straw hat

At my age I fully ubderstand!!!

There are others on this site that can help you a lot more than I can BUT I did want to welcome you aboard. I look forward to your postings. Good luck on the lake.

Boy do I understand about about the wife catching fish out of thin air.

You might want to reconsider that Kwall, but knowing you all your fish are probably so far over the limit it probably doesn't matter. lol I read a study done once on icing down bass. The study showed that icing down a bass taken from 78 degree water would reduce its overall length by just under 1%!!! Now on a 16" fish that is only around 1/8" of an inch but I thought I would just throw that into the conversation.

Just a note for any young fisherman reading this string. Clipping the fins works BUT be sure NOT to clip any off the tail fin. This shortens the fish and the agent may give you a ticket for being under the length limit. Clipping the dorsal of anal fin would be better.

Both of our live wells are marked with individual names. Our stringers also have our names on them. We always tie up our fish down stream of where we are fishing. Fish on a stringer release large amounts of fear pheromones and can turn off and repeal fish in the immediate area. With both stringers usually side by side we have labeled them just to be safe.

Low of 56 tonight and a 40% chance of rain Huck. Good luck if you go and breakout the longjohns. lol

Started out today on some rock riprap. Same place where I limited out last week. Water was a lot lower. Somebody forgot to tell the crappie to still be there. lol After 2 hours only had 1 crappie. I moved to a steep rocky bank near Springfield Landing. It started in with a cool steady rain as soon as I got there. Found the crappie at 12 - 14' deep in 25' of water. By 1:00 I had 5 keepers. I also caught a fair number of small ones too. By 1:00 that could rain had frozen me stiff. I was soaking wet and cold. Fish or no fish I couldn't stay out any longer. Water was slightly stained and about 2' of visibility. Looks like it is going to warm up some over the next few days. That works for me!! I noticed that the 245 bridge is still closed. The MoDOT website says they will be finished on the 20th. I passed it on the way home and they aren't even ready to pour concrete yet. I don't think it will be done by the 20th. See you all on the lake on Saturday.

Saw this article in last weeks newspaper. I thought some of you might like to see it. http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011105130377 I know you like to catch big cats Huck so I thought this might be you but I fiqure you are still tired from landing that big walleye. lol

They may be right Jovush. A lot of the crappie lately that I have been catching have been off of windy rock riprap points although any steep point will do. They will probably be off the feed with the drop in temps and a north wind. The soft baits for bass probably sounds like a good idea. If you decide to try for crappie though I would suggest steep south facing banks with some cover in the CC area. I would start out fishing around 12 to 20 feet. You shouldn't need minnows this time of year but they can be fished a little slower which may help in this cooler weather. Good luck to both you and your wife.

I had two lines out for cats for nearly 3 hours HF. Never had a hit. I really don't know why they aren't on the rocks yet. You are right, after this rain they should pick up some. Either live bait or worms should do well. Good luck, I hope you do better than I did.

Fished one of the rock ripraps. Found the crappie hanging out around 12' deep right on the bottom on the protected side of the riprap. Action was slow, picked up a fish every 20 or thirty minutes. By the end of the day I had 15 keeper crappie and a 17" walleye. Most of the keepers were 11 to 12 inches but did catch one 14 1/4". A little warm today but all in all a good day to be out.

Vest Sospenders on at all time. Only way to go. Even during summer I don't even notice it is on.

The wife and I drove there on the way home Saturday. Lots of boats still. Water color is pretty stained but fishable. There were a couple bank fishing by the launch who had caught a couple that looked like post-spawn. Didn't get to talk to any boats. Good luck.

As far as location, well with the water this high it is sort of limited from the bank. I have been hitting some rocky shores and one riprap during the last two weeks with no action yet. I always like worms or fresh cut bait this time of year. With this warmer weather they should be moving in there soon. Sorry I couldn't help more.

WOW, I am really confused now. (That doesn't take much though-lol). That water up the little Sac should even been warmer than where we have been fishing around Ruark. The only think I can think of is that the post-spawn fish the wife and I have been catching spawned before the heavy rain and that cold front. Before that weather we had been catching spawners in that area. The ones spawning now must have waited and held there eggs until the weather warmed back up. If that is the case then the upper end of the lake should still have plenty of fish left ready to spawn. What do you guys think??

I was just going going to post about the same thing when I saw your entry. The last two weeks the wife and I have been fishing around the Ruark area and I would say that 95% of the females we have caught have spawned. Today we decided to drive around the lake and check out a few new spots. One spot near the state marina we picked up 8 or 9 spawning crappie about 5' deep!! The water temp was 56F. That is further north then we have been fishing, maybe that made the difference. What general part of the lake were you on Dutch?

Slow day. Went back in the same rocky cove the wife and I have been fishing since the lake came up so much. I started out fishing for cats. After 1 and 1/2 hours no bites. The wife and I managed to catch a few crappie. Wound up with 9 keepers and one walleye. Luckily most of the crappie were between 11 and 14". The walleye was barely a keeper. It came at 12'. The crappie were all suspended at 12 to 14' in 20' of water. The bite was very light. I would like to tip my hat (my straw hat that is, ha ha) to all the bass fisherman that came by. Must have seen over a dozen bass boats go by. Everyone of them slowed down to a crawl until they passed and then ramped back up the old RPMs. More than once I have expressed my aggrevation at them but not today. I figure them must all be OAF members!! lol Good luck on the water eveyone.

Great report Kyle C. Man!! I feel lucky if I catch 1 keeper walleye on a trip. That information will help us know where to start fishing next time we go. Thanks.

Thanks for the report. Did most of them look like post spawn crappie minnowhooker?

Great trip Fireflies and great report. Thanks for the info.

The water seems to be clearing up nicely. Still a little dingy but fishable at CC. The rest of the areas I have seen lately are pretty well back to normal.

Welcome aboard Fishingherb!! The water around Ruark is in very good shape. 3 ft of visibiilty where I was at last Saturday. I think a lot of the fish, not just bass, are pretty confused this year. From what I have seen this on again off again cold has the fish spawning on and off. It may not be the greatest spawn ever but I think it will be OK. With the high water the fry will have a lot of cover to hide in so survivorbility should be good. Let us know how you do on you trips.

Bey? Well that is what I get for not proof reading my postings. Even on a short entry.

I am happy for you Huck Finn!! Congrats. I bey that was fun.