Seth

Those were some dandies! My experience was the same. I threw a jig for an hour and a half and only had one little dink to show for it. I decided to throw a Luck E Strike RC STX around for the last 20 minutes. It quickly produced two dinks and a scrappy 17 incher. Sure wish I'd have thrown the jerkbait more but I was stuck on trying to make them bite that jig.

I probably saw you Saturday. Myself, fiance and our dog went down for the last few hours. We started out in the pond hole, worked our way down past the bend at the end of the parking lot and then back up. The jig was bite was decent again, but I forced myself to use the flyrod for most of the trip. A few trout fell to a miracle fly and a black zebra under and indicator. My fiance had a hard time getting the jig retrieve down well enough to get bit. She finally caught one towards the end of the trip so at least she didnt get skunked. My total was 13. Were the young man fishing next to the two older fellers down from the handicap hole? If ao, I figured you guys were using cracklebacks or aoft hackles.

I wish I had spent more time with the fly rod, but it they were biting so well on the jigs that I had a hard time putting it down. Before I packed it up for the day, I pulled out the fly rod and tied on a miracle fly (globall on a jighead) with a black zebra midge dropper about a foot below that and managed to catch two trout. One hit the miracle fly and the other came on the midge.

Fished 10:30-1:30. Landed 41 trout with biggest being almost 17". Sculpin/Orange and sculpin/ginger jigs worked much better than white.

If I am reading this correctly, a person can throw a jig or spinner with a silicone or rubber skirt as long as it is tied to the hook versus just held in place with a rubber band?

Anyody try a Ned rig on the rivers when it's cold? The Tablerock guys seem to love that bait. I need to tie up some more hair jigs. Last year was so cold i never really got the chance to try them out.

I think I cost myself some money this trip too. My buddy let me try his Daiwa Steez 6'6" MH setup for throwing jigs. I couldn't believe how sensitive it was compared to my Skeet Reese jig/worm rod. Bites were so much easier to detect it was unbelievable! I'm not going to be dropping 4-500 on a Steez by any means, but I will be looking for something in the 2-300 range eventually.

Jerkbaits produced the most fish by far, but the average size was much nicer on the jig. I stuck with a jig and caught fewer, but nicer fish and more smallmouth. Water visibility is probably 10' right now. It's clear! Al, you're right about the kentuckies being mainly in the current, but I did catch the best smallie of the trip in current. It caught me off guard because I was out well away from the bank in the main current and just getting ready to reel in and cast again when I felt a mushy feeling and a slight tug. That big kentucky came from out in the middle of nowhere in current as well. My buddy threw to a point and was way off his mark, but fished the bait back anyways and nailed that big kentucky.

I use a 7' light action BPS microlite with a Abu Garcia Cardinal spinning reel and spooled with 4# Pline Fluoroclear. The light action is fine for 1/32-3/32 oz jigs, but I would prefer to have a medium-light when tossing the 1/8oz jigs. Also, I know some guys use 2# test when throwing jigs but I lose a lot of sensitivity going from 4# to 2# test. It causes me to miss a lot of fish if I can't see my jig. I prefer sticking with 4# and just tying on a leader of 2# if needed.

Hit the Gasconade for a few hours yesterday and the water was already reading 43-44 degrees. My buddy said it was in the upper 30's a few days ago before these two 50+ degree days. A few fish are starting to move to the wintering area's already but they aren't piled in there by any means. Still caught some fish out in current. Caught a few smallmouth but mainly 12-13" kentuckies and a couple largemouth of the same size. My buddy did catch one kentucky that was 17" and fat! That's the best kentucky I've personally seen from that river. I'll be having some fried kentuckies for dinner in the next day or two. I don't eat many bass except for when the water get's cold in the winter. I'm sure it's just in my head, but I swear fish from cold water taste better than during the warm water seasons.

I tagged my buck opening day of rifle season so it can warm up anytime it wants now. I'm ready for some fishin!

I am really going to try and make one of these for once! I've watched the launch videos on youtube several times.

I took this picture just to remind myself how easy it could of been if I had an elk tag.

The temptation was was definitely there. I'd be lying if I told you the though didn't cross my mind for a few moments. That's the first time I've ever seen more than one nice buck in a sit, much less had two in bow range!

I didn't see any this year, but my buddy seen several from the same tree I shot my doe out of on the second day of the hunt. Last year when I was down there, the first thing I saw was a young six by six bull the first morning of the hunt. Also, I got to watch two herd feed in a wheat field in front of me one evening. There had to of been 30 elk out there at once, but only two bulls.

