greenwoodmo

I'm somewhat of a novice myself at trolling but I've been doing for a year now. What everyone else said is good advice. I have two on my 16 ft. aluminum. Hand cranks with no boom. I put one on each side and they work great. I attached them to some plywood and clamp them to the boat so I can remove them when I need to. Cabela's sells an inexpensive one (can't remember the brand name but I know its not Cannon)for about $50 and it comes with a 4lb. ball and clip. Its a good way to try it without putting too much money in it. The only advice I can give you is to use a long, flexible rod, like an ugly stick. When a fish hits and the line comes free, a soft rod will pick up the slack better than a graphite rod.

Just picked up and Eagle Fishmark 480 this weekend. I know its already to late but I'm looking for people's thoughts. Was is a good purchase? How do you like yours? Any experiences? Problems?

I'm no expert and I've never actually been in a kayak but I have an option for you. I have spent several weeks on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and spent many days canoeing down the Current, Jacks Fork and Big Piney rivers. A lot of solo canoeists are getting smaller canoes designed for one person. You sit in the middle and use a kayak paddle. The guys I've seen are using kevlar but that is impractial in ozark streams. They are small canoes, maybe 12ft. and are very stable. You can fit all the gear you want and are flexible enough to fish with two people if you wanted.

I know this is the Truman post but I thought some of you folks that fish Truman would be interested in Smithville. Went up on Saturday 4-29-06. Put in at the Rt. W boat ramp and went south to some wooded coves looking for crappie. My fishing was slow. Throwing jigs 3-10ft deep. Chartruese jig with pink head, without a bobber. I picked up several short fish, all males both white and black. No females and I didn't see anyone catching fish consistently. Some guys were catching fish on the bridge pillars with minnows. Sorry for the short report, I only fished a couple of hours.

Thanks

I'm looking to purchase a nice fish finder. Something less than $350. I don't care if it has a color graph or not. Just something that works well. I'm planning on doing a lot of walleye fishing on Stockton and LOZ so accuracy is the most important thing. I talked to a couple of guys at the Bass Pro and they said one of the Raymarine models is the one they would use. Lowrance looks like they make a couple of models that are nice too. I'm looking for some advice on this one. Thanks.

jcmojo, Sorry I should have read the rest of your question. We caught one black crappie at the end of the day around 6:00pm. He was up tight to the bank right at the mouth of the cove that Mallard Bay is in. As for where the fishing was better, we fished some of the same areas that I did when I put in at Brown Bend. I think the water temperature made the biggest difference. Also last week (4-1-06) we didn't have to be fishing structure to pick up fish. They moved up into the warmer water close to the bank.

jcmojo, The water was real low at Mallard Bay. We could only put the tires in the water about a foot with my tail lights not even getting wet. I've got a 16' johnboat with a 9.9hp on it so for me it was easy. A couple of guys had some big fiberglass jobs that I thought they were gonna trash. It took some snaggers 45 minutes to load their boat at dark. It was actually kinda funny. I think they had too many beverages on the water. Anyway, back to the fishing report. I would agree the water color was about perfect. Stained with maybe 2' visibility. My fishing buddy started hammering them on a smoke colored grub about 2:00. Good fishing to all of you, I won't see anyone for a while I have to work the next 6 Saturdays. And my wife about killed me when I pulled in last Saturday at 10:00pm.

A buddy and I put in at Mallard Bay Resort (mm56)on Saturday 4-1-06 and went out in the main channel around 7:30am. We started picking up crappie around any brush in 6 feet of water. The fish were scattered and we never did get on a pattern early. We'd catch one here and there, I threw a purple and white 2" power grub with a 1/16oz. black head. He was throwing a 2" chartruse (spelling?) jig. No float just throwing it and letting it sink. The water was 56 degrees. Around noon we headed over along the south side of the channel and started picking up more crappie. The water got up to 58 in a hurry and the crappie moved shallow. If we could find some shade we would catch 3 or 4 out of it. In the sun they were still scattered and moved out into deeper water. We both had limits around 1:30. Sorry I have to end this but will finish it tomorrow.

Brown Bend is around mm61. Its on the south side of the lake. Its a MDC boat ramp. I had to take Hwy 7 east out of Warsaw and then DD North. I didn't fish with a float, just pitching and letting it sink 4 or 5 seconds and retrieve real slow. The fish would just suck it in like crappie do. Might try again this Saturday up on Truman but I think the water is a little colder. Snaggers sure were tearin' up. Lots of big fish coming in.

Put in at Brown Bend at 10:00am. Started picking up crappie around 12:00pm around any sort of structure in 6ft. of water once the temperature hit 50 on the depth finder. A few on the docks and any sort of stick or stump. Had 6 keepers by 2:30pm and then had to head back home. All white crappie. 4 females and two males. Caught several other males that were short. Picked up 1 nice white bass that looked like she had already spawned. Purple and white two inch power grub on 1/16th oz. black jig head.