Seth

A good rain will make the fish push up the James hard. Opening day was good due to the flood that hit Springfield the day before. People were catching them at Blunks, Galena and up past Hootentown. Until that area gets another good rain to bring the levels and flow up, it will be hard to find any from the bank. On Lake of the Ozarks, the Roadhouse bar and grill dock allows people to snag for $8. That gets you from 6am to midngiht for that day. The owner said they caught 12, one being an 80 pounder, off of their dock last night.

We cleaned 22 crappie that were caught within pretty close proximity to Party Cove this past Saturday. It was probably 50/50 on males to females. All fish were caught around brush in 12-20' of water 2-10' down. Didn't catch any on the banks, but did see one caught off the Pa He Tsi loading dock when we put in.

Crappie were hanging out in 12-20' of water around brush on the Glaize arm that day. You could fill the boat quick during the last 30 minutes of light. It was a fish nearly every cast at that point.

If you are running new wire, I would run 10 or 12 gauge to the bow to a terminal block for the two front units. Install a fuse on the positive wire at the battery (20amp for 12 gauge or 30amp for 10 gauge) and then wire your graphs to the power strip with a 3amp fuse on the positive wire between the fuse block and graph. The 3 amp is to protect the graphs and the bigger is to protect the main run. You could do the same for the console units, but it would probably be easier to just run those back to the battery with 14-16 gauge wire since they are closer to the bilge area. That setup is overkill for the bow, but you will have room to add other devices to that power strip if needed in the future.

I like the modified Albright for braid to fluoro connections. I've used it on my bass gear with 15# braid and 8-12# fluoro on up to my snaggin/catfish setups with 100# braid and 50-80# mono. It comes through the rod guides very well. In the past, I used a double uni knot and it works, but after watching the modified Albright beat out the double unit on Knot Wars, I made the switch. It's a bit tricky to tie at first, but it's really easy after you practice it a few times. I'm able to tie the modified Albright almost as fast as the double uni nowadays.

Makes you wonder how many times fish get caught and put back over and over. I've seen it happen twice where I was involved. One was my biggest largemouth that I caught in late Feb and didn't get a chance to weigh, but my buddy caught her again a month later and weighed her just over 8#. That was in a big pond though so definitely nothing too crazy about that. It happened again on my biggest Gasconade largemouth. A guy caught her in a tournament way above Jerome and brought it back to Bell Chutes to be weighed. It weighed just shy of 5#. A month later, I was fishing about a mile down from Bell Chutes and caught the same fish and it was 4.59. Not sure if it was a spawned out female or why it lost the weight in that time, but it has several markings that were identical which leads me to believe it was the same fish. A nearly 5# largemouth isn't exactly common on the Gasconade either.

I was gone fishing last weekend in to the early week and forgot to set my team. Looks like they made it so it randomnly generates a team for you though at least. It actually looks like they arent doing too bad either!

We caught them good around point 15 on visible brush and timber last Monday. The better quality fish seemed to bite first and then it was nothing but shorts after that. Our best quality fish came off big trees that came off of the bottom towards the surface at a 45* angle. They would vite as soon as you drug your jig over the top. I am guessing they were holding in the shade beneath the tree to stay out of the sun. The muddy water killed the bite on the river side on Monday, but we still caught some in Peach Orchard and up Flat Creek. Snaggers will be out in the deeper water and shouldn't bother a guy trying to crappie fish up near brush. I would stay around point 15 if the water has cleared up any.

All but one of those is still swimming. We dont care that much for eating them, but I did keep a barely legal male to brine and smoke. That seems to be the way a lot of people really prefer to eat them. They are OK fried, but ai have a hard time eating them when I can just go catch crappie or whites this time of year.

We found a few. Not many sows and no lip tags. The biggest was 70-75#.

A buddy and ai came down this morning and decided to try stockton since we had never been there before. We put in at Aldritch and ran to where we could just see taylor bridge and fished our way back up the river. We kept 10 nice male whites and 1 decent crappie. We caught a bunch of tiny 6-8" whites and largemouth as well. Glad the storms missed us on the water but we had to drive in to them on our way back to Springfield. It was wicked!

