Seth

I understand the canoeist point of view and I do agree with it. Boaters shouldn't be thrown under the bus either just because a few floaters are unhappy. I am sure we can agree that the guy running the river to a fishing hole isn't the issue anyways. The hundreds of folks ripping back and forth all day long and just burning gas are the ones we have issues with. I agree with you about the summertime not being worth it. The fishing sucks and there is way too many pleasure jetters. Bring on the fall and winter months so I can fish in peace, not have a heat stroke and actually catch some fish!

I will side with you anti jet boat folks when it comes to the pleasure jetters. Most folks who just run the river for fun are running souped up inboards. Getting hit with waves from them all day while I am trying to fish gets old in a hurry. At least when I am fishing I am running from one spot to the next and spending the majority of my time on the trolling motor, not constantly running back and forth.

So are we supposed to only run the Missouri or what? I run the Gasconade which is PLENTY big but it does have a few narrow spots. That is on a stretch of river 50-60 miles long. Why should a guy with a jet boat be banned because of a few floaters who weren't bright enough to go farther up river where the jet boat traffic is very light? That just seems like a better decision for both parties. Heck there are spots on the Osage River when the water is off that could be dangerous if you met a group of floaters. Does that mean jet boats should be banned from there too because of a handful of spots on a 70 mile stretch of water? I have nothing against floaters. If I meet up with some and the water is deep enough, I always slow down and try to be courteous. The river doesn't belong to jet boaters OR floaters. Some of you seem to think you can call me out for being selfish and hogging the waterways, but yet you turn right around and say all jet boats should be banned so the floaters can have the entire thing to themselves. How is that not the pot calling the kettle black especially when 99% of the water is big enough for 10 boats to run up side by side? If you want to float, go above Boiling Springs on the Gasconade or stick to the Meramec. I have no experience on other rivers so I can't comment on those situations.

I could say the same thing that maybe floaters should find waters with less jet boat traffic. I know I can take a canoe in areas I would never take a jet boat and enjoy the day. Floaters should know that if they float certain stretches of water, they will get pounded by jet boat traffic. When the rivers get as low as they have been, they are putting themselves in danger. That sounds selfish, but realize that a jet boat has to be on plane to get through these shallow areas. There is no way I would be floating anywhere below Jerome during the summertime when I could easily go much farther up the Gasconade and get away from a lot of the jet boat traffic. That jet boater parking in the eddy sounds as bright as somebody who canoes on the middle Gasconade on a summer weekend and crying about the jet boats.

If you are fishing the James, maybe you can shoot on down to Taneycomo. It's not that far away. Use 2-4# test, #16 treble hook, a split shot or two 2-3' above the treble hook and a jar of rainbow power bait. Go down to the Cooper Creek dock, bait up and throw out as far as you can, wait for rod to start bouncing. If they aren't cranking water, you should be able to catch some trout doing that.

When it's low and there is only one path through a riffle for jet boaters to get through, don't clog the freaking chute! Floaters can simply stand up and drag their canoe in little to no water. Jet boats require being on plane to get through those skinny areas. Floaters have control of that situation, the jet boater does not. Now if there is plenty of water and the jet boater is getting way too close to the floaters, that's an entirely different story. My only gripe about floaters is clogging the chutes and making a dangerous situation out of something that shouldn't be. It has nothing to do with who spends the most money to enjoy a day on the water. I use both. You'll never see me in a canoe on the Gasconade simply because I know I'll get beat to death by jet boats. My canoe only see's the Bourbeuse and Meramec. Those two bodies of water a much more conducive to floaters imo.

My experience is on the Gasconade which is why the problem doesn't seem as dire in my eyes. The Gasconade has a lot more hidey holes and doesn't stay quite as clear as the Meramec. The majority of the "gig anything that swims" stories I have heard come from the Bourbeuse crowd that puts in on private land.

At least he ain't posting in the smallmouth section. They are like a bunch of starvin piranha's over there. They'll bite you in a hurry......

It takes a special touch to catch trout. I'll take folks who can catch bass and other stuff just fine and they struggle to catch any trout. If you go at the buzzer, you should be able catch a few before the flurry slows down. They'll bite anything for about 15 minutes after the buzzer goes off.

Just depends what you are targeting. If you want smallmouth, you're better of sticking to the the current seams. If those dead pools have a lot of wood, you can bet there will be some largemouths hanging around as well as other species, just not as many smallmouth.

I just use closet rods from the local lumber yard. A lot of folks use the fiberglass poles, but they cost quite a bit. The closet rods last several seasons if you put a coat of water sealer on at the start of season and keep them under a roof and dry in the off season.

Different method for different species. Why do people trot line for catfish when they are easily caught on rod and reel? It is much easier to go catch a mess of catfish on rod and reel than suckers. I rod and reel and gig in the fall and enjoy both. One is for bass that get put back and the other is for suckers and having fish fries with family and friends. I would hate to have to choose a side in this fight since I enjoy both. I'd give up gigging though if I had to. Most people I know would rather be able to go out and drink beer and stab fish in the fall than have better smallmouth fishing the rest of the year. Most don't fish for stream bass. If it was put to vote, I think it would be a landslide win for the Pro gigging folks.

