zipstick

Agreed with your ideas and patterns, but the absolute best bait to use for postspawn bass is a white fluke skipped behind docks. First, this is the easiest bait to skip way back under wires. Second, bass eat the heck out of it, and last, with a single hook, it doesn't put out eyes of cut gills nearly as often as a topwater. The only downside is the cost, so I like to shop hard and I usually find them for $2 a bag if I am vigilant.

I pretty much agree with Agnew. Go any time you can above 37 as a general rule of thumb. I taught Al and Mitch most of the nuances of winter smallie fishing, and both of them learned well. The learning never stops and yesterday was a great example of remaining flexible in one's approach. Ordinarily, with the water conditions presented yesterday, Nov 30, my assumption was that my little black maribou hair jig and trailer would have been a lock to catch some real good smallies. Not so. Mitch began with a Megabass and I picked up an OSP jerkbait. He and I whacked the big smallies pretty good. Had 6 jerkbait smallies over 17 inches, and one more on Mitch's really cool crawfish. Nothing over 18.5 though. I could muster just one medium smallie on the hair jig in the 43 degree water with 3.5 feet vis. You never when those smallies will be looking up for a jerkbait. As to why the jig was a poor choice, I'll never know. And as the water warmed to 45, I even caught a couple on spinnerbait. Keep the jerkbait and the small jigs ready all winter. If they will bite at all you will be prepared. I imagine Mitch will post some pics when he reads this.

The MDC reports are a joke. They have been for years. Even when they get the conditions correct, the "how" to catch fish is laughable. Of note was the report way back in the early 90's when our bass club was ready to travel to Norfork lake for our opening event in Feb. The report published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said that the shad kill was enormous, and fishing was poor, and anglers should not try to fish the lake. At the club meeting two days before the tournament, members discussed changing the lake or postponing the event, but we decided to go ahead and travel all the way to Norfork and catch little or nothing. We didn't see a shad kill, but we did catch lots of limits of bass. Some of the best angling w'ed ever had! Like Al, get familiar with the Corps River conditions and the USGS plots. I check them especially when travelling out of state to areas that I have no reliable contacts. If you can find pretty normal conditions, you'll catch fish if you have the skills to do it. For lakes, the best approach, if you have no one to talk with is to check the latest bass tournament results for the lake you are planning to fish. And just don't assume that you'll catch the winning weight! Instead, figure out how most of the field did when fishing hard for 8 hours. If 40 entrants or teams out of the 50 entered had limits, that's the best report you can find! AIA, Joe Bass, Heartland, CPA, and Bass World do a good job of reporting their reults in a fairly timely manner.

Gavin, Here's some content for you. Perhaps the most successful smallie bait in wintertime based on winning local river tournaments the past three years has been the smallie beaver (watermelon) fished on a Chompers stand up head. Just thread on this small piece of plastic, put in the right place and go catch them. Cottrell could back this up for you.

Regardless of any shad die off, I've always caught them better at Lake O. when the temps ranged from 47-42 and going down. When the temps get south of 40 it gets harder for most of us. I doubt you could offer any help, but do post pics if yuou get some big uns.

Al, looks like the weather is going to hurt us for at least two more weeks. Remember, a sparsely tied hair jig is a fish catching jig. I was really catching the largies good at Lake Ozarks up until last week on jerk baits. The temps there have probably cooled to 40, so that bite is about to dry up too. Had several 30+ days and some good ones too.

Sorry you miss my pics. We've only had a handful of good days to go this year, and I caught them good, but nothing over 21. Maybe a dozen between 18-20. It's too cold (water temps) unless you want to sit near a spring hole, and that's a litle too easy. If I get one 22 or over, I'll post, but the long term forecast says not to hold your breath.

If our drum taste like redfish, I'm never gonna to eat a redfish.

In a pinch take some brown yarn from a cloth store, cut into lengths and comb it out gently to make a purty dern good hair jig. Caught some good ones on them this week. If there's fish to be caught where you cast and work the small jig slowly, I don't think there's too much difference in the hair or fur. Most guys just use too much bulk in the jigs they use in cold water.

Go for it if the water is above 40, they will bite out of the current. I guided the last two days where the water temps were 41 and 39. Both days were good for bass, but I did catch more in the 41 degree water. Totaled 37 bass with a few picture taker brownies. I'd start and stay with a tiny hair jig. Deep and slow! If the water temps are below 38, don't expect to catch anything.

[ Remember the SOB...Small Okiebug? It was made by somebody in Oklahoma and was one of the first long arm tandem spins. It was one of my two favorite spinnerbaits for a long time. The other was the Little Jewel, which was made by a company in Florida, I believe, and instead of a lead head it had a spinner blade soldered to the area where the arm and hook joined. You could reel it dead slow and it would still stay up and wake the surface. Billy Phillips out of TN made the Little Jewel.

Martin, the Spider spin was a maribou jig fastened below two small colorado blades like the old Shannon twin spin. Virgil let it fall and fluutter down the bluffs in the Ozarks lakes. You can find out more about twin spin fishing today from Agnew. He does it a lot.

Speaking of McKinniss....He graduated from Ritnour HS in St. Louis, and aloways fancied himself as a Cardinal fan. He knew Whitey Herzog pretty good too.

Didn't ever know about Dallas. Did he fish the Ozarks lakes primarily? Did he ever fish with Same Welch? And while we're at it, the earliest produced fishing shows I can remember in fresh water were of Verne "Gadabout" Gaddis, the Flying Fisherman. He started a radio fishing show in the '30's before there was TV, and was creted with the first fishing televised show in the 1950's. Unfortunately, he lived along the east coast, not in the Ozarks.

THat lateral line looks suspicious for a true smallie.

