Seth

Well said. Those sum up my thoughts on the matter as well. When I first started fishing on Taney, I admit that I shuffled a time or two because it was something new to me and I couldn't pass up the easy chance to catch a bunch of fish. A few times was plenty and then I started trying to catch them in a more sporting manner. I'd like to think this is how most anglers progress when fly fishing tail waters.

trigged 10" power worm if the pond has a lot of big fish, trigged pumpkin/chartreuse tail lizard, weightless pink zoom trick worm, chartreuse/white 3/8oz double willow spinnerbait and a bullfrog jitterbug are the only baits I need when pond fishing. For the rod/reel/line, I use a 7' M/F spinning setup with 8# fluorocarbon for the trick worm, a 7'2" MH/F casting combo with 15# fluorocarbon for Trigs, and the rest get thrown on a 7' M/F casting combo spooled with 14# mono.

I slipped back down for the last three hours of the day today. Caught 8 trout, four goggleye and one nice smallmouth. Still plenty of fish all throughout the stream. Best spot for me was the riffle below the bathroom hole.

Where I caught my fish, I had five to ten feet to each side of me. If you tried fishing the major holes, you were bumping shoulders. There is always less crowded areas to fish on opening day that hold plenty of fish. I am not sure what other parks are like but they are bigger than Meramec so I would imagine they are the same way.

On Taneycomo we have caught a mix of white fleshed stockers and some that had pink flesh. I assume that means they were fish that had been in the river for a while. The pink fleshed fish did seem to have a better flavor but it wasn't enough to be a game changer to me.

I gave these to my pops to smoke. I'll eat them but definitely prefer other fish like white bass and crappie. The secret is lots of Andy's seasoning. You could probably roll a dog turd in that stuff and make it edible lol I don't eat smallies but they probably taste just as good as the green bass. Green bass from cold water taste as good as anything that swims.

Caught 16 in the first 45 minutes. The first one was a 22 incher skinny rainbow that only weighed 2.95lbs. I ended up with another 18 incher and two regular stockers that I put on the stringer. All fish were caught on a 1/16oz brown and orange marabou jig I tied a few nights earlier. I had tag 600 something at 6am so I'd bet they only sold 1000 adult tags and stocked 6000 fish. Should be plenty of fish left for a while with the weather that is coming.

I seen one out scurrying around in the woods last weekend. My brother had one in his back yard rooting around yesterday. He walked right up behind it and tossed some rocks at it just messing around and it was oblivious that he was right there behind it. He recorded it on his Iphone and I thought it was pretty funny. It's technically illegal unless they are destroying your property. I'm not sure digging in the woods counts. You also have to report them to MDC. Here is a reply from MDC I found on Facebook when asked if it is legal to kill armadillo's. With that all said, I would have probably just kill them and not worry about it like everybody else. and just for good measure and a laugh, here is an armadillo gathering leaves and dancing to Michael Jackson - Billy Jean.

The fresh shad statement is important. You can use shrimp, livers, etc but fresh shad is hard to beat, especially for nicer fish. It takes a little bit to get the hang of a cast net, but once you do you can throw one without even thinking about it.

I'll be down Saturday morning for a few hours.

Which species are you wanting to catch? You will have to contend with shallow water everywhere you go minus the few miles near the MO River. The bass fishing get's a lot better the farther up the river you go. Catfishing is good on the lower stretches closer to the MO River.

The whitetail deer is one tough critter!

I figured there was going to be reports of shad pouring through TRD after this brutally cold winter. What happened? Not enough generation?

Nice fish!

Hank Cherry held his own with the jerkbait last year. Hopefully he does well again. I'm rooting for him or Palaniuk to seal the deal and win it this year.

Nope, never been there. I've heard others talk about it though. I've stories about good catfish and hybrid fishing there during the winter but the few first hand reports from guys that have been there didn't have much success. A few years ago, a guy did hook and get on video a huge blue during the dead of winter.

The riverd have been in the 36-37 rsnge for the past month. This warm up should raise those trmps sbove 40 though I hope! I've been dying to get out and hit the Osage but I prefer the water 40 or above at least. I struggle when it dips below 40 u less I fish springs. That's almost too easy though.

They had the handicap hole marked off. It looked like they were going to pour a new concrete walkway. There was a big machine down by the bathrooms that I believe May of been using for dredging. The half of the stream on the bathroom side was weed free and the bluff half was still full of weeds. Those are the only two things I noticed.

That's a good example of what the trout parks will be like this year since it opens on a Saturday.

I've resorted to fishing trout parks. That's about the only option I have right now without driving a really long ways. Hopefully we get this warm spell later this week they are calling for. I'd much rather be fishing some real water out of the boat.

I went today and posted a report. It was about perfect in my opinion. Cold enough to keep most at home but warm enough that my hands didn't even get cold. The snow made everything look really pretty which was just a bonus on top of a decent day of fishing.

I pretty well had the stream to myself today. The cool temps and snow kept most people at home. The fishing was decent. I landed seven rainbows, seven smallmouth, and one largemouth on a brown jig. I switched to the fly rod the last two hours of the day and landed three more rainbows and two goggleye on a chartreuse and red glo ball fished a couple feet below an indicator. The first fish of the day was my best. It was a very colorful and scrappy rainbow around 15" long.

LOL, that's some good stuff.

Last year during mid-March, our two boats caught 60-70 crappie in Flat Creek and about a half dozen were around the 14" mark.

I switched from 14# Trilene XL to Vanish this year on my jig/trig setup. I'm curious to see if I have the same trouble with losing lures. I don't think I broke one off all last year on the 12-14# XL but several guys I fish a club against seem to break fish off on the hook set a lot. I know some use Big Game and not sure about the others. Never understood how people could break that many fish off using bass tackle.