Fishing good at Bennett Spring- March 20th, 2007

Fishing was great at Bennett Spring on this day! Drove through some really heavy rain but it cleared up by the time I got to the park. Roads were still wet when I arrived- one of the local fishermen said it had rained real hard earlier, but the water was good- just a tad murky, but not bad.
Caught (4) trout in about 3 1/2 hours (not bad for late day!). Caught my first on a white/rainbow super duper, ultra-light rod with #2 test. Caught the rest on my other ultra light (same rig) with a mepps comet #0. Check out the incredible trout catch-and-release "action shot".

Fish on!

MLT

Best of 2006: Fishing for Largemouths at Lost Valley Lake Resort, Franklin County, Missouri

This was a fall fishing trip that was a lot of fun. My brother-in-law, Rob (he is the guy standing in the photo), has a membership to this private resort. There are (2) lakes in the resort. We decided that we would fish the new lake (it has been around approx less that 6 years). What is great about this lake is that is has limited fishing pressure.
Rob has a small boat with a couple of trolling motors (we used both when we wanted to move "fast"). It was just big enough for the both of us and all of our gear.

We decided that we would get out early that morning- it was cool to cold, but not bad for a fall morning. The morning started out slow, but we started to get hits about an hour into it. Rob and I had tried many things, but the one thing we had a lot of success with was the Chomper Hula Grub on a stand-up Jig. I was using a bait cast rod with 12" test and Rob had a similar set up.
Here is what is cool about this rig and what makes it my "go-to" bait for largemouths (and smallmouths, by the way).
The way to fish this bait is to hit the shoreline, bring it in maybe 3-4 feet and then stop. Slowly move your rod tip up and down. When you get a hit, you will feel a "tap, tap, tap". That is when it is time to pull back with all you got and set the hook. The set is real important, because we were using a stand-up jig, and it has a brush weed guard right above the hook tip. If you do not have a strong set, you will lose the fish (I discovered that early on using these jigs)
Rob and I both had a real good day. If I can recall, both of us caught around 5-10 fish each (higher if you count the "misses").
I cannot say enough about Chompers Hula-grubs and stand-up jigs. I fished Lake of the Ozarks earlier in the year and caught (2) 5# bass using this same set up. I have found this is a great way to approach bass in Spring and fall. I have also had an incredible amount of good fortune using this set up fishing for smallies in small rivers.
Spring is just around the corner!

Good Fishing! MLT

You can wait until spring- or you can catch fish now!

What a great day of fishing at Busch Wildlife CA in St. Charles County, Missouri!
I am incredibly thankful that all of the lakes are now unfrozen- they had been ice covered for almost a month!
Take a look at the photo- the large trout on the stringer to the right measured out at 16". This is the highest water level on this lake in about 2 years (should be a good spawn this spring!)
Caught them like I have caught them all winter- 1/4 copper colored "Super Duper" and Silver/Lime green Lil Cleo Spoon- (2) 7' spinning reels with 4# test.
Here is something I found interesting about today's fishing. The first fish hit real close to shore (strike was around 2' from the shoreline. This got me thinking that the back of the lake (the more shallow portion) would be the best place (opposed to right on the dam). Once I found them, I caught my limit in less than an hour. They were shallow and up in structure (thankfully, I only lost one spoon). It was real windy and cold (at one point, it started to sleet fairly heavy). Temperature about 38 f. Water temperature was probably close to the air temp.
You can wait until spring- or you can catch them now!

MLT

Best of 2006- Fishing the James River for Smallies

Imagine this- it is summer time, 90 degrees and very humid. Not always the best for other types of fishing, but my favorite weather to fish for Smallies. The photos are the largest smallmouth I caught that day- around 15" in length. We caught this a couple of hours into our float on the James River on the east side of Springfield, MO. (before you get to Lake Springfield).
My friend, Kevin Hanks, and I grabbed a canoe and some cold ones and headed upstream, with the intent to float down. This is an interesting river. From first sight, it appears to be "dirty", but looking closer, it is a very healthy river- it just does not look like most ozark rivers. This is probably due to the fact that there are not many springs that feed this river- it does have the same rocky bottom, however, that most ozark streams and rivers have. There are some HUGE common carps in some of the deep pools upstream- very impressive!














