Bimmer

We've never associated Don, but as a cancer survivor you have the prayers from my family to yours. The Great Physician upstairs is in control of it all and I pray in His Son's name a rapid and full recovery for the misses. I also pray for Him to give you patience, strength and endurance for all that is required of you. It is not easy as I have also been on your side with my ex-wife. You will find, if you haven't already that this type of crisis CAN bring people even closer together than they were before. I've seen it. Keep us posted and hang in there brother! Maybe even get a chance to meet you and her on the water sometime! ~ the Petty Family

Motor limit is 40hp and you have to have to purchase an annual sticker to launch your boat there. It was either $35 or $40. You WILL need to present a title to get the sticker as well. I think it's the motor title you have to have, but I'd take the boat title too.

I didn't even get a bump. Water temp was 85 degrees. Fish were scarce pretty much everywhere. The numbers got better as I approached the dam buoys but for the most part fish were no where to be found really. I saw a few lunkers breaching surface but I couldn't tell you what they were. So many factors here. The waters low, the water temps are high, we have a full moon albeit that it rides low in the sky. I'm going to give it a rest until this heatwave is over. The wife and I are going camping on the lower Buffalo River for our first anniversary. Apparently there's just barely enough water to canoe so we're doing that on Saturday the 23rd. I don't imagine the fishing will be worth a darn.

Sunrise at 6am. Full moon this evening. May not pan out but we'll see while the temps are moderate.

Thanks fellas! All good information and I really appreciate it! Will post up again as soon as we can get back up there.

Well even though I was up at 6:30 the three of us didn't get on the water until after 9am. We drove up highway 13 only to find the ramp there was closed due to construction. So drove back a little south from there and picked up 82 heading east to take us to Brush Creek Landing. Not knowing where we were, we ended up intersecting with 83. We found a boat launch a little west of Point 12. Our first place to hitch up was due east from that boat launch and a point north of the eastern shoreline of that 83 bridge in a channel that skirted the outermost outcrop of trees. I guess we were in the Fairfield area, Mockingbird Hill shoreline immediately due south of Osage Bluff. Armed with 3/16 jigs and pb/chartreuse tubes tipped with crapied bites, we only managed one small white and equally small Ky bass. Aside from a few pretty good strikes the day was pretty lacking department. What's odd is there were constantly fish in water depth of 30ft and the fish schooling in 18 to 24 foot depth with a temp of about 84 degree water. Even when we moved after a few hours to 40 ft of water there were schools consistently moving in 18-24ft depth and lots of fish in each school. Light wind put some chop on the water and we saw a few VERY impressive fish making spectacles of feeding the topwater. We called it quits about 1pm and headed back to Springfield. There were maybe 30 trailers at the launch and the few people we were able to talk to hadn't fared any better than we did. We had fun being on the lake. Most of the folks were friendly bit guess it's beef for dinner tonight!

I'd say it's fair to assume you live alone?....Jus' sayin'

Now THAT's CLASSY!

Thanks Shaker n Rangerz. I do use a Humminbird on my boat so that will definitely help and I usually use my troller as slow as it will go. Looks like I'm going to need to hit up Fin and Feather here in Springfield before I head up that direction and get outfitted with the proper gear. Besides bass gear I've accumulated in the last few months, I only have a big assortment of 1/8 green and yellow jigs with mostly purple grubs that I'd use for Walleye up in North Dakota and sometimes the crappies would hit those it tipped with a minnow. May be use my live-well for the first time too with some minnows when I go up. Will keep you posted as to when the wife and I will head up but they way it's looking it might not be until Saturday. Thanks fellas! Bimmer

Having just recently bought a 16ft Starcraft with a 35HP Force outboard, I'm looking to find some spots around Osceola that would render some nice crappie. I just met one of my neighbors down the street who was just taking a bucket of nice crappies in to be prepared for dinner. I asked him where I he fished and he said Truman. He said he likes it there due to the fact that most times it seems like he's the only one on the lake. Not being from around here, I've never fished for them before. Once in awhile I catch one on a worm and bobber when I was a kid back in Washington state. Could anyone here be kind enough to suggest the proper bait, rig and technique for catching these? Do you use worms and/or crickets? Or do you use artificial gear? Do these guys usually hang a few feet off bottom where a small jig might be best? Sorry for all the questions but I figure people can't help you if they don't know what it is you want to know. I've fished a little bass here on Fellows locally and Table Rock. Is the area around Osceola noted for bass as well? What about launch ramps? Any suggestions there? Thanks folks! Much appreciate the information! Have a safe and happy 4th and thank you to all you vets who served with me! ~Bimmer

I for one would be interested in the walleye rig you use since I am still learning the Ozarkian techniques of fishing on TR. Thanks very much!

No friend, unfortunately I won't. We are taking a little vacation to Texas leaving pre-dawn tomorrow and not returning until around the 14th. I'm sure when we get home I'll be eager to get back on the lake. The wife will still have that week off as well so I"m sure we'll both be fishing part of that week and weekend. I will let you know though. ~David

Got out around 8:30 this morning. Water temps incredibly warm I think. I saw them as high as 76 degrees. Tried a sweet beaver and also a wiggle wart. In the first 10 minutes a 6# catfish nailed the wiggle wart in about 10 feet of water. Obviously I had high hopes of a healthy LM being on the other end but to my surprised it turned out to be a cat. Returned it to the deep as it had what looked like a fresh open wound about 2" long, from most likely a muskie. I'm sure the temps are keeping the bass in deeper waters.

