WHARFRAT

NICE! Thanks for the post

Bet ya hate it this time of year. So much boat traffic!

Quite a fishing pedigree! Welcome to the board!!!!

heard of some caught on Truman, but I've never seen one. So it's not a natural phenom? It's a fish created in a lab?

Wifey bought me one of those, used it once, more trouble than it was worth.

Nice report. Great Pics!

The day I was out there, when driving around, I say kayaks on two different lakes. This hasn't been the only time I've seen them at Busch WA. Is that allowed now?

A real humbling experience on Saturday. Started out the morning on lake 35. Now I haven't been out there at all this year, but from the past years that I used to frequent this place, Sept and Oct are always great months to fish. Lake 35 always has a decent amount of vegetation in it, but by this time of the year its usually less, or it has sunk a bit. But Saturday wasn't the case. It is worse than I've ever seen it. Besides the mess always on the trolling motor, it was tough casting around in the pockets of open water. Needless to say I didn't stay that long. I actually went around the lake twice, and only had one small fish on that got off a few yards from the boat. And that was the only strike I got. Packed up and went to Lake 34, thought about Lake 33, but the wind was blowing pretty hard and I didn't want to fight it. So I trolled around 34 a couple times with out a nibble. Just getting ready to pull the boat back in and I cast around some lily pads and got a little tap. Made another cast and caught an 8" crappie. Couple cast later about a 4" bass, and that was all she wrote. Don't think I was ever skunked on Lake 35, they probably need to throw in a handful of grass eaters in there. Did see some a boat throwing for Musky. Don't know if they had any success, they were on the far upper end when I decided to give it up.

gps coordinates please

Crappie fishing was better for me this weekend. Sat morning caught some mainly sides and front of docks. Couldn't go too far because of the heavy fog. When the fog finally burned off I went to some of my regular spots. Deep brush away from docks, fish were very scarce, and the ones I did catch were pretty small, just like in the past few weeks. Since the sun was pretty bright, I went back to shooting docks. Not the greatest, but noticed I was getting strikes before I closed the bale on my reel. I figured it was black crappie, since they usually hang out higher in the water column than whites. So I switched to a 32oz jighead with a 3" bait for a slow drop. That was the ticket! Size still wasn't great, but I was catching black crappie that were close to 11". Kept a half dozen for my crappie bisque recipe for dinner later that night. Sunday was pretty much the same, didn't get started out until after church, but still the black crappie were still close to the top. I'd say no farther than 3-4' down. Some would bite right at the surface. No 12" fish, but a lot of fish in the 10-11.5" range. Water warmed up back into the 70's on sunday. Saturday found temps ranging from 67-69.

Make Trout Fishing Great Again! Got my vote!

Yeah it's been tough for big fish this past month. Hoping the next month and a half will change a bit. If I'm not mistaken, though not quite this bad, last year was about the same until end of Oct thru Thanksgiving. That's when the big blacks showed up higher in the water column. Anyway, keep after them!

Great!!!!!!!

SWEEEET!

nice boat, and nice vid!

That's horrible. Hope the truck didn't sustain much damage and glad you're fine. Could have been worse. I was the guy that left out his plug once launching my boat, didn't sink, but it sure filled up quickly before I got back to the ramp. Hope that's the worse thing that happens.

It was a lot better that previous weekends! Nice fish, I too was catching some on crankbaits. Bite seemed to come on the front corners of docks or just out in front of them. The Big Niangua was really quiet on Saturday, but Sunday it seemed a lot busier. Muddy water on the lower end, by the BN 11 mm it was fairly clear and north of that. Most of my fish were caught between there and Larry Gale. Saturday found temps in the mid-70's, by Sunday afternoon it was back to 78-79. Tons of shad, but nothing busting them. Jug fishermen seemed to be doing ok, not as good as the previous few weeks. Also, caught quite a few crappie, but not a whole lot over 9". Fishing was better for me on Sunday, than on Saturday.

When does Busch take in their boats?

HOLY CRAP Glad you're fine.

