Seth

The guys I keep in touch with who snag the lake a lot are doing just fine. They take people out all the time and bring back 3-4 limits. I was up there last Friday and graphed plenty of fish at the heads of every major hole from Wigwam down to Mallard Bay. We snagged for two hours, hit five and then went crappie fishing. The fish were suspending at 20-25' over 30-60' of water though so snagging on bottom didn't do much for you. You had to be able to target that depth range. One of my buddies was up there and struggled, but he was only working the bottom even after I told him exactly what the deal was. I guess to answer your question, the snagging is fine for those who know what they are doing, but it's not so easy that everybody can go out there and pile them up right now. It's not due to lack of fish being around though.

Water temps were 49-55 degrees between the 66 and 54mm last Friday. Couldn’t tell you how the bass fishing was, but we did do well on the crappie and also caught five paddlefish.

Really? That's the opposite of what I've heard from guys I regularly interact with about fishing, but I understand that you also work with fisherman for a living so you deal with a lot more people than me. I've heard of far more Motorguides having a shaft get bent from striking something too hard. I'm not sure I've heard of anybody that I know experiencing this with a Minnkota though. I'm not sure about the mount quality. My Maxxum mount felt more solid than my Ultrex mount, but I can't say I've had any issues with the Ultrex mount so far either and I've been in pretty rough stuff so far. The bounce buster and shock system of the Ultrex mount is nice to have.

Hmm...I'm not sure on that one then. I'm running an old 728 bird on my front deck with the same cable that you should be using with your Helix 5. That same cable (MKR-US2-8) should work with all core and Helix units according to the website. https://www.minnkotamotors.com/learn/technology/trolling-motors/universal-sonar-2#HB

Being able to retie or move around the boat without being blown off a spot is incredibly handy. No more do I have to gripe about the wind blowing the back of the boat towards where I am trying to fish. I simply spot lock the trolling motor and go fish off the back deck of the boat now. This has been very beneficial lately while crappie fishing around docks on Lake of the Ozarks.

That's if you get the model with the built in down imaging transducer. The down imaging transducer is only compatible with the Humminbird units that have mega imaging. The model with the US2 transducer is still available and will work with any 2D sonar unit. You just have to buy the proper US2 adapter for your graph.

I bought an Ultrex this winter and it's amazing! Unless you go the Ulterra route for the remote stow and deploy, I highly recommend the Ultrex as it allows you to keep your cable steer foot pedal as well as giving you the I-Pilot features. Having to lean down and deploy a Terrova sucks....

You should be fine with the medium light setups then. If you don't have jigs yet, wait till you arrive and see what the water is doing. I personally fish a 1/16oz jig with 0-2 units, 3/32oz with 2-3 and a 1/8oz with 3-4 units. There are a couple of exceptions. If I'm fishing shallow, then I will go to a lighter jig. If the wind is blowing pretty good, then I will go to a heavier jig. There are some holes I fish down near the Landing that are 20' deep and will always use a 1/8oz jig there simply because it takes forever for a lighter jig to get down near the bottom. Of course if the fish are midging and hanging out near the surface, then I'll use a light jig and fish high in the water column. These are all things you'll just have to figure out when you get down there.

Just buy jigs at Lilleys Landing. They have a great selection. As for gear, I use a 6-6.5' light action spinning setup with 2# line for 1/32-1/16oz jigs. If I am fishing an 1/8oz jig, then I will bump up to 4# test and possibly a medium light action rod. If you don't have the proper gear, I believe Lilleys will also rent you the proper setups for a day for a reasonable fee. If you're not familiar with what you need, then I'd recommend taking them up on that offer. @Phil Lilley

Go to the trophy area and toss a white or sculpin/olive jig for a chance at both. If you strictly want to target a nice brown then tie on a jerkbait, head to trophy run and pound the bluff banks from there down to the Narrows and then switch sides and fish the rock bank side down to Fall Creek.

I’ve been on Taney a lot the past few years so it is very possible. I fish Phils winter trout tourneys and usually make a few trips down in the summer and fall.