Headed down to Peck Ranch in Carter County, MO for my managed bow hunt on Halloween weekend. The first day of the hunt was Oct 31 and I shot a young doe the first morning. My other three hunting buddies seen 40+ deer over the course of the weekend, but nothing else died. A few misses and lots of blown opportunities is all they came up with. This past weekend I went up north of the river to hunt with a buddy. We've been meeting up and doing this for a couple of years now. My first sit was Friday evening and a I seen a shooter buck, a good looking 2.5 year old buck and a doe. On Saturday morning, I was able to harvest a button buck and also seen two scrub bucks and three big does. One of the does came in to 20 yards, but I got busted by another big doe standing behind her in the brush when I went to reach for my bow. Saturday evening was dead until 5pm when a nice buck came out of the corner of some beans and headed my way. He gave me a 22 yard shot. When I shot he took a step forward and I hit him back a little bit farther than I wanted so I let him lay over night since it was going to be in the 30's and to play it safe. Shortly after I shot him, a much nicer buck came out following a doe! It sure made me wish I had passed the first one! It would have blown away anything I've killed before. We came back the next morning and found my buck about 70 yards away up the fence line from where I had shot him. When I cleaned him, I'd got one lung, liver and nicked the stomach. The rest of the extended weekend didn't produce much. Sunday morning I seen a small buck, a doe and a fawn. I hunted the next two evenings and never saw a single deer.

They could drive 10 minutes to Cooper Creek and be perfectly legal soaking power bait. Ignorance and stupidity don't make you exempt from breaking the rules. What's the point of having rules if they aren't enforced? Sometimes folks just have to learn the hard way.

I was down on Taneycomo chasing trout this weekend when I should of been back home chasing smallies! My buddy had a 19" and 21.5" caught out of his boat on Saturday. He went back out today and another one right at 20" was boated. Sure wish I had time to get out after them this week.

My fiancé and I ran down for a quick getaway Friday and Saturday. We fished the last few hours of light Friday down by Monkey Island. We threw orange sculpin and white jigs and caught a dozen rainbows. I took her back to the motel, dropped the boat off and then ran to the dam and trew a jig and husky jerk around for an hour from the bank. All I had to show for it was one small rainbow on the jerkbait. There was a guy about 50 yards down from me at outlet 2 that caught a nice fish. Not sure if it was a brown or rainbow but I could see it splashing water around in his headlight as he tried measuring it. On Saturday, we got on the water around 10 and headed to the dam. Caught several rainbows on the same jigs and a few on the husky jerk. My main goal of the trip was to tangle with some nice Browns but I only managed one ten inch brown. Ran in to Phil and chit chatted for a bit just as we were about to head down river. We ran down to short creek and made a drift with powerbait, but didn't get any bites so I headed back down to Monkey Island. Took a bit to figure them out but they were piled up below the shallow water drop off on the downstream side of the island. I threw a white jig and my fiancé was using a pink trout magnet drifted below a float. Strikes were plentiful but they were tough to hook. We caught quite a few and weeded through a bunch of scrawny silver bullets and kept eight 11-13" to clean.

I doubt I get back out anytime soon but I would be a white chatterbait with a fluke trailer would do some damage. The only colors I had on me the other day was black/blue and green pumpkin. A straight fluke may do fine as well, but I couldn't seem to get any strikes on one. The water had some color to it and I think something with some vibration was key.

I'd give up a livewell full of whites or crappie to catch a couple walleye like that. Nice fish Duane!

Any guesses as to whether they will run any water those days or is it completely random? The generation chart for the past week doesn't seem to have any consistency at all. The predicted flow charts haven't been updated since last week. We're leaving tomorrow morning for Taney and bringing the boat. If you see an orange Legend SS jet boat with a young couple fishing, that is probably us so wave me down or holler at me and I'll come say hello. If they are running a couple generators, we'll most likely be in the trophy area. Otherwise we'll probably be around Short Creek or Monkey Island messing with the stockers. This will probably be my last fishing trip for a while. I'll be in full blown deer mode once I get back home for the next three to four weeks.

The smallmouth weren't cooperating but the largemouth were biting decent. I caugh several on a double willow war eagle spinnerbait and a Buzzbait. The bass were corralling and busting small baitfish next to the bank. I tried a Chomper as well but couldn't catch anything on it.

I use the Missouri regatta website to find tournaments on my home waters.

Flathead > blues >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> channels