Bird Watcher

I have only fished Indian Creek three times this summer. Your pics make me miss it. Way to go.

I like Center Creek. My uncle has a place East of Stones Corner, by the airport that we always try to spend a least one night a summer catfishing on. We always catch them. There is nothing wrong with those LMs you are displaying, especially for creek fish.

+1 And herein lies the problem. Mix money with any hobby or sport and it usually sours it. Money, fame, ego,...I want to be like the guys on TV. People give them boats...They are famous... Same stuff happens with world class whitetails in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas. When you add the glitz and glamour to our hobbies, the mindless tools will do anything they can to have a piece of it. I wonder why Catfish, Crappie, walleye,...etc. guides don't have the same problem?

uh oh,...

Went from 6-9 pm last night. Launched at Twin Bridges and went up Spring River. Had three keepers, one would have been between 3.5# and 4#. Spinnerbait on trees that were laying in 10' of water or more. On a side note, if anyone wanted to have some fun, you could make some "gar getters" and go up there and have a ball right now. I must have had 15-20 gar hit the spinnerbait, they were thick up there.

Have you tried the C-rig? I've only bass fished Beaver one time in my life, but all of the other lakes that I know of in the area have a Carolina Rig bite in the summer. I would look for Primary and secondary points with gravel and I would fish +/- 10' of the thermocline for starters. Just a suggestion. Stick with it. You'll figure them out.

thanks for the report!

1/2 oz. colorado blade "thumper" spinnerbait. Farm Pond. 8.5# 4' FOW

Hank, I have one that needs patched too. I tried to fix it like you did, and it didn't hold. I was pointed towards this repair kit. http://www.bullseyetradingpost.com/canoe-repair.html I have also heard that buying a bumper repair kit from the auto parts store will work if you swiss cheese areas around the hole with a 1/4" bit so that the epaxy bonds to itself. Another search turned up a patch using the adhesive that windshields are put in with. I guess the problem is that the polyethylene (sic) is petroleum based and therefore is always in a "semi-solid" state. Since it is not a true solid, it expands and contracts at a different rate than whatever material you patch it with. I have also heard that you can have someone plastic weld it, but that for the price of the repair, you could just buy another canoe Good luck with whatever you choose.

I'm going to try to get some fishing reports going from Grand for us West side guys. Maybe if I start posting some it will get some momentum going...So here it goes. Fished last night from 6-10:30. Spent the entire time in Drowning Creek because I have been wanting to look at a couple spots down there and we could actually hide from the wind there. Ended up with 4 keepers and two shorts, with the biggest going 2.5#. Caught most of them on a 3/8" jig in about 8-12' FOW. After dusk they all came on a shakey head. Holy Cow that wind was blowing. I burned a half charge on the batts in just 4.5 hours trying to hold the boat in the wind.

Yeah, I know Denjac. I live in Goodman and it is definitely the closest lake for me to fish. I have been fishing a lot of mid lake stuff. Mostly from Sailboat down to the mouth of Duck Creek. I don't get to fish much during daylight hours due to work and family, I have been going mostly in the evenings and at night on the weekends. This fish (and some other good ones) was caught in the mouth of Horse creek. The best bite for us has been after midnite the last two Fridays.

I bet those were some good eating. That's one heck of a walleye.

Freakin Awesome! Caught it on a jig with about 10' of line out. She ruined my reel. Somehow while stripping drag, she damaged a bearing or the worm gear, thank goodness for braided line. Didn't have any scales and looking back on it, I was so worried about getting her back in the water after my buddy took these pictures(I had to wait while he deleted pics from a full memory card) that I didn't even think to measure her. The second biggest largemouth of my life. Only being beaten by an 8.25# that came out of a farm pond. My buddy guessed 7.5, but I think he gets the "big eye". I think closer to 7#, but he says I never estimate them high enough. So, who knows..it doesn't really matter, what a beautiful fish and one I'll never forget.

All of this is really good stuff. My favorite summertime pattern hasn't been mentioned, so I'll offer it up. Nighttime floats with 1/4 black mini buzzbaits. No ligths, no paddling unless absolutely necessary. If the moon is out, fish the shadows just like you would during daytime sunlight. They also produce well at dawn and dusk, Of my five biggest fish, two of them (18.5 and 19") came like this. It is intense to hear the buzzbait, whirring, then hear the fish blow up, then feel the load on the rod. (I actually hook more fish like this than I do when I can see them hit the bait in daylight) Take a short float so that you can just let the canoe drift down the creek and walk it throught anything that sounds like a rushing riffle, for safety's sake, but this is an awesome way to catch big smallies when the heat is on in the dead of summer.

If that's the flathead from Elk City, KS, it's true. I was out there turkey hunting and an agent told me all about it. He had witnessed it.

I have done it at Taneycomo..someone told Dad and I years ago that they were putting out lights to catch crappie on the lower lake, but all they kept catching were trout. So off we go to put out the crappie lights and trout fish...I don't know why, I don't even like trout..Anyway, we ended up catching over 100 fish that night...best we could guess...Actually we got sick of catching them and quit... maybe it hasn't worked for others, but we caught the crap out of em doing it.

