Seth

When we were up there a few weekends ago, the smaller pieces of shad sides were catching all of the fish. We landed fish up to 7 pounds. The biggest fish we've caught up there, a 25 pound blue, came on a small piece of shad side also. I like to use sinker slides so that way you can use as heavy of a weight as you want, if you are anchored, and the fish won't know the difference when they bite. For drifting the heaviest I go is 2oz, but usually only use about 1/2oz sinker. At least with the smaller pieces of bait, a guy will catch some smaller fish as well to help pass the time. That's how I look at it anyways.

Glad to hear you slayed them. I might have to make a run back up there next weekend and try for catfish again.

I've floated from Mill Rock to Wenkel and I don't think I'd be brave enough to take my jet boat on it and I've got a 1648 with 50hp jet. The only place I've put my boat in on the Bourbeuse was at the Mint Springs access out on Highway EE outside of Owensville. You can go up river a pretty good ways in that spot. Lots of suckers in there if you get to them early enough when gigging season starts.

Wow! That's an awesome hybrid man. I'd love to go back up there and catch a few, but I never catch any when I'm trying.

We anchored along channel edge on side opposite of the boat ramp and caught five catfish on cut shad. Biggest was 7 pound channel. Lots of little bites that we couldn't hook on 8/0 circle hooks. Also had two spoonbill on for a few seconds that swam in to our lines. They jumped out of the water like sailfish and hooks popped out. Really awesome! Had a buddy and his dad also fishing up there for crappie and whites. Caught tons of dink crappie and kept five about 10-12" long and two little whites. They also snagged 10 paddlefish throwing crappie jigs and crankbaits. Also seen four paddlefish in throw nets while trying for shad. It's crazy how thick they are up there right now. Sure does make for some light tackle fun if you accidently hook one.

I'm never on the Maramec, but I got a buddy from Cuba that gigs it every fall up around Steeleville. I'd like to try it down there on the Maramec close to your homestead for some flatheads sometime. I've always heard that area is good for them.

I hope the fish keep biting for a couple weeks. We are going to be down the second week of June for three nights and four days. Last year was horrible due to the high water so we are looking forward to some better trout fishing this time.

Losing anchors is just part of the game. It happens on the big rivers every now and then also. I didn't think of it that way Bman, but you do bring up a good point. Bagnell Dam tailwaters is where I do a lot of fishing and always anchor, but I never paid it much thought because where I anchor is still going to be under water if it does drop a lot. Boat wakes can be a bit "hairy" at times, but I only run a 1648 and you just have to pay attention and be aware of when a big boat comes by. I always have to fight with the big slow moving ski boats up on LoZ, but it hasn't been too bad. The guys who fish the Mississippi have to contend with the barges, but they also generally run a 72" wide bottom boat too which makes a huge difference. If you have a bottom of 42" or less, then it's probably smarter not to anchor if there's a lot of boat traffic. I'd do the same if I was in your shoes Phil. You have the responsibility of your guests to take into account. I'm sure if it's somebody with a lot on the water experience, they will know how to go about doing things the right way anyways and they won't be asking for help to begin with.

I do a lot of catfishing on the Missouri and Osage River's in some heavy current and I anchor all the time in deep holes with currents pushing 50-100k CFS. That's much faster than anything Taney pushes. I've always heard people down there preaching about not anchoring in the current or you will sink the boat. In my opinion, anchoring is perfectly safe if you know what you are doing. Here's what I do on the big rivers catfishing. 1. Never anchor from transom, only from the bow. 2. Let out plenty of line. I've always heard 7 feet of line per 1 foot of depth. So if you are anchored in 10 foot of water, let out 70 feet of line. 3. Always keep a sharp knife on hand in case a big log get's caught in the anchor line and you need to release it quickly. There's also a product called an anchor lift, which is a big rubber ball that slides up and down the line a lot of catfishermen use. This prevents you from losing your anchor if you need to unhook it quickly and float down river and also makes pulling the anchor up much easier. Just follow these three steps and you shouldn't have any problems anchoring in heavy current.

