Seth

I inow I would love to be able to sell the eggs from just one big sow each year. That would more than pay for my fishing expenses for a spring! Also you can make your own caviar but the catch is the fish and eggs have to be transported home whole. If you clean the fiah on the water then you have to dump the eggs.

Ashercane Bottoms. With the lake being low for a while I doubt theres many if any fish that far up river. Last year wasn't a high water year really so there probably wasn't many that got stuck up river either. The river either needs to stay low or get really high for the snagging to be really good. If it's so-so then I don't tend to do as well because the fish can run up a ways but not far enough to get to the best holes. If it's really low then they are pretty much stuck from McCords Bend on down.

We had our best luck on black/chart and orange/chart tubes and straight chartreuse swimming minnows this past weekend. Orange/chart and black/chart tubes are my go to lures for crappie everywhere. They rarely let me down.

Nice haul! I wish it had been that way two days ago! It was slow up there then.

Our boat landed six fish and lost several other between 12-5:30am the first morning. My buddies boat landed 10. I dont know if they had any big ones or not but he did say they had several small ones. Only four of ours were keepers and they weighed 62,62,50, and 24. We got ticketed for not labeling our fish at the dock so make sure you bring something to label them with. I forgot to grab the tags before we left since we used my buddies boat instead of mine and didn't realize it till we came in that morning after snagging and of course we didn't have anything else on hand to make due temporarily. The agent gave us some extra tags for the weekend and let us keep our fish since we it wasn't a major violation and we didn't try to hide anything.

I shoukd be down at Flat Creek with a buddy next weekend now. Soundsike we should be able to make it after all!

He also said as soon as the front moved in and they felt the temp start dropping the bite shut off like somebody flipped a switch.

My buddy called this evening and said the the three in his boat ended up with 39 keepers today. They caught the majority of them on shallow flats with no apparent cover around. They had 5 that were 14".

Mainly snaggers but they watched my buddy and his dad catch crappie in Flat Creek for a while. I hate to admit this but myself and another got ticketed at Bridgeport because we didnt have our paddlefish labeled at the dock. I ran off and left my tags at home but figured we would sleep a few hours a d get up and clean them early but the agents were already there and seen them. It is good to see them out doing their jobs though.

We caught a couple males up below blunks and then found a few nice sows by longs camp. Ive never caught those 2-3 pound sows before. They were an absolute blast on 4lb test!

We caught a three big sows and four nice males around McCords. The guys fishing below Blunks had a few but nothing great. They looked like males. We caught the sows down farther.

We will be down somewhere between point 15 and walnut springs.

We'll be down opening night and snag from 12am till daylight or whenever we limit out and then go in for a nap and get back out after the crappie and whites during the day on Friday and Saturday. We'll be in a camo Legend SS jet boat with a 225 etec on the back. Give us a shout if you see us!

Go out opening night or really early that day and snag before all the other boats get out there. The fish are usually piled up pretty good when you find them the first night but then scatter when daylight comes and everybody and there brother starts trolling around. Last year we found a hole of them and caught 22 in between 12-5am opening day. We went back the next night at midnight after they got pounded all day and only managed to catch three. I'll be sure to post a report on how we did and where we got them once I get back this weekend. If you have any questions you can always PM me and I'll explain what we are doing and recommend some areas to try. Good luck!

During really high water years you can catch the snot out of them up there. I'm not sure if the water was high enough last year to hold them up river though. I know we never did get in to them up by Nixa last year because the water wasn't quite high enough. The year before was a high water year and I heard they caught quite a few spoons up by the Springfield Dam right when season opened though. They were probably leftovers from the year before that just stayed up river all year long if I had to guess. I wouldn't be surprised if a few fish made it up that far with this recent high water but I wouldn't be there would be very many.

We are coming down for our annual opening day snagging trip this weekend and was also hoping to get in on some whites and crappie. I've heard the crappie have been biting decent but haven't seen anything about the whites yet. Usually see some reports by now of guys starting to catch them. I see where the James was at flood stage yesterday so that should bring a lot of water and current down the river in to Tablerock. Do you that will stimulate the whites to start moving up stream by the weekend or does it take more time then that?

Is this a conrete ramp that can be used to launch boats out of or is it still just for canoes?

I always liked tossing a spinner but never did have much luck with them. I'd get a fish here or there but never have caught a limit on them later in the day. Jigs and those trout worms have always been my best lures. Small beadhead nymphs under a float work pretty good as well.

Dad and a buddy went down yesterday and and said they fished 20 minutes and had two limits and were on there way to the cleaning station. They were fishing bait under a flat in the pond hole.

There was plenty of room everywhere I looked. The most crowded spot was the bathroom hole on the bathroom side just above the riffle. Every other hole was wide open for the most part. I'm sure it was worse during the early morning hours.

Pflueger President 6925 spinning reel - $60 Bass Pro Microlite 7' Light Action Rod - $50 Well within your budget and gets the job done nicely. This is the setup I use.

I got down there around 11am. My tag number was 810 so numbers were definitely down. Water is up and stained but there were lots of fish being caught. I caught a couple on a black/chart 1/16oz rubber leg jig and the others on rainbow powerbait. On my way out I stopped and seen a guy weigh a 6# on the store scale. Also seen a guy walk by with a giant on his stringer that he said weighed 8. I'd believe it as it was definitely bigger than the 6 that i got a good close look at. Very nice fish!

Me and a crew will be down at Bridgeport on the 14th and 15th and then coming home Saturday evening on the 16th. I've never been to a OA gathering due to living 3.5 hours away so I could possibly make this one for a bit if it's on the 16th.

I watch Wicked Tuna and Mudcats every Sunday.

Feb 11 is the last day so no it won't be open on Presidents day. http://www.maramecspringpark.com/maramec/fishing/fishing.html