Seth

I've been catching the second half of the last games in the evening this week. Some are fun to watch while others are very boring! The games where they actually score are fun to watch, but draw games are hard for me to watch. It's like a baseball with lots of offense versus a pitchers duel. I've given soccer a chance though and I am actually enjoying it even though I don't quite understand all of it yet. Any sport where you have an entire country behind you is cool with me.

Just keep a steel handy and touch up the blades before use. I mainly use an electric knife for scale fish anyways. Rip down the side to the tail, flip the fillet and then skim off the skin. Slick skinned fish, like paddlefish and catfish, still get a regular knife though.

Our garden is way behind everybody else it seems. That late frost took out our tomato plants and I had to get new transplants and start over. They are about 3' tall right now and starting to get little green tomatoes right now. I just got done weeding the garden and need to get some hay or straw and mulch it good so I don't have to do it again. I DESPISE weeding! We have a few raised beds for peppers and tomatoes and they are so much easier to take care of when it comes to weeds. For this year, we did 10' of pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers and okra; 20' of bush beans; two zucchini; 15' of sweet corn, 8 bell pepper plants (two varieties but forgot the names), and 8 heirloom tomatoes (2 mortgage lifter, 2 german queen, 4 big beef). When do you all plant your stuff? We didn't plant till almost June last year and this year. Our garden did well last year since it wasn't an overly hot summer.

I just use the cheap Walmart fillet knives and keep them shaving sharp with a Worksharp knife and tool sharpener. They work fine and when I have butterfingers and drop one in the lake, I don't lose any sleep over it.

Travis already said what I was going to say since we were both down the same weekend. You could literally see about 10-15 yards in front of the boat in spots. I was idling along just past Fall creek when I met the kayakers. I was still far enough away that there was no chance of hitting them but still a lot closer than I would ever want to be to a small watercraft. I was within 15 yards of them before I seen them and turned. Jets turn slow at an idle so I had to goose it a hair to get turned quickly because they were paddling downstream towards me and I was idling upstream right at them.

I got too close for comfort to some kayakers just above Fall creek one morning while it was still foggy a few weeks ago. Good thing we weren't moving fast because I was right on top of them before I could make them out. You would never see me in a kayak on that lake until after all fog has burned off. Once it is gone I think you would be fine.

As long as we don't get any unexpected toad stranglers to muck up the river, things should be in really good shape in that stretch for this weekend. It was starting to clear up and fishing improve last weekend.

brush hogs, chompers, tubes, craws, beavers, senkos and finesse jigs in brown or green pumpkin for the bottom spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, squarebills trick worms and flukes in white and/or chartreuse for the middle of the water column buzzbaits, chugbugs and spooks for the top. Use darker colors if lowlight/cloudy and more natural shad if clear/sunny

My buddy and I have ran many Etecs over the past 6 years and the only issues we had were on a 2008 115 and a 2009 225ho. Each motor had a few injectors go bad that had to get replaced. All but one was covered under warranty. The one that wasn't cost $350 to get repaired I believe. The same buddy decided to buy a bass boat with a 2008 Optimax on it earlier this year. He didn't have it a month and the air compressor shot craps. That alone cost him more in repairs than all of his Etecs combined over the past 6 years. We both recently got new motors so we'll see how they hold up against each other. His is a 2014 250 ProXS and mine is a 2013 150 Etec. Both are jet outboards. Until the Etec gives me a reason to hate it, I don't see myself running anything else. The one thing I will give Mercury is they sound mean! I like my quiet Etec though overall. It's kind of like running a truck with a v8 and dual exhaust versus a v6 Ecoboost.

As far as travel, we will usually just be putting in and taking out at the same location so we will probably paddle a ways up stream and then float back down or vice versa. Is that feasible or is it too much work to paddle upstream in a canoe very far? I've only been on a few floats and we just had somebody drop us off up river and went down stream the whole time to a designated location and got picked up. I'm more interested in the fishing opportunities that the canoe will open up. My fiance wanted it for the typical float trip stuff (paddle a while, stop and swim, get some sun on a gravel bar). Thanks everybody for the advice. I'll get a copy of that paddlers guide and do some reading.

I plan on fishing the Bourbeuse quite a bit since it's so close. There are a few nice fish left in there. Last year I managed to catch a 15-16" smallmouth on a jitterbug next to a log near a slab. The same day, we were hitting another slab and a guy in a small jon boat with a trolling motor had a solid 5 pound largemouth on a stringer. It took a ride home in a cooler in the back of his truck. It's hard telling how many years that fish dodged giggers to make it to that size on such a little stream.

