Abuss55

Thanks guys! hahahaha Bluebasser you would have made the right choice, like Yakalong said the weather was just not wanting to cooperate this year and it was tough fishing. I can't complain too much I have been going to this four about 8 years now and this is the first year where I have truly had a hard time finding and catching fish. They were running all three units at the dam, between the wind and the water moving so fast it was hard to anchor up anywhere and the trolling motor was basically just to keep you from being pushed into stumps or docks. The heavy rains made for muddy creeks on Saturday, the fish seemed to be spread out and just did not want to hit like normal, caught a few heard fishing at the dam was pretty good but I prefer to get in the boat and try from Fall Creek to Roark Creek on this trip instead. All in all its the toughest trip I have had for this time of year but as always we had a ton of fun, the water temperature was still in the mid 40's and I believe that was a pretty big factor as well. If anyone ever wants to use em here are my three maps I use there for reference between years

Wellp we leave today for our annual trout bash with friends and family today! If anyone is interested once we get back ill try to get some good pictures/video and a fishing report for the weekend

Those rope lures work really well I like to use a 1/4 oz Joe's fly, the seem to prefer the black and red or brown where I fish for em during the summer, I don't know why but I have a pretty good hook up ratio with the inline spinners with a treble hook on the back. Like everyone said they are just a blast to fight, very aerobatic and they'll try to throw the hook on you every chance they get. I got this one that Joe's Fly

Hey guys! I hope spring is treating you better than it is us here in St. Louis, the weather has been crazy it snowed on Easter and tornado season is here. In two weeks ill be headed down to Lake Taneycomo near Branson MO and thought it would be fun to see if anyone had any favorite trout baits/lures they use anywhere or favorite spots on Taneycomo. I have a few already like Roark and Turkey Creek, Money Island and the I-65 bridges If anyone hasn't been and gets a chance its a great place to fish, right above it is Table Rock Lake and right below it is Bull Shoals/White River.

I have several trout setups but I really like my Avid series St. Croix in 6'6" Light action, it has a great backbone, the tip is not overly whipy and is my favorite trout set up, I also use it to pond hop for bass

I have two St. Croix's and I am a really big fan of my avid series rod and the trout series rod is great too, I have a Pfluger President Supreme XT on one and a President XT on the other.

I have been lucky enough to win two St. Croix's in trout tournaments and I really do love em, the last one was a 7' trout edition but I find that I really prefer to use that for presentations with a float, I really like my 6' 6" avid Series, its also an ultra light but it has a great back bone and to me it feels more like the power of medium light to light action rod with the sensitivity of an ultra light, I use it for pond bass fishing too. I pair both of them with Pfluger reels, before winning the President Supreme XT, and a limited edition President XT which are both great but a little pricey, I always liked the standard president series, all of my president series reels from trout sized to bass sized have been going for 7 years with no problems. Before that I used the President series Bass Pro combo and I recently gave them to my grandpa who will be joining us this year. I bring three set ups with me and my last setup is the one I have been using down there for 7 years, the same ugly stick you have with a standard President series reel

Im not sure if your fishing in a lake or on a stream, I agree with bluebasser I prefer the eggs to the paste usually in both, I think trout are the finickiest fish I guess that what I love about em hahaha. I also like to throw a similar set up with a trout worm in water with current twitching it every once in a while to keep it from hanging up in the weeds and just let the split shot weight bounce on the bottom. Another set up i like is a orange and yellow power nymph under a float with a 16th or 32nd oz jig and twitch it back at whatever speed you like. My all time favorite is throwing a joe's fly in 1/4 oz I know that sounds big but its worked really well for me. Good luck!

Welcome!

I'm a righty and use left handed baitcasters, its my uncles fault he was big on preaching do you throw a baseball with your left hand? Hahahahaha, so that's how I got into using them but like many have said here its much more about what you're comfortable with. It might sound dumb to a lot of other people who use the right handed ones but I just cannot get a good action out of my spook using my left hand on the rod.

