12/11/18 Short Trip

[bobby b.]

Got out from 3 - 5 pm today, went to the same area reported recently but no joy.  Moved up the creek and found some bait fish but not near as many as the last report.  Found fish at 40 ft over 100 ft.  and some bait fish at 60 ft.  The bait fish would come and go at 60 ft as would the bass at 60 ft but bass showed pretty consistently at 40 fow.  WT was 49 degrees.  Caught 8 in 30 minutes but lost more than twice that many as they let go early on or half way up.   The bite was mostly very light which probably accounts for me not getting a good hook set more often than not, and thus losing them on the way up. One LM and the others Spots, 14 -16 inches all.  New pup accidentally (on purpose) fell out of the boat again today.

Bobby 

This post has been promoted to an article

[bobby b.]

Sorry, I guess that first pic was bad.

[LD Fisher]

Nice head shot though! 😁  Thanks for the report.

[Bill Babler]

Bobby, there are as many mallards as I have ever seen on the lake from SK bridge to Big Creek. On the flats across form Campbell point they were in there by the hundreds.  Don't know if you hunt that area and have never seen anyone duck hunting there but the birds are thick.  I am presuming they are flight birds, traveling thru, but they flew all day up there with those blue skies.

They were magnificent with the sun hitting those green heads.

[bobby b.]

11 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

Bobby, there are as many mallards as I have ever seen on the lake from SK bridge to Big Creek. On the flats across form Campbell point they were in there by the hundreds.  Don't know if you hunt that area and have never seen anyone duck hunting there but the birds are thick.  I am presuming they are flight birds, traveling thru, but they flew all day up there with those blue skies.

They were magnificent with the sun hitting those green heads.

Bill, Thanks for the tip.  I haven't hunted on TR or anywhere around here.  Before retirement and since I have always hunted northern and middle Missouri but also various places from South Dakota to Corpus Christi.  I have talked to Duane about hunting around here and he has put me on to places in the middle of Taney which I yet to hunt.

Missouri has become a premier waterfowl state in the last 20 years due to creation of waterfowl refuges paid for by the 1/8 sales tax.  In recent weeks I have met folks or seen license plates from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas in public hunting areas up north.  Currently there are over 1 million ducks mostly mallards sitting on these refuges in Missouri.

I'll take a drive up to Camp Point area soon.  TR is in the Mo South zone which stays open until Jan 27 this season.  In the last two years I have seen lots of mallards near Beardsley, I think that's Point 2.

Regarding fishing, I was out this afternoon again for just a bit (by the time I got out the sun disappeared and he got pretty cold) and the 40 - 50 ft deep bite was still on with the slab spoon and ice jig being the best.  I lost a couple very good LM that flipped off the ice jig while trying to lift them into the boat - I really need to use that net sometimes, all the others were 14 - 16 in Spots. 

Bobby

[Bill Babler]

Quite a few of the deep fish I caught at the Knob were full to gills with crawdads and very small shad, dime size.