I haven't fished the Osage in almost a month since turkey season was open. Now that it's over with I'll get back to fishing. Nobody that I've talked to has fished the MariOsa lately so I have no info on that. One of my buddies did go up to Bagnell last week and said you could catch all the tiny crappie you wanted near the stick ups on the south side about 500 yards down from the dam. They also caught a few channel and blue cats, but overall catfishing was slow. They picked up a couple whites and about a 4# largemouth also. He's making a trip back up Thursday of this week. I'll be heading up that way the following weekend myself. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report back on here.

Nice crappie. Looks like I better get my butt up there and start chasing the blues. The fast water should make for some great catfishing!

The best catfishing on LoZ is on the Osage arm up around Warsaw. That's a pretty good haul from Bagnell though.

I am able to read at WOT on my 1648 with 50/35 jet outboard. My transducer is mounted a little bit below the recommended line. That's the only way I was able to get a reading while running with my jet. This also makes it more apt to break off by striking something....which I eventually did. My buddy has an 1852 with a 90/65 etec and I never could get his boat to read while WOT. His boat moves faster than mine so maybe that's part of the problem.

Congrats on that smallie. Man I can only imagine how that thing fought. They are scrappers! My buddy caught a 4 pound smally on the osage this past winter around St. Thomas on the Osage. We went crazy when it came up and boiled. He was using 17lbs test and a bait caster and still had trouble getting her to give up so we could land it. Sucks he put her in his freezer though because that is a rare fish. Did you see anybody fishing for catfish? I'm ready to start drifting shad and hammering the big blues.

Nice spoonies. Looks like you guys got several sows. It's about time they moved up. Too bad it's the last weekend of season.

Where's my dummy hat. I didn't think about the water level dropping. For some reason I was thinking it would just drop instantly when they shut down the turbines. I've had the same experience as you with just about any tailwater I've fished. Dropping water makes for crappy fishing and rising is great for fishing.....most of the time. I broke my transducer again so I won't have the graph going until I buy a new one. I'll order one here shortly, but it won't be in by this weekend I do know that.

It shows Bagnell is still generation 25k CFS at the darn and 31k at the MariOsa. What chart were you looking at?

I'm debating on whether to head up there this weekend or not. First, it depends how I do turkey hunting this Saturday and second, I heard the hybrids were biting really well at the MariOsa again. I wish I knew how the crappie and blues were doing right now. If they are hot, I'd head to Bagnell in a heart beat.

No idea man. It's not hard to fill the freezer full of paddlefish though. You get a couple fish and that's a lot of meat!

Throw shad colored crank baits along the East bank starting from the lock and working your way down. Usually you'll find a pocket of hybrids and can catch several. That's what we do anyways.

I'm not saying I want them to fix it, I was just curious what they think causes it. I don't expect them to make it a priority to fix or anything because it's been this way forever. They are the experts on this type of stuff so I figured they could give me the best possible answer.

I finally made a trip up to LoZ yesterday for some snagging. We brought back a couple 50 pound sows and a smaller male. This morning I finished cleaning up the paddlefish and fried a few pieces to do a taste test. The LoZ fish are delicious! We usually snag on Tablerock and the fish down there have always have always tasted fishy to us. I figured it was due to the fish being bigger than the paddlefish on the lower Osage below Bagnell Dam. The fish off the lower osage were always delicious, but Tablerocks were nasty. I don't know if I'll be able to snag Tablerock any longer after eating LoZ fish. They are just as big, but taste a whole lot better! Just wanted to share this observation because I've asked several people before about this and they all said the same thing. I think I'm going to write the Missouri Conservation and tell them about it and see what kind of answer I get back from them.

1st place was a 75 pounder and it took 61.2 to place. There was a little over 100 boats and close to 400 people entered in the tournament. Our boat brought in six fish, but biggest was only about 50 pounds and not near big enough to win any prize money. Had a blast though.

He didn't say. You'd probably be best calling and talking with him about it.

It's about 15 minutes East of Jefferson City where Highway 63 and 50 meet.