Trout are where I really started with fishing when my dad invited me to a small tournament on Lake Taneycomo in Branson and I fell in love with fishing. For the first two years of that funny enough I used a Wal-Mart special for $15-$20 rod and reel combo I think it was a 6' Shakespeare which got me 3rd my first year and first my second year. The second year I won a Pfluger President Limited Edition Series reel and a St. Croix rod which I cannot remember specifically which one, one of their trout series rods. I'm a huge fan of the Presidents, I use both the 20 and 25. I agree with BlueBasser if its just for trout go with the 20, if you want to be able to go for the big ones and also want to be able to use it for some other things, which I do for pond hoping then go with the 25. I still have that Shakespeare rod the reel finally went out on me but I put one of my Pflugers on it and that's the combo that caught my winning fish last year point being you don't have to break the bank to get a decent light or ultra light set up, before you buy I would recommend feeling the actions for yourself in store, one of my favorite things to throw is one of the Joes Flies 1/4oz inline spinner and I like a little bit of a less whippy tip for that. Oh and I use an 8' i think Berkley steelhead rod in baby puke green lol which I think ran me about $30 or $40.00 for my float rigs. Good luck and happy fishing.

Thank you guys again! As is tradition I was wrong on the dates hahaha, I was a month behind it is April 30th and May 1st. Sounds like a plan, its 12 degrees here and its supposed to get down to -1 here in St. Louis New Years Eve, I cannot wait to feel that FL sunshine on my face!

Thank you guys very much I really appreciate the help and insight I cant wait to try out your Florida waters I'll have to let ya know what we did and how it went I think we'll be there April 3rd and 4th.

Thank you very much "moretolife" I really appreciate it, the lakes that I have fished from a boat, even in Canada, I can always see shoreline from and with as large and as shallow as this lake is that was a big concern of mine. Hey whatever it takes to catch em I have heard that your FL bass can be a bit harder to catch on artificial baits, would you happen to have any recommendations or know any guides in the area?

Hey guys I already knew it but I have the best girlfriend a guy could ask for and for Christmas she is taking me from St. Louis MO to Florida to fish Lake Okeechobee for a few days! Looks like she saw how many Scott Martin videos I watch online hahahha. We will be staying at J&S Fish Camp at the beginning of April, which is on the North East side of the lake, and are renting a bass boat for a day and I was wondering if anyone could give me a few tips. My fishing experience in FL is a handful of trips, all were deep sea and all occurred before I had such a passion for fishing. I wanted to make sure that we both have a fun time, especially because now she has to put up with me for a 16 hour car ride :), she would be using one of my spinning set ups and I would be using spinning/baitcaster setups. Thank you for all of your help, this is the absolute nicest thing anyone has ever done for me as a gift and I cannot explain how excited I am to experience this with her!

I have been in a similar situation, since they were a family with younger kids I decided to just mention it and phrased it as just wanted to let you know b/c I would hate for you guys to get fined by a Conservation Agent. They were kind and appreciative and were just unaware of the special regulations for that section of the river. Now if it is someone intentionally breaking the rules/regs and causing harm then I will get general descriptions/info and notify my local agent. No one ever said it was going to be easy, and we should be glad it is not for that would just be boring!

I have cuaght four on an inline spinner on my trout gear, haha that makes for a very long fight but a lot of fun! I have caught 2 on crank baits. Glad to see another Missouri boy!

Like you said, with as much time and effort as you have put into that lake with catching that few of fish I would agree and look for a different spot. Now if you are bound and determined to make this lake work for you my secret is to use my UL gear and my trout stuff; I have never seen someone else target bass with that stuff on the park lake i go to and it works great! No one ever said it was going to be easy, and we should be happy it is not for that would just be boring.

I have several family members/friends that live on or have private lakes and the are kind enough to let me fish there and I have never kept a bass out of there simply out of respect for them; I do not pay to put the fish in that lake and therefore have no business taking them out. I have become pretty good friends with one of the board members there who I talked into having a kid tournament at one of the larger subdivision lakes which was pretty cool and he has spoken with board members at the other subdivisions and they are trying to organize kid tournaments with their combined lakes. I am right there with you and these people are the reason why residents got concerened when they saw me fishing at those ponds/lakes a few years ago.

