smallmouthjoe

I wish the general public felt the same way about snakes as you do Bman. I study snakes and have found that they are truly shy creatures who are more willing to run than they are to fight. Thank you for giving that old and beautiful snake a reprieve.

Fished the Springfield Lake tail water Thursday morning before work. Caught Five or six large mouths, two spots, one smallmouth and one green sunfish in about two hours. All of the largemouth and one of the spots had really good size. Caught them where you would normally expect to find smallmouth, current seams, behind breaks etc. I don't know where the larger smallmouth are. I saw one brute of a smallmouth clinging on to life in a shallow eddy. The water coming of the lake was extremely warm and I hope they moved down stream or I hope they were just ignoring me. All fish were caught on a brown and orange bitsy bug with a paca craw on the back.

You should try green bridge up. It's a really good wade. Don't leave your car at the bridge though, it's best to to have someone drop you off. Thanks for the report.

Spinnerbait out of the back of a pocket

It's always amazing to see how much energy people waste by being angry. It's much easier on you and everyone else if you just let it go and smile.

Next time the water is up I'll try a spinnerbait. I should have tried it this last time, especially after reading your post, but I didn't bring any with me. Do they work well when the water is at a normal level and clear?

What was the water temp up Cow Creek?

Might have been they usually stay around the same area all season and tend to carve out a little section that is all there own. I was porting around a riffle and glanced over to my right and there she was, gave me quite the scare.

Fished the James Thursday from Hooten up for about a mile stretch. Caught four eyes, one smallmouth, one largemouth and a little spot. River was up around five to six feet and the water had a little color to it. Plowed through every pieces of still water I could find but couldn't find the bigger smallmouths. After fishing the side eddys for a couple of hours I started focusing on mid stream rocks but still couldn't come up with a decent smallie. Most of the fish where caught on a brown and orange bitsy bug with an orange paca craw on the back and the spot was caught on a shad rap. Saw a beautiful Midland Water Snake resting in the branches of a downed tree and got a couple of good photos. She was truly a magnificent specimen.

I would also like to ask about the water clarity. I'll be fishing the state park area this weekend and I would like to know what to expect. Thanks.

Thanks for the info guys. I took off a week in the middle of June today, I hope the river isn't a raging torrent during that week.

What where they thinking bring such a young child on a float trip? I get nervous paddling around with inexperienced adults in moving water. Its a terrible thing.

I was wanting to maybe camp along the James sometime in the near future and I was wondering if anyone knew if it was illegal for me to camp along it's bank, due to fact that all of it is private property. I've always done day trips on The James, but I kind of want to take a week off from work this summer and see if I can float from 125 to Galena. It's around sixty miles and i think I can make Ten miles a day if I only fish the good water. Last year while floating from Shelvin to Hooten a drunk guy in an inter tube told me that it was o.k. for anyone to camp on a gravel bar because it's considered state property. You will of course understand me wanting to get a second opinion on this matter. Any info would be great, thanks.

That stretch from Hooten to that first bridge up from Hooten is one of my favorite runs on the James. I've been putting too much time in on Table Rock this spring, I think it's about time to do some stream fishing. Thanks for the great report.

RS, what up with the main channel of the park? Do you ever catch fish out in the middle? This last time I saw a fairly big school of fish chasing bait fish right in the middle of the channel. I was too far away to see what they were, but I would have to guess that they where bass. Thanks for the tip on the holes up from riverside, I'll try it sometime this week if the rain doesn't put the river too high.

I was fishing out of my kayak.

Fished the park today and it was a tough one. I arrived there early, around 7:00, and caught my only fish of the day on my third cast. I was throwing a homemade spinnerbait, white with a gold willow. After going about an hour without another bite on the spinner I switched to my go to bait, a green and brown bitsy bug jig. I dragged that thing around everywhere, but couldn't get anything going. It was a bad day for catching fish but it was a good day in general. Got some exercise, some clean air and got out of Springfield for a little while.

That things got some shoulders, beautiful fish.

Nice fish, what part of aunts creek where you in?

Thanks for the advice. I usually don't get so frustrated but when I've lost the fifth or sixth nice looking bass I start to yonder about my skills as an angler. I was thinking about a wake bait this weekend and wishing that I had invested in one in the past. I think I'll go to BP and pick one up. Thanks again guys.

I lost so many fish this weekend on the spook. I don't know what the deal was I let them have it and completely turn and swim away with it but I couldn't get a hook in them. Frustrating, but I did come away with a couple. I couldn't get the soft plastic to work either until I started throwing a dropshot around docks. It was not my best weekend.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on camping and fishing along the Buffalo. I've only been there once but I would like to plan out a three day camping trip for this summer there. I want to camp somewhere that has a good wading section close and that isn't going to have a million people on it. But I can deal with a crowd if the fishing is good. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks. I'm assuming that I will have to buy an Arkansas fishing license as well, how much do they run for Missouri boys down there?

Great report and great tip on how to take care of those wasps. Careful where your swinging that badminton racket though they can be dangerous. I had my sternum cracked by one of those things in gym class in the seventh grade.

I would look at some of the Rods that Browning puts out. I own three of them and I'm very satisfied with all of them. They're not too pricey either. Out of the two you've been looking at I would go with the Berkely Lighting my self. They're cheap and tough in my opinion. I'm pretty hard and my rods and the lighting has held up so far.

There used to be a nice crappie hole about 1/2 mile up from the 1-60 bridge. The biggest crappie I've ever caught came from that hole. The last time I checked though there were no crappie to be found. I guess someone decided to have a fish fry.