Skeeter ZX190

Great job. But you don't have a salmon or a sturgeon. 😃

It would definitely give the Missouri Water Patrol something to do. Drag for my body! 😁

I wish I had an underwater camera. With the water clear like this I would use it to find areas in 10 to 20 feet of water with a big concentration of stumps. It would have to hold lots of smallies.

I have only used two jig head makes. One is Dave"s. The other is the Z-Man Shroomz. I started out using the Shroomz because that's what I could find. After hearing about Dave's, and attending his class a couple of years ago, I bought a bunch of his. Dave's are far superior in my opinion, but also hard to find since I don't live anywhere close to Springfield and with his wife's health issue, I don't know when he will be back in productiin. Therefore I will be forced to go back to the Shroomz head, but I plan to make a modification to see if that reduces the frustration. The Shroomz has a little wire keeper to hold the Zinker Z in place. After a fish or two, the bait will get pushed up and twisted on that wire keeper. It can be a pain to get the bait back in the proper position so it runs straight. I plan to either pinch it down or remove it and then glue the Zinker Z in place. With Dave's the Zinker Z gets twisted too, but it is simple to straighten the Zinker Z out. Based on advice I learned on this forum, I got one of those small tackle boxes with the rust inhibitors so I could make up some baits ahead of time. That has worked exceptionally well with Dave's jigheads. I would never try it with the Shroomz. Those light wire hooks will rust out in nothing flat. Not sure what the difference is in the steel used between the Shroomz and Dave's, but it is significant. If I go fishing with a Shroomz and store my rod in the rod box, in less than a week that hook has rusted to the point where you can easily break the hook shank. I've done the same with Dave's and it is still good to go after months of being stored.

Not really topwater but a super fluke. Had a couple of kentuckies just hammer it right on the surface.

Green pumpkin and PB&J. PB&J seems to be really good on Table Rock.

Dave's wife has some serious health issues. There hasn't been an update since back in February. I doubt he is making jig heads.

I had a couple of smallies that spit up some small crawdads. Probably about 2 to 3 inches long.

Got on the water at 8:30 am and off at 3:00 pm. There was some rumbles of thunder so I decided to get off the water while the getting was good. I don't think I would look good with curly hair if I got hit by lightning! 😆. The fishing was better and worse than on Monday. It was better in that I caught more fish per hour than on Monday, but it was worse in the overall quality. Only 8 keepers today as opposed to 21 on Monday. Not sure if they just had lockjaw or if they are moving out deeper. I ended up catching 65. All but 2 came on the ned. Those 2 came on a fluke. 6 to 10 feet of water was best. I fished from Orleans Trail to the dam, however I did hit one cove close to where the Big Sac and Little Sac part. Was disappointed to see that an eagles nest is no more. It was in an old dead tree and I think the area where the nest was is now broken off. Several years in a row I would see a young one being raised.

Which one? Or both?

I went fishing on Monday with 2 good friends. They weren't there in body, but in spirit. Two friends that I fished with quite often. I lost one of them in 2006 and the other earlier this year. I thought about them a lot while on the water Monday. Interesting that you tell a similar story.

Maybe I will give it a go tomorrow (Wednesday). I think it will change a lot over the next few days. Temps in the upper 80's will continue to move them deeper. And then June hits and I don't know where they go. I still say that they are out cruising in open water following shad schools. All I know is that I struggle during June, July, and August.

