Seth

IF there is enough water, then I would think they would keep moving on up as far as they possibly can.

Here's one I got Tuesday at about 8:40. Watched him and 5 other gobblers hang out in the middle of a field for almost 3 hours before they came by close enough for a shot. They wouldnt come into any calls or decoys, just chased each other around and eventually meandered by me. He weighed 18 pounds and had a 10.5" beard and a 4" beard. He is the second double bearded beard of my career and my second in a row also.

Me and 3 other fellers snagged the James from 10:30 Friday night till 5:30 Saturday morning. We ended up catching 12 paddlefish. We had 4 of them that we had three that were short and put them back. All but one of the fish we had was over 50 pounds. I caught one that was 67lbs and my buddy had one that was 69lbs, but that was after they had been out of teh water for almost 6 hours before being weighed so I wonder how much weight they had lost drying out??? We hit the first one trolling by the mouth of flat creek. Then we got into a most of them around asher cane bottom on a flat that was about 12 foot deep. I picked up one about 40 by the white boat house at the upper end of ashercane bottoms. It was definetly the best snagging trip I have ever had. At one point one of the guys hit 5 fish in less than 10 casts I guess, although nobody else in the boat was hitting anything. He is always lucky like that though

Encarnacion or however you spell it needs to go back and learn how to use two hands and catch a simple fly ball. Albert is the hero and saved the day yesterday though I bet Dunn felt happy to be the league leader in homers for atleast an hour haha.

Anybody been recently to verify if the sows are moving up the James yet? We was told the other day that they were catching some 90 pounders up by point 15.

Buddy of mine heard a rumor that the big sows are running up the james now good and heavy. Any local snaggers been recently to verify this?

Well whoever says that Izzy scares them, I totally agree. He always walks the bases loaded. I think he is the most overrated closer . Just look at him the other night, juicing the bases with walks then has the ball smacked out of the park. They should let the other guy (can't think of his name right now) be the closer for a while, he looks pretty good. Oh btw, did anybody manage to get tickets to a game this year? Me and my buddy tried and tried to get tickets but never could. I guess we will have to try and buy some off ebay from some scalpers if we plan to go see a game this year. GO CARDS!!!

What are the best places to find these things. I have snagged a few on the osage river while paddlefish snagging, but never got into a mess of them. A lady I work with showed me pictures of her husband with about 20 of them he snagged last weekend on the Missouri River. She said that he was around Hermann/New Haven. Are the behind every wing dike on the Missouri or what? THese things are such a blast to catch, and around here the paddlefish are small anyways so I would rather catch me some bigheads.

I also went Saturday with my parents and girlfriend. Fishing wasn't too bad. Jigs worked the best. They were tough to keep hooked though. Lots of fish at the bridge and the riffle between the bridge and the bathroom hole. I can't think of the name of it right now. Caught a few that were river fish I would guess. They were short and shaped like footballs and had hooked jaws. Beautiful weather and lots of fun though.

Just wondering if anybody has been down there recently and seen if the water was still up and running murky.

I will have to read up on this. Only time I go snagging is when my buddy or my dad goes and takes the boat. My little ranger is not up to pulling a boat for heck. But I would love to drive somewhere and snag from the bank, then I could just go whenever I wanted. Do you have a map of where you snag from the bank mainly? Also, are there any baitshops or w/e I can stop by if I head down that way and get some pointers. Thanks, Seth

Brett and his clients catch a load of lunkers over 20" wading in the trophy area. I hope I get the chance to have him guide me one day.

That is an absolute toad. As for you fishing bass baits for big browns, couldn't you put like a stinger treble hook or something at the end of the bait? One day I am going to head down there to taney and fish big bass plugs the whole time I am there and hope for one of those mega browns to make the mistake of chomping on my lure.

I take it you guys fish from the bank there at Schell Osage. I wouldn't mind trying that out if the snagging is that good. It is closer to home that Tablerock for me. I looked for Taberville on google earth and it took me to the middle of a field so I am not sure where you are talking about where you was snagging that well.

