yaknar

TroutRinger, there is no real access at Jamesville,which is down M hwy from 14 out of Nixa. You can either walk/climb down beside the bridge or put in on the Finley, .2 miles up from the James and float down. With the river being down right now its more of a slippery walk down moss covered flat rock trying not to fall.

Arofishing and Chief Grey Bear, thanks for noticing I also posted a picture of a large smallmouth. I have a ruler on my paddle but forgot to measure it. When I got home I laid a tape measure across my legs and tried to guess how long it,the fish, was. I can tell you it was caught around 6pm, in 2-3 foot of water, with a Rebel Pop-R. I thought the other one was just a goggle eye.

Shadow bass or Ozark bass....I had not heard of these so I had to go to Missouri Conservation site, Introduction to Missouri Fish, to learn about these fish. I found them under Northern Rock Bass. It shows their distribution in the state and a little about them. I learn a little today.

Floated down the James around 4 pm Thursday, a little late in the day to be putting in. I put in at Jamesville. When I put in there, I use the Boaz gauge, which was reading 2.36, which means a lot low water and only a few deep holes. As you can see I caught a few but didnt take pictures of all them. The biggest one turned my kayak around, pointed me upstream, I always like when that happens. I have never picked up trash floating down the river but, as you can see by the last picture, armed with my new conservation red bag, I picked up trash, but only saw one can. It was empty when I found it.

I forgot to ask, what brand, how long, what color, and where did you get it from? Is this your first? An anchor? What else are you plan on adding? Will there be pictures?

Here's a link that might help you, but remember if you use rivets,use kayak rivets not rivets from Lowes. I have use both rivets and well nut with no problems. http://www.sit-on-topkayaking.com/Articles/Instruction/BasicMaintenance.html#nuts

Thanks for all the info on the bags. I called the Nature Center, they have the bags and they are free.And I understand if I pick up the trash, it becomes my trash.Here's a pic of the yabbies. They are weighted so they stand on their tail. I floated Shelvin to Hootentown. My Caper has a cup holder. I have a pool noodle wrapped around a pvc pipe. Inside that pipe is a wooden dowel with industrial strength velcro on the bottom and velcro on the bottom of the cup holder, so I can remove it, but it won't fall out when I carry my kayak. Add a couple pvc T's, paint and that's it. I did add a couple fold down clips to my hatch to keep the ends of the rods apart.

Kayaked down the James yesterday morning.I didn't expect to catch many in the warm and shallow water,but I did catch the usual pumpkinseeds, greens and goggle-eye. I caught 3 small in the shallow water, the bigger ones were in the deep holes. They all hit and fought hard,and most jump 2 or 3 times while I was trying to land them. I didn't take many pictures as I was trying to get them back in the water quickly. A few were able to throw the lure. The lure I caught the most and biggest on were 1/2oz yabbies. I also caught a cat. I saw at lest 15 beer cans on the way down. I have no way to haul them in my kayak, so I'm going to start bringing a bag. Does anyone else bring a bag to gather up trash like cans? I would like the kind they give you when you rent a canoe. I also tried out a different rod holder.

I never thought of this, but what a great ideal. MCD, report illegal activities, number has been added to my cell phone. 1-800-392-1111

I used these today on the James in the deeper holes. Caught some nice bass with these. When they hit them, they hit them hard. I got several up to the yak and the bass tossed them out. Bought mine off the web.

Kayaked down the James yesterday hoping to catch a mess of logperch. I caught more google-eye than anything. I think they were behind every rock. I did catch about 8 large and smallmouth bass, nothing with any size. I also did the trick where you misscast over a branch and before you try to retrive the lure, while it is dangling from the branch, you dance it on top of the water. I caught the biggest largemouth of the day using this method. Not long after that I spotted the elusive logperch. I was not sure which logperch lure to use, but as you can see I chose correctly.

Jack, I was going to float Kerr to Cox but the river is still a little high for the way I fish. Maybe with the way the river has changed it would be ok to float at this stage but, I kayaked Shelvin to Hootentown. With the river down it took me 8 1/2 hours to float. I caught the cat on a Super Striker Royal Coachman, 1/4 oz. It surprised me. I normal use the Super Striker because they are 1/4 oz.

