The blight is a bad deal, It's usually a problem for me this time of year, but for whatever reason it hasn't been bad this year. Squirrels have been my biggest problem, but they seem to have found food in the woods now so they haven't been stealing my tomatoes lately.
There's gotta be some big blues in Beaver, AGFC has been stocking them for quite a while. I used to drift fish for blues over at Grand Lake. Net some shad (sometimes netting shad can be tougher than catching cats). I would use bottom walker walleye type sinkers, have about 3 feet of leader and drift along slowly maintaining contact with the bottom, with a whole shad or shad chunk. Usually good for 8 -10 blues on Grand on a good day. Grand, however, has a very healthy blue population.
If you've never been to Basspro in Springfield, it's worth a trip, just leave the credit card at home. If you can deal with the 2 hour drive from Branson, we have the Crystal Bridge art museum here in Bentonville. Entrance is free and it's a great museum from what I hear.
New bait from Strike King, runs in that 8 - 10 foot range. No craw colors however. Just wondering if it will work during Wiggle Wart season. Need the opinion of you crankers out there.
http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Strike_King_KVD_HC_Flat_Side_Crankbait/descpage-SKKVDFS.html
Squash bugs destroyed my winter squash, cukes look like crap, but I was getting sick of them anyway. But, tomatoes are doing pretty well, a few have swelled and split, but, with a few exceptions the vines are still healthy. Getting a lot of cherry tomatoes and a few "Bush Giants".
Last week, I was heading to Big M going through the Mark Twain forest on HY 112 at O-Dark-Thirty from the direction of Seligman, Had about a 2 second glimpse of a buck off to the side of the road back in the bushes a bit. He also had a pretty tall rack and somewhere between 6-8 points. I bet he's one wily deer as that area gets hunted pretty hard.
Thanks for the compliments on the pics, I was worried they would not come out well, the sun was very bright and behind me, so I could not get a good sight picture on the camera. I was by myself, so I as I was idling along I had to steer with one hand and take the shots with the other. And that deer was swimming fast.
Got off to a good start, then things quickly went south. Caught a couple on a point on a creature, picked up 3 nice keeper LM off a back corner of a boat dock on a jig, and then spent the rest of the morning trying to find a deep bite. Could not find the deep fish, fished several points that usually hold fish and just picked up a couple of shorts.
Saw this guy swimming across the channel. These dudes can swim surprisingly fast.