Seth

junkman, the crowds are pretty well just a summertime thing. From now till next June, you will mainly just see fishing traffic and that's very light. Fall, winter and spring are great times to be on the rivers. You can fish in solitude and the fishing are usually biting better anyways.

If it was gigging marks there should be two more marks. Most gigs have four prongs.

Holy cow! I wonder what the biggest LoZ BBB bass ever weighed in is? I have only been following it for a few years but this is the biggest that I am aware of.

We gigged a few that were running up stream by Vienna on the Gasconade. A few huge carp have been snagged on Lake of the Ozarks. I've never heard of any small ones being caught though which is a good thing.

I need to get started on my wood supply as well. Yesterday I fired the saw up to make sure it was running well so now I just need to get my butt in gear and get to cutting and splitting!

2# Pline fluoroclear for me during the summer months. There was a feller throwing a dry of some sort across the stream and I think he caught two fish all day so I did better than him. They were just being buttheads..... kind of like shawncat.?

Awesome fish! Looks like a twin to the one I caught this summer. Makes it even better when you get them on top!

Asian carp are delicious for those that are wondering. The worst part is cleaning the stinking things! I've had them deep fried and pressure cooked then turned in to fish patties. Both are very good. The pressure cooking method doesn't require you to remove the bones. Simply fillet the side off and remove the skin and red meat. Throw the fillet in to a pressure cooker with lemon pepper and seasoning salt (or any other spices you want to try) and cook till the bones are dissolved. I don't recall how long it had to cook. After that, just mix the minced fish with some egg and breadcrumbs and form patties. We froze them two to a vacuum sealed package. When I wanted to eat them, I would cut open the package, throw them in a skillet with a little olive oil and cook them till they were warmed through and crispy on the outside. Add some cheese and a little tartar sauce or ketchup and enjoy! Here is a video MDC put out on how to get boneless fillets from an asian carp. It's a little bit more work than most fish require, but you don't have to deal with the bones. Chunk the strips up and deep fry like any other fish. I bet you the will be surprised just how good they taste. When I ate them, we also had channel cat cooked side by side. The asian carp were WAY better tasting than them nasty ol channel cats.

I completely forgot about electric trolling motors with GPS capabilities. I'm still using a cable steer on my rig due to mainly fishing shallow rivers for bass. I've been on several boats with the Ipilot and Autopilot Minnkota Terrova/Powerdrives and they are the cats behind for open water fishing. I'm saving my pennies for when Minnkota releases the Ulterra to market. It has all the great features of Ipilot and also includes the ability to stow and deploy as well as raise and lower the trolling motor with the push of a button. The worst part about those electric steer models was the stow and deploy.

Hope for some rain in southern MO to raise the river up a bit. It's still low and there are a lot of place that you can't drift through without bottoming out. Boiling Spring to Bell Chute is better fishing and Bell Chute to Paydown is easier drifting in my opinion.

Big fan of power pro here. My catfish/snagging setups have 65# and 80# on the reels. My 7' M/F bass spinning combo is spooled with 15#. I've been meaning to try it on an light rod for crappie but haven't done it yet. Most crappie guys tend to like it for light gear because you can usually just straighten the light wire jig hooks instead of breaking off when fishing around docks and brush piles.

You still have to take the time to learn how to use that technology. Of all of my fishing buddies, very few actually know how to read a side imaging graph or even a 2d unit for that matter. Most people simply don't take the time to figure them out because they manage to catch fish with out them through experience. There are plenty of guys who can read a graph and still not catch fish because they don't know how to put together a pattern to make fish bite. Finding them doesn't mean they are going to bite, even for the good fishermen. There are plenty of days on the water where I know good and well the fish are there, but they just aren't biting very well. Those days drive me crazy, but I welcome the challenge. Any fisherman that says they are simply out enjoying the experience and doesn't care about catching fish is full of it. Who honestly doesn't watch to catch fish everytime they go fishing? If that is the case, why take any tackle at all? The only poor days of fishing that were better than a good day of catching were days where I caught few fish, but caught a giant. Fishing is fun, but catching is a lot more fun.

I'm sure that technology plays a part in that, but how much more fishing pressure do our waters see now compared to 10, 20 or 30+ years ago? Anytime something get's commercialized like the hunting and fishing industry have, the amount of folks partaking in that hobby is going to sky rocket.