Is the newer cork model not nearly as good? What you said about the old cork model is identical to what many others seem to be sayinig as I scour other fishing forums on the internet. I think you guys are probably right on the tube stuff. I'm not one that fishes finesse tubes on a jighead very often anyways. That type of fishing usually saved for float trips. Tube fishing to me usually consists of a texas rigged 4" tube pitched to cover on a 7' mh baitcaster with 17# fluorocarbon.

I've used a 7' light action BPS Microlite for trout/crappie and a 7'2" medium fast 13 fishing omen green for the bass duties for several years. For the duties that I mentioned in my original post, I'm always wishing I had something that fell in between both of these rods. The light action rod is great for casting 1/32-3/32oz jigs and the medium fast is perfect for trick worms and shakey heads though.

I see that BPS has the cork handled Bionic Blades on sale for $50, but they are on back order. I'm thinking about ordering a 6'6" ML/F 1 piece. It's main use will be for fishing 1/8oz marabou jigs for trout on Taneycomo, shooting 1/16oz jigs for crappie on LoZ and finesse fishing with tubes, NED's and grubs for bass on Ozarks streams. Does anybody else have experience with this rod and if so, how did you like it? I couldn't find the newer EVA handle Bionic Blades in the same action or length. They have the same rod in the Carbonlite model, but it is $100. Is there much difference between the Bionic Blade and Carbonlite rods?

Dad and I got down around 2pm this afternoon and purchased tags 929 and 930. We fished the hole by the second cleaning station and the pond hole for a few hours and it was pretty slow. I caught 7 trout and several small goggle eye on white jigs and trout worms while dad only managed 1 trout while fishing 007 and powerbait under a float. The guys using trout worms and jigs were doing the best. That wind was brutal! Even though it was above freezing, my hands felt like I was fishing in 20 degree weather. They were cold and numb shortly after landing my first trout and getting them wet.

I know A LOT of people that gig and I don't know a single one that blatantly targets bass. They don't want to eat a nasty ol bass, they want suckers! Most of them are bass anglers themselves. There have been a lot more bass killed due to them being hooked deeply than gigging in my boat. I'd bet that holds true for every gigger that enjoys chasing bass as well.

You are a detriment to this forum and society in general. I will have to shun you at the boat ramp from now on.

I'd trash talk, but after last years stellar performance I better just keep my yapper shut.

Cowtown always has an agent on hand to verify that boats aren't bringing in illegal or too many fish. I know that doesn't stop it from happening, but it also shows that they want contestants to respect the laws and if be punished they don't.

You can add me to the same group as Hog Wally. While it's rare, the occasional bass does get stuck while gigging in my boat as well. I'd say 90% of the time, it isn't even remotely an issue because we are in swifter riffles. The risk of encountering bass goes up a lot when the suckers are hanging out on rock in slower water. Even so, the few bass that I can remember being stuck have been small. Nice bass are easy to ID, especially if the water is clear. The small ones aren't quite a easy to determine especially when the fish are tucked in tight to cover. I've always stressed to the giggers to lean on the side of caution since there will be plenty of chances to stick more suckers. That works most of the time, but there is the occasional screw up.

Since it is cool to be offended by everything these days, I'm offended that you missed my post about the debt on page 2. Now we can't ever be friends.

That's still cheap compared to a Roman Made Mother swimbait...... http://dyavm.ftvcs.servertrust.com/category_s/63.htm

80# paddlefish from Tablerock

I don't follow politics much because I think all politicians are full of crap regardless of which party they claim. My number one issue with all of them is that there doesn't seem to be a single person that can get a handle on our rampant spending and actually reduce the DEBT. All I ever hear them brag about is how they reduced the deficit. A deficit still means you're spending more than you are bringing in. I wish I could deficit spend on all the fishing and hunting gear I wanted without having to worry about having to pay the piper at some point.

White and brown/orange rarely fail me on Taney. White has been extra good lately due to the shad coming through the flood gates.