Even though I only fish until 9am, (Sat-Sun because of the traffic; Mon-Wed because of the heat) been catching decent numbers of crappie. Wells of docks and brush in 15-25 FOW. Each morning except for Monday, I could have squeaked out a limit of barely legals. nothing big. 2 or 3 each day 10" or a little better. Bite has been pretty lite. Dark/chart jigs with a crappie nib. Been finding brush with fish stacked all around it. Again, most have been small, and barely hitting. Water temp has rose back in the low 80's. Now, for you bass fishermen, while I was casting in the wells, when I'd bring the jig out front, small bass were clobbering the jig about 2-3' down. So, I got my baitcaster out. All I had were a couple of bandits and wiggle warts. So I started casting parallel to the fronts of the docks and jerking the bait when I got down a few feet. Caught quite a few. Only 2 over 15, but probably 8 or 10 in the 12-14 range. But they were very aggressive. Only fished in front a 4 docks, but had some decent action. They were all main lake docks close to the channel. The last few days have been really hot, wish I could have stayed out longer, but I don't do good with heat. Bring on the fall weather!

Hey to each his own. I used to bass fish all the time. Thought I had a good day when I could catch 6-10 fish a day. Crappie fishing I can catch 10X that a day. Actually got the fever for it in the late 80's when a friend of mine had to fish just to feed the family. Been doing it ever since. Not that I won't target other fish, but I bet I chase those crappies close to 75% of the time in all four seasons.

I have glued before, but I don't really have too much of a problem, eventually when you catch a few with the same jig, it gets worn a bit and will slide down. Usually that indicates I need a new body. I also use #1 or #2 sickle hooks on the 16oz, and #4 hooks on 32nd oz.. I personally don't like tubes for shooting. For me, they don't skip as well. Might just be me. A friend of mine uses them all the time. But I still think I can shoot farther than him with my solid body plastics. Concerning slab busters and BG slab slayers. I really like the action of the baits, but the tail is really thin and its easy to have the tail turn around and get stuck on the hook. That's what I like about Muddy Water baits, they don't do that. But I wish they would make a 2" bait.

Shooting docks are not as hard as it looks. A decent rod helps. I prefer a Med-Lite rod with fast tip. I shoot with a 7 footer, but have used them all from 5.5' to 7'. Two problems I had when I started out: 1. got too close to the dock. 2. tried to load up the rod too much. I never really practiced too much off the water. The best place to practice are on the wide openings of a swim dock, or just in an empty boat stall. When you gain confidence then you can go between the lift tanks and the docks. You'll still hang up, but hopefully not too much. Some of the best plastics that skip pretty good are: BG baby shad and slab slayers. Slab busters, and Muddy Water baits. Or anything resembling them. I fish mainly with 16oz heads, but sometime they'll want a slower drop, so go lighter. 4 to 6lb hi-vis line works great. You've really got to watch the line. It'll either hop! Or it will go limp before you know its reached the bottom.

One more busy weekend before, we as fishermen, start to get the lake back. Though is seems the bigger boats are staying out later and later, but it will dwindle down each week. Here on the lower end of the Big Niangua, boats are getting bigger and bigger. Doesn't seem like long ago, 28-30' boats were about as big as we saw, with a few exceptions. Now, not counting the 4 or 5 cigarette boats running back and forth, 35 to 40+ footers are getting more common. The wakes are just tearing up the docks and shorelines. I know of one 40 footer, and the driver really doesn't know how to drive it. I don't think he's being a smart a$$ or anything, I just don't know if he realizes common courtesy rules or in the matter nav rules and regs. But hopefully, all this is going to die down and us under 20' boats can enjoy the lake without getting beat up. That being said, crappie fishing around docks are starting to pick up. I've been catching quite a few, though most have been under 10". Find shade of the docks and brush, they seem to be hanging right on top of it. I would assume they are busting into the shad, though I haven't cleaned any, their bellies look pretty full. Had to get away from the blue ice color and go back to blk/chart. But, I guessing the better ones will be showing up soon. Found water 82-83 degrees, fish have been biting about 6-7' down. Better fish just a bit deeper.

nice fish from both!