senile1

Below is the Kansas City Star report from a guide at Stockton for October 12th but it is not a lot of information. I haven't been there in a few years but it is a beautiful lake. STOCKTON: 72 degrees, clear, 2 feet low. Outlook: Stockton Lake Guide Service reports: Crappies fair on minnows over brush piles in 10 to 18 feet of water; walleyes fair to good on jigs and nightcrawlers on flats; catfish fair to good on fresh shad drifted across the flats in 5 to 20 feet of water; black bass fair on spinnerbaits in 6 to 8 feet of water.

Bravo, Glenn! It was a nice video and enjoyable to watch.

I have to agree. I rarely find anything that I haven't learned before in magazines. I have enjoyed a number of them over the years and they can be handy if one is a newbie, or has been away from fishing for a while.

Missouri clear water in the Kansas City area is similar to what Blue described above. If you can see 3 feet that's pretty clear water. On the other hand, I fish Table Rock in Southern Missouri approximately 8 - 10 days a year and 30 feet of visibility on the lower end of the lake is not uncommon.

Wow! That is a nice fish for such a small body of water. Unless there is some type of deep hole in that thing, in the winter it would freeze top to bottom where I live.

Further away, the White Mountains in New Hampshire are not that far from you and provide excellent multi-day hiking opportunities with some of the higher peaks on the AT. Check out sites like www.4000footers.com, www.summitpost.org, www.hikenewengland.com, and www.alltrails.com for good, detailed information about the trails, places to camp or lodge, etc. Even further away, Glacier National Park is one of the most majestic places to do multi-day hikes. Check it out on http://www.hikinginglacier.com and www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/hikingthetrails.htm. (At Glacier, be aware that there are Grizzly bears and plan accordingly.)

Palaniuk has impressed me since he first started in Elite competition and I suspected we would see big things from him. Congratulations to him on a most excellent year!

I do agree that some anglers always need an excuse of some sort, but it seems like most of us on here are always out-fishing our buddies. Do any of you ever end up on the short end of the stick?

Everything that I read states that the Gasconade is the best river in Missouri for trophy smallmouth. It also has great numbers. It has almost 300 miles of water so you will want to read up on it before you choose your spot. The special management area in Phelps and Pulaski counties is where I would probably put in. It is quite a drive from KC though.

Most of the science indicates that bass can be conditioned to being fed, lures, etc., though it would be nice if there were more in-depth studies. How long the conditioning lasts is up for debate. And like any other population of organisms, the ability to be conditioned would map to some kind of bell curve with some individuals at the high end that will never bite a lure, and some individuals at the low end that will bite the same lure over and over. But as a statement for the general population, bass do have the ability to become conditioned. A perfect example of conditioning of fish is the way they learn to gather near an automatic fish feeder at the time and place when the feeding occurs.

Electrical tape works great. Alcohol or any reel cleaning solvent will remove any residue.

Congratulations! That's a beauty!

Line guide pawls wear out periodically and are pretty inexpensive parts to keep around if you use a particular model for quite a few years. Buy a few to have them handy for the next time.

I suspected as much. Lots of branches could definitely favor the arky.

You didn't mention this, but maybe you already have it covered. If the lake is filled with acres of timber and you aren't familiar with its bottom contours, my first concern would be to find the timber that holds fish. You can spend all day fishing timber that is not associated to forage and suitable bass structure and essentially strike out. Other than replacing the arky jig with a Siebert brush jig and craw, my choices would be the same.

Congratulations on the nice looking smallies!

Your wife is snagging some big ones. Congratulations!

Nice PB and good story!

It sounds like you are talking about the slot on the top of the bait. Like you, I prefer baits without the slot where I can place the hook just under the skin. If the hook is left sitting in the slot and the worm/bait moves on the hook while in the water, it is much easier for the hook point to become exposed and hang on something. On baits with a slot, you can insert the hook just under the skin in the slot as well.

As I'm sure you are aware, it is quite rare for a black bear or coyotes to attack, though there are those rare occasions where someone has encountered a bear that has been fed, or a female's cubs and was attacked. A few years ago a female hiker was attacked and killed by a pack of coyotes in Nova Scotia which is really rare. A large bore handgun is your best choice especially in a close encounter. Talking a lot is one way to avoid encounters with bears as the normal bear will stay away from humans, but it is the abnormal bears that you have to worry about. My wife and I hike a lot in the mountains and we carry bear spray always. In grizzly country, which you don't have to worry about in New York, I feel a lot more comfortable with a good weapon handy and even then I would hate to ever encounter one of these beasts.

Missouri has a Missouri Hunting app for your phone. You download it for free, enter your conservation number from your license, and your birth date. Once that is completed you can display all of your licenses, fishing included, on your cell phone when you encounter a conservation agent.

No. It took me long enough just to learn how to tie the knots that work for me. I have yet to learn how to keep the Loctite/super glue off my fingers so my fingers aren't stuck to everything else.

In addition to fishing, guitar has been my passion but over the last year I have had to decrease my playing time due to Kienbock's disease in my right wrist. Additionally, hiking in the mountains (Rockies and Appalachians) is something I love almost as much as fishing. These pics are from about a month ago when my wife and I traveled to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This was from the top of Mt. Pierce at 4310 feet. The two pics below are from the top of Mt Eisenhower (4780 feet) which we climbed after scaling Mt Pierce. Our combined elevation gain was 3300 feet. The two pics below are from the top of Mt Washington at 6280 feet. My wife wasn't ready to attempt this one so we drove to the top of it. In the bottom photo, if you follow the ridge that is aligned with my right knee up to its peak, that is Mt Eisenhower which is 5 miles from where I am sitting. The photo below shows what the trails we climbed were like. It was pretty much rocks straight up with very few switchbacks. On Mt Eisenhower we had to do some rock scrambling to get to the top.

You hit the nail on the head on that one for me. On another note, on large, busy lakes huge rolling waves from large boats do the same thing to me. Plus, I find I have to place one foot against the gunwale and keep my rear planted against my butt seat to keep from falling out of the boat while it rocks. It can make it quite difficult to concentrate on what your lure is doing.