Bird Watcher

They pretty much are holding Truman. The 3 day forecast hasn't been updated Today, but Yesterday they were projecting 0 release for Thursday and Friday, only 5K on Saturday. We'll see what it says Today when it gets updated.

I'm liking the way this sounds. Scott tells us it's on, Marty swings by, picks me up, and we head down to the ramp. Gun in one hand, rod in the other. "Which way do we cast Scott?"

Say when...You had me at "stripers". I might even shoot at a goose as long as it didn't get in the way of the stripers. I've shot geese. I've never caught a 20# striper.

70,000 cfs

I'm more the "old bull" mentality these last few years. I don't feel the need to run down the hill and shoot one like I once did. I'll just walk down the hill and shoot them all when the time is right. I'll probably live vicariously through you guys for teal and early goose. Come about mid-late December though I'll be ready.

This guy. He used to take me starting when I was 6 months old and put me in one of those back pack baby hauler things while he wade fished and frogged farm ponds. Moving on and getting older, I had a pallet of blankets under the steering console and used to take naps in the dry storage under the front deck to get out of the sun and rain. If I was to do the same with my daughter these days, they would probably take her away from me for child endangerment, lol. I loved every minute of it though. You couldn't drag me off the boat with a tractor and logging chain. It's all I knew. I can't even begin to count the hours we've spent together in pursuit of critters on land, water, and air. Truly the best friend I've had in my life and thankful for every minute I've had with him. Now days, I think I more take him instead of him taking me, but the older I get the more aware I am of how lucky I am to be able to do it. Thanks Dad.

Take this to the bank...it's money. Always fish like it's going to be you that does it.

About 80-100 a Saturday. I'm kinda embarrassed to admit that, but I also know that with my economical rig compared to others, there's probably some that are spending twice or three times that.

Hi Big Ed. Welcome. Question for you. Are there still any pure strain Striped Bass in LOZ?

Really tough day for us Yesterday. Launched at 7:45, finally caught enough shad to fish about 1 pm. Yikes! Thanks DerekB for the tip. We finally went to the back of Turpin and Just started throwing the net. Caught 60 shad in about 2.5 hrs. Went looking for hybrids. First stop, marked a school, caught 4 within 10 minutes. Thought it was going to be good day. Didn't catch another fish until 7:30 when they started surfacing. They stayed up for about 15 minutes and we chased them around to catch another 5 or 6. We did catch some nice blues up to about 15#, so it wasn't exactly a skunk. It was just the toughest day I've had at Truman. That being said, it still fishes better than Grand Lake in Oklahoma. At least for hybrids it does.

Welcome. So, are the stripers biting?

This definitely. Some of my most trying days are days that I know where the fish are and I just can't catch bait to fish for them. I tell everyone, you better have just as much fun catching shad and keeping them alive better be just as rewarding to you as catching hybrids because most of the time, the hybrids don't happen until you have the shad. There's exceptions for sure and everyone has had days where you can catch them on anything, but day in, day out, you better have some perfect size lively shad if you want to get bit. The actual fishing isn't that hard, the catching bait is where you pay dues. It's funny you brought that up. I just tied up a bunch of stinger rigs this week. I'm right there with you. Sometimes though, I don't know if it gets any better than a general area with the way those fish move around. Could not agree more with this. I left you a voicemail Wahoo.

Wahoo, I keep looking around for you when I'm there, but I usually find out once I get back and check here that you weren't on the lake that day. I'm in an older dark gray with red lettering Alumaweld/xpress bass boat with a 50 gallon grayline tank in the middle. Maybe I'll run into you one of these days and we swap s can swap some stories.

That goes both ways Marty! More than once you've made my trigger finger or casting arm start twitching. I sure do appreciate the friendship though.

