Seth

I've ate a lot of grain fed NOMO deer and plenty that have lived on acorns and I can't see where there is much difference in taste. Of the hundreds of deer that we've messed with over the years, I can think of three that tasted funky. Two were 4.5-5.5 year old bucks and one was a stunted doe (long nose but small body and had a fawn). Not sure what was up with them, but they had a "wang" to them. Dad and I usually harvest 10-15 deer between us each year so we've dealt with A LOT of deer over the years. We always process them ourselves. I've seen how several other people handle deer after they are killed and I'm not sure I'd ever take a deer from them if they offered. I think I'd be eating more hair than meat! I could eat the following venison treats/dishes every day of my life and die happy 1) jalapeno pepperjack sweet bologna from 5H Meats in Hermann 2) our homemade jalapeno cheddar deer brats 3) a hind quarter roast crock potted on low for 8-10 hours in Louie's Italian Beef seasoning, shredded and put on a bun with banana peppers and provolone cheese 4) a backstrap seasoned liberally with Greek seasoning and grilled rare-medium rare 5) thinly sliced backstrap stir fry with peppers, onions, mushrooms and broccoli 6) venison jalapeno poppers (sliced backstrap, chive and onion cream cheese, jalapeno slice, bacon,) 7) spicy chili with ground venison, shredded cheddar, hot sauce and sour cream 8) carne asada tacos

Very nice! Those smallies are a blast to catch.

Awesome! When in doubt, go shallow! I noticed the boat in front of you weighed in one for 6.45 (6.95 - .50 penalty). That's a slob for TRL! I'm guessing the penalty was for a dead fish though.

If you're only fishing a few bodies of water, you can save some $$$ buying by the lake on Humminbirds Chart Select site. I've only ever really needed one for LoZ and Tablerock so I bought those two and spent about half the cost of the Great Plains chip. If you will need it for more than three lakes though you're better off getting the chip and get all of the.

Now that you mention it, I can't recall seeing very many frogs or snakes on the Gasconade this year at all and I've been on it quite a bit.

I hate going there. Everytime I go, I end up hating my life because I ate WAY too much. 🤣 For real though! It’s well worth the trip. Bring your appetite! They don’t have a ton of entree options but everything they have is delicious. The desert bar is longer than the entree bar!

6-7' medium light is my go to for crappie fishing

Appreciate it man! I wish I was better and talking to the camera or showing the fish off but I get caught up in the fishing and forget a lot lol. Hopefully the commentary isn’t too cheesy and fills in the gaps.

We fly fished today between the Narrows and Point Royale from 10am - 4pm and did decent on white mega worms. Even lucked in to my new fly rod PB with this 20.5” rainbow.

Definitely on the spinning gear for me. The hooks are pretty thin and bend easily. I bet a medium action casting setup would probably work well too if one tried it. I just suck at casting anything lighter than 3/8oz on casting gear.

Had a decent first night. Both of us cracked 20” on bows. Followed up my 20.5” with my second best, a solid 19”. Caught most on black jigs again but several did eat the jerkbait.

We got out for the last few hours before dark and it was slower than I expected. We only boated 15 fish. My best was only 16”, but my buddy caught three that were 17-18”. He had two 20-22” class rainbows follow his jerkbait but they never committed to biting. I think half came from trophy area and the others came in the last 30 minutes near Short Creek. Most came on jigs but ye got a few on the jerkbait. I think we may go back up to the Narrows and toss jerkbaits around after eat. Depends how bad our food coma is.

I typically throw 1/16oz but will have 1/8oz ready for the deeper holes. A lot of guys like 1/32oz, but I just can’t get a feel for that one. It’s too light for my tastes.

Are you going to be down Tuesday and Wednesday of this week? Me and a buddy are coming down mid day Tuesday and coming back Thursday morning. Lilleys was full so we are staying at Lazy Valley. We'll be in a black Legend SS with orange decals and a 150 Etec outboard jet so you can't miss us.

You likely answered your own question in the first paragraph. Getting the jig down to the bottom is key unless it's cloudy and they are midging heavily. Keeping the jig down in heavy generation is really hard for those not used to it. They definitely scatter more when it's off, but you can typically see schools of them swimming around. Find an area with fish and just cast everywhere until you get bit and then fish that area for a bit before the school moves on. Rainbows in still water can be anywhere. Areas where you have a shallow flat next to deeper water is where I start. Fish shallow and deep and figure out where the active fish are relating. Cooper Creek Flats and Lilley's up to the first row of docks on the left are good areas for that.

I've never had an issue with it on the Flatland heads and the light wire 2/0 EWGs. Once you catch a few fish, they start to bend out a little bit anyways. You definitely wouldn't want to throw them on tackle much heavier than what I mentioned above. I'm sure somebody makes a version with a stouter hook if needed though. When I'm bit, I just reel down and pull in to the fish and they are pinned. Those light wire hooks are like a need through their jaws.

We're staying there in one of the small kitchenettes Tuesday and Wednesday night so surely we'll bump in to each other Wednesday. My buddy had an aunt pass away and the funeral is Thursday so we have to head out pretty early that morning to get back in time for that. I've got the big swimbaits and a rod to throw them in the rod box in case we do end up making it down lake.

A 3/16oz EWG NED head with a 2/0 hook paired up with a Z-man Big TRD is one of my go to lures when fishing gets tough . Smallies love it. It's more of a shakey head presentation than a true NED rig to me though. Regardless, it definitely works and I can throw in a lot of places I wouldn't dare throw a true NED rig. I've won more $$$ in tournaments on that little lure this year than anything else now that I think about it. Throw it on a 7' medium fast action spinning rod with 10# braid and an 8-10# fluorocarbon leader. I use this rig when it's warmer and go back to a true NED rig in 1/8oz or lighter when the water gets cold. The brand that I've used the most is Flatlands Custom Tackle, but it looks like there are several brands making the same style of jighead now. This is the Flatlands Custom Tackle head.

That last one is a unit!

Everything we caught was about 25-35 miles down river from the dam too. Crazy how the entire river seemed to follow the same pattern that day. I just finished up the video of the tournament and uploaded it to YouTube if you want to check it out. There's one decent largemouth at the beginning and the big smallie at the end. Everything in between was pretty slow.

Me and a buddy are going down Tuesday-Thurday of next week. I'm going to try and make myself actually attempt to bass fish but I'm sure we'll just end up wasting our time trying to catch a big brown up river. 😆

Says the guy that had a 27 pound limit last month in that moss. 😁

We hammered on some nice spots earlier this year when the Osage was running bank full. Golly are they fun! I keep hoping I'll find one of those Osage 4 pounders that I have heard about, but 3 pounds is about the best I can muster. They became a lot more elusive as soon as the water shut off though. Only a few over 2# were caught on the Osage last weekend. There were more smallmouth caught than I can ever recall for an Osage tournament though. Found this one that went 19.5" long on my very last cast of the day.

I'm a tight wad, but topwaters are one lure I don't mind spending more $$$ on since I rarely ever lose them. Breaking off $2-4 jigs, burning through $8 bags of senkos and hanging up crankbait adds up in a hurry though.

Welcome back @oneshot! We were worried about ya!