ozark trout fisher

I'll try it for sure. Thanks for the tips everyone.

Sounds like I'm gonna stock up the next time I'm going to walmart. I'm going on a smallie/trout fishing trip at Little Piney pretty soon, and I was thinking of some new lures to bring along. Generally my smallmouth arsenal consists of a Strike King Bitsy Minnow, Baby Bombers, Beetle Spins, various tube baits, Rapala countdowns Strike King Jigs, and of course nightcrawlers, but about half of those are illegal in the area of the Little Piney I want to fish. I know of a couple runs there that have both nice smallies and a few trout, so a smaller Rebel crawdad might be a good option in those places. Now that I think of it I think I vaguely remember having success for bucketmouths on one down at LOZ a few years back, but I've never tried them for smallies.

I fished Mill one time too, and it absolutely skunked me. I know there are a few fish there, but there are plenty of better wild trout creeks around.

I noticed the other day that rebel makes a crankbait that is supposed to look like a crawdad. These things look like they might work pretty well for smallmouth. Has anyone here caught anything on them?

I only have one boat besides a canoe. Its a 12' Jon boat, I don't even know what kind. I think my grandpa found it floating down the Meramec River after a flood about 40 years ago (I'm not exaggerating), and ended up giving it to me a few years ago. It only has a trolling motor on it. One time we tried to put an old ten horse outboard on it, but it just about tip the boat over backwards . It might be old slow, but it still does the job. :D

Scum of the earth. I say send them to jail for quite a while, and get a huge fine, but I doubt that will happen. I don't know, but I can't imagine anyone not knowing what purple paint means. But there are some real knuckleheads out there, so who knows.

Went back again today, to a different cove of the lake. I decided to go after just the big boys today. I only caught two bass in five hours, but they were big, 21", and 18" to be exact. They were full of eggs, but not yet on their bed. Caught them on live green sunfish. They were both hooked right on the lip, and released unharmed back to the water. I'm just shocked, because the water I'm fishing generally doesn't produce any lunkers, but it sure has been different lately. Later on, I caught 9 big bluegill on a fly rod rigged with a black woolly bugger.

Yeah, I think the high water might have hurt you a little bit. I have had my best fishing between 55 and 150 cfs, and according to the USGS gauge, it was going about double (I think it said something like 320 cfs) on 4/24. Fishable, yes, but when the water's that high, it pretty much rules out using the smaller nymphs, which seem to work so well there. It even gets pretty hard to wade in some of the deeper holes at the level you were fishing. Come back on your next trip out here, and I bet you'll catch a few more. You can catch trout there all year. It sounds like you were fishing in the best part of the creek.

That is a pretty bass. Not to mention huge

Those are some nice fish...................... Thats a good looking bass. By the way, I think I posted this in two different forums General Angling Discussion, and this one. Oh well

Yeah, she was all full of eggs. I'm sure glad I was using twelve pound test, or I would have lost him. I generally use four pound test mono and an ultralight for bass and trout fishing, but I figured I should use bigger line, and a medium action setup when going after the spawning females, and I'm glad I did. I was sight fishing off a dock, and man, the moment of the strike I nearly had a coronary. It sure was hard to release that bass, but I would have just felt terrible if I'd kept him. It was such a pretty fish, and right during the spawn, it just would have gone against my conscience too much. By the way Al Agnew, a 26 incher in an Ozark stream is nothing less than amazing. That's a true trophy.

I just used a fish weight calculator, and it said it would be approximately seven pounds. I would have gotten the girth, but I thought that wrapping the tape measure around it might not have been the best thing for his release. I got a picture of him by the way, but it wasn't on a digital camera. I know a 24 incher isn't too big in some of the southern lakes like Table Rock and Bull Shoals, but out of the lake I fish, its a pretty good one. I've never caught one in this particularly lake bigger than 20", and I generally consider any bass over fifteen inches a pretty good bass, even though it would just be a dink anywhere else. I used to think that all lakes were like this until I spent a couple of days on Bull Shoals.

