Seth

I second Corell. His work is amazing!

My family checks in 10-15 deer ever year and 4-8 turkeys every spring and have never had an agent come by and check on our game. Based on Dablemonts article, we should be expecting to get harassed by an agent every time we harvest a critter and check it in. That guy sounds like a tool, but that is just my two cents.

So is Larry giving up hunting then because I'm pretty sure that all game has to be checked in via internet, app or telephone. It has been that way for years. You can't just "give up telechecking" unless you plan on not killing anything or just not check in game, which is illegal.

Water was up and dingy from all the rain, which made sight fishing impossible. I got lucky and hooked in to a good one on a green/white rubber leg jig around noon. It didn't really put up much of a fight and just sort of wallowed on the surface and gave a few half hearted jumps so it was a bit of a let down. I'd ran off and left my tape measure and scale at home so we took a few pictures and I put it back. I figured it was around 4.5-5#. The fishing was fairly slow for me using jigs, trout magnets and trout worms. Anglers using bait were getting lots of bites but that's not really my thing so I stuck with lures.

I really like the Browning Air Streams in 6-6.5’ paired up with a 20 or 25 sized Pflueger President. FYI, Bass Pro has the Browning air Streams on sale for $45.99 right now.

Well I ran by Bass Pro in columbia today and was set on buying a St Ctoix Premier. That was until I realized the Air Streams were on sale for 45.99. I had $75 in gift cards so I picked up a 6’ and 6.5’ Air Stream for $22 out of pocket. I couldn’t pass that up.

It doesn't matter, it's a giant regardless! Congrats again and cudos on being so concerned with getting her back in the water alive.

Awesome fish! I'm surprised it weighed that much. This is a 27 incher I caught back in 2005 and it weighed 10 even. It was a big gut eater so it was thick too. The number of big bows caught in the past few weeks is incredible! Hopefully it continues for a few more weeks till I get down there!

1/80-100 jighead painted pink beneath a 3/4" round weighted bobber. If there is flow, you may have to add a little split shot a 1.5-2' above the jighead to get it down. Ideally, you will need a rod at least 7' long and preferably longer depending on the depth of the water. I personally fish it on a 10' BnM Sam Heaton Super Sensitive crappie rod. The long rod makes casting a lot easier when fishing deeper than 7'. Lilleys has all of that in their shop. The easiest thing would be to swing by and pick up what you need. Those pink worms are usually sold out at the surrounding Bass Pro's and Walmarts anyways.

I'm glad to see that the biggest rain total estimates have shifted east.

I use the Cabelas tournament ZX rods. Buy them on sale for $70-80 or $100 anytime. Hard to beat for the money IMO. With 1/4-3/8oz spinnerbaits, I use the 6'8" topwater/jerkbait model and the 7' spinnerbait/swim jig model for 1/2-3/4oz. I've never fished a spinnerbait over 3/4oz so no clue after that point.

That's why I love fishing clear water. I like to cover as much water as possible and target those active fish. The dirty it gets, the slower I usually have to fish and it kills me! If you are going to fish slow in clear water, you better be using something extremely realistic and the HD craw does it better than anything when it comes to a craw pattern.

I did pick up a couple War Eagle Screamin Eagle spinnerbaits in the mouse or sexy shad pattern from Walmart to try this fall when the water clears up. I'm hoping to have some luck burning them across some shallow, boulder filled stretches of the Gasconade. With this monsoon headed our way, I may have to wait till next year to try that pattern out though. Those white/chartreuse 3/8oz War Eagles have been very good to me the past few years in stained water.

If they start dumping at Bagnell, I may have to break out the cattin gear and go try to catch a few blues! The Gasconade may be too high to fish anyways.

Awesome trip, Al! I love throwing a spinnerbait, but I rarely have one tied on if the water is clear. I'll opt for a swimbait in that case. If it's really windy and there is a good surface chop then I may give the spinnerbait at try. Anybody that knows me though will know I am a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to fishing clear water. There's a 99% chance I'll have a spinning rod in hand with a pink trick worm tied on to the end.

You didn't miss much. It was a brutal day of fishing in that muddy water. We squeaked out 3rd with 6.10 after not having a fish in the boat until noon. Luckily we squeaked out a limit up around Short Creek where the water was a little cleaner.

I'm guessing it's a typo as there was an 8 pound brown weighed in during last years Elfrink tournament.

That is one of the best looking browns I've seen!

Dad and I fished 2-7pm yesterday. Fishing was pretty good starting out in the first hole, but it got tougher as the day went on. I probably caught 20-25 and dad had 10-15. Early on, an orange trout worm fished really slow along the bottom was the only way I could get bit. Later in the day we moved down towards the bathroom. There were a lot of fish, but they were being finicky. Dad had lots of bites on brown DoubleD bait beneath a float, but had a hard time hooking fish. I was using jigs and worms and having the same problem. There are some nice fish in the stream, but you still have to weed through some dinks. The 8 fish that we cleaned were 13.5-15.75". I put back several others that were 14"+ because I didn't want to keep my fourth fish that soon.

Are you going to be down either of those weekends? I think there will be three of us in the boat that second to last weekend and we plan on throwing jerkbaits strictly for big browns and fishing hard. I'll probably be playing more of a "guide" role that following weekend and putting the family on some fish. I'm going to try and get out there early and late without them and target some brownies again though.

Sounds like I will be down the last two weekends this month. Taking a buddy who has never been down there before on the second to last weekend and then with the parents that following weekend. Hope some browns are running by then. I need to break that 20" brown curse!

Woohoo! I can’t wait!

Since I can’t add grease to the hub without having a new Vault cap, can I temporarily replace the cap with a bearing buddy style and shoot regular grease in to the hub until I get the proper Vault cap and seal to fix it right? I don’t want to run the hub dry and smoke the bearings or damage the spindle. I’m pretty sure the system is warrantied for 5 years so I am hoping to get the parts for free. The trailer was bought new in June 2014. Labor Day will slow down how fast i can get the parts though.

Everybody knows you need new women's panties to wear when you are trying out a new lure for the first time!