smiling mallard

I fished the Gasconade for the first time in close to 20 years this month. I was totally suprized when I pulled 2 big 11.5-12" slabs out of a lay down. One was a blacknose beauty. I had a thick goggleye well over 9" and countless 11-13" smallmouth with a few big one mixed in. Lots of blacks too. Definitely not taking 4lbs. line next time I get back to this river. Saw 2 kayaks all day. No bait or any cats .

Kris Nelson showed me how you can still catch them after they stop surfacing at dark by YO-YOing a 1/2 oz. trap or a red-eye off the bottom. I've always known a lot of the older fish just wait on the bottom for injured shad to come fluttering down but had never had as much success after they sound at dark like I did with this technique. Tail spinners & Blade baits work well also for bigger fish under the schoolies.

53-54° up the Niangua today. Good stained clearity. TONS of short crappie & bass.

Nothing but radioactive waste & disposed personal hygiene items coming out of that creek. You definitely want to stay away from it! 😉

What a great final week of duck season it was! I hunted the 3 coldest days & shot a limit each day. 8° on Friday was as good as it gets with birds landing less than 15 yds from me for almost an hour after I filled my limit.

Dad & I ground out an all day hunt yesterday to get a full limit of mallards & gadwals plus 3 bonus geese. I shot 2 geese in one shot. One was banded, here at the lake in 2015. Went hour to two between sightings midday but the birds we saw wanted to finish. Probably only saw 50 ducks all day. I never missed a duck & don't think dad missed very many. Killed our last 2 ducks with about 20 minutes of shooting light.

Up to date & accurate online reports from Truman. Just search Truman lake fishing report. There are 3 guides/marinas that usually post on Thursdays.

Never found any consistent surfacing but did catch fish in RA cove, NE of the island at Masters & best on the long flat point West of the island. School of smallies moved in at dark & we all 3 caught one simultaneously.

If you guys are talking whites that have been in the freezer more than a month, than YES, I'll jump on the band wagon about them being brown mushy yuck. However fresh & properly handled (not dead & yellow in a hot livewell) I will take whites over just about anything. Especially out of 38° water. Delicious fried(obviously) & firm enough to grill. Making me hungry. I have a couple boys wanting to go on a last day before school starts trip if anyone wouldnt mind sharing some recent locations.

All temprate bass, stripers, hybrid & whites. Only 4 over 18". Yes, you could be in jeopardy of a violation on lake like BS & TR that have big whites. I wish they would change the wording of the law. I feel there should be a minimum length on hybrids. People below Truman & other areas that contain hybrids, take out full stringers of baby hybrids. It's so easy to tell them apart. With me, if it has parallel teeth patches on the tongue they go back to grow up. Heart shaped tongue patch, into the basket if I'm keeping fish.

Thanks all. No, I'm not retired. I just live my life that way, in case the good lord calls me home before I get a chance to retire. I value time over material things. A person is only given X amount of April's( & November's for that matter). Once you check one off, you can never get it back. BOW ONLY FOR LIFE. My opening day bird. I am on a hot streak that I wouldn't believe if someone told me. I have killed 5 birds in 5 days of bowhunting turkeys the last 2 seasons, hunting multiple states. 10 bow birds total in last 3years. I have eaten ALOT of tags over the years that would have been filled had I been shotgun hunting. It's time to get the kids & bobber out. I would also like to drop the green magnet to see what it would do. Yah Steve, I suck on the Rock.

Yesterday I filled my 2nd tag in 2 days of archery hunting this season then headed to Stockton for walleye. Last 3 days Catching many 18" walleye, jumbo crappie & sow whites in both upper end of Big & Little Sac arms. Side of points at the end of a channel swing. 14 fow 8-10 down for crappie, bottom for whites & walleye. 2.5" white/chartruse sliders. This post has been promoted to an article

The old saying that "you don't have to find the white's, you just have to find the white bass fishermen" should hold true with this weather. Before the water came up they were above the launch just a mile or two.

20 per person.