Dan052

yeah, in my opinion...they should educate students a little more (and earlier) on THEIR region's poisonous animals. It could easily be implemented into a science course, and possibly save someone's life, or at least keep them out of harm's way.

i've seen a fair share of cottonmouths as well, mainly on lakes though. There was this one time I was in a cove on Pomme de terre, and i noticed a snake swimming across the water, up ahead. I noticed that almost ALL of it's body was on the surface of the water too. Which is a common characteristic of a cottonmouth. It was black and had an almost creamy colored belly.

You may be thinking of the same guy, yes.

I guess I could, but from now on, I think I might just drive the extra 30 minutes and hit one of the world's premium bass fishing lakes. Table Rock. I'm at least used to the patterns on that lake.

A friend and I went down to Kissee mills and camped 2 nights ago, and then floated Beaver from Bradleyville down to the first bridge. About 5 miles. Ended up having an AWESOME day of fishing. We caught in the ballpark of 50-70 fish between the two of us....most all of which were over 10 inches. The biggest one (shown) was caught by my friend, close to 17 inches if i had to guess. Most all of the smallmouth we caught were over 10 inches as well. GREAT DAY of fishing! BIG spider at our campsite getting ready to launch Looks like a copperhead, although im not keen on my snake species. the 17?? incher

Me and a friend are signing up. Although we may be the only ones out there without a motor over 100hp. (I guess that's what I get for being only 24 though, and not being able to afford a high power bass boat) We plan on going up a few days prior to practice the areas we can fish within a reasonable distance from weigh in, with our restricted mobility, it's going to be a hell of a time contending. But, hey....the way I see it...if we win the 50 grand....I can always just buy a nicer boat! and if we don't win....It was a fun weekend of fishing.

I made a vow to never go back to that lake. I'm not a novice fisherman, but I'm wasting my time there, catching , 2 maybe 3 bass all evening, when I could drive 30 minutes further and fish at a world class bass lake. Fellows is one of two things....overfished due to it's smaller size, or simply lacking in fish. I'm not saying Fellows doesn't have it's days. I've caught a few nicer bass out of fellows.....All in all though, it's just a royal waste of time.

kind of looks like the opossum was watching the fox do it's business.

for anyone who missed it. A nice way to end a long Monday.

wow, that sounds awesome. Although I doubt that there are any MONSTERS in there yet. Usually a bass won't reach trophy size until 4 or 5 years old, am i right? Also, the Horton Smith pond was a flop. During the early to late spring, would have been prime time to be down there fishing. As of now, the vegetation in the water is far too overgrown to work any type of lure, including topwater. Although, I have heard stories of some enormous bass being pulled out of there, i am assuming those were caught when the pond is actually fish-able. I tried topwater for a while and saw some massive water movements but had no hits. Probably could have hooked a couple with a spinner or plastic worm, had the vegetation not been so overgrown. I plan on going back in the spring time.

Well, after only catching a couple of lousy carp at the pond I ended up going to....my friend and I decided to try and do some night fishing on the banks at Fellows, just across the bridge. Were only there for a couple of hours, and only caught a couple fish. Nothing too special...this was my only bass worthy of a picture. MAYBE around 2lbs...... Maybe ill try to throw something else next time. By the way, for all of you activists reading this post....that trash in the back round wasn't mine, so don't flame me for that. All of my beer cans ended up back in the cooler by my feet.

in south springfield.

I know that many people have their secret ponds, and im not expecting anyone to disclose any information regarding their honey hole, or favorite spots when it comes to pond fishing. But im looking for a decent pond to do some bass fishing at. Public access. I've heard good things about the horton smith golf course pond.... I know of a good one up by fair grove but i don't want to drive that far this afternoon. anyone have any general suggestions on locations. Thanks!

As uncouth as this is going to sound...... it seems like the times I have had the best luck cat-fishing is when I have gone for the sole purpose of just sitting around with some friends and drinking a few beers. I have tried catfishing seriously a few times, but just end up getting frustrated. 95 percent of my tackle is geared around bass, so I don't have much to work with either.

Very nice brownie......I would love to land one that size.....I've reached the 15 inch mark a time or two, but I have trouble catching nice smallies out of the rivers. Guess i just have dung luck

could have been, although that guy that landed the huge spoonbill, was fishing a rubber perch with a treble hook attached to the bottom..... When I first walked over to where he was fishing, he had a HUGE one on that snapped his line, then less than 20 minutes later, landed that 50 pounder.... They don't ONLY feed on microscopic organisms, apparently.

your first fish that got off, might have been a paddlefish...I saw a guy catch a 50+ pound paddlefish out of there a few days ago.....I couldn't believe how big a fish it was, for how shallow of a portion of river we were fishing.

My idea of a good fishing show would be watching the bassmasters classic.......it's realistic. The guys aren't ALWAYS reeling in monsters, and they don't spend half of the show trying to promote a new "revolutionary" lure. Plus it's exciting and competitive. and it's very educational in the sense that these professionals are using their go-to baits, and go-to spots, fishing their go-to techniques in order to try and win the tournament. They aren't fishing a certain lure, because some company paid them 20 grand to promote it.

I've had 2 close in size.... first at Fellows lake of all places....about 8 years ago, on a motor oil colored plastic worm, in the heat of the summer. We were fishing some of the laydowns in the backs of coves, in about 4-5 feet of water, i snagged a 8lb 4oz. The other was just a couple years ago, right at 8lbs, on Table Rock in the middle of the night on a black colorado spinner bait. Probably about 2am, hooked in about 15 feet of water on the way up to the boat. Thought I had a catfish at first, considering it stayed down for a while. Both were a lot of fun...although, the biggest one I have had hooked.....by far was the pomme bass that I told a story about in another thread...at LEAST 10lbs.....at least.

I've heard so many good things about below the dam. I've heard of people reeling in 7-9 pound bass out of that little hole...... I was down there one time with an ultra light rod, just messing around and got tangled into some fish that almost immediately broke my line. I'm assuming it was a gar. I have seen a couple of decent fish pulled out of there, but have yet to catch anything worth bragging about... not that I fish it that often.

With my Canon G-10... this is a sunset looking off of my back porch I took this at the nature center one evening. I messed around with the saturation of the pic as well.

I understand patience for the big one... I have gone out bass fishing literally hundreds upon hundreds of times in my life...I understand how hard it can be to snag that big one. Out of every 200-300 bass I may only catch one or two 5 pound plus... but it sure is nice to have something else to do between big bass. Unlike muskie...in which you could go out 4 times and never get a bite, then on your fifth time...catch nothing but a small one. That method of fishing falls more under the definition of torture, rather than patience.

That's why i don't regularly fish for them.....although I have snagged a couple of small ones while bass fishing. Call me short attention spanned, but I don't have the patience for muskie. I imagine landing a 22lber though might change my mind.

If you're looking for an abundance of muskie, I would drive 30 miles north of Fellows to a little lake called Pomme De Terre. I don't usually have awesome luck on fellows, fishing for anything.

I had the afternoon off and i decided to head up to a farm pond that i know of. I didn't really expect much, just a relaxing afternoon. ended up catching this 3-4 pounder on a popper! And the other pic, is right at dusk.