Seth

Does it take the fish a bit to get active after the water temp jumps up? We tried drifting powerbait and crawlers down by Monkey Island this evening and never got a bite in an hour. I'm not sure Imve ever fished down there and not caught fish.

I don't agree with this statement completely for a few reasons. Reason one is that crappie need to be harvested or else you end up with an overpopulation of stunted fish. There are a ton of crappie kept from LoZ and Trumand every year, yet they continue producing nice limits of crappie every year. LoZ has actually been better the past few years for size than I remember it being in a while. As for the guy keeping a limit of fish to eat, do you take in to account that maybe he only does it a few times a year? I personally love to eat fish and do keep a few, but that doesn't mean I always keep what I catch. You are just assuming that because somebody caught a limit of fish, took a pic and posted in a forum that they are doing it every single time. I'd bet the guy that originally started this post doesn't always keep fish either even though he did this one time. Besides, if an angler is staying within the legal limits that MDC allows, how can you be mad at them? I'd see the point if they were keeping more than they are allowed. There are way more people out there that disregard length and creel limits that I worry about compared to folks who abide by the rules and like to enjoy a fish fry now and then.

Just use the blue label Everstart Maxx 29 series batteries from Wally World. that's all I have used and I always get several years out of them before they start getting weak on me. I fish quite a bit so they get sued pretty often. I think they have 27 series as well, but they aren't the Maxx series and I haven't used them before so i can't confirm if they last as long or not. Make sure you stick them on the charger as soon as you get back home.

Are there any confirmed tournament wins by anglers fishing the NED as their main bait? I know I gave a PBJ NED a really good try at a very dingy Meramec River tourney recently. It was the most productive lure of the day for numbers, but never produced a single keeper. Chompers and senkos produced far less, but much better quality bites.

I just turned 29 and have been posting here for nearly 10 years. I've had guys jump on me for being a "young cat" in the past. It cracks me up when the older crowd get's their dander up and tries using the age = experience line when it comes to fishing. Just because you've fished longer, doesn't mean you're a better fisherman than somebody with less years. Some people are more open minded and can put things together much better than guys who have been fishing much longer. Of course, there are many on here that I pay close attention to when they post/talk. I've learned a ton from guys who have many more years on the water than me. I'm pretty sure that there are some members on here who's day isn't complete until they get on here and throw in their unwanted two cents worth of pissing and moaning on a topic that they obviously don't care about. If I don't care about a certain topic, I just don't read it and move along. Many must not of listened to momma when they told them that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.

I agree. The only folks I know that keep smallmouth are guys that don't fish that much other than when they go floating. Every decent angler I know that fishes a lot puts back their smallmouth unless they are hooked deep and stand a good chance of dying. If they want fish to eat, they'll go after catfish, crappie, suckers, etc. I guess those of us that fish often and prefer to release fish are the minority compared to the amount of anglers that rarely fish, but keep what they catch. Maybe that's what the results are insinuating?

My experience with the NED is just like what MItch said. It's a great numbers bait, but the size really is lacking. I've caught a load of fish on it in the short amount of time that I've spent using it, but only 2 or 3 have broke the 12" mark. My best is a 15" largemouth from the Bourbeuse. I love it for floats since I am usually not worried about size those days and I never have to replace the bait in a day of fishing unless I break it off. I'm not worried about perch destroying my plastic bodies now so I look forward to catching them again. A PBJ NED has produced a lot of fish for me in dingy water. My goal with trying the NED was to find something that would work on spinning gear in dingy water for my fiance. She always used a green pumpkin grub or trick worm in the past. They work well when the water has decent visibility, but not so well if it's dirty. As long as she is catching something then she is happy and therefore I am happy. Does anybody try using a whole ZinkerZ/TRD on a NED to try and target nicer fish?

I've had fried bigheads and some that were pressured cooked and made in to fish patties. Both were very good. The fried fish were cleaned so that you had a few big bones that pulled out to give you a boneless piece of fish.

Velveeta still works. There was a day last year where the trout were being very finicky and I had to work to scratch out a limit. My father in law wasn't doing very well and found a wad of Velveeta layingo on the ground near him. He decided to put a pinch of that on to replace the 007 he had been using. He landed three trout shortly after. We always have Velveeta at the house, but I never seem to remember to take any with me when i go down there. As expensive at it is and how much I like it, I'm still not sure if it's worth using on trout.

Sounds like Al is just jealous of your manliness LOL

Nice fish!

or maybe he made that comment in jest just to troll the folks who get their panties in a wad when somebody eats one of their precious bass? The next time somebody gets a bad vibe from a rude tourney angler, does that mean that it speaks volume for the ENTIRE tourney crowd? Obviously, that is not the type of angler that you are. If I used the same logic as you did for the post you quoted, I would just assume that all tournament anglers are like that based on the actions of one person.

I tried bringing up antler restrictions. That's usually good for 10-12 pages on the Missouri Whitetail forum.

