Seth

I've fished the Mississippi a handful of times and we always caught fish. The Missouri is far more hit or miss and the water is a lot faster. It also seemed like anywhere within 10 miles of an access or river confluence was full of set lines and I'm sure that takes its toll on the number of decent fish over time.

I had some blackened crappie last week that was really good. A little olive oil, some blacken seasoning and a cast iron skillet is all you need. If you can't have olive oil or any seasoning then I guess you're just screwed.

Our Walmart has been pretty well cleaned out for the past week on meat. The smaller grocery store a few minutes away had plenty though so I went ahead and bought 20# of pork butts, three family packs of porksteaks and 20# of burger. I've got enough fish, deer, elk and turkey in the freezer to last a long time, but the fiance needs her beef, chicken and pork.

Yep!

I've had good luck buying barely used Tourney Pros on the internet. I usually get them for around $100. I'll drop them off at the Lews Factory Outlet in Springfield every few years to have them thoroughly cleaned and they keep chugging along. With that said, I bought a Tatula TWS SV last year and I think I may be a Daiwa guy from now on. That just feels like a more solid reel to me and it's almost impossible to backlash. My Lews still get plenty of use though and throw great.

I can handle being around smoke better now than I could when I was younger. My step mom would come pick me up from basketball practice after high school and I'd just about throw up when I'd get in her car from the strong smell of cigarettes. I'm just unable to comprehend how cigarettes can be even remotely appealing. I've smoked a few cigars and they at least had a sweet taste to them. The smoke part didn't do anything more. I'd have been just as content sucking on an unlit cigar.

It's just shredded meat used in a soft taco. If you have the meat chopped/shredded all that is left is to throw it in a skillet with a little grease on high heat to give it some crisp and warm it back up and then add it to a tortilla with toppings of your choice. I used avocado slices, cilantro, diced onion and tomato and some lime juice. Really it ain't much different than your turkey salad sandwich aside from you're just changing up the ingredients.

You fix that by running to the back of the boat screaming "GIANT" at the top of your lungs. Gets them away from the trolling motor and everybody within hearing distance thinks "Now that guy must be a pro!". For a serious answer, you just grab the cable and lift up the trolling motor like you always did before IF you're using an Ultrex. Everything disengages when the trolling motor is stowed. Otherwise I just try to fight the fight in the middle or back of the boat away from the trolling motor without the screaming part and not worry about it. Spot lock will keep the boat in place so no worries about floating off. I always spot lock when I hook in to a good fish and focus on landing it.

I made carnitas from my jake using the legs and thigh meat and it was more meat than I could eat in four days. The meat was slow cooked in chicken stock for 8-10 hours and then removed and shredded. The taste wasn't quite as good as it could be as I didn't have some of the items needed in the recipe, but it was still pretty darn good after you added cilantro, diced onion, diced tomatoes and lime juice. Dad got a jake a few days ago and gave me the legs as I wanted to try carnitas again, but change it up a little bit. Another guy I know said he likes to smoke the meat to infuse some extra flavor in them before slow cooking them and removing the meat. We grilled some burgers yesterday so I threw some hickory in the charcoal after the burgers were done and let the turkey meat sit on there for a while. The legs and thighs are packaged separately and frozen now till I decide to cook them at a later date. Next time I will be sure to slow cook them with the extra seasonings and orange to infuse a little more of that citrus flavor. I was guilty of breasting birds and leaving the rest for the varmints, but those days are over. Wild turkey carnitas aren't much work, but the process of getting the meat table ready does take time.

@fishinwrench lake bassin is one thing I haven't done a lot of so I'd be well behind the curve and knowing their patterns compared to you guys that actually chase them often. I do wish I had LiveScope to see if I could target some of the larger bass in a local 180 acre lake that I fish. I've heard of guys in similar sized lakes catching larger than average bass suspended well off the bank and using Live Scope to put spinnerbait or swimbait right in their face. I know once the spawn is done in my local lake, it's about impossible to catch anything over 3 lbs. You can catch some good fish up fairly shallow during prespawn so they are in there. I've scanned a big portion of the lake and haven't really been able to get one deep fish in the warm months though.

Are we talking snagging paddlefish or bed bass? The paddlefish I could pull off if I had Livescope. Many already are. Nick Ault has been doing it a lot this year over on the Niangua arm. Pretty neat watching his videos.

I just paid 1.67 here at the nearest station for 87 e10. The 91 octane ethanol free was 2.37.

I could be wrong, but I think Wigwam gets the biggest portion of the snagging boats. It holds a ton of boats and the way the roads are, it is usually just easier to go to Wigwam. I’ve only seen Browns Bend from the water a few times while fishing and it didn’t seem nearly as hectic as Wigwam.

The gobblers have been thin around here for us the last two years, but we have been seeing quite a few jakes. The next couple years should be pretty decent for two year old birds if they stick around. I need to try the turkey leg carnitas. I’ve used them for dumplings and it turned out great.

That’s all that was available at the Wally World last week. All the 80/20 and 73/27 was bough out. Made for some dry meatballs.

I've been eating quite a few of them lately and I honestly can't tell any difference between them and the crappie I've been catching. I wish people would keep every one of the little suckers!

The problem is the regulations they have in place on the lake. They have a 12-15” slot limit in place. I wish they would up it to 15-20”. Not that people actually pay any attention to those rules out there. That is blatantly obvious when the crappie are biting. Most I see just keep everything they catch instead of adhering to the 15 fish limit.

Nope. She came from a 180 acre lake near where we live. It's over run with little dink bass and fish like these are rare birds. I grew up out there and have fished it my entire life and my best is only 6.5# and I caught it probably 20 years ago.

My buddy caught this one yesterday. She was 22" on my golden rule, had a 17" girth and weighed 7.20 pounds on a digital scale. He weighed her right after she was caught and a few hours later after being in his livewell and came up with 7.20 each time. I witnessed him weighing her the second time. It's the second heaviest bass I've seen with my own eyes. That fish in the picture is pushing 24" and as round as a basketball so surely it's pushing 9# or better.

We won’t have to worry about it for a while. I saw on Facebook where they are closing it down after today....

That oughta restock the walters, white bass and smallies.

Bummer, but totally understandable with everything going on.