Seth

Line size is dependent on lure choice. If I am throwing a 1/16-1/32oz jig then I will use 2# test. Sometimes I will fish a 1/8oz jig on the 2# test as well, but prefer 4#. For small jerkbaits, I use 4-6# and 8# for a bass sized jerkbait. My pb rainbow (27" 10#) was landed from a dock on 2# test.

I actually just remembered that we did fish together last year when we went on Tommy's wild goose chase. Longest drive I've ever been on just to go fish the Gasconade! 😂

Win one of Lilley's winter trout tournaments End @duckydoty's unbeaten streak at the CAM tournament (nobody said these had to realistic goals, right?) Try and get the fiance to fish one of the warmer weather trout tourneys that Lilley hosts on Taneycomo Fish with @Hog Wally! Float my local streams more instead of always dragging the jet boat to bigger water Catch a 20"+ brown trout Catch a money fish in the Fall Big Bass Bash

There's nothing flashy about it and it's hoosier as all heck, but catching those dinosaurs makes for a heck of a good time! Everybody should at least do it once.

Those how most of those lower Osage fish are though. I think the competition for plankton with the Asian carp has something to do with it. Then again, I remember them being like that before the Asian carp were an issue though too so I'm not really sure why they are so skinny. The reservoir paddlefish are usually much healthier looking. Those skinny Osage fish are the best eaters though! A guy will hang in to a big spoony down there every now and then though. @Hog Wally found one a few years ago that broke 60# if I recall correctly. Biggest one I've seen from there. We've caught some 40's, but never broke 50.

I ate the tenderloins and tried out a burger after getting the elk processed up and ready for the freezer. For the tenderloin, I cut it in half and seasoned one with salt/pepper and the other with greek and seared in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and then baked for 12 minutes at 350. It came out rare to medium rare and melted in your mouth. Yesterday I had an elk burger for lunch. It had zero of that "wild" flavor and tasted like extremely lean beef to me. I've ate a lot of whitetail and do enjoy it, but this elk beats the pants off of it when it comes to table fare!

I know it's probably not your bag, but you should go with me or @Hog Wally one of these days to the James or LoZ and tangle with a big one! The one you caught is just a little guy.

If you want to catch some paddlefish, just head up to the Bagnell and throw or troll a crankbait around. It's basically impossible to do anymore up there without hooking one of the darn things.

Awesome bucketmouth @Hog Wally! I'm so ready to get back on the water. I put the new Ultrex on the boat and then went off to Colorado chasing elk. I've been cleaning up my boat and tackle today while boiling some deer skulls for euro mounts so hopefully I'll be ready to roll starting next weekend. Ol Tommy has been pestering me wanting to head up to Thomas Hill for some crappie. I think that might be game plan number one.

I literally do this all year long on the rivers (when it's clear enough) with a light wire 4/0 worm hook and a pink trick worm. It's my favorite way to catch fish when the water clears up.

As for the other elk, Dad and my brother in laws dad killed both of their elk with dads 7mag using 150gr Federal fusions. Dad hit his once at 325 yards and BIL’s dad hit his twice around 150-200 yards and all shots were pass throughs. My BIl used 150gr Remington Cor-Lokt’s out of his .270 and had similiar performance to my Swifts on 200-225 yard shots. Bullet stuck under hide on side opposite of entrance.

I was hunting with a Browning AB3 in .270 win paired up with a Nikon Prostaff 3x9x40 scope. Nothing fancy. I think I got the gun new for around $400 and the scope for $150. The ammo used was a reload that a buddy made for me using Winchester brass, CCI large primers, 58.0gr of Reloader 22 powder and a 130gr Swift Scirrocco II bullet. My original plan was to use the tried and true 150gr Nosler Partition, but my buddy talked me in to trying the Swift reloads and I prefer the 130gr rounds for the .270 so I bit. They performed flawlessly! One of my shots was recovered from the hide on the opposite side shoulder and it retained 69% of the bullet weight. The factory advertises 60-70% retention. The Swifts are one of the most expensive bullets you can buy, but it still ended up being about half as cheap as if I had bought a couple boxes of premium factory ammo. I've very happy with how they have performed and will continue them in my .270. I may play around with the powder type used next time I reload after hearing others talk about the Reloader 22 (IMR 4350 seems to be the go to for the .270) having some issues in colder weather, but the stuff worked great for me this year in temps ranging 20-40 degrees.

I have to turn them on everytime I see it on the channel guide.

