Seth

I know the star of the show is the Hi-def craw, but that finesse jig has my mouth watering! I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like with that small craw. Mitch mentioned something about some men just have to have a skirt during his presentation. I'm afraid I might be one of those guys.

I think it will be at the TackleHD HQ (aka Aaron's gutter shed) in St Clair if I remember right.

I'm still baffled that one of your business partners hasn't bought anything online in his life. How is that possible?! I mean, how do you bass fish and not buy a bunch of crap from Tackle Warehouse?!

Boredom got the best of us and four of us headed up to LoZ to chase crappie yesterday. The first dock we hit was loaded up good and we pulled 15 keepers from it. After that, it took a while to find another dock that was holding a bunch of fish. We found the mother load towards the end of the day and were able to finish off our four limits fairly quickly. The quality of fish was good too. There were quite a few 12" class fish as well as probably a half dozen between 13-14". Early on they would eat a bait swam on a 1/16oz head. Later in the day, they wouldn't touch it and you had to drop down to a 1/32oz head for the slower fall rate. We were on the water from noon till 5 and never saw another boat and we covered about 10 miles of water. That's why I prefer cold and nasty weather over a nice day every time in the winter months.

I've used 14 and 17# vanish for years and never had any problems with it other than it had a lot of memory. The main use was for pitching heavy cover with jigs and texas rigs so I wasn't too concerned about the memory. The abrasion resistance was fantastic for that purpose. I've also used 8# Vanish for leaders on my finesse setups, but I don't recall ever having any trouble with it that I didn't have with any other 8# leader. It worked fine there too. I've since started using Seaguar Red Label and InvizX though. The lower memory of the InvizX is nice!

https://www.google.com/maps/dir//American+Legion,+2721+Collier+Ave,+St.+Louis,+MO+63144/@38.6106504,-90.3523721,16.45z/data=!4m15!1m6!3m5!1s0x87d8cb09f6422531:0xcbfd4d98fe20d50f!2sAmerican+Legion!8m2!3d38.611428!4d-90.351423!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x87d8cb09f6422531:0xcbfd4d98fe20d50f!2m2!1d-90.351423!2d38.611428 Punch in your address and it will give you directions.

I'm planning on heading down after work for this one too. I went to one a few years ago around this time when Mitch gave a presentation on winter fishing. It was a good time.

We've caught many a white sucker from Lazy Valley's dock over the years. When I was younger and didn't have my own boat, I'd spend all day walking back and forth looking for them to come swimming by. I'd drop a piece of crawler with a kernel of corn (for visibility) down in front of them and sight fished for them.

Can you gig Taneycomo outside of the normal Sept 15 - January 31st season?

Is Versailles pronounced Ver-sails or Ver-sai? Most say Ver-sails, but I've also heard it called Ver-sai. I've always used Ver-sails.

http://www.pure-gas.org/extensions/map.html

I've always downplayed it in the warmer months due to the lack of fish quality, but it is definitely one of my favorite winter baits.

Docks sit over 20-75' of water. Fish usually hang 2-15' below the dock, you just have to figure out where they are hanging out. I prefer main lake docks where the channel swings in close. If you have a graph with side imaging, you can scan around for brushpiles in 12-40' of water and fish those as well. I recommend just fishing docks and then vertical fish any brushpiles that you happen upon near the docks. Finding brush out away from docks requires time on the graph, but they shouldnt be nearly as pressured. Without good electronics and map chips, you will need to spend more time covering water to find productive docks.

That was my buddies garage, but my shed does look similar.

That jig paired up with a Mitch craw is going to be one sick combo!

I could get me a cup of coffee and a fresh donut on the water if that was the case!

I didn't think anything of it until I got out my finesse box and couldn't find my glue. I swore I had bought some fresh glue this summer, but I must have taken it out and used it for something else and then forgot to put it back. Without the glue, I had to reset the bait every cast and it just wasn't working out very well for me. Oh well. I will be more prepared next time.

The size was definitely not like it was a few weeks ago when we went. I've always done better when it's nasty in the winter no matter if it's crappie, bass or trout.

I hit the Gasconade for the last few hours of light Friday evening and caught fifteen. Three were smallies and the rest were kentuckies. Nothing to write home about for size, but it was fun. My first cast produced the best fish of the trip, a smallie that was almost 17". Water was 40-42 degrees. They were eating a ned rig best, but I lost the two that I had handy right away and had to resort to a jig. They didn't eat it nearly as well as the NED, but I did catch a few on it.

A buddy and I put in at Coffman Beach on the Gravois and fished within a few miles each way of the ramp and caught 60-70 fish, but fell two short of our two man limit. Size was smaller than our previous trip. Most were 9-10" and only had a couple over 12". Biggest was a 13.5" black. Lots of boats on the water so I think a lot of my normal docks had already been hit that day before we got there so we ended up doing some searching for new water. Most of our keepers came from a couple docks. If your first few fish were shorts, you may as well move on because it most likely wasn't going to produce any keepers. Blue ice and blue/white were best colors in the clear water. Never could quite pin point if they were hanging up shallow under docks or deeper as we seemed to catch them both ways. Some were on the edge of the docks and some were way up under. My buddy caught several bass on a jerkbait throwing it on rock banks in between docks. Nothing very big. We did have a boat of three or four guys come trolling by tossing A-rigs and we saw them catch what looked like a 3-4 pound largemouth off of the dock next to us.

Most Walmart's still carry 5/16oz Jewel finesse jigs (same thing) in black/blue, green pumpkin candy and PBJ. Swingoilbaits is a forum sponsor and has 5/16oz finesse jigs and they are priced very well!

I hope you at least let the boat captain catch a few.

@Gatorjet and I aren't scared of running that shallow stuff.....

My dad used to never get cold and then he hit the big 50 and lost some weight. He can't handle the cold nearly as well as he used.

Base layer: polypropylene or merino wool (there are different grades depending on how cold you get. I use midweight) Middle Layer: heavy fleece or wool Outer Layer: Cabela's Guidewear rain gear. Socks: moisture wicking liner sock followed by a heavy wool sock Boots: 1000gr thinsulate lace up boots if below freezing and Muck rubber boots if above freezing Gloves: fleece gloves with finger tips removed. I've also got a hand muff I can strap to my waist and throw some hand hands in if I need to take a break and warm my finger tips back up Aside from my rain suit, I'm just using stuff I bought at Walmart from the hunting section. Layering properly is far more important than brand. Blocking that stinking wind is the biggest factor for me when fishing in cold weather so the rain suit is vital.