Seth

This is the first year in a while that I've actually experienced a good spawn bite. Dropping a jig and float on them and watching the float go under is always a blast!

Try PBJ first. If that one isn't working, then try PBJ. Lastly, if they still aren't biting PBJ, try another PBJ. I bought some Swingoil NED heads with the wire hook keeper as backups for when I forget the super glue. I've been using them for the past few years more often than not because it seems my glue is always dried up when I actually do remember it. It's not as good as using super glue, but it holds the bait in place a lot better than with no hook keeper.

I know you put them back, but their mouths will still be sore by the time I get there. Just don't HOOK all of them so I can tangle with a few. 11-13" rainbows are about the only thing I bother keeping. When I bake them, the pin bones soften up enough that you can just eat them and not worry about getting stuck. Anything much bigger, and they are big enough to where I have to cut around them or just cut them out before cooking.

As far as I know, Legend SS only offers the rod box in the 60" wide boats. I run an 1860 Legend SS vbass and it has the rod locker. If you want a smaller rig with a rod box, they would have to have one custom ordered. Call Cowtown, tell them what you are looking for and they can get you a price quote. I'm a big fan of Legend SS boats, but if you are looking for something a bit more custom, then you would be doing yourself a favor to call Troutt and Sons and get quote for them. Jeff McMillen is the main welder/rigger and he can build you anything you want. Here is another tip for side rod lockers. Make sure you get it with an open front end and use rod socks. You can fit a lot more rods in there. Side rod lockers with grommets for a set amount of rods wastes a lot of space IMO.

I mostly use the power worm these days, but I still break out the magnets now and then. They still catch fish. I've not fished them enough side by side to really see how they compare.

May 19 was kids fishing day. I took a long time friend and his son down. He never has been much of a fisherman and his son had never caught a fish before. We started off drifting trout worms under a float, but he just couldn't get the hang of tightening the line and setting the hook so we switched over to yellow and rainbow powerbait on the bottom and he was able to catch his first four fish of his career. The trout cooperated and would swallow the hook so the lack of a hookset didn't really matter. My dad was also down helping my brother in law and his boys and they caught several as well. As we finished up, my main bass fishing tournament partner and his two oldest girls showed up. He isn't a trout guy so I basically set them up on bottom with powerbait as well and the trout cooperated. They both caught a nice limit of trout. I'm not the most patient when it comes to helping others fish, but I think I can safely say that we all had an absolute blast getting them to catch some fish. On Sunday, I went back down and took my fiance and her parents. The fishing wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. My fiance caught her limit of decent fish on a trout worm, and my father in law caught six, but threw back a couple small ones. It took him most of the day to catch them drifting bait below a float. I caught quite a few, but I had to resort to some micro sized jigs to get them to bite. They would bite a regular jig and trout worm, but most would only grab the end and never actually got the hook in their mouth enough to hook. I saw several lunkers caught on Saturday by the kids as well as few left overs on Sunday by adults. The two biggest fish caught on kids days when I last checked was a pair of 6.8 pounders. Supposedly a guy pulled an 8 pounder out of the slow hole at the upper end of the park by the handicap area that morning.

Save a few hungry browns for a lowly clip on jetter.

I've used both and really didn't notice a difference in snagging up, but I typically only use them in the winter on fairly clean bottoms.

I'm on my Iphone 8 Plus more than anything else when I am not at work. I've got an Ipad as well, but I rarely use it since the 8 plus is fairly good sized. I've got a desktop at home that I built for gaming that I rarely use anymore since I'm not in to any sort of games as well as a laptop that I mainly use for editing my fishing videos as well as work stuff.

I've always just fished them like a traditional jerkbait.

This brown frenzy just needs to hold out for two more weeks. I'll be down May 31-Jun 3 with nothing but fishing on the agenda! I need to break my curse for catching a legal brown.

That would be my guess. I can't imagine a crappie of that size not being at the end of it's life cycle.

JUMBO!! Is that another big triploid?

One flew in our to our window which has a big screen covering it on the outside and got his beak stuck for a bit yesterday. I was just about to go out and give him a helping hand, but he finally worked his way out on his own.

The fish doctor is prone to being swallowed as well and you basically just slowly reel it in so you have contact with the bait the entire time. I've only fished it a few times and didn't have any fish swallow it, but I could see where one could easily do it IF they bit and swam towards you. I've fished the NED a lot in the winter and have had very few fish swallow it. With that said, I've had some other guys fishing with me on those days using and NED and they had several fish hooked deep with it. I think a lot of it comes down to being able to detect a bite in decent time.

I bought my "nused" 2011 Silverado last July and have put 17k miles on it already. Work is only 20 minutes from the house so I don't put many miles on it for work. Those Taneycomo and LoZ trips add up in a hurry!

Kids day is this coming Saturday. There will be plenty of fish in the stream Sunday. I've not been down for a kids day in years, but it sounds like I may actually have a couple buddies that are interested in bringing their kids this year. Hopefully they don't bail on us last minute. I'm excited to see them catch their first trout.

I have that motto on all species of fish. Eat the smaller keepers and put back the big ones. I’ll be honest though, walleye and crappie usually don’t get the same treatment.

The backup camera is the only modern feature I wish I had on truck. As long as it has starts, had working 4wd and lets me play music from my phone, I am happy.

Tablerock doesn't produce the numbers like LoZ, Truman, etc. but it does produce some of the nicest quality fish in the state though.

You did the right thing. I fish a couple river clubs and if somebody is being a jack leg and giving us a bad image, we would want to know so as to let the problematic angler know that they need to cut the crap or get out.

The vibe I got from your post was that due to one bad egg, all tournament anglers should be punished. @DADAKOTA did you see it that way as well? I thought your post was spot on.

4” caffeine shad and the 4.5-5” BPS speed shad, Keitech Impact fat, strike Rage Seimmer and RI skinny dippers. Haven’t tried anything over 5” yet mainly since I mainly fish the Gasconade. I’ve got some 6” Keitechs for the next time I venture to the Osage.

I started fishing swimbaits quite a bit last year and I mainly used VMC Heavy Duty swimbait hooks in 4/0 and 5/0. The 4/0 was used for the 3.75-4" swimbaits and the 5/0 for swimbaits up to 5". They seemed to work fine, but I definitely missed far more fish rigged weedless than I do with an open jighead. Not sure if I need to let them hold on the to the bait for a few seconds before setting the hook or what. Mainly happened on smaller fish though so maybe that's just part of using swimbaits. No issues hooking up with quality fish.

If you think TRL is bad, you should come spend a weekend on Lake of the Ozarks!