I kayaked down the James yesterday. I left the waders at home and got in the water. The water temp was great for wading. I didn't catch anything with any size. The bass I did catch were small. Caught a lot of Goggle-eyes and perch. They were very active and took about anything I threw, and their are always fun to catch. The only big fish I caught was this catfish and on a light rod it took some work to get him in the kayak. I like post with pictures that's why I put some up. .

clf989s, I put in at 6am and took out 12:45pm, so a little over 6 1/2 hours. But the river was up and I did very little wading.

Jack, I fish with two 5 ft. Ugly Stik's, light action, and a Zebco Delta spincast reel. It's been in the river several times and works fine on the next cast. Nothing to fancy. It's a lot of fun pulling in a fish on a light action rod. I normally use the Super Striker Elite, they are 1/4 oz, as are most of the lures I use. I buy them on line at http://joesflies.com/shop/catalog/Super-Striker-Elite-Series-p-1-c-2.html

Thanks for the info, I might need to give them a try. I feel if I'm fishing for smallmouth on the James, I need a crawfish lure. The ones I use is a Rebel Wee-Crawfish in the stream craw color and the Teeny Crawfish. I have bought lures on-line from http://www.landbigfish.com/showcase.cfm?PID=784 . The color looks similar to the sunrise color. They have a nice assortment but a little slow to ship out.

The lures I used yesterday were Bombers-Square A and Long A, Short Striker- Black Gnat and Muddler, and a Kopper. The lures I lost were Bombers Square A and Long A, Black Gnat and Muddler , and a Kopper. I only take about 16 lures with me on a float. The Kopper, $11.99, was given to me. It would be hard for me to buy an $11.99 lure to fish with. Sometimes if I ain't getting hung-up, I'm not catching fish...

River was a little high today, but I had the day off so I had to go. I usually do more wading then kayaking but today it was more kayaking then wading.I had to float by many fishy looking spots. The first fish today was a green sunfish, but no picture,after that I took a picture of each kind I caught. Of course CPR catch-photograph-release. The big tree across the river at Hootentown is no longer there. Bad news I lost 6 lures, Good news trip to Bass Pro. Time to cash in some reward points...I kayaked Shelvin to Hootentown.

If they drive your vehicle, Hootentown charges $10 to put in at Shelvin Rock or $15 to put you in a Delaware.

I forgot to include these two pictures. I caught this bass on this Bomber yesterday. If you enlarge the bass picture it looks a lot like the lure. Just made me smile.

The water level was finally low enough to get out on the James today.Floated down from Shelvin Rock to Hootentown. Great float. There was no debris from the resent flooding in the river but there was one tree down just upstream from the Hootentown bridge and a little father up there is a tree almost all the way across the river. I caught a lot of fish on Bombers and Joe's flies. I caught the largest 4 bass on Koppers, but I was only able to take a picture of one, the rest were to shy.

I have made a few changes to my kayak. I take 2 rods with me .I knew I could not use the flush rod holders that come on the kayak, and have my rods point up in the air,floating down the river catching on all the trees and branches . So with a little pvc pipe I have one laying down beside me and in the center. One of the rod holders holds my pliers so I dont have to wear it on my belt. A paddle holder so I can store the paddle quickly with one hand when i need to bail out and start fishing. A ruler on the paddle. I attached a knife behind the seat, that I can easily reach, just in case. A pelican box for my camera, soft cooler, two small tackle boxes, and a dog leash.

I received this in an email yesterday. It may have been going around for awhile, but I had never seen it. It does not looked like it has been photoshopped, but who's knows. The email said: A BLACK FAWN Pictures taken near Beamsville Ontario , Canada Black deer are more rare than albinos.

Whenever I go fishing, I record the river level and the cfs at the closest water gauge. After my float I record how the fishing was and the float and date. I think I know when the level is too low to float and too high to fish. It works for me.I spend most of my time out of my kayak fishing with a dog lease attached to the kayak. At one time I thought I should offer to port kayaks up the river but didnt know if it was legal or not. Ocean Caper 11 ft.45 lb.

I use 1/4 oz.0'-3'and a 1/5oz.4'-6',depending on how deep the section or holes I'm fishing.The wife put me in early in the morning at an access and I float to the next. So Jack Jones what brand of kayak do you own, how long is it? Have you done any rigging,changes to it for fishing? And Ham what type kayak are you using?