I think I'm going to love that Head Turner based on what I've heard about it. I'm a die hard spinner bait guy so it will see a lot of time in my hands. Another guy I know who is a Falcon guy also recommended that Deep Cranker rod for the 130 plopper. I'm fairly knew to ploppin so I'm not quite ready to pick up a dedicated setup for it just yet. Plus I don't really fish anywhere that allows me to do any deep cranking so I can't really justify picking one up just yet. I've been throwing them on a Skeet Reese 7'2" jig/worm rod with 65# braid and doing alright, but something with a more moderate action would be ideal.

Everybody wanting to give you their hard earned money so they can go fishing and you're depriving them of this. BACK TO WORK!

That make sense. I figured there was something I wasn't picking up. All I know is that if it's dirty, I fish shallow and if it's clear, I usually move out deeper. Never really thought about the muddy water keeping the deeper water from warming up as well.

I'm going to be purchasing a couple Falcon Cara or Expert series rods this spring before our bass tournaments get up and rolling. I'm for sure getting a finesse jig (6'10" MH/MF) and a head turner (6'10" H/MF) as those two rods will probably see the most usage based on how I typically fish. The next rod that I need to decide on will be for pitching jigs/trigs and occasionally tossing a 130 whopper plopper, which weights 1.5oz. I'm torn on whether to get a froggin rod (6'11" H/F) or the Amistad (7'3" H/F). Most of my fishing in close quarter since I typically fish the Gasconade, Osage and Maramec rivers or near docks when I get on a lake. Which one would you prefer? Also, is there much difference between the Cara and Expert line ups? I've held both and they are both really awesome feeling rods.

@Old plug are you trying to say that dirty water doesn't heat up as fast as clean water or am I misunderstanding you? That's the opposite of what happens.

Here's a few pictures from the day.

Took the hunting and fishing club kids from the school district I'm employed at down to Maramec Springs for our annual field trip. The water was slightly up and dingy, but the fish bit very well. Lots of really nice fish in the stream. I measured a couple that the kids caught that broke the 15" mark. One kid had one that I'm certain was 16-17", but he released it so he didn't have to stop fishing as he already had three on the stringer. An orange trout worm was by far the best bait. Several kids who had never trout fished before used that worm all day long and caught 10 or more trout. Every single kid that went caught trout and most caught at least a limit, but many only kept three so they could fish all day. I caught most of mine on the worm as well, but also had a couple on a black/yellow marabou jig and a white trout magnet. This was by far the best fish catching trip that we've had since I took over the club five or six years ago.

A buddy was fishing back in Indian Creek this past weekend and said it was muddy.

We didn't make it that far up the Gravois, but the main channel near Coffmann was pretty dirty Monday when I was up there chasing crappie. Main channel temps were in the mid 40's and the cleaner creek water was in the lower 40's.

Most of the time I catch my fish off of the same half dozen docks. Being forced to use my electronics and find fish is almost as fun as catching them. I always tell people that crappie are one of the easiest fish to catch once you find them. The finding them part can be easier said than done this time of year. After we had our limits, I graphed around several other secondary points with features similar to where we caught our fish and they were dead. I have no idea why that one spot was so good and everything else was totally void of fish. That's crappie for you though.

The cleaner creek and cove water showed 41-42 and the dirtier main lake was 45-46.

Got started about 3pm and hit a few of my normal go to docks. Nothing happening. Decided to run towards the back of a creek arm and scan secondary points. Got lucky and found a good one with a bunch of shad and crappie in short order. Took me and my buddy about an hour to get our two limits. Lots of nice black crappie. Several were 12-13". A few white crappie mixed in as well that weren't nearly as meaty as the blacks. The fish were anywhere from 2' off the bank to directly under the boat. My buddy used Monkey Milk and I used black/chart and orange/chart and we went fish for fish nearly the entire time so color didn't really matter. This post has been promoted to an article

Tharp and Christie, the two guys I thought would be my best, killed me!