Seth

We went opening day and caught a few below Bagnell and a few lake side during the day on the Niangua. I took some guys yesterday and had my butt handed to me for the first time in a long time. We put in at Wigwam, hit 8 and only one was a keeper. I'd rather eat crappie, but I will say that we blackened some of the smallest one we caught below Bagnell and it was actually pretty amazing! There are plenty of people who love the stuff though so I don't have any problem giving the stuff away.

I didn’t say that it wasn’t true and frankly I don’t really care. It is what it is. That just seems like something I figured I would have heard before now considering the sheer number of snaggers I have talked with over the years. You’re a pretty straight shooter so I believe you heard it at some point.

My bad. I meant to quote @fishinwrench's post. 😁

Got down around 1:45pm and fished 3.5 hours. I landed 15 in that time and missed a bunch on a black and yellow marabou jig. Not being able to see the take always leads to a lot of missed fish. The size was abysmal. Of the 15, only 4 were really worth keeping. The biggest was almost 15" and the other 4 for were 13-13.5". Everything else was 12" or shorter. Half of them came within the first thirty minutes of arriving in first hole (aka pond hole). The fish were hanging about 3/4 of the way across the stream where waders usually stand. The other half came just above the dumps right before it shallows up. I'd bomb the jig out as far as I could and basically just swim it just in front of where the dumps would shallow up and the fish would smack it. The only dump that didn't produce was the bathroom hole. I saw several people with fish on their stringers but never actually saw anybody else catch one. They looked like they had been on the stringer for a while.

Where did you hear that? This is the first time I've ever heard anything about crossing the two. This must have happened a long time ago becuase the chinese paddlefish was declared functionally extinct in 93 and complete extinction was estimated to have occurred between 2005 and 2010. The only thing that comes up on Google about paddlefish cross breeding is a paddlefish/sturgeon hybrid.

They are likely left overs from the previous year. They make that run every spring when the James floods and then get stuck. The water came up in February too so any fish stuck in the holes down from the dam likely continued on up the river until the hit the dam.

We boated three limits of crappie Tuesday and another three on Wednesday on the Niangua arm of LoZ. Crappie were stacked on docks about half way back in coves. They were fairly far back so you had to be able to shoot your jig a pretty good distance to reach them. Lots of good quality fish. We cleaned very few under 10" and ended up with a gallon of fillets each day. We took a break for about an hour on Tuesday to try and snag a few paddlefish and ended up with three. Two were just over the 34" length limit and probably weighed 30 pounds and one was right at 50 lbs.

I upgraded from a 998 to a G2N 9 with mega. While I could find what I needed with the 998, I will give the nod to the mega at actually seeing fish. Some of the images I had of paddlefish a few days ago were impressive. Last December I used it to target a school of whites on the Osage that were hanging out in the channel towards the head of a hole. I'm not sure I could have picked those fish up on the 998. It's not a game changer by any means though. The 12 year old 998 was more than capable and it still helped me find what I needed most of the time. Believe it or not, it's still possible to catch crappie without Livescope these days. 😁 These came from the Niangua arm of LoZ a few days ago. I drove around running side scan until I found the motherload stacked under a dock and we pulled three limits of solid fish (only a few under 10") from it.

I don't think you can really call them "invasive" since they were native to the Osage River system and naturally reproduced prior to the construction of the dams. Regardless, they really aren't much different than say a trout stocked in Taneycomo at this point. As for controlling the shad populations, that just seems like a far fetched argument. Hybrids do that job better than about anything that swims and I'd rather catch and eat those over a paddlefish.

It's pretty easy once you figure out the system. I'd rather go chase crappie than paddlefish these days, but everybody else loves to catch them so I still end up taking several trips to keep everybody else happy. I don't care to eat them but always have a list of people begging for the stuff. I'm pretty much a guide that doesn't get paid at this point lol. Those that really like it seem to prefer it grilled or smoked.

Keystone Lake produces the biggest by far. I think it has produced the last five world records.Current record is 164 lbs. https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/06/angler-shatters-paddlefish-world-record-by-landing-164-pound-beast

80lbs is my PB. Caught it on March 15, 2009 on the James River arm of Tablerock.

Agreed. It's just another testament to how resilient crappie (especially white crappie) are.

Multiple fish over 4# weighed in and the winners averaged over 3# per fish for the entire tournament.

That's when you know someboyd is an grade A d**che. I understand that it happens in tournaments to coanglers when you're paired up with random boaters, but to do that to somebody while fun fishing is a real Richard move. The only exception is if you have the other guy fishing right besides you. Some people aren't comfortable doing that though. I tell everybody in my boat to get in my pocket on whichever side they are able to cast from. I taught myself to cast from the left or right side so I can do whatever to make things easier for them.

It's just their name for PBJ. Yamamota's equivalent would probably be cinnamon black and purple fleck.

I have a pile of these in a ziploc bag laying in the shed. For whatever reason, I just quit using them a few years ago. Cinnamon purple jelly was always my favorite color. It seemed to work in dingy and clear water. Maybe I'll dig them out and give them another try this year.

I miss 3d shoots. I'm sure there are some still going on, but I don't hear much about them. Since crossbows were legalized and the fact you can buy one fully setup for quite a bit less than a compound, it's hard to justify to somebody to get a vertical bow if they just want to deer hunt. Several people I know that struggled to kill deer with a vertical bow have no problems with a crossbow since it's basically like using a gun anyways. Some of the elitists feel this isn't right, but I would rather see somebody make a clean kill on a deer than constantly cripple them for "sport".

Definitely gotta have tracking skills to bow hunt. If you drop one with the bow, you hit high and likely had to shoot again. It’s so satisfying to zip one with a bow and arrow and watch it tip over in sight though.

All this talk about breakfast food has me craving pancakes. I sure do love pancakes!

I took this guy with a .243 in Nov 2011. In fact, I think it may be the last deer I have taken with a .243 as I bought a new .270 the following year and started using it. The bullet entered just behind the shoulder and exited the back lung/liver area on the side facing the camera. The deer made it about 50 yards and piled up. He's not a small deer by any means either. A .243 with a 100gr bullet is hell on whitetails as long as you don't have to worry about hitting brush. It doesn't take much to deflect a bullet like that.

Sounds like you may rush your tracking jobs. Honestly, rifle hit deer rarely last long though. If you hit lung or liver area with a high powered rifle, they will be donzo in a hurry. There's a lot more going on that can lead to a less than perfect shot with bow hunting and that's where knowing when to back out and let a deer have time to die really pays off. There are a bunch of deer lost each year to this. I was guilty of doing it when I was younger myself. It's just one of those things that you develop (or hopefully develop) as you gain more experience.

People act like thin skinned deer are tough to kill. No, no they are not. If you want tough, go elk or moose hunting. I am thinking about picking up a .308 and a .350 legend. Those are two varieties of ammo that always seem to he available. The .350 is really popular with youth hunters too.

If you’re having trouble putting deer down with a .243 or 6.5 CM then you are a terrible shot. Any rifle with bullets in the 100-140gr will work fine on deer if you do your part.

but did he even boat flip it?