When fishing down lines, I usually Carolina rig them. Weight of egg sinker varies (1-4oz) depending on size of shad, how much the boat is moving, and whether or not I want to bait to drift up in the water column as I move around. I also throw them out away from the boat on free lines. Sometimes weightless and sometimes with a large split shot depending on how deep I want them to go. I use circle hooks and hook through the cartilage on the tip of the nose. If you want them to stay on the surface you can also tie a balloon to your free line.

These are good ones. Keep them coming.

Do any of you have one? You know the type. If you caught 10, he caught 15. If you caught a Five pounder, he caught a 7. No matter what. If I went to Lake of the Ozarks and caught a Pacu while crappie fishing, he caught 5 that went 15#. Same guy never has any pictures, and if he tells me a "one upper" that supposedly took place in the past, he always has a reason why he didn't tell me about it at the time it happened. "Well, I would have told you about it but that was right before I bought my new refridgerator and I must have forgot" So how about it? Anyone have any "one upper" stories? Or rather, does anyone have 3 friends that are "one uppers" since I have one?

lol, y'all better hurry up. I just talked to the Regional Director and he says it's on the biologists "to do" list to go get those fish and take them back up above.

The two biggest problems with this country as I see it. Staunch Democrats and Staunch Republicans. Oh, and there's some mighty thin skin on some of you, but it's always been like that here.

Yeah, or just get in the boat with me and catch some yourself:). Also, I decided not to sell my other shad tank so if I already had someone in the boat with me already or you wanted to take Pat, we could meet up some morning to catch shad and put my extra one in your boat for you to use.

Went Saturday. Caught our shad again by Fairfield in the two pockets East of the ramp. Had 80 in two throws. Found out after we hit the water that one of the trolling motor batteries was RIP. Headed to Warsaw Wal-Mart and picked up another one and then we decided to just launch at Shawnee Bend since it was now Noon. Ended up with about 20 hybrids and two blues. Unbelievably light bite. They felt like crappie or white bass nibbling at our shad. Easily had as many come off the hook as we landed. Had a 15 minute flurry at sunset and picked up another 5-6 fish on topwater. We left because we were unsure of the storms pressing down on us, but they were biting when we left at 8.

For me it depends on what type of water, what species, and how far from home I am. I've fished from daylight to dark the last three Saturdays, but I was 2.5 hrs from home and fishing deep murky water.

Stockton is a different animal when it comes to anchoring a boat. I don't think you fish it much so you might not have experience with what I'm talking about. I'm talking about using double anchors. I've been using double anchors as long as I've been splashing a boat in the water. I keep 2 16#ers in my boat. Stockton is higher in elevation than the surrounding countryside. Especially Cali or Beaver. If the weatherman predicts 10mph, it will be 25 mph on Stockton. Trying to anchor a boat on a main lake gravel point or a steep drop is next to impossible in those conditions without throwing 50# of anchors in the water on 300' of line. When it's windy like that, I just find one of the bridge piers on a channel drop and run a line around the pier with bumpers between the boat and the pier.

Hey Lee, it is the access up in the Pomme arm behind Indian island. Actually I just looked at it again and I've been catching them in the little pocket to the east of the ramp, not South. I guess I was a little turned around. If you look at google maps and find where K hwy turns north off of 83 before the bridge on the pomme arm, you'll see the access behind the island there. nice report. We had a slow day on Saturday, but did manage 18 hybrids. It really seemed a lot slower than that though. They were really finicky and lite biting. All of ours were suspended in 30-35 fow about 15-20' down. Just kind of scattered with one here and one there over the break between the flat and river channel. some by KK, some north of the bridge and some at O3.

I think it really helps if you find the baitfish and predator fish before dark and then set up in that area. I like a lot of main lake points. I usually cruise 5-10 of them in the area I want to fish, see which one has the most activity and then set up there. It can be a little difficult to get solidly anchored at Stockton so I usually wait until the forecast is for light wind. I also dont like doing it with a bright moon. either new moon, late rising moon, or cloud cover seems to be the best for me.