Who's ready for snagging season?

[Seth]

I'm all wound up to go snag some spooners down on the James River opening night. Is anybody else getting wound up too?

Duckman, I know your a huge snagging fan, what are your plans the first week? You hitting Schell Osage again? I'm darn sure going to make the drive up there and hit some bills this year. I might see if I could meet up with you on a weekend your snagging and have you show me around the area.

I'm going to buy me a new snagging rig as soon as I get paid this month too. My eyes are set on a 15 surf rod and reel and I'm gonna spool it up with some 100lbs/20lbs dia. White Power Pro. That Power Pro is some good stuff!!

[polock]

how exactly do you go snaggin... i have heard it done in small creeks when the suckers go up the creek to spawn but never seen it done for spoons. only heard about it... accidently gigged a spoon bill gigging season.. we were in really deep muddy water, and it looked just like a big buffalo.. i hit it close to the tail and it swam off.. hopefully it lived.. sucker was about 4' long..

[Seth]

Well first you need to get either a broom stick style 6 foot snagging rod with a big Penn level wind reel OR ,as I prefer, a 10-15 foot surf rod with a big spinning reel filled with 80-100 lbs braided line.

Then for the terminal tackle you need some 8/0-14/0 treble hooks. For weights, I usually use 4-6oz bank sinkers on my surf tackle, but the broom stick snaggers use up to 24oz sinkers to stay on the bottom.

Here's a link to MDC's page about snagging. It has some pictures on how to rig the hooks and sinker to the line.

http://www.mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2005/02/10.htm

You can either troll or cast while snagging. I like casting more just because I use a surf rod and have had better luck than when trolling. It's especially effective at night when the spooners are flopping on the surface. Just sit and wait for one to flop close by and then throw towards it and start jerking the hooks back as fast you can right under the surface. This is how I caught almost all of my spoonbill last year on the James River arm of Tablerock.

For trolling, let out enough line so that you feel the sinker touch bottom right before you rip the hooks back.

As for what holes to target, a lot of people stay in the river channel. I've had good luck on shallower mud flats next to a river channel also. Also, the mouths of coves are a good spot to pick up a fish.

Here are some pictures of me with my two biggest paddlefish. The first pic is 67 pounds and the third was 74 pounds. The middle picture is the state record that was caught on opening day of 2002 on the James River. It weighed 139 pounds 4oz.

[Duckman]

How's it goin Seth? Just started hittin' this board again so sorry I didn't get caught up with you earlier, but yeah we opened at Schell yesteday. Saw a dozen or better small males taken but nothing to speak of yet. Water is really low at our usualy hole. Hopefully we get these rains next week and bring her up to par. If we do you can bet your entire check that you see me down there everyday! We'll probably see ya around this year if you get in the wildlife area just look for us on the long dead end road back where the river makes that great big narly bend. We'll be there!

[Seth]

Welcome back Duckman.

Yep, hopefully I'll bump into ya up there then. One question, the river looks really skinny up there where you snag at. How do boats go up through there and the bank snaggers get along? It shows that its only about 60 yards across on Google Earth and that just seems like a really thin area to snag since I'm sure a lot of people can throw better than that distance with there snagging rigs, especially surf rod users.

[Duckman]

Yeah it's not very wide here. I'd say on average 60 yards or less wide. Boat traffic is not horribly bad up here this far. The boaters know better than to hang around where we snag off the banks. I don't think if I was in a boat I would hang around these crazy hill billies either!! They get plum crazy sometimes. Heading down tomorrow after work and then we'll be down all weekend anywhere from Roscoe to Schell City. Just depends on where the pack is at!!

[Seth]

Well hopefully the rains get the bills up and moving for ya. I get Good Friday and the following Monday off from work so I might head up that directon that weekend, unless we get a trip to the James River planned.

Where would you recommend a person stay at up there? Just camp or at a hotel? I'll more then likely be the only one that goes up there because everybody else isn't crazy bout them spoons like me.

Well hopefully the rains get the bills up and moving for ya. I get Good Friday and the following Monday off from work so I might head up that directon that weekend, unless we get a trip to the James River planned.

Where would you recommend a person stay at up there? Just camp or at a hotel? I'll more then likely be the only one that goes up there because everybody else isn't crazy bout them spoons like me.

[Duckman]

We usually just find a place to fall on the river bank unless it is rainin' then we just fall in the pickup! Don't know where to tell you to stay if you are lookin' fer a room. You might try looking in Taberville, Schell City, or Roscoe. If there is nothing at these places you'll probably have to go to Osceola or Clinton. I've never looked fer a room so I'm not much help fer ya on that end buddy!

[brittsnbirds]

Duckman-

Do you have a report around Osceola?

[Duckman]

Haven't made it down that fer yet. I will be able to tell you more by Monday when we wrap up our tour. We're going to start at Schell Friday night. If all goes well there we will stay Saturday, but if Friday night don't pan out like we are anticipating we will be working our way to Osceola. We usually don't have to run that fer but you never know. I've been watchin' the water levels at Schell City and they are on the rise! So I'm gettin' excited and my knees are knockin'!!! I don't anticipate we'll have to go as far down as Roscoe or the Springs and we'll be into them. But until then I'm just going to watch the river level, here ya go check it out iffin's ya get a chance:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.p...iew=1,1,1,1,1,1

Copy this link and paste it into yer brouser up there and it will show the levels. Pretty cool sight and I'm here to tell ya that it is dead on the money.