Down in the southern US, I think it is legal to bowfish just about anything that swims, It's a wonder they have anything left down there. I've seen videos of guys bow fishing for paddlefish and catfish, even spear fishing smallmouths under the ice! These were televised on national TV so it was perfectly legal too. Game laws vary so much between states it is crazy.

The few bad apples give the legal and ethical giggers a black eye, just like everything else that goes on in this world. One of my favorite things to do is catch stream smallmouth but I also enjoy gigging. Most smallmouth guys are very anti gigging due to the turd buckets who like to go out and gig them. I'm as against them as anybody, but I don't see the need to punish everybody because a few people like to break the rules. That's like banning guns from everybody because one person shot somebody. Sadly, there are a lot of narrow minded folks who feel that way. It's the same as somebody who doesn't gig wanting to ban gigging because a few folks like to poach. I've argued about this subject many times in the smallie section.

Goodun!!

Do you guys buy good top soil for your raised beds or something special? I'd like to go the raised bed route myself and not deal with a tiller at all but I don't have nearly enough compost ready for very many raised beds.

Our cukes are pretty well done. We got a lot of spicy dill and bread and butter pickles canned up for winter. I pulled up our sweet corn and replanted with fall beans for dad. The beans we planted this spring are still producing pretty well so I've been picking them and giving them to dad. Okra is starting to produce well. Zucchini is still producing well especially since our second hill we started from seeds got caught up and started producing. We are about zucchini'd out so most of what we pick from now on will be given away or shredded for zucchini bread this winter. Tomato plants looked rough, but produced well. I'm pretty sure the issue we had with the leaves was due to not enough water. After I bought a rain gauge and actually checked how much water I was giving them, I realized it was only half of what I thought. What I just assumed was an inch of water a week was more like a half an inch. Several of the plants still had good tomatoes until we got 3.25" of rain last weekend. It busted nearly every one of them open. I think I'm going to just pull up the peppers, tomoatoes and cucumbers and call it good. I'm not as thrilled about going out and picking stuff as I was a few months ago. I'm a whole lot more interested in shooting my bow, food plotting and other things related to the upcoming fall season.

Throw in 3 hours of hard rain, lightning and thunder along with horrible bass fishing and you got a last Saturday. I need to pull of my shoe and drop the impeller and give them some TLC after last Saturday's tournament. Going to the Osage and actually catching some fish probably would be beneficial to my fishing ego after my poor showing as well. I feel very comfortable at running most stretches these days. It took me two or three years to get to that point though. The two things that I make it hardest on me is when the sun is in your eyes early or late and wind chop. Wind chop makes it hard for me to read the riffles. Having a GPS fish finder helps at times though because I can zoom all the way in and know ahead of time which way I need to run. If it's really treacherous, I will put a waypoint in with a note on where to run. That's mainly for stretches that I don't run much and tend to forget the bad spots.

I always tie on an 1/8oz jighead with a 3" green pumpkin grub when i take my giance fishing with me. She has handed my butt to me more than once on numbers and nice bass. From now on, I will always have one tied on in case fishing gets tough.

That's a decent one for the Gasconade. The largemouth bite was on fire at the end of May. I fished a tournament solo and had 10.33 pounds of largemouth up at Jerome. Smallmouth were actually hard for me to come by during that time frame. Now it's the complete opposite. Funny how that works.

That's pretty well par for the course lately on the fishing. Glad you guys made it. Did you catch any largemouth or was it mainly smallmouth? I haven't been able to catch largemouth very well for the past couple months.

If it is a small boat, you should be able to make it. That is a pretty good distance to float in one day.

Nice fish fellas! I'm ready to get out and try to wack another big one myself. Just too much going on this weekend to try.

I don't have any pictures, but we have had a good haul of cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes. Most of our tomato plants are looking poor though. Many limbs are yellowing and turning brown. I've been breaking them off as this happens, but some of the plants are nearly bare except for the fruit bearing branches. My okra is just starting to produce a few pods. Last year it was late summer before it really took off and started producing pods at a decent rate. The green beans are about done. If I can find some more seeds I will plant a fall crop. Sweet corn is also ready to start picking and eating. A coon seems to have found some of it so hopefully it doesn't get wiped out right away. The only thing that doesn't seem to be producing very well right now is our pepper plants. At first it produced some good sized fruit, but now the plants just have a bunch of runt peppers that don't seem to be growing very much at all now. Is taht due to lack of nutrients or what? Last year I didn't seem to have that problem with these peppers, but my jalapenos in another raised bed seemed to have that trouble.

I used to do that for bluegill while swimming on the lake I grew up on. Instead of using a rod and reel, I just took a couple feet of mono and wrapped it around my hand with a little jig on the business end. It was a blast!