FishinCricket

Cool, good report.. Are you new to fly fishing as well? Oh, and where's the pics? LOL (gotta have "fish porn" with the report)

Thanks for the reply.. You may be right, the pond is directly downhill from the softball fields.. What would that mean? And how can I tell?

Ahhh, you guys are using CRICKETS? LOL Here's a nice one I caught on a fly rod the other day.. Hope you don't mind me intruding with a pic... I like showing off the pretty ones... (ask my wife)

They say that you shouldn't attribute too quickly to malice what can be explained by ignorance.... That being said.. I have seen a few gigged rainbow myself, or at leasted they look like they had been stuck. I personally don't think that you couldn't know you were gigging a rainbow, they have a totally different swimming action.. I guess if you were gigging a hole that was packed with both you could slip or one could rush under your pole or something, but I dunno... Any giggers wanna "take a stab" at answering this question?

Thank you for the reply.. I have read a little bit about grass carp and it seems as though the pond might already have grass carp in it.. At least if it doesn't, it has something that likes to roll on the top every 30 minutes during the evening hours! (It's carp that do that, right?) Also I read that you need to make sure that you get sterile carp? Thanks again for the reply, I am going to present as much to the parks board as I can, being a layman...

So here's the issue. I live in Lebanon, Missouri. We have a public park called Nelson Park, it's right next to the baseball fields, skate park, public pool and football field. FAntastic location, right in the middle of town, and the best part? It's for kids and seniors only! Ok, so maybe that isn't the best part for me (cause I can't fish there), but it is simply fatastic (I think) for the local kids. It gives them one more wholesome activity to pacify them and keep them away from all the many pitfalls of youth (sadly some in our community actually disagree with me about that point, but they had more opportunities as a kid than I did.. LOL). We have a "Kids Fishing Day" where the parks department contacts sponsors and gets fishing poles and bait and even stock the pond with some big cats and bass and perch, then they have a contest with prizes and the whole works! So what's the problem? Someone at the Parks department has been slacking, apparently. I don't wanna be too hard on these guys, but yeeeeeeeesh.. look at this pond! It is absolutely covered in trash, first of all, but that can easily be attributed to the fact that the ball field gets overrun once a week with softball players and their families. Sometimes (like every week) some of their trash drifts off and ends up in the pond. Today as I walked around the Pond I counted over 30 pieces of trash on the surface, and I picked up an entire bag of trash off of the banks. This issue is not one that you guys can do much about. Here's where I need your help... This pond has Bass, Catfish, and Perch (looks like it's getting overrun with the perch actually), but there's so much GRASS in the pond, growing up from the bottom, that it's practically impossible to fish it. Soooooo... Any suggestions? Someone said grass carp, but someone else says they put grass carp in it years ago and it hasn't helped.. I am told there are chemicals you can get that kill certain types of grass while not hurting the fish, others have said to just drag it all out with a snagging rig.. Anybody know a good biologist who's willing to give free advice?

To be honest (regarding your Bagnell post) I think you WERE fishing next to my brother in law.. My bigest clue is that I have heard him, on several occasions, saying under his breath: "you're not gonna push me off my blankin spot, blankety blank blank". Sound familiar?

Exactly! My brother in law is the same way.. Every time I take him fishing I say to myself "NEVER AGAIN CRICKET!". I just take a deep breath, apologize to whomever he just blurted obscenities to, and remember that I, at least, am there to have fun. Similarly, when I am trying something new and, like Wednesday, I am missing hooksets left and right, or like tonight when a monster broke off my 4lb test and took the only lure that was catching anything.. I just smile wider, breath deeper, and remember: I could be at work! Then all is well..

Wow, really? Mine is in my chest.. LOL naw, that's a lie, my wife keeps it (and a few other parts of my anatomy) under lock and key, to be taken out and toyed with (or crushed) according to her whims.. Maybe I could talk her into boxing it up and mailing it to Lilley's Landing? LOL Well, take care and have fun.. Bring us back a report with at least one pic of a double digit fish?

I dunno if this helps the conversation any, but I routinely catch very small pretty rainbows in the niangua. I caught one that was only five inches, but was strong enough to keep his nose down for a long time as well as peel a little drag off of my ultralight. Most definitely a river born fish, IMO. I would say last year alone I hooked 10, I would present a photo if I had thought it would be important to take one. I will make sure I do from now on, as well as taking some pics to show the difference between stockers and Riverborn on the niangua. What is the minimum length that they stock fish at? 10 inches, 12 inches?

This looks like a "reel" good cause.. Thanks for posting it, can't say I have ever heard of reelrecovery.org ... Good stuff man.

This thread is flagrant false advertising, man! LOL Nice pic.. But, what, no reds?

My friend said it was still beautiful.. The online gage at usgs.gov says it went up an inch or two so far and the discharge hasn't really increased drastically either. I would say you will be in for a fantastic Friday..

Man, it was absolutely perfect on Sunday, but I don't know what this rain has done to it.. I will cal a friend who has been down yesterday or today, and get back to you.. By the by, I am planning on going to zone 4 on Friday after work, you still gonna be around?

Yes, I did come across a friendly fella here who was willing to help me out.. Thanks, though!

Sounds like a nice boat.. (FYI take the www part off of your email or it won't work properly..)

Glad to see your report.. I have yet to see a poor report from these past couple days.. Must be the weather.. (that, or we are all much better at this than we imagine)... What size were those gills and crappie?