None taken. I made a typo in my original post and it sounded like I was wanting to bring my jet boat to canoe waters. What I meant was what are some sections of streams that are secluded from jet boats that are suitable for wading or canoeing. If you don't want to share just because I do also run a jet boat on bigger waters where it is feasible, then that's fine too. Everybody has their reasoning for certain choices they make. My canoe and jet boat are just different tools for different types of fishing is all. I'd gladly invite anybody on here to come jump in the jet boat and go after some Gasconade bass. I know the Gasconade and mid to lower Meramec get beat to death by jet boaters and I wouldn't be caught dead in a canoe in those area's. When I see folks on canoe's on the Gasconade, I just shake my head because 1) I feel bad knowing they are getting beat to death by jet boats and 2) because I think you are crazy to canoe in jet boat waters in the first place on the weekend. It's just asking for punishment! I didn't want to sound like I want your hot spots either. I'm just not familiar with floating a lot of the streams and I don't know if they are affected by jet boat traffic like the Meramec and Gasconade are, other than the Bourbeuse. The Big/Little Piney, Roubidoux and upper stretches of the Meramec came to mind but I have never been on those sections or rivers.

I caught a 22" rainbow on opening day of trout season at Meramec Springs this year that only weighed 2.95. It was an old worn out brood fish from the hatchery I guess. It sure wasn't as healthy as those Taneycomo rainbows I was catching a few weeks ago.

I finally came across a good deal on a canoe and picked one up. Now when I don't feel like messing with the jet boat I can go chase smallies in the skinny waters where I can't go in a boat anyways. The Bourbeuse is about 10 minutes away from my house and I will fish it some, but would like to go spend a day fishing some other streams that don't have jet boat access one of these days. What are you favorite streams for canoe fishing?

If you are running a Humminbird unit, then you get the depth offset and depth highlight features with a Lakemaster chip.

The fishing was pretty tough this past weekend with the dirty falling water. Bell Chutes and Jerome had tourneys this weekend. A few guys lucked in to a few nice fish and ran away with them, but over all the weights were way down and it doesn't sound like many fish were caught. I did catch a 5# channel cat on a chatterbait Saturday. When it hit, I caught a small flash of white and just knew I had hooked a monster largemouth! After about 30 seconds of pulling, it got tired and I could feel those slow heavy head kicks and knew right away what I had. My buddy won the tournament that day with 12 pounds. They said fishing was tough for them also, but his partner got lucky and caught a 4.79 largemouth and a 3.5 pound smallmouth. They would have gotten first with just those two fish alone.

You can make it to the Narrows just make sure you take it slow and hug the left side as you head up stream in front of the big houses above Fall Creek. We ran to the cable a few times last week, but the Narrows was about the best area for us overall. If you run a jet, you can go up farther, but you will have to watch out for waders by Lookout.

3/32 oz sculpin/orange is killer at Taneycomo and Meramec when fished like Phil show's in his videos. You will be fine using the longer UL rods for drifting under a float, but I would recommend a light action rod for the jigs and preferably a medium light. As for drifting bait, just take the best of both worlds and drift a jig about a foot off the bottom and then tie a dropper leader about 18" long and tie on a scud. Dad caught several fish last weekend doing that. Most fish came on the scud, but he did get a few on the jig as well. The jig was more less just the weight to get the scud down, but also gave the fish one more thing to eat. I recommend using a 2# leader for the fly dropper.

I run 15# braid with a 8-12# fluorocarbon leader tied on with an Alberto knot. The braid is limp enough that I don't have to mess with swivels to prevent line twist like when I used straight fluorocarbon when tossing flukes and trick worms.

I caught some down by Monkey Island on a white jig but couldn't get nothing going on a pink trout magnet. They were the ticket last year when I was down. We also only caught three browns. I kind of wish I had thrown that jerkbait around rock and wood between short creek and cooper creek in hopes of catching a decent brown. Like you said, watching them nice browns charge a jerkbait is awesome even if they don't hit.

We did really well on the same area on white and sculpin/orange 3/32oz jigs. We also got a few drifting scuds, pink jigs, San Juan's, and jerking a 4" gold rogue. The jigs seemed to be the best option for us though. Sculpin/orange was best when it was cloudy and the white took over when the sun was out. I am hoping to get back down there for some more fishing later this summer or early fall.

I would do it, but my bass club has a tourney that day so I will miss it. I'll be around the Bell Chutes and Jerome area all day.

Thank stinks travis! These storms were a real pain the butt for a lot of folks.

did really well on orange sculpin again this morning, but they seemed to want white once the fog lifted and it got sunny. Threw a gold 4" husky jerk a bit and caught a few. Dad was drifting a brown/orange jig and a tan #12 scud under a float on spinning gear and picked up several. Biggest was another very healthy 18" rainbow.

I am really enjoying the layout of this semiV a lot better compared to the flat bottom i had previously. The recessed trolling motor tray is SO much more comfortable for long days of fishing. I am waiting on pops to finish his coffee and we are going to head back up below the Narrows in a bit.