1. Smokey and the Bandit 2. Jaws 3. Forrest Gump 4. Rocky IV 5. Grumpy Old Men

We had some off the tenderloins from mine for dinner this evening. Dad browned the meat in flour and then throws it in a casserole dish with cream of chicken, potatoes, mushrooms and a few other things and bakes it till the potatoes are done. It was heavenly!

We roughed it and stayed at the Elkrun Inn in Craig. The rough part was we had to walk up the stairs to our room. 😁 This was essentially a long, glorified grocery trip for some elk meat. There had been about 60 head hanging around right before we arrived, but they headed west and it took a few days before some new waves came through so we could tag out. I’ve been saving up points since right after I graduated college and I have 12 now. One of these days i will cash them in for a good unit, but I need to save up my pennies for that one.

I drew a cow elk tag along with my dad, brother in law and his dad for a late season cow elk hunt. We head out from MO last Friday around 6:30pm and arrived in Craig, CO about 19 hours later. This was my first long drive across country. The two things I learned quickly is that driving through Kansas is less exciting than watching paint dry and those few hours before day light seem to be the roughest for staying alert while driving. Our hunt started Sunday and dad struck first that evening with a 325 yard heart/lung shot on a cow. Monday didn't produce anything, but we watched a herd of several hundred heading our way from the north from about 1.5 miles. On Tuesday morning, we arrived and as the land owner had expected, the herd was in the hay fields to the south and were crossing over to his ground. As they crossed over, my brother in laws dad was able to knock down a huge cow. My brother in law and I tried to get circled around and get another shot at the herd, but we got too far ahead and they passed behind us and got away. Nothing came back to the property that evening, but we did see another 40-50 head working there way towards us from the north again. This morning we got out at day light and glassed around for a bit and then eased our way back to the east side of the property. Right as we got to the eastern fence line, a herd of roughly 15 elk were coming up out of the bottoms and on to our side of the fence. They were 200-225 yards away and we both took shots at different cows. I hit mine and she ran off over the hill to the north and he missed on his first shot, but made a good lung shot on his follow up shot. His elk as still standing after he hit her so I followed up with a shoulder shot and put her down for the count. We waited about 30 minutes and then went to gut his and then went after mine. It had went about 70 yards and was laying in the brush with her head up so I had to put another shot in her head (actually two because I missed the first shot at 10 yards.....) and she was out. Dad has killed plenty of elk, but this was the first elk hunt and elk for me, my brother in law and his dad. They have done western hunts for antelope, but this was my first time out west. I love it and will definitely be looking forward to coming back again! The country is beautiful out here, especially when the snow is on. I definitely need to do a better job of getting pictures of the country side when I am here. We're staying one more night at our hotel and then heading out early between 3-4am and making the trek back to MO with . If all goes well, we should be back home around midnight tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to the drive. We are in for a lot of work getting all of this meat trimmed up and ready for the freezer this weekend!

That doesn’t look very appetizing, but I guess you can make anything edible with some egg, flour, lemon pepper and hot grease.

I’ve caught and released a bunch if fish, but I’ve never had much luck with the shoot and release deer hunting. What is the secret to making them recover from a broadhead or buklet through heart/lungs?

I wouldn’t call it a pissing match, just more of a discussion. It’s an awesome deer as I have already stated. You have much more will power at laying off him that imd have and I hope it pays off huge for you in the future.

Holy cow! You aint a kidding on the BIG part!

Hopefully your reels didn't get soaked by a big wave and freeze up right off the bat this morning like during the CAM tourney. Tear em up boys!

Thinking you can control the genetics of a wild deer herd is laughable. If you do some research on high fence deer breeding, you will find out that the genetic make up of the doe is very important as well and we have zero idea what kind of genetics a wild doe is carrying. Providing nutrition via good quality food plots helps, but the biggest factor is age. Letting bucks get to at least 4.5 is the only way to really see the potential that a deer has.

This is just a cow hunt so essentially it's a long, glorified trip for some groceries. As long as there is enough snow to push down to where we will be hunting, it shouldn't be too difficult to get on some cows and fill a tag. I'm still sending in and saving points for a good bull hunt one of these years. Right now I have around a dozen points for Colorado for elk and mule deer.

MAN! I am so wishing I wasn't going to Colorado on that elk hunt this weekend now. I'm dying to go fishing and put the new Ultrex to use and I'm always down for hitting up Taneycomo and meeting other forum members.