GotaFish

This is an awesome thread. At the moment, I can't remember my first smallmouth, but I do know they are my favorite fish to catch and the Niangua is my favorite river to catch them on. On a float from Lead Mine to Berry Bluff last year I caught a 19 incher that was a beautiful fish. I caught her or she caught me on a purple chatter bait. I say that because this fish did not stop fighting. Also, the look in her eyes said once you get this hook out of my mouth I am going to kick your axx. I can't wait to get back there this year.

I apologize in advance for this response, but I took a poll at the New Year's Party I was attending and it was unanimous, if given the option all of the ladies would go with the "Long Shaft"

Missouri man charged for illegally killing mountain lion while deer hunting

I am not sure what hubs I have. Just stick the grease gun on and squirt in a little grease. I do know that my Dad tells me every time he sees the trailer that I need to replace the bearings. I also know that in the same time period my Dad has replaced the bearings and hubs on the trailer used to haul his Champion at least a dozen times, including replacing the entire axel. At least one time his bearings burned up on the way home from the shop after the bearings were replaced.

So based on the conversation in this string I am thinking I should probably be looking to replace the bearings on the trailer I use to haul my 2005 Shawnee. Other than adding some grease once in a while I have done nothing to the bearings in 19 years

Last month I placed my first order with Tackle Max. I got some Craws, Hellgramites, Fugitive Swimbaits and Max Blitz jig heads. I was very pleased with my purchase as it was apparent the jig heads were specifically designed to be paired with the Craws and Swimbaits. I caught over a dozen smallmouth on a Monkey Milk Swimbait and it is ready to catch a dozen more on my next trip.

My friends, Joe, Tom and I had a great trip on the Gasconade on Tuesday. It was our first time on the Gasconade. We floated in my 20’ 6” Shawnee from the Hwy 133 bridge to Hwy 7. Getting to the river at Hwy 133 was quite an adventure, my Dodge Ram bottomed out a few times in the huge holes and one 3 foot deep crater on the path down to the river. The river and fishing started out a little slower than we are used to on the Niangua. But thanks to my new Tackle Max lures we had a great day. We caught over a hundred fish total with most of them being dinks, but we caught about a dozen 12+ small mouth with 6 over 15 inches including 2 that were 17+ inches. We also caught some green bass, but no goggle eye. The larger fish were caught on a Tackle Max Monkey Milk Swim Bait using a 1/4 Max Blitz head. This brings me to the above and beyond of my story. I had never used any Tackle Max products, but decided it was time I gave them a try. So on August 26 I placed my order and to ensure I received my lures on time I paid for expedited shipping. My order was confirmed and my lures were scheduled to arrive on Friday, August 30. To my surprise on that day I received an update from USPS that my shipment had gone from Fenton, MO to St. Louis, MO and for some unknown reason onto a USPS facility in Omaha, Nebraska. This meant I would not be receiving my shipment in time for my trip to the Gasconade. Being disappointed with my delayed shipment I sent an email to Tackle Max. To my surprise, I received a response 30 seconds later from Mitch Fields. To ensure my fishing trip was a success, Mitch offered to meet me at the Gasconade on Tuesday morning with my lures. Wow, what great customer service, I ended up meeting Mitch in Chesterfield where he provided me with the lures we needed for a successful trip. BTW, it is now September 5 and I am still waiting for the USPS to deliver my original shipment.

Gavin, Do you know if there are suitable boat ramps on the Gasconade at the Hwy 133 Bridge and the Hwy 7 [Mitschele MDC Access]? We might try doing this float instead of the Big Piney. Thanks, Jim Arnold

Thank you for sharing your information. I think I am just going to shuttle my to friends. They are going to float in a two man pelican and should be able to haul it over any obstacles.

