New From Joplin, Mo

[Mike&Sons]

Hi, I'm Mike from Joplin. I grew up fishing with my dad, mostly for cats. I started getting into bass about 15 years ago, but found out it is too expensive for me now with a family of five and stacks of bills. Never became an expert, and feel like I don't really know what I am doing most of the time. My oldest boys are 12 and 10, they are really getting into it. Of course they want to catch anything they can, so they get bored if nothing's biting. I would love any help in my area for where to take them to catch anything. I would like to start fishing for crappie to eat, or catch some big flatheads with my boys. Been fishing Kellogg Lake, Center Creek and Spring River with occasional success. I have a 12" flat bottom, but no way to transport it.

Thanks, looking forward to learning from the forums.

[Kelroy]

Hi Mike, welcome to the forum. I've been to center creek, spring at Carthage, buffalo creek, Elk river, indian, shoal, and big & little sugar. Haven't gotten to spend enough time at any of them, though. Don't feel bad about feeling somewhat lost at bass fishing, they don't always cooperate as we would like. When I'm out for fun and the bass aren't playing along, I put on one of those adjust-a-bubble floats and tie on a small maribou jig. Fill the float about 1/3 with water and you can chuck it a good ways. Great way to drift it through the riffles. It keeps the day from being a total wash.