Seth

I'm 28 and been addicted to hunting and fishing for years. Dad is the one I can tank forr that. I also played plenty of video games growing up too. Having a mentor when young is the key in my opinion.

We ended up not going so that is why I didn't post a report. DJ's is in town directly across the road from Country Mart. The gas station with tackle is on your right as you are heading towards the park from 44. The road bends left and then you go past the golf course on the right shortly after you pass the gas station. Spurgeons is a gas station and right next door to DJ!s but they don't have any fishing tackle.

I agree. We caught fish in afew feet of water near brush and off the end of docks suspended over 45' of water. There was no pattern to them that I could figure out.

Tough day! We fished five hours and hit several areas between Pb2 and bridge and only had six keepers. They turned on for the last thirty minutes of light and we caugt nine keepers from a brush pile we had just fished 20 minutes earlier and ever got a bite. Makes you wonder how many fish our lures go by that don't bite. Water was dingy and ranged 53-56 degrees. Everybody we spoke to was struggling during the day.

Probably full of shad or did you clean it to verify it was eggs? Those blues will pig out on shad till they look like they are about to bust.

Next time you go, stop in at DJ's or the gas station at the end of St. James and pick up a bag of brown 007 dough bait. Fish it below a float on a small jighead or a small treble hook. It doesn't float like powerbait so I actually prefer to use the treblehook for a better chance at a hook up when they bite. Drifting orange trout worms and brightly colored trout magnets below a float also work well for me when there some color in the water. Dad and I may run down there later on today. If we do, I will be sure to post a detailed report on how things go.

I haven't heard much of anything coming from the James. Everybody that is reporting on my Facebook snagging page is fishing Truman or LoZ.

We were out of town on a fishing trip and my tomatoes got zapped by frost in late May last year and I replanted them around the first of June. They turned out fine. Is there a reason why you guys start them so early or is it just so you can get some early fruit?

Lots of crappie being caught on the Osage and Gravois arms. Haven't heard anything from the Niangua or Glaize, but I'm sure you can catch a limit shooting docks or finding brush in 12-15' of water. The last time I went was the 21st and I caught around 30 during the last few hours of daylight shooting docks in 4-20' of water on the Osage arm. Bigger fish were holding on the end of the docks in deeper water with mostly shorts coming up shallower.

Lampreys make a cool hissing sound when you toss them in a campfire.....or so I've been told anyways.

I have had good luck with the german queen and mortgage lifters from Walmart. They are my my two favorite types. If the local greenhouse has heirloom varieties then I prefer to buy those though.

I'm sure some have moved up the river, but I doubt the biggest push has happened yet. Once the water hits 60 degrees in April, they will really start running and keep going until they run out of water and then stack up in the nearest holes. If the water is really low or really high then you can catch the snot out of the paddlefish in mid to late April. If it's one of those in between levels then it can be tough because they fish get stuck somewhere between McCords Bend and Springfield Dam. That's a long stretch of water to try and find them in, especially if the only way to get to them is with a canoe.

James came up 5.5' and is just starting to drop at Galena.

There is always backlash over on that board regardless of what the topic is. Somebody could donate $1000 to charity and post about it and somebody would get a stick up there behind about it.

The rock bank below the confluence is usually a good place for bass. You can also run down below the bridge and fish jigs and crankbaits along the rocks and usually pick up some kentuckies with an occasional largemouth.

How deep is the water around the dock? I shot some docks in coves around the 55mm last Saturday and most of the fish I caught were shorts in the shallower water. In a few hours, I caught about 30 fish and only 12 of them were keepers. Most were barely keepers, not the solid 10-11" fish I caught the week before in Indian Creek on the Gravois arm. The few nicer fish I did catch came off the end of the docks that sat over 15-20' of water so the nicer fish are still hanging out deeper.

Took a group of high school students down for a field trip. The water was up slightly with pretty good stain and the fish bit very well. Several kids had line that was too heavy or very brightly colored so the dirty water allowed them to get away with it. Nearly everybody caught fish and most had their limits. I fished for a while and caught 20-25 and then started helping a few of the kids who were struggling to catch fish. Brightly colored trout magnets, yellow power bait on a small jig head and an orange trout worm on a small jighead, all drifted below an indicator, produced the best. The day started out cool and drizzly so I was a bit worried, but it ended up being a fantastic day. I've done this four years in a row now and this was by far the best day of catching overall.

You bet! Just pick a day and I will make sure there isn't anything special gping on at work that I need to be around for.

I'd be fine with having Oklahoma like restrictions. I don't keep many of them and just enjoy catching them so I'd be perfectly fine with only being allowed to keep a couple fish a year and having to immediately release most of them. I know I'm the minority with that train of thought though as most folks go to catch fish to keep and eat. Most folks I know only get to snag a time or two during the season anyways. I'm able to go nearly every weekend so I don't have any pressure to keep every legal sized fish I caught even if I did eat a lot of them. As for the paddlefish guiding thing, I can see your point but then again it's also really no different than guiding for any other species. Any trout guide on Taneycomo would fall under the same thing since trout are stocked in Taneycomo. If there were no dams constructed on the Osage River system, there wouldn't be a need to stock paddlefish. I'm not sure if the white river system had native paddlefish so I'm not sure if this also applies to Tablerock.

It is for suckers and paddlefish. Most folks who frown on it don't realize that snagging is by far the best (or only) way to catch these two species of fish. Snagging is a blast and I would love to take anybody who doesn't think highly of it along for a day of it. I'm betting they would have a ball reeling in those big fish and also see that very few game fish ever get snagged in the process due to the type of water that paddlefish are usually holding in. Besides chasing blue cats on the reservoirs and big rivers, you aren't likely to catch multiple fish over 50 pounds in a single day doing anything else like when you are snagging for paddlefish.

Here is one pic. I have some mre on my laptop at work.

I think you will still do pretty well. The nicer fish are still suspending over deeper water near brush and not really on the banks in a spawning pattern. The best spawn fishing I've had is usually later in April, but you can catch them up shallow near wood from anytime after mid March if the water is over 50 degrees.

That looks like prop wash to me.

I managed 12 keepers and just as many shorts around the 55mm of the Osage arm yesterday evening. The docks were shallower than I had liked, but they still held a few fish. All but a couple were males. Had to be able to shoot the jig up under the docks pretty well or you didn't catch much. They wanted the slower fall of a 1/32oz head too. The water was 55 degrees with pretty good color to it.

Snagged most of the day between 50-55mm and caught three keepers, two short and had two on that came off. Biggest was a 50# sow. For the last two hours of the day, I did some dock shooting in the big cove with the Mallard Bay access and caught around 30 crappie with being 12 keepers. If you couldnt get the jig up under the dock, you didn't catch much. Anything thing with a chartreuse tail and a 1/32oz jighead seemed to work.