My friend and I are looking to go on our first float of the Big Piney. We are looking at about a six mile float from Boiling Spring to Mason's Bridge. I have a 20.6 Shawnee River Jon, that does great on the Niangua and other rivers. The boat will be packed very light for this day trip and will easily float through 4 inches of water, but I have two important questions. First are the boat ramps at Boiling Spring and Mason's bridge accessible to launch my Shawnee with my Ram 1500? Second, will there be enough water to float my Shawnee without having to portage it (this is not doable for two guys). Do not have problems dragging it through riffles, but cannot carry it. Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

This is just a sad story, the Huzzah looks like it was doing pretty good, but this illegal activity has taken a significant toll on the small mouth population.

Thanks for the advice. I Goggled Chicken snake and the photos were a pretty good match.

No the snake was still alive and I was able to free it and let it go.

Found this guy in the house stuck do this glue board. Is he a prairie king snake?

We floated yesterday from Bennett Springs Access to Prosperine. This is the first time in my 50 years of floating the river that I floated this stretch. I have only fished from Prosperine to Tunnel Dam, usually took out at Bird Island. Last year floated two times from Lead Mine to Berry Bluff. My Dad and I left my place in Truxton at 3:00 AM and met my friend Mike at Eldridge at 5:45 AM. We dropped Mike’s truck at Prosperine and headed to Bennett Springs. We had hoped to be on the water early, but did not know about Hwy 64 being shut down west of Lebanon. After detouring on Hwy 32 and through the park we finally launched at 8:30 AM. Due to the recent rains the river was still high. Due to the stained color and falling river we knew the fishing was going to be tough. I caught a 12 inch largemouth on about my tenth cast and we were hopeful fishing was going to be better than we thought. Unfortunately, that was the only fish we caught for the next four hours. We ended up catching only 12 fish total, 8 trout (three browns and 5 rainbows), two largemouth and two small mouth. Biggest trout was a 15 inch rainbow and two largemouth were barely 12 inches, the two smallmouth were even smaller. Due to the fast water we were restricted to using mostly crankbaits and completed the float in about 8 hours. Despite the lack of fish, it was great to be on the river with my friend of 55 years. I am also thankful to my Dad for shuttling my truck and trailer and waiting for us all day at Prosperine. We are looking forward to doing it again soon.

I am considering purchasing a Pond Prowler as a Father's Day gift to myself to use on my 3 acre pond. Please let me know when you decide to sell your Pond Prowler and hopefully we can make a deal.

I went hunting yesterday, just so I could say I sat in my tree stand when it was 5 degrees with windchills below zero and I am sure glad I went. I had deer all around me for most of the afternoon, many of them less than ten yards. Mostly does and yearlings, with on little six point buck. I had on five layers of under armor, my HECS suit and my Scentlok camo. My feet started to get chilly before the deer arrived, but once they were there I forgot all about the weather. I could have killed several of them, but really don't need any more meat this year. I was waiting for the huge 8 pointer I have seen many times this year, just not within bow range. I am really writing today to talk about my HECS suit. I have been a Scentlok hunter for years, wearing the camo, washing my clothes and showering with camo type soap, I spray my boots everyday before the hunt and never wear my hunting boots in my truck. Last year my friend encouraged me to purchase a HECS suit and I went all in with pants, shirt, gloves and face mask. I had what I thought were good results with the HECS suit last year, but this year I am totally convinced. With the HECS Suit and ScentLok I am just invisible to the deer. Yesterday, I was hunting from an old broken ladder stand that only has two sections, only about 10 feet off the ground and just hanging on the side of a tree with no real cover. When the first doe came in, I stood up and she saw me move. She was about 20 yards away and gave me the stare down. Then she put her nose up in the air and sniffed several times. She then walked to within 10 yards and kept staring right at me. After what seemed like an hour, she put her head down and started eating and paid no more attention to me. Then the rest of the deer came in and milled around me for over an hour. Man it is hard to have deer that close for so long, no coughing, sneezing or real movement allowed. This is just one example of the HECS suit. Earlier in the year during rifle season I walked up on three does on the edge of a field and they spooked running about 100 yds out. I got down on one knee to watch them hoping for a buck to join them. The largest one eventually turned around and came back to within 20 yards to see what I was and then went back to eating. I live on 136 acres and probably hunted 50 times this year, not once did I spoke a deer while on stand. One of my favorite stands is on a tree line that separates two huge fields that were planted with beans and corn this year. I have hunted here for over five years and it is a great stand as long as the deer are below you. If the deer come from up the hill behind me I am silhouetted against the sky and they almost always bust me. This has not happened with my HECS suit. This year I had a small 4 pointer come down the hill behind me. He saw me and froze. Then just like the doe he stared me down for a while, then came even closer. He was on the hill basically at the same height as me less than 10 yards away. He finally lost interest in me and went back to eating. So I am sold on my HECS suit. My only issue is you need to baby the HECS suit, need to wear it under your camo or it will easily tear on thorns, etc. Even though I sound like it, I am not a HECS suit spokesman, yet

