Seth

I'm hoping and praying for some warmer weather. Last year we had very mild weather for the two weeks before snagging season and the fishing was awesome that first night. The following weekend it was cold as heck though and my buddy and his dad snagged for 8 hours on the James River and the only fish they hit was 10 minutes after they started right underneath the bridge by Bridgeport LOL.

That's kind of what I figured, but it might be worth it to try some day just to save a little fuel and explore a new area. Thanks for the info.

I've never snagged on lake of the Ozarks and everybody I know that does snags up the Osage arm of the lake. I read that there is some good paddlefishing from Highway 54 down to the big/little Niangua confluence. This is also a lot closer to me that the Warsaw area so I'd be interested in fishing this. Let me know if anybody knows this area and has caught paddlefish there.

Man I have said it the past two years about coming up there and I just haven't done it yet. I always end up heading down to the Tablerock to snag. A buddy of mine and I are going to try fishing those spoonbill tourneys on Lake of the Ozarks held by The Old Oar House Inn and Snagmasters this year. We've never snagged up on LoZ before so it will be a new experience for us. We tear the paddlefish up down on Tablerock so maybe we can do the same on LoZ. Well time to get back to wrapping the new rod guides on my surf rod....

Good luck! I wish I could be snagging right now so bad. It's all that I can think about lately. This past weekend I respooled all of my reels with some new 80# Power Pro and putting some new rod guides on one of my snagging rigs. I think my girlfriend is getting tired of me talking about paddlefish and season hasn't even opened yet.

Shawncat, I seen two big ones on stringers about 5 pounds a piece. We fished on the bluff side of the Lacy Hole Sunday and caught several in a couple hours. It wasn't nearly as bad as Saturday and I think the fish bit even better too. My girlfriend caught 6 or 7 and I brought in atleast a dozen. Several nice ones around 15 too and thick. I'm going to eat some of my catch tonight when I get home. YUM YUM!!!

Well you can't really compare a little trout park to big ol Taneycomo now can you? It sure beats sitting inside due to ice/snow storms whether it's crowded or not and the temps are in near 70.

I caught about 20-25 fish. My buddy and his dad probably caught more then that. Started out fishing right above the log just below the second cleaning station with a white rooster tail and caught about a dozen I'd guess. Not many people were catching fish at a fast pace around me, but those trout sure liked the rooster tail. Fish bit good there for a couple hours and then slowed down. We also fished at the bridge for a while and caught several trout on powerbait, trout worms, and jigs. It was a bit chilly this morning because I didn't bring a coat, just a polypropylene thermal shirt. Once the sun got up above the trees, it was awesome out there. I'm going back down tomorrow during the day and bring my girlfriend and maybe one of my little brothers friends who wants to try trout fishing. Hopefully it's not QUITE as packed tomorrow. We shall see. Seth

You don't have to have an extremely heavy setup to catch paddlefish like most thing. Last year I broke out my 10' medium action surf that was spooled with 20 lbs test for the heck of it and landed a 50 pounder. It was like ultralight snagging for paddlefish LOL. The only problem with lighter setups is hook penetration sometimes isn't as good as you would like. Glad to see you back in business on here Duckman. I figured you would be showing up shortly with paddlefish season on the horizon.

I'm not sure what it will be like up at Ashercane bottoms, but I know down at the mouth of flat creek it looks like christmas time. With it opening on the weekend this year, it will probably be worse unless the weather is really crappy. I don't know if you will have to worry much about running into the stumps at Ashercane Bottoms this year as the water is pretty high. You have to hang pretty close to the banks to worry about hitting the stumps anyhow. We like to go right up a long the tree line snagging because the spoonbill use them as cover just like any other fish I think. That's our most productive technique.

I usually snag on Tablerock, but will probably come up there this spring for the Snagmasters tournament. If you want to tag along, I'm sure I will have some room. It's on April 19.

Some guys over at catfish1 went crappie fishing and didn't catch anything. They said that they seen a few caught, but that was it. He gets his handle from being such a dead eye when it comes to deer hunting.

