Seth

I ran Airstreams for years and they did a fine job, especially for the $60 price tag. However, I had Mike Riffel build me a custom rod on the MHX S842 blank in 7' light action with a Tennessee handle and it's incredible! It ran me $180 for the rod and I paired it up with a Shimano Stradic FL 1000 and 3# Maxima Ultragreen. My Airstreams are just backups for when I bring other people who aren't setup for jig fishing now. @JestersHKruns St Croix Avid rods and those are pretty nice for a mass produced rod. That would probably be my choice if I didn't get the custom S842. Mike builds those rods with the FUJI SK2 split grips for guys too as some people aren't a fan of the Tennessee handle. That's just a personal preference. The only pitfall of the Tennessee handle is that you can't swap reels. That's why I splurged on a good reel for it otherwise it would probably have a Plueger President 25 like most of my light gear.

I think there was 10-12 when they last held it. You can fish anywhere and all fish count since it's a measurement tournament. If you catch a 16" brown then you get 16" towards your total after your measure it on the bump boards that Lilleys provides everybody. It's more fun to fish the trophy area, but if you actually want to win then you'd be better off finding eddies full of stockers down below the trophy area. Catching dinks all day gets old after a while though. I'd be down there if it weren't for the conflicting schedule with our bass clubs first tourney this weekend. The only way I'll be able to make it is if the Gasconade comes up enough this week to force postponement of the tournament to a later date.

I'm building a couple of new 8x3x1 raised beds and am wondering if I should till the sod before I set them in to place and add the soil mix?

Here's the video from Snagmasters.

The first trip below Bagnell was pretty slow on opening day. I went to LoZ three more times and each time was pretty good. Biggest we boated this year was 68lbs, but we had quite a few low 60s. Seems to be a good supply of those in LoZ right now. We fished Snagmasters and didn't have any problem catching our three man limit, but our biggest fish was only 60.7lbs and it took 67lbs to place in the money. I took my nephews on their first trip. It was a bit stressfull having that many people in my boat, but they had a ball reeling in some big ol spoonies.

Set the boat in 12-20' of water the near mouth of a cove with a couple minnow rods set 10' deep and fished vertically while you fan cast a jig towards the bank. Target multiple stages of fish and reap the rewards. No Livescope required! We've fished this same way several times this spring and we've limited out 2-4 guys every time.

My father in law would use straight seasoned flour on fresh suckers and boy was it good! The only downfall was it trashed the oil a lot quicker than using cornmeal.

I keep telling myself that I need to order some to keep on hand, but I always forget until it's time to fry fish. Lousiana and Andy's yellow have been working just fine. HOnestly I could just season up some regular corn meal myself and it would taste fine. Few dabs of hot sauce and down the hatch!

Zatarains Crispy Southern. The local Walmart stopped carrying it so I've been using Andy's yellow.

They don't get much better than that bird! Congrats! I'm hearing quite a few, but they are hanging out all around the property I'm on and not moving my way. Last weekend during youth season, dad said they saw all sorts of bearded birds on the place. There's a group of three that are roosting close, but just don't want to come my way. Hoping that changes soon.

Figures. I thought real hard about picking him and said Nope, not falling for that again. That's how Lee Livesay was for me last year. Every time I picked him he bombed and excelled when I didn't.

Same here. Of course everybody I pick has been burning me this year so I guess it really wouldn't matter! 😆

I emailed MDC and the Camden CO CA sent me this. Before he sent that, I got on Google Earth and checked the elevation along the path of that part of the river and it said it was over 660' right around that vicinity as well. @fishinwrench you were right on the elevation deal. I'll have to keep that in mind for other bodies of water. This is the image the CA sent me. Purple mark is the cut off.

Anybody know where the Big Niangua stops being considered part of Lake of the Ozarks and an ozark stream instead? Know a few guys who ran up the rivers this past weekend during the Bash and it had me wondering since Ozark streams are currently closed for possessing bass.

Harvesting a gobbler and finding morels to boot is hard to beat! I had one start hammering at 6:20 after it had hit the ground. Thought he was crossing the field, but I was wrong and he stayed in the timber and headed west. Would have been a lot easier if he had given away his position on the roost. I guess I need to start going out in the evenings and try to roost them if they are going to be like this. Dad and my brother each got toms this morning. I'm slacking!

@JestersHK you mean you ate somewhere in Branson that wasn't Sonic? Who are you and what have you done with the real DJ? 😄

I'm bummed I won't make it this year. Our first bass club tourney is the same day. 😫 @JestersHKwas planning on going. Not sure if they had a spot for one more or not though. He usually fished it with me.

We fished some coves up the Osage and pulled out two limits of fish in the wind and rain. Very few under 10" with biggest being 12.5". Nothing huge. Tried the pattern in three different coves and it worked in each. Keep the boat in 12-20' of water (preferably within casting range of docks) and fish a few rods vertically with minnow tipped jigs about 10' deep and fan cast toward the banks/docks with a jig. Wind forced us to add a 3/4oz egg sinker about a foot above the jig to keep it down. Water temp was upper 50's. Another warm spell and I expect the fish to push up to the banks hard. Already some males up shallow scouting.

Helds Island on the Gasconade when the water is up can be tricky. I almost sank my boat there at 1am once. I took the father in law down there catfishing one night. When it was time to load the boat (at 1am), he didn't angle the trailer down stream and I thought I could make it on anyways. Goosed it a little late and the downstream corner got caught on the bunk and forced the upstream side down which started taking on water quickly. Luckily I was awake enough to jump up to the front and get the strap hooked so it wouldn't slide off the trailer and sink. Had to pull it up the ramp, let it drain for several minutes and then back it in and adjust it on the trailer. That was a tense situation.

As long as they are wide enough so you can jack knife the trailer so it's angled down stream it's not a problem. It always surprises me how few people actually do that in heavy current. Loading the boat is SO much easier that way.

I like the FG knot for my braid/fluoro setups, but I tie that one up at home and use an Alberto or double uni on the water if needed. My rods and tackle are pretty basic. I've been able to wittle it down to the basics after fishing out of my buddies boat more than my own last year during bass tourneys. I realized I really didn't need half the crap I usually brought along.

I used to fish with a guy like. Brought a dozen rods and a pile of tackle just to throw a jig, buzzbait and crankbait 99% of the time.

Looks like you got a carp, couple white suckers, golden redhorse and a northern hog sucker (aka hog molly as we call them around here). I'd be having me some fresh fried suckers if I had caught those! One of the best tasting fish that swim when fresh. Just takes a little more prep work to make them ready for frying. I've caught a few white suckers up to almost in the 4-5# range on Taneycomo (possible state records) over the years. Both state records came from Taneycomo and were in that size range.

The 60/40 would "work", but the 90 or 115 HP engines would do the job a whole lot better. I ran a 1648 with a 95 Yamaha 50/35 2 stroke jet with 4 guys and 400# of paddlefish in it once. That was interesting.....

I noticed that too. Just uploaded a new one. Looks like everything in the galleries besides what has been upload very recently is gone.