Opening Day Spoonbill 2010

[Don House]

Well had one of those just flat great days on the water. Had a crew of three in my boat and three in a follow boat for opening day of snagging season. Motored on up to the river bends right in flat creek.. Took a few hours to figure them out but we found them. Three in my boat with one that went over 60 pounds, another one went 40 and the last went in the Mid 30's... The follow boat had two more in the mid 30's as well..

Best Water Temp: 51 Degrees

Best place: FLAT CREEK

Best Location: Stay in the river channels and steeper rock walls of flat creek, fish are right on the bottom. Here are a few

For some of you that wanted to see Side Imaging Pictures of some spoonbill here they are.. Look for all of the Long Bright White Lines those are your spoonbills.. Look at the shadows as well some you can make out the tail and nose.

Enjoy everyone Good Fishing

Don

[nathan RN]

here is one from last year. caught it on the james below springfield lake. i would guess about 80 lbs.

o yeah my dad is looking at the tag in its lip. he got 50 $ for calling it in. mdc told him that is was over 25 years old.

[Predator1]

Nice jog gentleman. I was going to be right in the mix of all of it today. Unfortunately, someone brought a VIRUS to work Last week. Several of us our out sick today. I had today as a Vacation-Day and could not even hit the water. Guaranteed I will be out this weekend.

Good luck and be safe everyone.

[CaptainJoe]

Don,

As I stated on your Facebook Wall. Congrats and great job. You are the Man! I will be in the James tomorrow, only looking for bass, crappie, and whites.

[duckydoty]

I like the screen shots. Thanks for posting Don. Congrats on getting into them.

[snakem]

Don,

As I stated on your Facebook Wall. Congrats and great job. You are the Man! I will be in the James tomorrow, only looking for bass, crappie, and whites.

Cap. Joe will be up in the james in the morning in the blue and sliver champion 200 looking for the whites,walleye and the good old bass. holler at me.going to the electronics seminar tomorrow night hope to see u there.

Snakem Out. ps and all you other ozark anglers.

[Bill Babler]

Great Job, Donnie, that is getting her done. Have a muscle relaxer on me this evening. Super Post

[tunchi]

I don't know anything about spoonbills so I have a few questions. What do they eat? What do they taste like? How do you cook them? How big can they get? You snag them because they don't eat anything you can put on a hook? How do you snag them?

Becky

[duckydoty]

Spoonbill or paddle fish are a filter feeder like whales. They filter the water through thier huge mouths and gills and feed off of small organisms like plankton. They have no bones, all cartlige like a shark. They are very good to eat, but you must get rid of all the dark meat that runs along its sides. They have a texture much like pork tenderloin. You can fry it, bake it, broil it, boil it, grill it, and smoke it. They will not bite on anything you can put on a hook, but a few have been known to get hung up on trout lines and limb lines accedintally. There are two main ways of snagging them. One being from the bank, the other, from a boat. Spoonbill like many other fish are programed to run up feeder streams and rivers to spawn when waters start reaching certain tempuratures. They will start staging in lower parts of these streams, closer to the lakes that they are in and wait for the water to reach a certain temp and usually have a swell coming down the river or stream, then they will make thier run. This is when bank snagging can be very productive. Most people that snag from the bank use a 10 foot or larger surf rod with a spinning reel spooled with 80 pound braided line. They will throw a 2-6 ounce weight with a size 7/0 or larger treble hook. The boat snaggers do better by finding the staging areas and troll through them with 8-16 ounce weights and the same treble hook set up. Boaters usually use a shorter stiffer snagging rod. Some paddle fish live in rivers and not lakes, like the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. These fish will make runs from the river to feeder creeks and streams or to the tailwaters of a lock and or dam. These are good areas to consentrate on snagging for them. Below Bagnel dam is a good example of this, or below Alton Lock and Dam on the Mississippi just north of St. Louis.

Hope some of this helped

[duckydoty]

Oh yea, I think the Missouri state record is 143 pounds caught on Table Rock Lake.

60-80 pounds is very obtainable on the James River Arm of Table Rock.