Beautiful fish.. And thank you for releasing a true Ozark trophy.

I thought everyone already saw this earlier in the year..... They(MDC) already said they wouldn't be able to stock as many this year.. 2008 rains affect 2009 trout stocking Stocking will be down 10 percent in most waters. JEFFERSON CITY 03/16/09 – The effects of last year’s record rainfall continue to be felt a year later, with an announcement that the Missouri Department of Conservation will reduce trout stocking. 2008 was the wettest year in Missouri history, with nearly 6 feet of precipitation falling during the year in some areas and more than 12 inches of rain falling in less than 24 hours in others. Conservation Department Hatchery Systems Manager James Civiello said these torrential rains affected trout hatchery operations in several ways. The most significant impact came from the forced release of massive amounts of water from Table Rock Dam in Taney County. Prior to 2008, the most rapid release ever witnessed there was 31,000 cubic feet per second. Last year, the dam let as much as 47,500 cfs pass through turbines and flood gates. “Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery sits right below Table Rock Dam,” said Civiello. “The enormous volume of water pouring into Table Rock Lake forced the Corps of Engineers into record releases in June, and that created less-than-ideal water conditions for trout in our facility.” Civiello said the temperature of water flowing from Table Rock Lake through the hatchery reached 65 degrees at times. This is too warm to spawn trout eggs and keep hatched fish healthy. Water quality became an issue, too. As a result, the hatchery lost more than 30,000 pounds of fish to disease and parasites, compared to the normal annual loss of approximately 7,000 pounds. Most of these were 3- to 6-inch fish that otherwise would have gone to other hatcheries. In most years, Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery produces approximately 1.3 million trout for stocking and smaller fish for transfer to other hatcheries, where they are reared to stocking size. Last year the number fell to 1.1 million. Meanwhile, other hatcheries were experiencing rain-related problems, too. Bennett Spring Hatchery near Lebanon and Maramec Spring Hatchery near St. James both lost fish to floods that compromised water quality and washed fish out of rearing areas. To compensate for losses, hatchery managers “pushed” small fish, feeding them more to hurry their growth to the average stocking size of 12 inches. While this helped keep last year’s stocking near target levels, it amounted to borrowing fish from 2009. The hatchery system no longer has enough fish in the pipeline to keep up with this year’s stocking goals. Consequently, the Conservation Department plans to reduce stocking at Missouri’s four trout parks and most other waters by 10 percent. This includes trout management areas and Lake Taneycomo. Statewide, the cutbacks will result in stocking 180,000 fewer trout this year than expected. “We stuck with the traditional stocking level for opening day at the trout parks,” said Civiello. “Since then, however, we have been stocking about two fish per anticipated angler instead of the usual 2.25 per angler. We should be able to sustain that level of stocking 12-inch fish for the rest of the year.” One exception to the reduction is the trout stocking program at Fort Leonard Wood. Another is the winter trout fishing program at urban lakes, for which the Conservation Department buys fish from other hatcheries. Civiello said he hopes to return to normal stocking levels in 2010. He said the agency will continue to monitor hatchery inventories, trout tag sales and other factors and make adjustments to minimize the effect on stocking.

Frosty, We tore them up at night last weekend. in two nights we had 75 fish and tried not to keep any under 12" I know that doesn't help if you are fishing during the day, but I thought i would offer it up.

thanks Dave.

yeah, what Wily said.^^^^^^^^

Fishmeister, Any news on the gills?

I know it's getting close to time...Anyone catching them like this yet? How about ligths? Anyone tried it in the last week?

I love catching the bluegill up there. Good eating little buggers too. I'd be interested to know if they are on as well...they should be.

OF, Here's what works for me, I make the jugs out of water noodles. 1. Cut the noodles into 3 equal pieces. 2.run some 150# or 200# nylon through the center of the noodle. put about 30-50' of line on each noodle, depending on how deep your lake is. you are going to want to be able to adjust your depth depending on where you are fishing(flat, channel, etc..) 3. put a 4-6 ounce weight on the end of each one. i find that duck decoy weights work well because you can wrap them around the noodle when you are storing them. 4. put a stainless circle hook about every five foot starting from 3' under the noodle to about 25". Check your regs though. there are limits to how many you can put on a line. I tie them on with a loop knot so that I can adjust them if need be. when you know how deep you want to fish, let out that much line, adjust your hooks and half hitch your line off to the end of the noodle. the neat thing about rigging them like this is that when you get a hit, the noodle will stand up on end as a strike indicator. (i think it is cool to see them get nailed and then dissapear..that's when you know you have a good one.) It's very important to catching the fish that your weight doesn't rest on the bottom, so set your depth accordingly. If the weight rests on the bottom, it creates a sag in the line and the hooks won't stick the fish when they hit the bait. I like to bait with either whole or cut shad. Have fun.