I don't put anybody down for what they kill. I've killed plenty of dinks over the years and have only recently gotten to the point where I am good with passing smaller deer. Even though I like the antler restrictions for my own personal reasons, I don't think it is right for MDC to force land owners to pass small bucks on their own ground. If you're hunting public ground, then I can see making hunters follow those rules. There have been many times when people complain about just wanting a deer for jerky/sausage and all they see is sub legal bucks. Personally, I would rather see somebody take out a young buck instead of a mature doe that produces twins every year. Most of the folks with this mindset only rifle hunt and they only kill one deer a year anyways. That doe will just get bread by another buck in the area anyways. Unless you have a butt load of land with bedding and food that allows you to keep deer on your property at all times, you aren't going to manage a deer herd if all of your neighbors blast everything that is brown. If you think you are managing genetics in a wild deer herd, you are just wishful thinking. The best thing you can do is allow deer to get some age, provide good nutrition and cover so they can live as a stress free a life as possible and grow the best rack that their genetics allow. Here is an article publish by QDMA explaining why you can't manage wild deer genetics. https://www.qdma.com/articles/why-we-cant-manage-deer-genetics

Comparing hunting to fishing is silly. You can always release a fish. Deer don't have that luxury. It takes 4.5+ years to grow a big buck and 10+ for a trophy bass. If somebody keeps a limit of barely legal bass, they will be replaced in a few years. If you kill one trophy class fish, that's 10+ years down the drain. Before you tell me that if you kill all the barely legal fish, there will never be any trophies anyways. No matter how much pressure a place gets, there is always going to be some fish grow to decent size. Once they reach a decent size, they can be caught and released for the rest of their life AND continue growing until they become trophies, monsters, or even record class. On smaller bodies of water, fishing always seems to go down hill when enough smaller fish aren't taken out of the system. I'd personally rather catch more big fish overall at the expense of total numbers. That's just my opinion though. I'm sure there are others who would prefer to catch 100 dinks over 5 big ones.

There's a lot of those boats running around on the James River arm from Mid March through April. They may not snag any paddlefish, but they will definitely kill some beer!

I guess my timing with orange scuds has never been right because I'm not sure I have ever caught a trout on them. Even last weekend, the tan and grey scuds caught fish and I can't say that I had a bite while trying an orange version. Gray was best by far, but a few trout did eat the tan scud. I've had the same luck with olive as I have with orange.

It takes thick skin to post reports on a public forum. No matter what you say, somebody will always see things differently and have to put their two cents in. Just ignore them and appreciate the fact that you have probably helped many others who aren't on here giving you praises due to not wanting to be involved with the negative Nancy's that frequent the forum. Every hunting and fishing forum I am on goes through this type of stuff once they get a get a decent number of members.

I even wear a buff now too. Now I just need to find some of those awesome shoes, a flat bill, gain 50# of belly fat and work on my HIGH KICK.

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As long as the MIL doesn't get any crazy ideas, it should be a good time. The FIL isn't the best angler, but he loves to fish and hasn't done much fishing except in ponds and local rivers. It will be a new experience for him. It usually just rains a lot when I take him so hopefully that isn't the case this time around lol. I'm lucky to make it down once a year myself. This is definitely the exception and I am SO ready to get back down to Taney.

Finally, somebody else that see's it from my point of view. That's how I look at ALL species of fish when it comes to keeping them. This is an especially hot topic among catfishermen. Most of the serious catfish anglers throw back anything over 10 pounds. I'd bet most of the guys crying foul about a guy cleaning some bass wouldn't blink an eye at somebody putting a knfie to a big catifsh though...........

I wonder what kind of mockumentaries they will have this year? Last year they had the one about megalodon. It's funny that they try to put it off as real. I'm sure there are plenty of people that buy in to it too. I love the actual documentary stuff they do during Shark Week. My favorite thing is when they get the great whites to attack the seal decoy being trolled behind a boat.

My parents crew had no trouble catching four limits of decent fish on power bait down by Monkey Island Thursday and Friday evening. They also got the big fish of the trip, an 18" rainbow. They had night crawlers, but never bothered to try them since the fish were eating power bait so well. My fiance and I fished a little Friday evening and then on Saturday. We did well drifting #10-12 grey scuds on drift rigs with 3/8oz weights from Lookout down to just below Fall Creek. Our biggest was pushing 17". We never caught any browns. We also tried red san juans and tan scuds and caught a few, but grey scuds were definitely the ticket. It's hard for me to admit, but I got my butt handed to me by her. She out fished me 3 to 1 yesterday. The only thing I could figure out was I didn't have as long of a leader on her line and she was a bit closer to the bottom. I'm just telling everybody i was a better guide than an fisherman this time. The bite died off for us after the rain moved through on Saturday. Before it came through, we were getting 3-4 fish a drift. Afterwards, we made three drifts and only had one for sure hit. We decided to pack it up and go grab a bite to eat after that. On our way back, we ran in to Phil so we stopped and shot the bull for a few minutes. This is one of the nicer fish we caught. Just above Fall Creek, there is a couple adult eagles and some young ones. The young ones were screeching the whole time we fished. My fiance took a few pics on her phone. They didn't turn out the best, but you can still see them sitting in the tree. We enjoyed watching them as we passed on by on our drift. We're coming back down in a week and a half with my fiances parents. They have never been down there before so I am excited to introduce them to some Taneycomo trout. The only trout fishing they have done is at Maramec Springs so they should really enjoy this trip.

As many 15" bass that tablerock has, it probably would 't hurt to keep a few. The way i see it, keep what you're entitled if you wish but always put back the big ones. That goes for all species. A limit of barely legal fish will be replaced much sooner than one giant. Seeing big fish kept for the table sucks.