Every single person who has posted on this thread has gone through very similar times, I would venture to say everyone out there has in one fashion or another. If it helps I am 25 and not that long ago (7 years) was going through something very similar. You will make it through this, but they are right, in the end it is up to you. All the advice in the world can't change anything for you. Many people have their own opinions on what you should do and how you should do it; but you have to be the one to figure out, no different than bass fishing, what works best for you. I would reccomend to start talking to your friends and family, looking for any job you can get in the area, looking for a better job while having a not so great job is much better than looking for a job while not having one. As far as college goes I just finished my BS in Psych, there are many programs, grants, and scholarships out there all at your fingertips. Get on your computer and start researching them. You may be surprised how many there are and how many you have to opportunity to take advantage of. You may even have the opportunity to play a sport at a college, there are all different levels from D1 all the way to MIAA and D3. I wish you the best of luck, no one ever said it would be easy, and we should be happy that it is not for that would just be boring. Oh and another reccomendtion, after I was done playing college football and tried to go pararescue until I tore my ACL for a second time during SEARS I always was playing for a team, or working with a team, get active, work out, it will reinforce that activity level in your day to day activities and it will make you feel better overall. Where if you get in the slump of not doing those things, the bad feelings and mood tend to get worse.

I love fishing for carp, they put up one heck of fight and if you are looking for a nice day to just sit, or to set up a few lines with bells so you can still do some bass fishing it is perfect. @OntarioFishingGuy is absolutely correct, you want to use whats called a hair rig. I have adjusted mine a bit, I use 30 pound braid with about a 2 ounce custom weight, and snapped onto that I have about a 1' leader of 12 Lb. mono. with a small hook for fly fishing, and about 2" under that I have a spring to hold the bait ball, you do not want the bait ball on the hook for a hair rig the point is that when they suck up the ball the hook gets in the perfect spot for a lip side hook up. I would reccomend using Cream Corn as a base for any baits, wheaties are a great thing to add, and anything fruity or sweet. I have caught 25 Lb Buffalo, 17 Lb Grass carp, hog suckers, and common carp on this rig/ bait. Also I would advise refridgerating the bait for at least a few days, i prefer to do it for a week or two for it allows the bait to harden a little bit and not come off of the hook so easy, having a corn mash with you to use as chum, that will dissipate is a good idea to bring them to you via a spoon attached to a stick. Good luck and happy fishing! Oh and another tip is that sometimes the carp will pick up that ball and spit it back out, they will mill around with it for awhile on some days, and on others they will rip your rod out of the holder! Give somone a fish and they eat for a day, teach them to fish and they will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.

I have to admit here in St. Louis we are having to deal with an extremely invasive species, the asian carp. Even with all of the efforts that have been attempted to stop and take them out it becomes more evident every day that this is something that either we would have to get every person out there with trolling nets and bows for years to maybe make a dent, or do what we can to try and keep their numbers in check and live with it. Quite a different scenario for their reproductive and growth rates are rediculous but if figured i could give some input on my experience with invasive species.

Thank you all very much for the input! I will certainly look into using those methods. Yeah as a former college football player, who was recently at 330 and am on my way to my goal of 260 since that size is no longer needed and just bad for the body, size has always been an issue haha. As much as I love bass fishing I could not think of a better way to get on the water to enjoy my favoirte obsession and loose a few pounds at the same time!

Hey everyone, so I just invested in some roof racks for my SUV and am looking into getting my first yak! The issue I am coming across is that, I am 6'5" and weigh in at about 280, the yaks i have found are around 1K. Now dont get me wrong I want to get a yak that is nice and obviously that will fit me plust gear, but at the same time I dont want to spend that much for my first. Any advice from you bass fishing yakers out there would be greatly appreciated! Give someone a fish and they will eat for a day teach them to fish and they will sit in a boat all day drinking beer

There may have been Bass in there at one point in time, or they may have intentionally stocked it with only blue gill, warmouth, and catfish to be more of a "kid" lake. Or they may have been trying to eliminate competition for the catfish, so by having fish like bluegill and warmouth for the cats to feed on they may have been hoping for a good population of decent sized catfish combined with the same for bluegill and warmouth. I really cant think of one outside of going with larger baits than a bluegill/warmouth just literally could not fit in their mouths, although I had a large bluegill hit my zara spook yesterday. I have caught catfish using plastic worms, spinner baits, and buzz baits so no, I can not think of something you could throw that would elimintae all 3 species of fish. If you are not catching bass out of that lake and have gone on several occasions using multiple methods then I would reccomend just going to the other lakes in the subdivision. Give someone a fish and they will eat for a day, teach somone to fish and they will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.