I just had my boat registered there fir the first time last month. You will need the title to the motor and the boat. They will record the tag numbers off the motor and they will measure the width of the bow at it's widest point. They will also ask if you have an oar and how many life preservers you have. After you have the tag on your boat, you're good to go. They also will post what time you have to be off the lake in the evening. You cannot be on the lake at night. The gate opens around 7am I think. Hope this helps answer your questions!

We were out Saturday, the wife and I. We found the water temps from 64 in a few places but mostly in the 68 degree range. As far as action, the south arm was unrelenting most of the morning, as we tried a number of places. We moved ot the north arm just across from the marina and nailed a single 14 on a Wiggle Wart. My wife got one strike on a Beaver but missed setting the hook. We're very much novices at bass fishing in the Ozarks but even with one bass, we were happy. It was a great day to be on the lake. My back is still a little tender. I got busy with the rod and forgot to put my shirt back on. Aloe does wonders! I'll be back out just as soon as these storms settle down. I've got a few tips from Jerry at Fish, Fin & Feather I want to try out.

I was out this morning at about 9am. Temps were the same today as Nitro said they were yesterday. Saw a few hitting the surface in a back cove on the south fork. Didn't get skunked today. Finally caught my first LM in Missouri on a Wiggle Wart at about 9:30am. I must've hit him on the head with it because he was on it before I got my slack line in. He pushed 13". Tried a FB jig also but they just snubbed that. May try a sweet beaver next time.

The wife gets off at 4:30 also and she loves to fish too. I'm in a 16' Blue/White Starcraft and I drive a 1999 Silver Durango. If it doesn't rain, we may make a showing after she gets off. If I don't go today I'll post to you in the next day or so when I am going. Thanks Nitro! ~David

I never did bring out the FB jig today. I was determined to stay with the Wiggle Wart. Not so much as a bump from 9:30 to 11:00. Stayed on the south side of the North Fork for most of that time and then moved to the North side of the South fork up close to the brush in about 12' of water. Met Roy and Virgil though. Seemed to be a couple of ol'timers who've been hittin' Fellows over the past 4 decades. Don't know if they did any good but nice folks. Guess I'm going to have to take someone out with me that knows what they're doing and show me the ropes a little bit. Kinda an on-the-job training ya might say.

I'm hoping to be on the water by 9-ish. Have to take wife to work and then to the lake from there. Still learning to fish the lakes around here. Been using Wiggle Warts and FB jigs w/dark green craw. I'm actually up for anything. Crappie and Wally's welcome. Any other tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks fellas! ~David

I'd like to come down in the morning and register my boat. Do you know what time the marina opens in the morning?

Well you all will be pleased to know that the wife and I opted for Aunts Creek instead of Viola. We got a late start so we took the shortest option. The rest of the day went like something out of a Laurel and Hardy movie. Went to pay go get into the park. No cash. Store doesn't give cash back on debit purchases. Drive the 3 miles back to the Great Southern to use their ATM and get charged $3. Drive-up teller won't break a $10 bill since we're not a customer. Go 1`00 feet to the Shell station and get change. Drive the 3 miles back to the park. Got the boat launched at the park there for $4. Wife couldn't hold the position of the boat and the wind pushed the prop into the gravel. Resolved that issue and even though I wore rubber boots to the knee to launch, I now have two boots full of water. Got the boat to the dock and secured. Got in. Turned the key. No power. Checked battery. Big hole about the size of a dime right next to the ground terminal. Looks like it may have bounced and grounded itself on the top of the aluminum shell where the battery and fuel cells sit. 40 minutes later after a trip to O'reilly's and $185 less in my wallet we're on the lake. Patiently fished about 45 minutes in each of 4 places with a FB jig and green craw and then switching to a Wiggle Wart after that. Didn't expect a whole lot as we didn't get on the water until 10:30. Around 2pm after getting a few bumps on the Wart, the wife gets her jig stuck on the bottom. Most of our snags we could get loose with loosing anything. This time it's stuck good. So I had her back her rod back and I proceed to pull the anchor in and motor ahead of the snag and work it loose. No go. The anchor is snagged too. Can't move the boat. In the process of drifting we start the motor to see if it will free the anchor. You can guess what happened next. Yup. The anchor line is now wrapped around the prop a few times. An hour later after stretching over the transome and barely able to even reach the bottom of the prop AND many color metaphors later, I get the prop free of the anchor line, the anchor free and in the boat AND the original snag free on the wifes' rod. she asks me if I'm ready to go home. HELL NO! I just got a strike an hour before that. I'm not quitting now. Never got another strike but we had a good time. The weather cleared beautifully although just a tad breezy. All in all it was fun except for the drama but we knew we got out there way to late to expect anything positive in the way of a bite.

Awesome friend! Thank you very much! ~David

I've never been to Viola. What the best directions to the launch from Springfield? Temps are going to be around 40mph with a constant breeze early in the morning. Sounds like Kings River is a better put in and fish spot thsn KC. anyone care to give decent direction please? Thank you and BET of luck tomorrow to you all! ~David

I hear your distaste about negating the use of the former ramp. I know it takes money to install better ramps equipped to service a higher volume of traffic. But to deliberately FORCE everyone to use a particular ramp just so they can make a few dollars seems, well, for lack of a better term GREEDY. But as we're all aware, this society has turned into just that. Greedy. We're the "it's all about me" society that worships the almighty dollar. Thanks for the tip about Mill Creek. I'll check that out next time I'm there. My Sunday for this coming weekend is full with church and family but Saturday looks like it may be a good prospect weather-wise, to head back out on the lake with what I've learned this week. Thanks everyone! ~David