I sense a war developing.... Wish long ago MDC had put a 40 hp limit on all streams except the MO and 'Sippi. Could have prevented the streams being used as a secondary highway for big boats driven by idiots. Maybe we can get the legislature to to paint a yellow strip down the middle of streams for the weekend crowds of jetters and canoes.... A really good reason to angle in winter. No one likes to see this weak economy continuing, but I think it has taken some of the riff raff off the rivers.

Each is a good tool depending on the situation and size of the water fished. If the water is large enough for a jet, pretty hard to beat; As I get older, I get a lettle less adventuresome, and stick more to the comfort of fishing, ease of launching, and air conditioned summer ride, and stability in winter of a jet. An improtant positive about jet fishing is standing up. Contrary to other views, we see a lot more cruisers and bass who haven't spotted us farther away esp. when putting the sun at our backs. I've caught hundreds of fluke and topwater bass that I enticed to hit the lure given my better vantage point, so I think adding the visibility adds rather than subtracts from my catch. I see lots of strikes which adds to the thrill of the day. I can also see the dimensions of a root wad better to get better casting angles and see more easily other spots like current breaks that may hold fish, and eliminate some of those brush piles that look good at eye level but would be a waste of time to fish thoroughly because they just don't hold enough water. A jetter needs to be able to cast a little farther at times, cut down on overusing the trolling motor and learn to cast sidearm or underhanded for a quieter entry, not rock the boat with too quick movements. That stable platform, though, really does make the day more enjoyable and safer. Both anglers get to fish instead of one having to paddle. One last safety issue is thunderstorms. It's possible to outrun them a little easier with a jet rather than enduring one in a canoe or kayak. I just wish more people using jets would be courteous to others on the river. The next time you pass a jetboat that slows down to a troll when passing your canoe or anchored fishing spot, please wave becasuse it could be me.

By the way a few years ago BASS sponsored an old timer's event to coincide with some anniversary of the first BASS event. All the older named pro's were invited. I'm thinking of Tom Mann, Bill Dance, Bobby Murray and others. I believe it was held on Beaver Lake. Most of the older fellows caught very few if any bass in that event with the exception of Hank Parker who did pretty well as I recollect. Obviously, and certainly based on the catch, this reunion tournament format gained very little traction. I think it lasted just 2 years. Poor old Bill Dance wasn't used to going all day with just a couple of bites. By the way most fishing shows stage their catches to some degree and obviously edit the show bigtime. It was Tim Renken of the St. Louis Post Dispatch who broke the story about Roland Martin's shenanigans. Once I called Renken up and told him he should do a winter bass catching article around St. Louis. He said he hated to get outside for long in winter, and had no idea it could be done close to here, but h'ed go along with it. We traveled to St. Clair to fish the Meramec out of my squareback with the idea of getting in, out, and over with the trip in a few hours. First bend in the float he says, "Park the canoe." I want to get a picture for the paper of this snow on the gravel bar." I replied, "Tim, we haven't caught any fish yet." "If we don't, he went on, "at least I'll have a picture to put with the article." I felt like I was challenged to produce at that point." I motored down to my best winter hole where I instructed him to put on any dark maribou crappie jig he had. Bang, bang, bit the bass. I think we caught 16 bass from that first hole. I think he actually began to like fishing in the cold that day. He wrote a nice article about our trip dated January 22, 1987. I believe that was about the 3rd winter I had begun to fish through the winter for smallies.

Very good. Ensley's Reaper was one of his standby lures, and the other that was sold a lot in these parts was the Pomme Special, a single spin with a short wire leader presumably for those toothy critters at Pomme.

No one named two of Harold's favorite lures....yet.

I did a smallie river show with McKinnis back in about '86. Caught 'em good on my topwater, but I was pissed when he made me go back in my room the second day to change back into my sweaty clothes from the first day. He wanted to make two days appear as one for filming. (Welcome to Hollywood.) He and his group just bought BASS a few months ago. So he's still kickin' it pretty good.

You must be bored, Mitch! Virgil had the Scorpion, Tarantula, Spider Spin, Shimmy(?)Wiggler and Beetle Spin just for bladed baits. He also had the maribou jig in several sizes and colors. And don't forget to use an Uncle Josh split tail eel on the back of everything! Now, you tell me what Harold Ensley's favorites were...Hint: his lure company was called Mar-Lynn(sp). Then we can get to Jim Rogers and George Carson for other local color. Anyone for Vern "Gadabout" Gaddis, probably the first guy ever with a fishing TV show....That rascal used a plane to get to fishing holes. Yep, I'm bored too.

Let's start a database of good places to get a boat or vehichle repaired while on the road. Often we can break down in unfamiliar territory so a listing of good places to get an outboard repaired or a truck fixed would help lots of us. I blew a trailer bearing last week and luckily ended up with a good mechanic near the shores of Pomme de Terre. The shop is called Rick's and it's just a mile east of the dam at Carson's Corner. He repairs autos as well. Please list the lake or river location along with the town and the service offered. Thanks.

Fellows, if we don't get some rain, you're going to have to be very, very skilled to catch them this winter. I imagine I'll be spending more time on flat water this winter than on rivers if this dry weather holds up. We already have 8 feet of vis in the streams now with very low water. Take that water temp down to the low 40's, and it will be a much tougher bite than it was in '08 and '09. (even on topwaters)

Some of us know the story behind the big Japanese bass, and the folks who put this pic within the Table Rock ad should be ashamed to have printed this sham. The pic from Minnesota is no goofy hoax, but I can't prove its authenticity. Perhaps a little more scouting around St. Cloud is in order. Aha, another smallie trip in the making. I've got a name and a location, and that's a start.