Uh huh....tell us another one sir. I think you done seen that Taneycomo squid one too many times already.

I started fishing the tailrace last year also, but the only thing I managed to catch was a mess of crappie and a few whites on the last trip of the summer. The first time I fished it was during snagging season and I went up there with my bait caster to try for whites/hybrids. They never bit on my bait, but the guys besides me were using those slab hunters and caught several hybrids and a whole bunch of whites. I'm going to try my dangdest to get some slab hunters and catch my first hybrid up there this year. They really put a strain on the tackle from the looks of it. I can't wait.

Trav, I always thought that if I used a 5" stick bait that I wouldn't catch small trout either. They have proven me wrong just about everytime I've used that bait though LOL. Trout are worse than bass I think when it comes to trying to eat something that's way too big for them. Congrats on the brown. You really do need a camera to snap some pictures of these brutes. I believe that you do catch them, but seeing is believing and we all love big fish stories w/ pics the most.

I bought a new leader yesterday so I could go down today, but then I remembered that I am supposed to help my buddy on his house. Hopefully, I can make it down next weekend sometime. Bring back a good fishing report for me.

1. #20 Ginger G-bug 2. Black unweighted pine squirrel 3. #10 olive or black wooly bugger 4. #16-20 tan or grey scud .....and if the fish are really tight lipped and I feel like beating the outlets, I use a brown foam fly that imitates hatchery food. It's cheap, but it's fun if you just want to catch fish.

Yea Phil, don't sweat it buddy. Trav might catch some nice fish, I don't doubt that, but he's still a d-bag in my opinion. He's probably one of those guys that would take the rod away from his son to say he caught a big fish. Leonard would be forcing somebody else to take the rod from him instead. Trav, if you're the best, you should be winning EVERY tournament that Lilley has. I mean come on, it's already in the bag by the way you talk.

Man I can't wait for snagging season to open up here in MO this year. You guys are lucky that you can do it year around down in OK. I'd snag all year long if I could, it's so much fun.

The James River arm of Tablerock is where I am going to be opening night. With the opener being on the weekend, I doubt I snag any besides the first night because it will be a mad house. We always have our limit before daylight too so that helps also. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we have a week of warm weather before opening day like last year. The bill were up on top rolling around and we clobbered them the first night. Flatcat, where are your hunting grounds for bills and are you also Flat_Cat on the catfish1 forums?

What the hell are you talking about? I've caught a bunch of fish on those FREE flies thank you very much.

Wow this turned in to a "my **** is bigger than yours" topic. That's sad to see. I don't know Trav, but what I do know is that Mr. Leonard is a lot of fun to fish with and is EXTREMELY generous when it comes to teaching somebody else his tricks to catching fish. Heck the man sent me and my friend several thousand midges to FOR NOTHING!! I've had the most fun catching trout on a black pine squirrel that Leonard gave me for FREE the last time I was down on Taneycomo fishing. Trav, I'm sure that you catch all of your fish from a boat correct? I'm going to bet that not everybody has a boat to fish from, but anybody can fish from the trophy area from the bank. I'd say catching a big fish from the trophy area will draw more interest than catching them down lake, at least for the non-boaters here. I have nothing against you Trav, but seeing as how you like to down play Leonard because he gives good advice and DOES catch big fish, you must be trying to make up for some other downfall's in your life. Honestly, what's the point? It just makes you look like a big headed, egotistical jerk. Post some pics of your big browns, we would all like to see them and besides....seeing is believing. I think we all need to just calm down and go fishing.

I'll make it down there sometime before snagging season hopefully. Leonard is the master....*bows down*.

Every weekend except the 9-10 of February. I'm going to be down at the boat show in St. Louis that weekend. Let us know so we can get something figured out.

Liar! You are dreaming and Leonard really doesn't exist. All those flies he told you about are merely a figment of your imagination. Those fish you seen him catch aren't real either.