Seth

Small ones are pretty good. We caught one bass fishing that was probably pushing 15# one time that I cleaned and fried up. It was about like chewing on a tire.

You're right. I don't throw it that often. It's typically just a winter time deal for me on the rivers I fish as I can't seem to catch anything of quality of it once the water warms up. If I'm floating on a smaller stream then I will use it as well since you usually catch a bunch of bass along with panfish. They wear out a bait in a hurry and the ZMAN stuff is perfect for that type of fishing since it will last all day or until I break it off.

Turkey season was rough for us. Dad got his two toms but had to work for them. I settled for two jakes. It's been a long time since I've had to do that. The gobblers seemed to be on everybody elses ground but ours! I'm ready to take my frustrations out on some fish now as well! Hopefully they keep this generation pattern going and can finally get a true night fishing trip in this weekend. Not sure when I'll sleep because I'll be wanting to be out in the daylight in the Legend fishing too!

We just replaced our old HVAC with a high efficiency heat pump with propane backup. My days of burning wood are done and I doubt I miss it.

By going back and catching them. Sometimes I think I am marking crappie and it ends up being white bass, black bass or even big gizzard shad. Paddlefish on side imaging are fairly obvious since you can make out the outline of the fish.

Why haven't I ever thought about dock shooting a NED or grub for bass?! It makes perfect sense. I've always just skipped jigs with casting gear or used wacky senkos on spinning gear. I'm going to have to try doing that this year.

I'm excited for this trip. After CAM got cancelled and the big fish went nuts, I've been chomping at the bit to get back down there. @JestersHK and his pals can draw straws on who gets to fish out of my boat during the day. Chances are good that one of them will tie in to a big brown. The monkey on my back when it comes to browns is still alive and well for me, but seems to be graceful to others in my boat.

I'm going down to join DJ this weekend and I'd be thrilled with a 20"+ walter or brown.

Mega school of crappie under a dock on Lake of the Ozarks in the winter time 2d Images of spoonbill on Lake of the Ozarks Side imaging shots of paddlefish. The mega school is on the Osage River below Bagnell and the other is from the James River arm of Tablerock. Notice the thickness of the two shadows on the left side of the James River shot. Those are some big bellied sow spoonies.

I never new NED fishing had to be so technical. I've always just thrown it on a 6.5-7' M/F spinning with anywhere from 6# mono to 15# braid with a 10# fluorocarbon leader. I've never really noticed a difference in catch rates with any of those setups. No need to crack the fish either. Just reel tight and pull in to them. They rarely come unbuttoned. I've got a 6' medium light spinning outfit that I have tried for NEDs and don't like it. Lose too many fish. Not sure if it's due to the rod length or me not setting the hook hard enough. The 7' medium/fast outfits just feel a lot better to me.

I don't understand why guys go spend all that money on the graphs when they can't even understand what they are looking at. When I watch a video of something being used, I can tell you pretty quickly how it would benefit my style of fishing and whether it would be worth buying. So far, side imaging and the Ultrex are the only two items that I knew would instantly improve my fishing. Livescope and shallow water anchors would be handy in certain situations, but not enough to justify the expense for me. An extra graph at the console to be used as a dedicated mapping unit could be handy at times, but not enough to justify the expense for me. Maybe I'm just a tight wad......😁

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.