Daveinozark

being without a boat of some sort makes it near impossible at Springfield lake, unless your bobber fishing for perch. i suggest going down to Finley river, the 14 exit near old town. there's a paved walkway along the river where you can duck in to several spots. guarantee to get a few bass there. otherwise, consider an inflatable for the lake. I've used this one for several years now: http://www.mcsports.com/challenger-ii-boat-set-0#.VTbdO_Au9Ko

I was on the banks from 11-3, didn't get any. Tons of boats running full throttle. from the looks of it, they were only getting a few dinks so I don't feel bad. it was way too crowded to be enjoyable. I'll stick to less crowded sections of the James and Finley

it's an abandoned car dealer, with a large parking lot and paved trail. You could drive on the grass to unload the kayak, then drive back off of it. The water there is pretty good, but it is fished hard so there may not be much there.

fyi, in case you had plans to park at Greenbridge. I was there last weekend and they had purple spray paint on the trees, no parking signs, and even barbed wire back up. I used to be able to park on the side there, but I guess no more

hit the finley around Green bridge area. no signs of life, really. Only saw a few shad, no signs of bass anywhere. I was surprised I couldn't even get a perch on a rooster tail. I guess they're still wintered up.

for the daughter's outing, go to Springfield lake park. Park at the play gym parking lot and walk down the hill. There's a few nice clearing areas there. Bring worms and she'll catch plenty of perch or cats there. If they aren't biting, walk back up the hill and play on the play gym

in my bit of research, I think I'm leaning towards a SOT. Academy has a 10ft for $400 anyone weigh in on that one?

storage is no big deal for me, I only go on short trips

anyone have that Heritage featherlite 9.6? seems like a great price at Academy

nope, no roof rack, but I'm not worried about getting it wet. It's an old ride, I've been stuffing my inflatable boat in there. not much size difference between those 2 though. I'm thinking that Heritage at Academy may be the way to go

based on price, I've narrowed down my choices of a kayak on these 2. The featherlite is 9 1/2ft and sounds like it's lighter than the A10. concerns are fitting this into a Jeep cherokee and I do mostly stream fishing, so it has to be able to handle scraping the bottom and not tipping. which of these 2 would you recommend, and why?

how is the fishing at Shadow rock park in early November? For bluegill and catfish in particular, is this a good spot?

dare we ask where you catch that many crappies on the finley?

i've only caught fish on a white spinnerbait or crankbait, and mostly by the boathouse. It's always been hit or miss though, so I appreciate any advice too, on the patterns of this lake/river

I hit the Greenbridge area last weekend, couldn't find water deeper than my waist. I went wading, since it's so low. I only found a few fish and they were small smallies or goggle eyes. Makes me wonder where the big fish have gone, seems like they should be stuck in the pools but I couldn't find them.

true, going over the 65 bridge you can now see land where lilly pads used to be. I'd say to try the bluff over by the boat house, it's deep there. probably have to fish it slow, with a jig or worm

I've only caught a few crappies in Finley, ever there's lots in sprinfield lake, if you can find them

surprised by the report. Seems like it get fished HARD. I wonder if they do any stocking. There is a ton of shad on that lake, that must be the primary forage

www.freelinden.com I think fishing is o.k. there now, as long as you behave

I hit the finley today, parked over by the old riverside bridge and worked my way upstream. The river is extremely low and the algae growth is really bad. Any lures that go below a few feet get covered in the moss. I only went up as far as the large bluff before getting too hot. I found fish in the pool just before the bluff. I found a particular spot that was loaded and pulled out 5 fish with a brown spinnerbait. The water is clear enough to see them hit it. I don't know what it is about a spinnerbait that makes fish hit it so hard, I got a kick out of seeing even the little ones slamming into it. Had a miss on topwater and nothing on the moss covered crankbaits but the spinnerbait worked well. I don't think I'll bother with the Finley until we get some more rain, it was really bad

yeah the new signs ( new to me) are below the stop sign on the 3 way intersection, but the other day I just parked at the clearing further up. They state towing away at owner's expense. The other new sign was the one on the north side of Smyrna bridge where TS was going. I don't mind the summer fun, as long as people pick up after themselves. There was a lot of trash at that intersection clearing.

the sign didn't look old. This morning was the first time I've been over there this year so I don't know how long it's been up. I just about threw a fit, no parking signs everywhere I went this morning. It's getting ridiculous. Especially over by the old Riverside Inn. Seems to me that area is now government owned, since they tore it down. Why can't anyone park there since no one owns it anymore?

i went to go park there this morning and I noticed a no parking sign on the north side now. Also, there's now no parking sign on the stop sign at Greenbridge road and riverside. are you still chancing it ? I tried over by that stop sign, just parked further up the road. I didn't catch a thing, tried everything from top water, spinnerbaits and cranks. I even threw a plastic worm and got a few bites but they were probably from sunfish. I haven't had any luck this year

thanks for the tips. I'm only used to fishing shallow lakes and rivers. I do have some crankbaits but the deepest divers I have are wiggle warts. I do have some small jigs I can use for the crappies andd some 6inch worms with a 4/0 hook. We're going in a small 8hp bass tracker so we won't cover much water there, so trolling a crank probably won't work for us.

I'll be hitting Stockton for the first time on Sun morning and I'm not sure what lures to bring. I've got some crappie spinners covered, but what about for the bass? do they hit topwaters out here or are the mostly suspending deep with this heat? I welcome any help, my buddy knows of a few good spots to try and we are coming from Springfield, so any suggestion on spots would be great too