WHARFRAT

I didn't weigh the fish, just measured her. I would guess between 7 and 8????? Not really sure. I always think about targeting them, but I never do. I've caught quite a few under the 54 bridge, wonder if dragging a bottom bouncer would be the ticket? A couple yrs ago, I was once getting parts for my trolling motor and there was a couple of guys talking about catching a bunch on shad raps in ha ha tonka cove. The store owner chimed in and said that he always catches a bunch this time of year, right before sunrise and right after sunset. So gullible me, had to try..... Never a bite. All mine have been caught pullin crank baits or vertical jigging for crappie. But, I have seen and heard of more walleye being caught this year. Especially on my end of the lake.

Ok, so I caught this 28" walleye this weekend, and caught one almost identical a year ago within 50 yards of each other. I'm not in the habit of keeping large fish, so both of them are back swimming. Which brings me to this. About a month ago, we were out fishing and the shad were going crazy around this bluff wall. Not like if white bass were busting them, but they were definitely being chased. In about 10 minutes time, I caught 5 nice walleye. Perfect eater size, between 13 1/2 and 14 1/2". And we had to throw them back. That's the part of the 15" min size limit that I hate. This year alone I've "accidentally" caught about a dozen eaters under 15"s. I wonder if we'll ever see a slot limit, like they do up north. It is encouraging to see more and more walleye being caught. Last year, we caught 7 or 8 and none were under 19". This year, besides my dozen or so, my boat has landed just under 20, and the 28 incher and my wife had one just over 15 inches. I guess, I'm just saying, I'd love to see a slot limit.

But fun anyway.

That really sucks. Got my boat broke into a couple months ago. I know the feeling. Can't imagine what was so important that they had to smash your car window.

It was horrible Saturday afternoon. I think everybody was getting their last ride in before they winterized. Lot of big boats running around and back and forth. I couldn't fish any of my main channel areas. I tried, but was getting too frustrated by the wakes. I came back in after about an hour and a half and waited until around 5 and fished just past dark. It was fine by then. Sunday from 9 until 2 was just slightly better. After 2 it had quieted down quite a bit.

Sept has been a very inconsistant month chasing these specks. This weekend was no different, fishing the Big Niangua While I'm not getting skunked, I just can't find a consistant pattern. I have pretty much eliminated <5'. But from there down to 25' it's really a crapshoot. I've tried everything in my book of knowledge and just can't seem to get on a pattern. Nothing like last year at this time. Did notice the water temp rose about 4 degrees this past week. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

News reported that a body was recovered around the 11MM of the Big Niangua. Investigation underway.

Two of the easiest ways: 1. Look for a lot of fishing boats all hangin around in close proximity. 2. Troll around and look for the water to come alive. Normally, but not always the case, White bass will chase early in the morning, or right before sunset. Back in the day, I used to catch my shad, then go out in the middle and look for humps, anchor, and drown some shad right off the bottom. Havent done that in quite a while.

We were also seeing them on shallow flats last weekend, maybe not 2-3' but more like 4-6'. Yesterday they were popping in about 9-12'. I didn't hear about a 40# striper, but one of the guys at our place said he caught some in 5-9# range. BTW, nice eye there!

Whites are really starting to boil the surface. Didn't see much on Saturday, but Sunday they were popping from dawn up until late morning. Most of the jumps were quick, (a couple of minutes). Great size too! Caught a bunch. I don't keep them. I probably wouldn't eat them anyway. Crappie were still tough. I cleaned 5 - 11 inchers for dinner last night. But that was about all that size, and only caught a handful of smaller ones. They are starting to gourge themselves. The ones I cleaned had pretty full bellies. Hooked a pretty nice walleye, fought him for quite a while, when he got next to the boat, it was like he just opened his mouth and let my jig go. I guess I need to set the hook a little harder next time. . Great weather, little boat traffic

Me personally, I get bored too quick pulling cranks, but my wife loves trolling crankbaits for any species. Her favorite lure is Berkleys Flicker Shad. Usually in a green/chart color. That's usually our afternoon activity if the lake isn't too busy with boat traffic. I'm no expert by any means on trolling, but we usually try to follow the river channel or the flats where it takes a sharp bend. Seems to work for us. Normally you can catch just about anything that swims in that lake. Seems like when you do catch crappie, they are generally good sized fish. We have caught a lot of Channels and blues this summer, a lot of drum, a few white bass, and even fewer walleye. It also helps with my new 115 4 stroke, it's quieter and trolls down to about 2.5mph. A lot better than my old 2 stroke.

It was such a nice weekend, I really didn't care that the crappie were being tough. Light rain Sat Morning, perfect! Only saw about 4 boats out on my end of the lake until I came in about 10:30. Crappie bite was light, managed about 4 keepers and about 4 shorts. Caught a nice LM verticle jigging in front of a dock. Tried Shooting at first, but that was really a bust. Went to casting along the sides and in front, Caught a couple. Best luck was jigging straight down about 7-8' in 15-20 FOW. Got back to our condo, and the wife was out on our docks. She was tearing up the crappie. And while my keepers were "just keepers", about every fifth one she caught was 11-12". I just put my tail between my legs and went inside for coffee. Later that afternoon we went out trolling cranks, Again, she tore me up. Catfish, crappie, and White Bass. All were great size! I managed a 13" LM. About an hour before dark we went out to pull some more cranks, and we got into a decent School of White bass jumping. This lasted about 20 minutes. The first few we caught were all over 15", then seemed like all we caught were 11-12 inchers. Probably caught 20 between us. Sunday morning it was real foggy, went down to the docks and caught a couple of nice crappie, and probably 5 or 6 dinks. Lifted about 7:30 and went out in the boat. Managed 1 decent crappie. Came in about 10 and the wife was back out there showing me up. This time, it was more 10-11" fish than smaller ones. She was using Bobby Garland baby shad in the cajun cricket color, and also slab busters Pumpkin Seed/Chartreuse. Me, I was going with blk/chartreuse, and ice blue. It seems like they were lowering the lake pretty quick this weekend. It looked to me that it dropped not quite a foot since Friday. Just seemed unusual for the first part of Sept. .