Yes, I still want that spare set, they were sweet! ( thought they weren't for sale? LOL) But, yes, my new set should work for me for quite a while (which translates to 6-9 months in guy talk, right? LOL), and they are nice and dry.. Nothing like the five gallon buckets I had before. As for the great ratio this morning? #1 even a blind dog finds a bone every once in a while #2 I even out my average for the day by convincing the wife to go floating (see the above post) and #3 I didn't bring my fly rod with me, so today could have been even more perfect! LOL (PS, I bought a stock of thingymabobbers, LOL)

Glad to hear you read it and actually enjoyed it.. I always nitpick my own work to death, LOL I went home after having such a good morning and convinced my wife to go and float (with the promise that it would only take 4 hours to float from Bennett to NRO)... I know, I couldn't believe it either... Turns out the bite was still on at the mouth of the spring and I had the wife hookin' up on a rattlin' crawdad within 100 yards of the put in. I tried to fish the kastmaster from the boat and hooked up a couple times, but the hook set is different when your moving downstream, and part of my comprimise with the wife was NO ANCHOR (dang it!).. So I switched to a swimmer too, but a little green Strike King Bitsy Minnow. She and I also ended up switching back and forth between lures (for some weird reason) later, so it's hard to remember what I picked up on what, but here's the final tally: Patty: 6 hook sets on trout (one really big one, but my wife ain't much on settin' the hook or lettin' 'em fight) 4 trout to the boat, largest was 14 inches 3 chub minnows, largest was 4 inches (we hate these things! Nasty little buggers, got no use for 'em) Cricket: 5 hook sets on trout (don't recall any monsters that got away) 2 rainbow to the boat 1 brown trout (been so long since I hooked a decent one that I had the wifey take a phone pic) 2 smallmouth, largest was a whoppin' 6 inches! 1 Goggle-eye 5 inches and fat as a tick 8 freakin' chub minnows! Largest was 7 inches! (did I mention we despise these things? LOL) (I ain't countin' the dink perch either) The brown was a really pretty one, and it fought like the dickens! I fought it for a good five minutes or more, and once I thought I had it settled and got set up for a picture he started up again! Flippin and floppin around like he wanted another fight.. If you look close at the picture you will see I had to get a pretty good grip on him in order to take the picture.. I felt bad about it, but I assure you he went right back into the stream and swam away when I was done with him... Patty had that one that took her drag out straight downstream for a good five seconds, with her pointing the rod tip straight at it and me practically screaming "Hold your rod tip up!" and "Quit horsing him!" at the same time (which came out as "Honey, hold your rod..no...you gotta... baby, don't reel, turn your drag down.. that's the little knob on the top of the reel, baby.. NOOOOO, you gotta let him bend your rod, keep it up in the air! Oh, hell, just hand it to me!"), then it jumped. And spit both the freakin' treble hooks. And I am not relating a fish story when I non-comittally say it would have been the biggest fish of the day, maybe the biggest trout of the year for the Staggs family.. But alas, more work shall have to be done on her hookset and fish fighting technique... Especially if she intents to continue occupying the front of the boat... LOL Anyway, the Aluminum hatch still wasn't that bad, but there were some folks coming out of the woodwork to swim.. Oh, and the snakes were out in force! We came within 15 feet of three different snakes, one of which was a 3 foot long cottonmouth! At least, it was a big long black snake creeping between the rocks and ledges in the water... Hope you all can make it down soon to enjoy the river before it gets overrun.... Or the rains come back and return it to this again:

LOL that sounds like my brother-in-law... LOL Glad to hear you did good...

Similar report for me below Bennett.. Must be the weather! Glad to hear you had a good morning, what were you using?

The river and the spring are back down to extremely wadeable and pretty. I had to be in town in time to get my wife up and feed her breakfast, so it was a quick trip. Also I am in angst right now about the fly rod, so I chose to leave it at home, thinking I had better go with what I know.. Strapped on The new frog togg waders and tied on my trust spoon (which ain't caught a durn thing so far this year in the high water) and waded downstream (zone 4) from the spring to the rock ledges, which are highly visible and have bright blue pockets behind all the boulders. 25 casts and 20 fish! Not just any fish either, I had at least 5 good 2 pounders and one that may have went 20 inches and 3 pounds, but he chose the LDR option.. Plenty of dink bites (you could see them following and hitting, very exciting) and chasers to fill in the gaps. Even hooked two browns, one smallie, and a goggleeye. It's obviously on right now, eh? Didn't have a camera along, but maybe one of you will be inspired and go in the next few days.. If so, feel free to provide us with some "fish porn".. LOL Rainbow colored Kastmaster Spoons from Wally world.. Also, I will mention that the outfitters down here are reporting very low turnouts for canoes, so the aluminum hatch is apparently a few weeks behind schedule. I didn't see one canoe today, thought I will admit I was in and out quick..

Well whichever kinda fish they end up being, one thing is for sure: I bet they were a pleasant and welcome suprise for your little one! I can only imagine the looks of excitement as she hooked one after the other..

Hey, ask away! I promise that I won't complain, as long as you don't complain when the advice isn't perfect... LOL My 16 ft river john gets around fine on the eleven point..

That's a great, simple report, Oneshot.. and it got me chuckling too.. I read the title (in the Niangua river section) and thought "Oh, no! It's a picture of my wife!" LOL