WHERE ARE THE COSTA GUYS?

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, Seth said:

Is the case or are you just looking for an excuse for your lack of success lately? I've got a couple buddies who have been crushing them up shallow for the past several weeks. Why are they able to catch good sacks and you aren't? It ain't just in the PB2 area either. One in particular enjoys fishing up in  your arm of the lake.

Once things warm up, they'll move out deep and catch those deep fish. I guess you'll be able to gripe about how electronics ruin the bass fishing then since they use them to pin point those deep fish. 

I haven't even been out in "my area" lately, but I can catch fish just fine.....but numbers of keepers and definitely fish over 3lbs are getting fewer and fewer each year up here where there's no weigh-ins.   

It all cycles.  After a few years of guys making the run up here and blanking they will go elsewhere and in a couple more years it will start to get better.....until they start hauling them 20-30 miles away again.   3 and 4 years ago the upper Gravois was loaded with 3-5 pounders and they all got hauled to Coffman and beyond.    If those fish could have been scored and released immediatly the fishing up here would be much better.   Don't ya think?

Back in the mid '90's the upper Osage (Bollinger to Cole Camp) was a genuine hog factory.  It was well known that if you had sun you ran the river.  So many fish got hauled back to PB2 that it eventually made the choice of running up the Osage a poor decision. And the people that live and fish up there just had to deal with a good day being 3 keepers.   It is just now starting to show signs of being truly good again.  Almost 20 years !   

Bottom line, Seth ...... I may not be KVD but I'm a good bit better than average, and when an average guy can't catch a few keepers.....then the fishing isn't what it should be.  Can we agree on that? 

[Seth]

6 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

I haven't even been out in "my area" lately, but I can catch fish just fine.....but numbers of keepers and definitely fish over 3lbs are getting fewer and fewer each year up here where there's no weigh-ins.   

It all cycles.  After a few years of guys making the run up here and blanking they will go elsewhere and in a couple more years it will start to get better.....until they start hauling them 20-30 miles away again.   3 and 4 years ago the upper Gravois was loaded with 3-5 pounders and they all got hauled to Coffman and beyond.    If those fish could have been scored and released immediatly the fishing up here would be much better.   Don't ya think?

Back in the mid '90's the upper Osage (Bollinger to Cole Camp) was a genuine hog factory.  It was well known that if you had sun you ran the river.  So many fish got hauled back to PB2 that it eventually made the choice of running up the Osage a poor decision. And the people that live and fish up there just had to deal with a good day being 3 keepers.   It is just now starting to show signs of being truly good again.  Almost 20 years !   

Bottom line, Seth ...... I may not be KVD but I'm a good bit better than average, and when an average guy can't catch a few keepers.....then the fishing isn't what it should be.  Can we agree on that? 

I'm just giving you a hard time. I know you've been around long enough to know when things change up there.  The one thing that I do know is that regardless of what body of water you are on, somebody is always catching them and others are not. While I don't fish LoZ often, I see this stuff happen on the bodies of water I'm familiar with. Some are just better at adapting to the changes than others.

The Osage River below Bagnell went through a crummy spell for the last several years, but started showing signs of the glory days last year. Guys are starting to catch 5lbs+ largemouth more regularly and the big spots are showing back up. Some 4lbs+ spots were caught last year and I hadn't heard of that happening in a while.

[Mhyde]

On 5/11/2019 at 8:32 AM, fishinwrench said:

Well they (MDC) are either going to limit the number of tournaments allowed per month, or they (Anglers and tournament organizers) are going to change the way fishing tournaments are scored.   

I'm not gonna quit kicking off crap until they do.  I'm ramping it up real soon and making this my new hobby.  🤨 

I don't care how difficult it makes things, or who believes it can't be changed.  It is going to change.

Better start with the kids too. you can't just point the finger and blame just adults, every decent size JR/MIDDLE & High school now have fishing teams with kids from 12-18  years old ALL being taught 5 fish to scale style tournaments now. I believe the man that runs this website even participated in the one at Table Rock last 2 weekends ago with some kids, did you blast him for his participation in that style of tournament that you despise so bad???? 

[magicwormman]

15 hours ago, Mhyde said:

Better start with the kids too. you can't just point the finger and blame just adults, every decent size JR/MIDDLE & High school now have fishing teams with kids from 12-18  years old ALL being taught 5 fish to scale style tournaments now. I believe the man that runs this website even participated in the one at Table Rock last 2 weekends ago with some kids, did you blast him for his participation in that style of tournament that you despise so bad???? 

