Seth

I agree with you on their being too many tournament series and clubs. The Gasconade, Maramec and Osage have a half dozen different clubs that hold tournaments now and it has the numbers all spread out. Less clubs and higher turnouts would be more exciting to me as well. Then again, having multiple clubs also offers a person the ability to join several and fish multiple tournaments almost every weekend between the end of May till October. There are a few guys that will fish almost every one of them. There are a few open style tournaments that draw some pretty good numbers and those are my favorite tournaments to fish in since you have most of the best anglers competing. If you can do well in those, then you've actually done something.

I'm not sure about the Tablerock tournament scene, but the Anglers in Actions and BFL tournaments usually bring out the best of the best on Lake of the Ozarks. There are several big name sticks up there that people expect to see in the check line in every tournament they fish.

We were catching gar on topwater below Bagnell one day. It was like redneck muskie fishing. They would follow the bait for a while and eventually crush it and then fight like tarpon as you guys mentioned. That was a blast! I've never been able to get them to hit topwater like that again though.

While they are at it, could they also limit the number of cruiser that can be on the lake at one time? That would be great!

The chewing doesn't bother me as much since I don't have to smell it. A spit bottle is nasty, but I'm not being forced to look at it either. Being in close proximity to a chewer doesn't put me at risk of mouth cancer unlike being around smokers and having to breath in second hand smoke. Breathing is mandatory and if you're breathing, you're getting the stench and taste of that smoke when it's near you. Chewing seems as fun to me as smoking, but to each their own. Paying money to try and give myself cancer just doesn't seem like a very good idea.

I can handle being around smokers in the open, but it gags me in enclosed areas. How people find that "fun" is beyond my comprehension. A coworker of mine smells like a straight up ash tray when you get anywhere near him.

I use 4-6# on a medium light action rod with 2-3” jerkbaits and 8-10# on a medium fast for 4-5” models. At 15k cfs, you just stay in the middle all the way to the cable.

I'm just giving you a hard time. I know you've been around long enough to know when things change up there. The one thing that I do know is that regardless of what body of water you are on, somebody is always catching them and others are not. While I don't fish LoZ often, I see this stuff happen on the bodies of water I'm familiar with. Some are just better at adapting to the changes than others. The Osage River below Bagnell went through a crummy spell for the last several years, but started showing signs of the glory days last year. Guys are starting to catch 5lbs+ largemouth more regularly and the big spots are showing back up. Some 4lbs+ spots were caught last year and I hadn't heard of that happening in a while.

This is the video I was referring to.

Work all the time and don't enjoy doing anything for fun! What a way to live! Don't want to be considered a slacker, or does that only pertain to things that don't interest you? Last time I checked, I accomplished just as little watching a Cards game as I did chasing little brown bass on a river. The fishing was more fun though. I get to go be a slacker on the 21st watching a Cards game at Busch and then turn around and be a slacker on the 25th while fishing a bass tournament. I'm looking forward to being a low life slacker that week! Heck, may even come on here and make a post telling everybody how utterly useless I was!

Is the case or are you just looking for an excuse for your lack of success lately? I've got a couple buddies who have been crushing them up shallow for the past several weeks. Why are they able to catch good sacks and you aren't? It ain't just in the PB2 area either. One in particular enjoys fishing up in your arm of the lake. Once things warm up, they'll move out deep and catch those deep fish. I guess you'll be able to gripe about how electronics ruin the bass fishing then since they use them to pin point those deep fish.

Most likely Josh Jones. He is a big Garmin guy and has posted videos of them sight snagging paddlefish on his Facebook page. Rusty is a well known snagging guide, but I don’t think he has started using Panoptix yet since he is a Lowrance guy.

https://www.wired2fish.com/news/alleged-cheater-charged-in-kayak-fishing-tournament/ Money makes people do stupid things....

The only way the catch, weigh and release will ever work is if you have a dedicated boat marshal with a provided scale that was calibrated to match every one scale in use. A way to video yourself weighing fish in plain sight might work, but again, who is providing that gear or will it just be a requirement on the angler to provide that before they can fish? Let's face it, a lot of guys who fish are doing good to use their cell phone, much less keep a camera rolling, swap chips, make sure the batteries stay fresh, etc. Only the big leagues have enough money and man power to make that happen. I'm not sure you'll ever be able to make it happen on the lower level tournaments. Relying on anglers to weigh and keep track of their own fish when there are thousands of $$$ will only lead to cheating.

I'm not outside in direct sunlight for 8-10 hours straight while doing those other activities. I don't get all covered up to fish if I'm just going out for a few hours either.

I have two pair of gloves. The ones I've been wearing this spring smell like death from handling paddlefish with them on. I figured if I leave them out in the weather long enough, they will eventually quit stinking. If they don't, then oh well. They will just be handling more stinkin fish in the future anyways.

Thinking I need I buy some new gloves and sleeves to match the already bright shirt and buff. Don't want anybody to miss me while on the water. Maybe Skeet Reese has a pair of sun pants he'd sell me to complete the outfit.

That's awesome Phil! I checked on our local team and I was very happy to see that they finally weighed in a keeper! Took them four tournaments to boat a keeper, but they did it!

The rivers are all jacked up from all of this rain. Now that snagging and turkey season are over with, I'm ready to get out on them and start chasing some bass. Hopefully this rain will calm down and that will be a possibility here in a few weeks.

How many of us started out doing full fledged bass tournaments versus pond prowling and learning the basics? You have to walk before you can run, especially when you're shelling out a couple hundred bucks just to participate. I'm just hoping the kids don't get turned off to it by getting their butts kicked time and time again.

I just hope the team from my town caught a fish this tournament. They haven't weighed in a fish in any tournaments they have fished. I'm all for getting kids out there to experience this type of stuff, but they are in over their head. I've fished with them on a local lake near where we live that is over ran with bass and they can barely catch fish there.......

Yep. I run The Gasconade a bunch from Hwy 63 up to the Big Piney and I think you would be crazy to float anywhere below Highway 28 IMO. There's a lot of water above Highway 28 and doesn't get nearly as molested by the jet boats as it does below Big Piney. Paydown to Fish Holler might be alright as there is some pretty sketchy stuff to navigate in a jet boat and most of us stay away from it. Vienna to Jerome is pretty easy running so it gets hit hard with jet boat traffic.

Ya'll should try dealing with floaters on a skinny river in the summer time. Floaters love to clog up the channels in the narrow areas where jet boaters have to run. If you're heading downstream, you're screwed because you don't have the control to stop the boat before realizing that your path is clogged with floaters and things can get ugly in a hurry if they don't move out of the way. I've ran the rivers for years and slow down when I can, but there are some areas where you have to go and pray that nobody is in the chute. There is going to be a bad accident one of these days between jet boaters and floaters in one of these areas. I love to float rivers myself, but I also make sure I go places where I know I won't be dealing with jet boats when I do go. Those honey holes that the jet boaters can't reach will more than likely have much better fishing anyways.

I have a minnkota Maxxum 24v 70# variable speed in the shed. It came off the boat when I upgraded to an Ultrex this past winter. I think it is a 2009 model year. I’ve got a Minnkota 210 charger as well if you need a charger. When I bought the Ultrex, I upgraded the charger to a three bank Minnkota PC charger.

My buddy and his parents even have one of those early 2000 step sides. I've always liked that style of Gm truck and you can't go wrong with the 5.3l. I've got a 99 extended cab that is about to rust apart, but it still gets me from point A to B and back with 309k on the engine. It does use a little coolant during the winter when I run the heat and I do have to add some oil every 1000-1500 miles. I'll keep feeding it until it croaks.