My dad and I and two buddies head up to Bagnell for some snagging this past Saturday. When we got there, there was hardly anybody in the parking lot, we figured this was a bad omen. We made our way to the bridge and talked to a couple boats and nobody had any fish at all. We figured we had wasted 2 hours driving up here. Well we snagged below the bridge a little bit and we hit four bigheads and landed two of them, both about 8-10 lbs. Talked to a few more boats and still not one fish for anybody. My buddy has a jet motor on his boat so we headed down river to through all of the shallow shoots to Cat Rock. Nobody else was down there becuase of the low water. I got us started with a paddlefish on my first cast and we ended up catching eight, six keepers and two that didn't measure. The biggest one we caught was my second one and it was 41" long from the eye to the fork of the tail and weighed 28 lbs, it is the biggest we have seen come out of that body of water in a while. Had a great time, but it still isn't as fun as catching them big spooners that are down on the James River of Tablerock.

Yes it was definetly packed during the daylight hours. We were crappie fishing and had to weave between boats from flat creek on up.

We all limited out fishing just above Flat Creek. My step mom even caught two in one cast. One was was right at 60 lbs and the other right at 30 lbs. That was pretty neat. We had a 70 lb, 60 lb, couple 50 lb (one was a big male), and then the rest were 35 and smaller. There was very few boats out at midnight. The paddlefish were sloshing all over the place. We hit a bunch of them at the tops of our jerks and they pulled off. We hooked probably 30 just to get the ones we landed in the boat. Today during daylight hours, we got some minnows and went crappie fishing, but the crappie weren't biting very well. Did see a bunch of snaggers when daylight came, and almost every boat had a fish or two hanging from it. It was the best snaggin trip I have had down there. I think this year will be a banner year for snaggers. Anybody else do good too? My step mom on the left with a 60 lber and a buddy of ours on the right with a 70 lber.

I got to thinking that I have had these little quantum ultralights for about 3-5 years now and I have NEVER took them apart and cleaned out the grit and old grease Do you guys have any info on what get's greased and oiled? I was going to take them apart and wash the parts in some soapy water and then dry with a wash clothes, but I don't know how they get oiled/greased. Thanks for any info. Seth

I can just imagine that sight lol. Yes I agree some of them ol ladies down there take there trout fishing serious hehe. I parked above the hatchery and walked down to the sidewalks. Normally when I am wearing waders I park in the gravel parking lot then cross the bathroom hole riffle. It was jam packed with people thats for sure. Lots of people were getting tangled quite often and getting aggravated lol.

I'll be hitting it at midnight on wednesday

My buddy and his girlfriend and then my girlfriend and I got down to the springs at about 1pm today. Fishing was pretty good, the catching wasn't. Got lots of bites, but had a heckuva time keeping them hooked. Rainbow and white powerbait got bit good. Also, my buddy used some brown "007" bait. I caught a few on the green body/head white rubber legged jigs. Three of us limited out and my girlfriend only landed one. Me and my girlfriend caught ours at the Lazy Hole and my buddy and his girlfriend caught all theres at the bridge. I was fun to fish in such beautiful weather. The crowds were pretty heavy also though. Right before the buzzer sounded I was fishing upstream from the Lazy Hole on the sidwalk and I seen one of the lunkers from opening day left over. I would guess he is about a 4 lbers. He came up and nosed my jig but turned away and then I lost him. Loads of fish in the Lazy Hole as always and there are a lot right along the sidewalks above the Lazy Hole. River was up a little bit and had more current than usual, but it's still pretty clear.

Will anybody be down snagging on the James the opening night? I got lucky and my spring break is the following week so I will down there with my dad hard at it as soon at midnight comes I wonder if these warm temps we have been having will have the water warmed up enough to make some paddlefish move up river already???? Usually I think we just get the resident fish that wintered in the James. All well, I know it will be fun and I can't wait.

I have a 10 foot surf rod that I use for snagging and the 2nd guide from the tip is messed up. I need to replace it and wanted to know what you guys do to remove old guides cleanly so you can put on a new one. Can I just scrape the epoxy off the thread with a scalpal or utility knife? Also, will I need actual rod wrapping thread to put on a new guide, or will regular sewing thread work ? Thanks for any help, Seth

They only way I ever fished them was by throwing them out, wait a few seconds for it to sink, then start reeling them in slowly while bouncing my rod tip up and down. It helps having a flimsy slow action rod. Those yellow Eagleclaw rods that a lot of people use are perfect for bouncing jigs.

Shawncat....that might be one of my jigs lol. I broke a few off horsing them in a little to hard the other day on 2 lb test. Pick up a few of those at DJ's there in town, they work really good even though everybody and there brother uses them down there. I am going to tie up a couple wooly bugger jigs as I call them for this weekend. Those were killer the past few years, but I just eventually lost them all and need to tie up some more. White and black ones were all I tried, but that is all I needed, the trout hammered them.