Yeah, I think its better known for waterfowl hunting anymore, or waterfowl sky-busting.

Lynch got me off to a good start,,, 24pts

Had fished there a few times many years ago. It was or probably still isn't too bad for crappie and gills. If memory serves me correctly, I think if we caught quite a few crappie, but only one or two was over 9". We fished from a boat, but I do think there a lot of access from the banks.

Big Niangua looks like the LA freeway today!

They are both good brands, I've owned both. I prefer Minn Kota over Motor Guide only bc MK has never let me down. Now that being said, the MG broke a steering cable on it's 12th year. So really, I don't think you can go wrong. I'd go with the best price!

Ah, finally summer is winding down. Shootout going on, labor day just around the corner, water temp peaking, and big boats beginning to hibernate. By October, us anglers will have our water back! It doesn't really bother me, that I don't fish too much in the summer time. I do get out for a couple of hours early in the morning, but the traffic and the heat usually gets me back doing something else by mid-morning. Last weekend you could tell on my end of the lake, that school was back on, significantly less boat traffic. We were able to get out comfortably almost anytime we wanted. And except for the 3-dayer coming up, it'll just keep getting better. I'm not a hot weather person, so my fishing time on the lake is very minimum. Now Sept-May is a different story. I'm usually out there all daylight hours. (the gas stations love me). And if we don't have a lot of "hard" water, I have no problem being out there in Jan-Feb. (my best day for big crappie came when I couldn't go past Bridal Cave because of the ice). I thought this year, more than other years for me, the pre-spawn for crappie was excellent. Though I did have a real good week just before Thanksgiving, where we caught big numbers of 1lb+ crappie. Now on the other hand, I thought this years spawn was subpar, only thing I could figure was the low water levels. Probably not, but I'm going to stick with that excuse! Early post spawn sucked on our end of the lake, that was mid-may till about the first of June, then as they settled into their deeper habitat, it got better. Can't really tell you much about end of June thru now, Caught a few, but nothing to write home about. So, just saying, I'm really looking forward to the upcoming autumn!

Yeah, I've seen that little boat. Never really paid much attention to it. Hopefully it was an isolated incident, It could have been worse. They could have vandalized the boat, and that would have been bad. Haven't talked to everyone, but there are some pretty serious bass fishermen down there, I don't know if they got hit or not. Seems like they were after higher end spinning equip. Because a lot of people leave their stuff on the dock or inside their uncovered boat and they didn't touch them. Anyway, I'm over it now, just going to be more cautious and not leave anything of value in the boat overnight.

Hmmm!

Cover wasn't on, I usually leave it off when I'm down for the weekend. It is odd that they took only spinning outfits and a tray or two of trolling baits. Sucks! Now I'm suspicious of everyone.

Got out this morning, and noticed the lock on my rod box looked a little cockeyed. When I opened it, some of my rods were gone. They took only my spinning rods, left my baitcasters. So if you see anyone trying to peddle a Shimano Symetre 2500. Shimano Sedona 500 FD, pflueger president, with a couple of St. Croix rods. (7' and 5 1/2') and a BPS 7' micro lite. Drop me a line. Looks like they also made off with a tray of bandits, and a small box of jigs. And I don't see my lite rain suit. Thought it was in there, it was brand new still in sealed pkg. so I'm sure it's gone. Thank god I always take in my hummingbirds. Don't know why the left the baitcasters, because they are $$$.

That's a great catch!!! Nice Job. The wife and I got out yesterday afternoon. We pulled cranks down out in front of our place. Nothing really to speak of. A couple of small whites, a couple of drum and a couple of channel cats. But what did happen, has me puzzeled. We pull some 200 bandits about 8 ft down and the wife gets a nice hit, fights it for just a few seconds then nothing. Reeled back in line cut. About 10 minutes later, maybe 100 yds from where she just got the hit, I get hit and immediately my line gets cut. So what do you think? Gar? They were both substantial hits and I'm pulling with 12lb line. Line came back slime free, so I don't think it was a big cat.

Fished there years ago. 20+ at least. Used to catch a lot of small bass fishing around moss pockets on the upper end of the lake. This is about the time of year that we fished. A lot of times we would fish in the evening till past midnight. Not sure if they let you on the lake past dark anymore.

Water Patrol was on end of the lake this weekend. He looked like he was in a hurry Sat morn about 8am. going down towards my area of the lake. Saw him about a half hr going back. I've only had to tow 2 boats, and they have always been at least twice the size of what I was running. Don't know the people in the Rendezvous, I'll have to check them out. I know one of guys that run the Dolphin Deck boat, and he has been having trouble with his boat. I saw you heading up the lake Sunday Morning, Had you already caught your big bass, or were you just getting started? I was just crappie fishing, Lately been accidentally catching a few bass, but never caught one this weekend. Did take the wife and neice out Sunday afternoon for a little trolling. 2 drum, 1 crappie, and a nice eater size channel cat. It was still rather busy on the lake and that was around 4pm. We were trolling out across from Furniture cove.