I haven't been fishing nearly as long as most of you so the tackle and baits haven't changed nearly as much in my time. The one thing that has helped me the most is my side imaging Humminbird. This spring while crappie fishing, I wasn't catching anything shallow so I went and scanned some coves for brush piles. It no time at all, I had several brush piles marked on GPS and we turned a bad day of crappie catching to a livewell full of nice slabs within a couple hours. When I am snagging for paddlefish, there is no doubt when you mark them anymore either. It doesn't help me much on the shallow rivers when bass fishing, but having the GPS screen up allows me to mark bad spots to remind me where I need run.

Ok Chief.........

Got down to the park around 12:30. We decided to fish the bluff side from the bathroom hole up to where the water flows in to the stream by the path that leads up to the parking lot. Tons of fish in that area, but they were being finicky. My father in law ended up catching three on brown DD dough bait and one on velveeta cheese. I caught two on an orange/white trout worm, and three on brown DD trout bait below an indicator. Couldn't get anything to happen on a jig. Seen a kid catch a couple on a dry fly and a few other fish caught here and there, but it seemed pretty slow for everybody. There was one 10 minute spurt where the fish bit pretty well, but they were extremely hard to hook. When using the trout worms, they would hit the ends once or twice and not stick with it. Normally they will keep trying to eat the worms once they decide to bite but not today. Lots of good sized fish in the stream.

My fiance has beaten me more than once this summer with this setup. 6'6" M/F Pflueger Pink Lady Trion spinning combo 6# Trilene XL mono 1/8oz jighead with a 3" green pumpkin power grub. I keep those on hand just for her to use, but I am too stubborn to tie one on even when she kicks my butt when I use more conventional bait caster sized baits.

I use the Palomar for braid. For mono, I switch between the Palomar and improved clinch. With fluorocarbon, I use a double Sandiego and sometimes an improved clinch. Regardless of the knot I use, I still seem to break a few fish off on the hookset with fluorocarbon if they bite when I don't have much line out and I get excited on the hook set and really pop them.

My bad for not reading the entire thread. Somehow, I completely missed the link to the second page of posts. I see you changed your tune after you realized you misinterpreted Al's post.

I must not be reading the same post you are because I didn't see anything that says you can't fish any other way? He just gave his opinion on what he likes. Do you see the hypocrisy in your post? You call him out for talking about his preferred fishing style, but then turn around and say that you would out fish him with yours? I guess we are supposed to take that as your fishing style is superior to all others?

That looks awesome! Thanks for sharing your story. I will make it up there to experience this awesome northern smallmouth fishery one of these days.

You and I are on the same page here. We both have issues with the pleasure jetters taking over the rivers. We also both agree that it's better to go farther up river out of jet boat territory to float. I'm glad somebody understood my point of view. You don't have to avoid them at all but just keep in mind that a jet boat only has one path through some of those areas when the water is low. That means don't stretch your convoy of floaters across the river in these areas when you can easily line up and keep on floating like you have been while still allowing boats to get through. It's for your own safety and courtesy to the boaters. There is only a few spots like this and 99% of the river is wide enough for floaters to spread out with plenty of room for boats to go around. All it comes down to is being safe an courteous so that everybody can enjoy the river. Nobody wants an accident and in those situations, the floaters have more control over the situation. That's just my opinion. I wouldn't consider the middle Gasconade a "bike trail" by any means. It's much larger than a lot of the waters you all are referring to.

Looks like a good time! I'm itching to get back out on the water something fierce! Between getting ready for bow season and not feeling well, I haven't fished for several weeks now.

Last time I checked, my boat doesn't run on free gas. Your average jet boater is probably burning 30-40 bucks a day in fuel every time they hit the water. Multiple that by the hundreds or even thousands of boats on the rivers throughout the state and that's a lot of fuel tax money. The pleasure jetters usually have a cooler full of food and beverages on board that would sink a canoe as well. I'd sure save A LOT of money if I just used my canoe instead of my jet boat.

I don't think I could give up my jet boat. It is way too handy of a fishing tool for me on the Gasconade and Osage. If I had to down size to a 60/40 setup like on the current river, I would have no issues at all with that.