I just used a fish weight calculator, and it said it would be approximately seven pounds. I would have gotten the girth, but I thought that wrapping the tape measure around it might not have been the best thing for his release. I got a picture of him by the way, but it wasn't on a digital camera.

I just used a fish weight calculator, and it said it would be approximately seven pounds. I would have gotten the girth, but I thought that wrapping the tape measure around it might not have been the best thing for his release. I got a picture of him by the way, but it wasn't on a digital camera.

Went on a short trip to the marina at an inlet of this certain lake in Warren County, I know several others on the forum live on this lake, so I thought I'd give a report. Caught several bass in the 12 to 17 inch range at the marina, and one monster, a twenty four inch largemouth, and a new personal best for me. They were caught off their bed, but all were released absolutely no worse for the wear, even the two footer, and none let their eggs go when I caught them, so I was happy about that. He fought me for about five minutes, and nearly broke my line on quite a few occasions. Caught the monster on a nightcrawler, (he didn't swallow it, so don't fret), and the rest on a Strike King Jig. Folk remember its the the spawn, so catch and release only. Well, I guess you can legally keep bass now, but I would ask you not to. Just a question folks. How much do you think a 2 foot long bass would weigh? I didn't get a chance to weigh him before release.

Went on a short trip to the marina at the inlet of this certain lake in Warren County, I know several others on the forum live on this lake, so I thought I'd give a report. Caught several bass in the 12 to 17 inch range at the marina, and one monster, a twenty four inch largemouth, and a new personal best for me. They were caught off their bed, but all were released absolutely no worse for the wear, even the two footer, and none let their eggs go when I caught them, so I was happy about that. He fought me for about five minutes, and nearly broke my eight pound test on quite a few occasions. Caught the monster on a nightcrawler, (he didn't swallow it, so don't fret), and the rest on a Strike King Jig. Folks remember during the spawn, catch and release only. Well, I guess you can legally keep bass then, but please don't. Just a question folks. How much do you think a 2 foot long bass would weigh? I didn't get a chance to weigh him before release.

Thieves............ I hate them.

Yeah, while I like Little Piney it can give you a tough time occasionally............... Where on the creek were you?

I don't believe I ever received one either. I guess the spammers don't like me either

I knew a few rainbows ran up the Buffalo each winter from the White, but I didn't have any idea that ranged that far upstream or stayed in the river this long. If that rainbow doesn't head back down to the White here pretty soon, he's gonna be in trouble Good job, sounds like you had a good time.

Not a problem at all. Never been to lake 11, but it sounds like a pretty decent bass lake. I've never been to 27 before, and have only fished 28 during the winter trout season, but I have actually caught several decent bass there while going after the trout, so it might be a good place to try.

Welcome to the forum........... The Current is a great river

I think I might just do that this next weekend. I remember seeing that stream one time while hunting at Huzzah Creek Conservation Area. Should I just access the Creek at Onondaga Cave SP? Or is it more suited for floating?

A well. I've been doing pretty well fishing a lake near my house anyway. Next week looks pretty rainy, so I may make it down two weekends from now. I got a new canoe and I'm itching to take it out on a river.

I've had good luck with Lake 36 for bream. I just fish off the man made gravel points they make, it works fine. I throw nightcrawlers and crickets. Besides bluegill, I've caught some nice bass, and catfish in the ten pound range. There are hybrid stripers too according to the MDC, but I haven't had any luck catching any without a boat. Just a tip, if you catch a bluegill about 3" long, cast it out on a stout rod, with a treble hook and I bet you'll catch a catfish with a lot more meat on it than twenty bluegill. Good luck. Busch Wildlife is really a jewel. For being so close the fishing for bass, catfish, and bluegill is great, and the trout fishing is about the best anywhere during the wintertime.