That is a good one and very interesting about the acorn crop creating those bumps on the antlers. I knew the color of the antlers varied based on the type of trees the buck is rubbing on, but did not know about the forage causing bumps on the antlers.

I actually rattled a little 7 pointer away from a group last year. It ran on a line for about 150 yds straight to me. This year I was not able to lure any of them my way by rattling or grunting.

Just thought I would add a post since the last Archery update was from December 5, 2022. I hunt a 136 acre property near Truxton which is about 10 miles west of Warrenton. Where I hunt is basically a wooded lot surrounded by farm fields. My favorite stand is at the corner of the neighbor's field which is currently picked beans. This time of year I usually see 25+ deer per day, the only problem is they are 300 yds out in the field. I am good, but not good enough to shoot a deer with my bow at 300 yds. Yesterday afternoon, was a great day to sit in the woods. I saw 37 deer in the field, 25 of them at one time. I saw 12 different bucks, two small eight pointer size bucks were chasing does around the field. I saw one monster buck and then about 10 minutes later I saw one twice as big. It is hard to tell at 300 yds, but through more Vortex binoculars he looked to be a huge 12 point with big tall tines. I need to get permission to hunt the other side of the field, and I know when I do all of the deer will be on the side of the field I am currently hunting. It is always fun to see so many deer and on more than a few occasions, I have actually watched them walk all the way across the field to meet one of my arrows.

To get back on the topic at hand - no pun intended - I recently read that Tunnel Dam power generation is being decommissioned and power will no longer be generated. Unfortunately, there are no plans to remove the dam. However, having a consistent water level in Tunnel Lake will hopefully make for better fishing.

A few weeks back finally made it to the Niangua. Put in at the upper Lead Mine ramp with my good friend Chris and my Dad made the 90 minute drive to ferry our truck and trailer back to the Berry Bluff ramp. Dad was a trooper sitting at the ramp all day waiting for us. It was awesome to finally be back on the Niangua after about seven years. It was a relaxing float except for the huge sycamore that completely blocked the river between the Lead Mine boat ramp and the lower Lead Mine access. We had to completely unload my 20'6" Shawnee and the two of us had to lift if over the tree. If the boat weighed about 2 more pounds we would have never gotten it over. The rest of the float was uneventful and just relaxing. We caught about 30 fish total most of them smallmouth. The biggest being 19 inches. Did catch two small largemouth and no spotted bass. Looking forward to floating from Berry Bluff to Tunnel Dam sometime next spring. Thank you to everyone for sharing directions to help us find our way back to the river.

You were not the only one who saw this last night. I saw it at 8:42 PM near my home in Truxton, MO. I was driving on Highway A and pulled over to watch in amazement as it flew over. I Googled and determined they were a string of Starlink satellites.

Hello everyone, heading down to Bull Shoals this week to troll for Walleye. Does anyone have an idea where the Thermocline is right now? Is it around 30 feet?

Wrench, Thanks for the directions