I was using a bait cast rod and 10# Red Cajun Line, Stand up Jig and Orange/Brown hula grub (Chomper). I have a lot of friends that approach waters like this with ultra lights, and I can imagine that would be a lot of fun as well, but I really dig using heavier gear (especially with all the cover- look at the front of the canoe- that is where this smallie came out of)
We absolutly tore it up on this day- I caught around 15 smallmouths, a couple of large mouths (none of any real size), and some rock bass. We caught so many fish, my elbow was sore the next day- absolutly increadable.
Here is why I am writing this article- when all the lakes are frozen, and the fishing is real lean, it is nice to think about what is to come in 2007!

MLT

Busch Wildlife stocker trout- success!

Just a photo of a trout taken last weekend- caught it on a silver "Super Duper". fished all day, weather pattern was moving in so had to deal with some rain.
Most of the bait people were not catching a lot either, so I did not feel as bad. I am starting to figure this "stocker trout" thing out- you need to fish the lakes within a week of stocking if you want to catch a large number of trout.
However, I will say this- I like the challenge of catching trout when the fishing is not as "easy". When you are throwing artificials, it teaches you to do a better job of selecting quicker and more efficient. Kind of like fly fishing, almost a "match the hatch" concept. The weather has been so bad here, it has been over a week since I have fished. Hopefully we can change that real soon!

MLT

Roubideaux Creek- Are there any trout? Not in the spring!

This is a photo of Roubideaux Spring in Pulaski County, Missouri. If you are familiar with Hwy 44, it is right off 44 in Waynesville, which is very close to Ft. Leonard Wood. I got a chance the other day to fish this spot on the way down to Springfield. You know, it is interesting- the temperature was around 50 degrees, and I parked by the spring and walked down to fish it. I visited this spot this summer, and the actual spring had a ton of trout in it. It has a platform sidewalk that you can actually look right into the spring (this is one of the top diving cave/springs as well, so the access is good). Well, I took a look- not a trout visable, so I walked down to were the spring hits the creek and fished the structure- my usual favorites, Super Dupers, Little Cleo's and Rooster Tails- not bad structure- had some trees in the creek and deep holes- not a bite. I brought my waders and probably should have "gotten in the drink" and fished it a little more extensively. Time was short, so I decided to go hit another part of the creek.

Check out the photo of the ducks. I need to find out what type of ducks these are. I was smallmouth fishing this summer down on the James River, near Springfield, and we came across some of these ducks. They have quite the "personality". It appears people come to the park and feed these ducks.

I drove north of Waynesville and fished the area close to where the creek enters the Gasconade River. Once again, tons of structure- caught (3) very small rock bass on white rooster tails. Makes me think- I bet there are a ton of smallmouth there in the summer- I will have to check that out.

Later

MLT

Cooking and Smoking fresh trout- very good!

Happy New Year everyone! If you look back a couple of blogs ago, you noticed that we had a good couple of days worth of trout fishing and a whole stringer of fish- now to cook them! We now have a new holiday tradition for the new year- smoked trout! The photo next to the text is my brother-in-law, Charlie Hankins. I caught them, and he cooked them- my compliments to the chef- they were awesome.

I think it is important to note how they were cleaned before we start with how we cooked them. I learned how to clean trout down at Roaring River State Park, in Southern Missouri quite a while ago. It was my first time trout fishing, and I really did not know how to clean them. I have friends who like to leave the head and skin in place (in certain trout areas, you will need to leave the stream area with the fished cleaned as such). I had a gentleman from Arkansas show me how to do it- he cut the bottom of the fish from the head to the back. You then remove the cuts, snap the head back, and use your thumb to clean out the mudline along the spine, and while pulling the trout head back, use your thumb to seperate the skin from meat. Once that is done, get a towel to hold the "meat section" and pull down on the head and skin- like peeling a banana- very easy!

I keep them in freezer bags, fill the bag with water, and drop in the freezer- ready for whenever you would like.

Charlie had a smoker-BBQ set up (I had a photo, but it was to dark to display). He cut the trout into two pieces following the cut along the spine. Once the trout were "halved", he put lemon pepper dry rub and a cajun rub (had some cayenne pepper in it). It was interesting because when I cook trout in foil, I use a lot of butter and such, but when you smoke, you really do not want to use this on the trout. The charcoal was spread out once it was white, and a tub with 1/2 water and 1/2 white wine. the trout were placed directly on the grill, and mesquite and hickory chips that had been soaked in water were added to the grill. We smoked them for about 2 1/2 hours- meat fell right off the bone and the taste was incredible!

Last thought: as much as I enjoyed the trout, and the harvesting of the trout, I enjoy the pricipals of selective harvest- which means out of all the fish I caught this year, I probably released about 2/3 of them- keep our resources pure for the next generation.

To Our Success,

Mike