It all about the stocking

[Lincoln]

I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but I'm going to hazard a guess that MDC stocked recently. All of a sudden, I'm seeing many of our guests do very well out on the water, bringing in limits fairly regularly.

I've been sending most of our marina traffic downstream to Monkey Island and the bridges and seeing positive results. They report a ton of boat traffic in those areas so I'm not alone in sending people out in search of fish.

Now, the $64K question. What's working? Air-injected nightcrawlers are working very well. Power Bait in various colors is working also. White seems a predominant choice, but other colors are working too.

I'm so happy to see the guests doing well this week. I'd love to see the action continue for weeks to come.

Now, if I could just get a little help up below the dam. I was up today with not much success, at least not up to the standard. The water was a little interesting today with one generator on to compensate for the drawn down. Slow going for me, but just getting out at all was a nice way to spend a couple of hours. It's not always about catching fish. Good to get that reminder on occasion.

Best of luck to everyone. Til next time...

[Bill Babler]

When you see guides like Dave Welch, and Tony fishing down toward Branson, you know there is trouble in the lower restricted area. These boys, fish 200plus days each up there and very seldom come out. I asked Tony if he was lost today, and he said, he just could not get his people bit at all for the last few weeks.

They both were down at Cooper and below today. Very few rainbows swimming in that lower 1mile stretch, above Fall Creek. There are some, but the suckers way out number em.

Be very careful on this low water wherever you fish.