straw hat

Hogbob, they began running water on the 10th and they are really letting it rip. If they do it like last week they will stop running it some time late today. Just in case I have attached a link to the Caplinger water level web site so you can keep an eye on it. I also have found the generation schedule to not always be on the mark. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv/?site_no=06919900&

I have fished many times in the river below the dam down near the J bridge. It use to be an excellant catfish area. Although I did fish for walleye I only caught a few small ones. About 8 or nine miles down stream is a place called Caplinger Mill. It is an old mill site that was vacated many years ago. This location is very good for walleye, crappie and cats whenever they are running water out of Stockton. Fish just below the old dam from the reconstructed bridge over the river. This is a very popular place and fisherman are often lined up shoulder to shoulder. The walleye and crappie that come up into that area are from Truman and run up the river to this small dam when the water is high. There are also some walleye that come up in there during the fall as well. After 9/11 they closed off the east point next to the dam to bank fisherman. Before that the wife and I fished that area a lot for smallmouth and walleyes when they were drawing water out of the lake. There was a LOT of smallmouth on that point and a person could often catch 40 or 50 off of that point (maybe one out of 10 would be a keeper). We have also caught a fair number of walleye off of the flat next to that point. A few went from 2 to 3 pounds. There is also an old coufer dam just south of the dam and it comes up to about 30' of the surface. I haven't fished it in many a year but it use to be a very good place to drift for nice walleye in the summer. Bob could probably tell you a lot more than I can about that area.

Ooops! Talk about brain rot. Sorry but I accidentally put one of them in there twice. (Bad computer, it is always acting up!) lol

Just a couple of references on Devil's Lake salinity. Being from there I thought it might be of interest to you. I also noticed some references to the new pump system that you mentioned. It has been installed to help control water levels. I also found that South Dakota has at least temprarily blocked its usage claiming that it may make the river too salty to use as a water supply for human consumption. You can imagine that probably won't be resolved anytime soon! http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=40%3Ahistorical-vignettes&id=201%3Adevils-lake-north-dakota-flood-mitigation-analysis&Itemid=9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Lake_(North_Dakota) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Lake_(North_Dakota)

Obviosly at my age I am very easily confused. First of all, I meant Devil's Lake Wisconsin. I spent a little time on the internet and found 5 Devil's Lakes. Of the 5 only Wisconsin had a city named Lakewood and had a Howard's Bay. Therefore I assumed the lake you were talking about was the one in Wisconsin. Since streamer's last entry I looked at the info for the North Dakota and found no city named Lakewood but I did find a good explination of the flooding on the lake. I was also shocked to find that the lake is the second saltiest lake in the US. Learn something new every day.

I have been following the conversation about Devil's LAke in Canada. You guys have really got my curiosity up. Carp E Diem, you said you thought the lake had risen around 30' since you were a kid. It is my understanding that those lakes in that area are glacier lakes and aren't usually prone to that level of flooding. Was that due to heavy rains? Is the level suppose to drop back down with time? Just curious.

Way to go. Those walleye may have been short but I now a lot of guys that haven't caught that many walleyes in the last month, let alone in 3 hours of fishing. Hopefully it will be a little cooler on your next trip and the size will be a little bigger.

That sounds like an excellant idea! I sure will check it out and let you know what I find out. Thanks

I really hadn't given any thought to vinyl because I thought it would be too slick when wet. I have worked with the special epoxy paints before but only on top of concrete. They come with special gravel mixed in so that the final surface has good traction. I need to contact the manufacturer though and find out how it would stick to marine plywood and if it is UV resistant. Afterward I will make another posting and pass along the information to everyone.

I fished CC today from my boat but when I landed it there was a guy bank fishing with minnows. He had two nice cats and two keeper crappie. If you are into bass though I would suggest you try under the 215 bridge on the east side. I use to fish there a lot with minnows and would usually catch a number of bass. You might also try along the bluff at Crabtree Cove State Park. Sorry to hear about your boat. I hope you get it back soon.

You guys bring up a good point. I don't have a place to keep the boat under cover. The first carpet I had installed was a good brand (costly too) and was UV resistant. The last one was a cheap one and was not UV resistant. I think you guys hit on the cause. I was curious how long everyone elses carpet lasted. I really appreciate the info. They want $2,500 to recarpet the boat and at its age it is just not worth it. Looks like I am going to have to be creative and find a cheap alternative.

Put in at CC at 8:30 AM and left at 5:30 PM. The bite was a lot lighter today. We still managed to catch around 60 crappie but we sure did miss a lot of bites. They dropped the lake 18" in four days earlier this week and that kind of drop always seems to make them a little less agressive. The fish were once again on points at around 10 to 15 feet deep. Once we ran out of minnows we switched to red/chart jigs and managed to catch a few more but the bite on jigs was really light during the middle of a hot day like that. We came home with 12 keepers and one channel. Only a few other boats and all in all not a bad day.

