MOsmallies

That's a heck of a deal. If I owned a business or knew someone that did I would be all over that... I'm sure it won't take long for someone to jump on this Phil. I'd imagine that Frank with Swing Oil Baits is pretty pleased with the business that his Ad on here has brought him. At least it sounds like a lot of guys have ordered from him and are impressed with his products and customer service.

moguy1973 gave some good ideas. Definitely throw them on braid, as braid will help you haul them out of the pads and will actually slice through the pad stems as opposed to mono or fluorocarbon that will just wrap around the stems. Don't give up on the frog. On hollw body frogs, try bending the hooks up just a little bit. This may help your hook up percentage.

x2 I use P-Line CX Premium on all of my reels (Spinning and Casting). Its very soft and limp which makes it perfect for spinning reels.

Pick up a Delorme Missouri Atlas and Gazetteer..... It'll give you some public access points and roads you can try accessing from. If it's not a public access, try to find a house nearby to ask for permission. That's what I did and I've learned a ton. If you have a weekend to kill, pick an area of the state that the forecast looks good for and has several streams nearby that you could try. Lots of trial and error, but when you find one of those gems it makes it even better.

Look back in the archives for reports from last July and you will find a wealth of info. The Table Rock forum has some of the best info on this site. Follow it daily leading up to your trip and you will know exactly what's going on. Topwater, Drop Shot, Spoon, Ned Rig and Football Jig should be a good starting place. This is a funky year though, so you may be able to catch them on normal June patterns as opposed to July patterns. The guys on this area of the forum are extremely knowledgable so just keep checking daily and pay attention to their details. Good Luck

Al - I think I have only fished that creek once in the last three years due to the amount of people that fish it now and decline in numbers and size of fish. It makes me sick to think about the way it is now compared to the way it was 10 years ago. Glad you caught some nice ones and you saw signs of catch and release. It just doesn't hold the same allure as it used to for me.

I accidently caught a 15-20 pound buffalo a couple weeks ago. Casted a neko rig to a cruising bass and snagged the buffalo under the jaw with the tiny circle hook. Put up one hell of a fight on 8 lb line and a medium action rod. Slimed the deck of the boat real good!

I always thought the same thing Old Plug and you may very well be right, but this particular four pounder showed up with a 2 pounder on Easter and both have been hanging out in the same spot ever since. The 2 pounder was also cruising around chasing bluegill and carp away from the fry. I guess I'm just assuming the 4 pounder was the female and the 2 pounder was the male. This years spawn has puzzled me as well. Just did not see a lot of beds and the ones I did see, the fish were not locked on them. They were just cruising around a general area. One of the weirder spawning seasons I've ever seen. The two 3.5 pounders we caught on May 17 had rubbed tails. I've also seen more carp and buffalo up shallow than I have ever seen on this lake. They are all over the place in my area of the lake and they are huge! A bow fisherman's dream!!

I was down with a buddy May 16-18 and the bass fishing was pretty decent for us. Fished shallow, behind docks, in the backs of coves and caught about 50 between Friday evening and all day Saturday. Probably 15 keepers. No big ones but a couple around 3.5 lbs. Water was gin clear. Probably 8-9 foot of visibility in spots. Water temps were 63-66. Fish came on Senkos, Prop Bait, Neko Rig, and one on a swimbait. I came back down again for Memorial Day Weekend with some family and several kids this time. Didn't fish nearly as much as the prior weekend due to running around with the kids and entertaining family that only comes down about once a year. Water was much dirtier than the previous weekend... about 2 foot of visibility. Water temps were 70-74. Fished about 4 hours on Friday morning, an hour on Saturday late afternoon, and 2 hours on Sunday morning. Caught about 20 bass but most were 12-14" and only 3 small 15"-17" keepers. Fished shallow again and a few secondary points looking for post-spawners. Caught fish on Senkos, Weightless Trick Worm, Prop Bait, Popper, Wobble Head, and MJ Rig. Crappie fished off our dock with the kids. Caught 20 in about 4 total hours of fishing with 15 keepers. Only four of the keepers were under 10". Most were 10"-12.5". Cleaned 12 for my neighbor and about half of those still had eggs. All crappie were caught with minnows fished 5-8 feet deep. Our dock is pretty far back in a large cove and sits in about 9-13 feet of water. Lastly, We had a 4 pounder show up on our sea wall on Easter Sunday. She has been there ever since. Never have seen a distinct bed, but she cruises the same area regularly. On Sunday, we finally saw 2 large schools of fry and she was guarding them pretty aggressively.

That is an unreal specimen for LOZ... Thanks for sharing Seth

Awesome fish and great report... You guys fishing from the bank?

Awesome fish...Congrats Joe and Mark!

Awesome write up on one of our sponsors... Congrats Frank!

Congrats man! I would definitely consider that a nice day!!! To upload pics, I usually re-size my pics using this site http://www.webresizer.com/resizer/... Save the optimized image to my PC and then upload it to my post using the "Attach Files" section at the bottom when typing your post.

Awesome! How big was that female? Nice Kentucky as well!

Gavin and moguy1973 hit it on the head... Lots of better options out there now than the Sammy's in my opinion. Strike King Sexy Dawg Jr., Damiki Dolphin, Owner Cultiva Zip n' Ziggy, Ima Skimmer. I still throw the Sammy 100 and my modified Sammy 85 every now and then, but 95% of the time I'm throwing one of the other four I mentioned.

Beautiful work! And great find for the antique shop! Thanks for sharing

Nice Seth! Great report and pics... Glad you guys got on some good ones. What kind of water temps were you seeing?

Awesome report and great pics... You caught some real nice crappie and look like you had a great time with your dad! Nothing better than that... KU sucks

You have to reel backwards

Simonthegolfer - If it works for you and its comfortable then more power to you. Keep using what's comfortable. I would think the trigger would get in the way of your palm when holding the rod, but you probably just have your hand placed a little further back. The main thing your probably handicapping yourself on is casting distance. Spinning rods have much larger guides closer to the reel that account for the way the line comes off a spinning reel. The larger guides create less slap on the line resulting in longer casts. The smaller guides on a casting rod are going to slap against the line much more and reduce casting distance. Wrench - Those pics were pretty darn funny! The only setup I see people use that drives me nuts is a spinning combo held upside down with the reel on top of the rod and the fisherman reeling backwards. To each his own, but that one drives me bonkers for some reason... Disclaimer: If this is what you are doing, then my apologies

Bait coffin full of warts looks sweet dtrs5kprs! Mitch - I started replacing my wart hooks with the KVD Mustad trebles (Like most of my hard baits). Size 4 on the belly and size 6 for the tail. I was also considering the Owner ST-36's in Size 5. There was actually a thread a few months back on Wiggle Wart replacement hooks...

They need to make the camera the size of a carolina rig weight. GoPro should be working on this as we speak. People would freak over something like this.

Soooooooo.... When we gonna see the pictures of these smallies???

Nice Andy... I'm jealous as can be! Great fish!!!!