timinmo

Mitch, as someone who has never poured any soft plastic bait I would never suggest that you do anything that you have not already thought about. I will say that a local sporting goods store has something over 40 different colors of senkos, that is a guess. Not a day goes by that someone doesn't ask for a color that they do not have in stock. I have always liked the laminates but can not prove they work any better than solid colors. What you have poured looks great.

Looks like fun, wish I could have made it. Thanks for posting the pictures.

OK Scott I officially hate you. Tim

Looks like a good trip Joe. It is a shame that the Blackwell Access is closed but I did not know about the concessionaire access. May have to talk to those people.

One of the arguments about the different length limits is that it is "confusing to anglers". I do not understand how they can say this with a straight face. Smallmouth do not have a Red Ribbon, Blue Ribbon, White Ribbon areas like trout areas. I am not trying to take anything away from trout just using for the sake of argument. I will note that certain trout areas have gigging restrictions and if gigging is not a problem why would that be necessary. Compared to Waterfowl regulations River rules are simple. The "antler point" restrictions for some areas during deer season are much harder to follow. Personally I have always found it hard to "shoot and release".

Great fish, wonderful story. I have never caught one either.

Dan I want to thank you for keeping us all up dated on the pending changes and for all your hard work on our behalf.

MO You have extraordinarily small hands. I also don't have "some" things shipped to my home.

Hey Scott Bring it with you next week. I got a fish that will eat it. Also not to be a smart ash, but that looks like the biggest thing that hand has ever held. Just saying.

Way to go guys. From the posts and the pictures I can see that everyone enjoyed themselves.

Mitch, I thought you had died. If you and Bigs want to do a short float on a local river that would not take alot of travel time come by DD and see me. It can be worked out and we will not have to spend hours traveling to water.

Hey CWC what is the Huzzah looking like.

Can not tell you how many thousands of casts I made with a black and white #3 Lazy Ike. My Dad had alot of faith it that lure and as a kid it was what I used often. Another that he loved and that has produced many good smallie for me was a Heddon Tiny Tad, not the Tad Polly which is larger. Yellow was the chosen color. It was a frustrating lure to use as it screwed up about half the time but when it didn't it would sure catch fish. The biggest Missouri smallmouth I every caught was on a Arbo-gaster, and that is the correct spelling as I just went out and checked my tackle box. Yellow and Black coach dog pattern. You can still get the Hellbenders, but the color selection is limited. Great topic.

Those baits should be available at your local stores at this time. As previously stated there are two styles, shallow and deep.

Seems like I remember some one building one and using mono as the wrap and that it disappeared. It is hard to find light action casting rods. I built two in the last year using drop shot rod blanks. One was on a MHX DS821 blank and the other on a Northfork Composites DS6107-1 blank. Both 6'10" and rated 1/8 to 3/8. I have not tried the Ned rig yet, but both are for throwing small light soft plastics.

If there is a "take away" from this discussion it seems obvious that you can use whatever you are comfortable with. I fish some streams that are very small with long rods and/or short ones. It just depends on what I am fishing and what I feel like using. I think longer rods give me a little more reach and sometimes this is an advantage on small streams where fish can be spooky. I think shorter rods are an advantage for topwater baits, especially when wading. One of the disadvantages of short rods at this time is the shortage of quality rods and/or blanks in shorter lengths. It seems that most manufactures are making rods longer and longer and I think this is a result of the tournament fishing market. There is nothing wrong with long rods but fishing off the deck of a bass boat on a large reservoir is way different than being knee deep in a creek and if you try to store a 7' 6" rod in a tandem canoe breakage is a real issue.

Griz If you will send me an email with your name and info I will see if I can get it straighten out. Tim

I would like to thank forum member Mitch Fields for a enlightening program on winter smallmouth fishing at the monthly meeting of the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance. Very good program and I thought is was interesting to note that several forum members were in attendance. I am not going to try to list all that were there but maybe people can chime in who attended. Anyway good program and about fifty people enjoyed some fishing talk in the middle of the winter. Had a chance to meet other forum members they had not met in person enjoy a beer and some food.

The Ozark Anglers decals are available at Denny Dennis Sporting Goods in Fenton, Mo for all of you located in the St. Louis area. They are free. Ask at the fishing counter.

I may be a little late to this party but we floated from Kingston down to Mammoth on 10-27. The catching was a bit slow but we did manage a few fish. I tend to struggle in the fall so I'm not sure my results are a meaningful measure of anything. I have had good results in the spring but I guess it depends on what you judge as "early". In any case I have had no trouble at any of the accesses but I do know people that have had issues.

UnCivE The Falcon Post office says the same thing that you do. I guest I will have to look into other plans.

The Paddlers Guide shows the mileage to be about 24 miles. I have left vehicles multiple nights at all the accesses you mention without a problem. I probably worried about the Prongs the most but that is small water up there and other than early spring there will not be much floater traffic up that high.

Thanks Dan, Matt must have talked to you. I have found a number for the Falcon Post Office and plan on giving them a call.

Thanks, I thought they were out of business but was not sure.

Does anyone know if gravens is in operation, and if they are does anyone have a phone number for them.