I think you are missing the point! The point is that the MDC needs to have a limit on number of boat per day. Spread the derbys out to a reasonable number of boats each day.

[Seth]

20 minutes ago, magicwormman said:

I think you are missing the point! The point is that the MDC needs to have a limit on number of boat per day. Spread the derbys out to a reasonable number of boats each day.

While they are at it, could they also limit the number of cruiser that can be on the lake at one time? That would be great!

[5bites]

I do miss the days when there were fewer tournaments period. That’s not a dig against tournament fishing because I love it. What I mean is there was a time when a person did well in a particular series they had a reputation of being a great angler because the competition wasn’t spread among a hundred different tournaments. People like Dave Barker, Wes Endicott, the Davis boys, etc etc etc. Now there are so many tournaments even on the same day that the competition is just watered down. If the good anglers were in fewer places the competition would be tougher and more meaningful like the old Central Pro/Am days and even the Heartland. So not only is the number of tournaments bad for the lake it’s bad for building local legends. That sounds sentimental probably but I personally miss it. So all that said even if we stay with five fish weigh in type tournaments I believe it would help the lake and competition if there were fewer tournaments at one time even if the field is on the large side. You’ll weed out a lot of the less skilled guys because they won’t want to continuously donate for no reason. Then they’ll just fish to learn until they can compete. Which means they’ll catch and release because they aren’t in a derby. 

 

That was kinda all over the place but I hope it made a little bit of sense. We’ve just “grown the sport” to were it’s more about an eBay order jersey rather than good competition and good stewards of the lakes we’ve been extremely blessed with. 

[5bites]

10 minutes ago, Seth said:

While they are at it, could they also limit the number of cruiser that can be on the lake at one time? That would be great!

A size limit on the boat would make a big impact on this. I’m not sure it’s fair really but it sounds good in a selfish way. 

[Seth]

 

34 minutes ago, 5bites said:

I do miss the days when there were fewer tournaments period. That’s not a dig against tournament fishing because I love it. What I mean is there was a time when a person did well in a particular series they had a reputation of being a great angler because the competition wasn’t spread among a hundred different tournaments. People like Dave Barker, Wes Endicott, the Davis boys, etc etc etc. Now there are so many tournaments even on the same day that the competition is just watered down. If the good anglers were in fewer places the competition would be tougher and more meaningful like the old Central Pro/Am days and even the Heartland. So not only is the number of tournaments bad for the lake it’s bad for building local legends. That sounds sentimental probably but I personally miss it. So all that said even if we stay with five fish weigh in type tournaments I believe it would help the lake and competition if there were fewer tournaments at one time even if the field is on the large side. You’ll weed out a lot of the less skilled guys because they won’t want to continuously donate for no reason. Then they’ll just fish to learn until they can compete. Which means they’ll catch and release because they aren’t in a derby. 

 

That was kinda all over the place but I hope it made a little bit of sense. We’ve just “grown the sport” to were it’s more about an eBay order jersey rather than good competition and good stewards of the lakes we’ve been extremely blessed with. 

I'm not sure about the Tablerock tournament scene, but the Anglers in Actions and BFL tournaments usually bring out the best of the best on Lake of the Ozarks. There are several big name sticks up there that people expect to see in the check line in every tournament they fish.

[snagged in outlet 3]

33 minutes ago, 5bites said:

A size limit on the boat would make a big impact on this. I’m not sure it’s fair really but it sounds good in a selfish way. 

Not sure it would help on the wake boat guys.  20'er pushes a pretty good sized wake.  5 in one area will run everyone else off.

[5bites]

1 hour ago, Seth said:

 

I'm not sure about the Tablerock tournament scene, but the Anglers in Actions and BFL tournaments usually bring out the best of the best on Lake of the Ozarks. There are several big name sticks up there that people expect to see in the check line in every tournament they fish.

I’ll go along with that. AiA has become quite the series. Where it differs though is they generally pull locals from each lake where as a traveling series has the same people fish multiple lakes. So if someone is great in Grand Lake that’s awesome but it’s more significant if they can swing with the best regionally on Grand , Table Rock, Truman etc. Plus if they’re at lake X they won’t be populating another lake that same weekend. 

Now the BFL on the other hand has potential to be something again. It died several years ago but it looks to be gaining ground again. It helps that some locals have succeeded coming up through the BFL.

I know this will never go over and unless the economy tanks the lakes will remain swamped. It’s likely not a poplar opinion either.