Put in at Orleans Trail at 9:30 am and headed to the east side of the lake into one of those big bays with a gravel bank. My report is almost exactly like Dutch's except I didn't catch a nice kicker fish like he did. You would think I would stumble across one of those once in a blue moon but I never seem to. I fished from Orleans Trail to State Park. Water temps were 73.5 to 75 degrees. Water was about as clear as I've ever seen it. I would say a good 10 to 12 foot clarity. Maybe a little more. As Dutch reported, I found the fish a little deeper in 6 to 12 feet of water. Caught most of them on a ned in green pumpkin or PB&J. Caught 8 others on a super fluke. Ended up with 70 bass. 21 were keeper size but nothing over 16 1/2. I fished a very long day. From 9:30 am until 8:30 pm. Caught primarily smallmouth which is just fine by me. Dave Reeves (dtrs5kprs) would be proud of me. I finally fished the ned the way he teaches. Dead sticking. I never had the confidence to know if I was throwing it where fish were, so I tend to move it much faster than he teaches. I hit a stretch of bank where the smallies were congregated. 14 to 16 inch smallies. I would cast it out and let it hit the bottom and just wait. About 10 to 20 seconds you would see the line twitch. Then it would start to stretch as the fish ran with the bait. Always before I would let it hit the bottom and immediately start hopping it back. If I had landed everything I had solid bites on, I would have been pushing 100 fish for the day. I don't know how many times I had fish pick up the bait and start running with it. I would go to cross their eyes and the bait would just pull free. I assume they were just grabbing it by the tail, or were just dinks. I tried a variety of hook set techniques. Most times though on the ones I caught the fish were really choking on the bait.

I think I saw you Dutch. I was eating lunch at State Park marina around 2:30 pm. Did you stop there for a brief moment?

I fished from Orleans Trail to State Park. Water in that area is super clear. I could see the bottom easily in 10 feet of water.

Ketchup and Dprice, you guys are killing me. Maybe I can get down there Monday.

I don't have a single problem with anyone keeping bass to eat. But for me personally, I don't keep bass. I leave them for tournament fishermen, or recreational fishermen like myself. I just love to fish. I'm pushing 60 years old and I remember the first fish I ever caught like it was yesterday. I was probably 4 years old. Caught it at Wabaunsee Lake in Kansas. My pole was a broken off car antenna. My parents would ground me from fishing to punish me. It worked, but it was brutal! 😀

I'm one of those that treat bass as a sacred cow. I don't tournament fish, but many do. So I leave the bass to swim another day so the population stays up and those that do tournament fish have a better chance at success. I will keep crappie and walleye if I get into a mess of them. To me there is no better eating fish.

It's supposed to be 90 degrees on Stockton the next few days. Can you install one on a Skeeter ZX190? 😃

Put in on 5/4 at State Park and headed toward Shawnee Bend. Fished some deep cuts along a bluff. Water temps were 63 to 64 degrees. Fish were scattered except for one spot we hit were they were ganged up. We ended up catching our limit of 30 crappie. Probably caught 70 fish total including bass, perch, and white bass. All came on either a 1/16th ounce jig in white, or yellow and white. On 5/7 I put in at Long Shoal and headed toward the Hwy 7 bridge and fished a cove on the east side. The water temps had risen significantly since Friday. 74 degree water. Started about 2:00 pm and quit at 5:00. Brought home my limit of 15 crappie. 3 were females that still had eggs but they were runny. Think the spawn is almost over. All came on a 1/16th ounce white jig in 2 to 6 foot of water.

After reading Lifes2Short's crappie report, I couldn't resist going and giving it a try. Put in at Ruark Bluff at 9:00 am and headed up Sons Creek. 57.1 to 58.5 degree water. Ended up cleaning 28 crappie. Most were 10.5 to 11.5 but the biggest was 14. Mixture of males and females. Most fish came out of 4 to 8 foot of water. Used a 1/16th ounce jig with a white or white & yellow curly tailed grub. Also had a bonus 17 inch walleye. We also caught 2 white bass and a big drum. Got off the water at 2:00 pm.

I was one of the vehicles at Ruark Bluff. If it's that crowded for a Tuesday, what's it going to look like on Saturday??? My temperature guage was reading 57.1 to 58.5 everywhere we went in Son's creek.

Put in at State Park and headed up the Big Tebo. Water temps were 50 to begin the day and 53 when we got off the water. Water was pretty stained. Maybe 1 foot of clarity. Maybe a little more. Fishing was TOUGH. We only managed 4 bass with 2 being keeper size. Missed a couple of others. 3 came on the ned and 1 on a rock crawler in red craw. I don't have a clue where the bass are staging.