Thanks Dutch, will do.

I need a little advice on boat carpets. My original boat carpet lasted only 6 years, a commercial replacement carpet I had installed lasted 6 years and when that wore out I put in my own carpet and it lasted 4 years. I keep the boat covered when not in use but that doesn't seem to help. The carpet doesn't wear out (I only get to use the boat about 10 times per year) but just turns to powder! I don't remember that ever happening to my old bass boat. This is getting expensive and to install your own is a lot of work. I was thinking about using that special epoxy paint that some people use on garage floors. The paint contains sand so it is slip resistant and it comes in several colors. The problem with that is that the floor would not be as sound proof. I would sure appreciate any advice you guys can give.

Champ 188, I am really sorry to hear about your kidney cancer. I will keep you in my prayers. My brother is currently on his second year of fighting advanced melanoma. You really need to count your blessings. I can tell from your postings that Donna will be by your side and take good care of you. My brother is not married and has to deal with his situation without that support a good wife can give. I hope that all works out well for you both. My wife and I will miss your postings, we always enjoy reading them.

Predator 1; I have heard good things about them but have never used them. As you know I am a dedicated minnow man but keep a fair selection of jigs in the boat in case the fishing is hot and I run out of minnows. Never tried the nibbles though.

Thanks hogbob. To tell the truth the wife is the dedicated one. I have never seen anyone more focused when fishing. The rest of the world doesn't exist! Too serious for me. There was a slight breeze all day that really helped and a front moved through around 10 AM. The temperature didn't change but the wind shifted out of the north and the humidity really dropped. Instead of coming home well done we were only medium rare.

Put in at CC and fished from 8:30 AM to 6 PM. Only fished two brush piles, both on main lake points. The water color was slightly better and the foul odor had disappeared since we were there 3 weeks ago. The crappie were 7 to 15 feet deep (most around 10') and you had to scrape the top of the brush pile to get a bite. We had 10 dozen minnows and used all of them. Must of caught 60 fish +/-. About half of the fish were white crappie. That is a big improvement over the last few weeks. We came home with 16 keepers and two nice cats. The weather was not as hot as some of the days lately and with only a few boats around it was a pleasant quite day.

I had a similar problem with mine last year and it was a plugged gas line. When you squeezed the bulb it put enough gas in the motor to let it run until the fuel became too lean and then it would die. The line was plugged with parts of the gas line that had been damaged by the 10% ethanol in the gas. Some of this residue had even gotten in the carberator and it had to be cleaned also. I learned my leasson and now it is Stabil in every tank full.

WTG!!! (I just found out that stands for 'way to go')

Don't feel bad Thunderin Gobbler. The last few years the ratio of keepers to shorts has gotten real bad during the summer at CC. It seems like the summer water temperature has been higher these last few years too. I think this has driven them toward the main lake like Predator1 said. I wound up switching to the Ruark area the last few weeks and things have improved considerable BUT you do have to boat aways and get away from the boat traffic. I suggest you try Hawker or Hartley. You should be able to get into some quality fish in that area without going too far. With the clearer water you might have to fish a little deeper though.

Eyeman is right. I fish CC area a lot and after about June 1st the walleye become scarce. When I fish the mid-lake areas though I usually pick up a few during the summer while crappie fishing.

I was at CC about 10 days ago. A lot of shad sufacing with fish blowing up on them. I met one fisherman and he had 6 whites that he said he had caught on these blow ups. I don't know what it is worth but I thought I would pass it along.

The wife and I decided to put in at Ruark yesterday. Water quality was better than CC has been. Fish brush piles as well as standing timber. Nearly all of our crappie came from standing timber on points. Due to the heat and light bite we used minnows and light slip bobbers. Fish were much shallower than I thought they would be, 10 to 12'. The heat finally drove us off the lake around 4 PM. Had a total of 10 keeper crappie and two channels. In a side note; The wife and I started on the MDC brush pile that is in the cove just next to point B9. After about 15 or 20 minutes several boats showed up and started tieing up in the middle of the cove. A very polite gentleman came over from one of the boats and told us that thecove is used as a party cove on weekends and we probably would be better off if we moved. He said that many of them were from KC but there were several from all over Missouri who joined them. By the time we pulled anchor there was around 10 boats. We came back by this cove around 3:30 on the way back to the launch and there were about 40 boats back there including 4 two-story ones. I don't even know how many jet skis, water skiers, ... were there. Thought I would just pass this info on to you guys.

I agree with dennis but I would add that they have more bones than white bass.