of white bass with a few hybrids mixed in also some walleye are caught there in the spring.

Ha! For my money I would skip everything BUT Truman and concentrate on it! But all kidding aside since you are going to camp and will be mobile I would watch the weather and lake levels and then decide where the best options would be. All of these lakes can be great if you can catch the right conditions for the fishing style that you like.

In view of all the new brush piles that MDC is putting in the lakes I am looking for a hand held GPS that would be user friendly to a old guy that is not all handy with all the electronic gadgetry stuff available today. I would like to be able to punch in coordinates and have it show me how to get to the brush pile. I am a good map reader and can locate most stuff pretty close just by looking at a map getting a feel for the lay of the land and eyeball myself into a close location. I see that Cabelas has a bunch on sale some so new that there is no reports on them and most that do have a report there is about as much negative as there is positive about the unit. I would like to keep the price down to around $350 or less? I do have depth finders front and back but they are older models and when time comes to replace them they will get a serious upgrade. One of the reasons for a hand held unit is that I do spend time fishing with friends, we trade back and forth on fishing trips, and their equipment is about the same as mine. And they ain't no smarter than I am, all of us are just slightly above caveman level with a very slow learning curve. Any help would be appreciated. Richard

I think that it's a bit early I've had my best luck over that way after the main lake temps have fallen below 60 degrees. Good Luck