Fishing reports on the web for MO lakes?

[powerdive]

Anybody want to give 'em up? I haven't found anything for Stockton. These are all I know of...

Bull Shoals:
http://ozarkanglers.com/reports/bs.php
http://www.wildernesstrail.com/

Norfork:
http://www.ozarkmtns.com/fishing/reports/norfork/

[reelxtc]

Here's a couple for Stockton:

http://www.mwbt.com/stocktonfishreports.htm

http://www.mwaacentral.org/report.html


And here's the Missouri Conservation Commission report, where you can sign up for the weekly fishing report via email:

http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/fish/fishrt/

[powerdive]

Thanks--hadn't seen the mwbt site.

How about Truman, LOZ, Pomme? Anything that covers walleyes in those lakes?

[coyotewhacker]

PD....if you want to go walleye fishing up in my neck of the woods, just say so. I will be back from Nebraska before the end of the month, and once the Stockton tournament is over, I would be pleased to show you around my home waters.
There are several areas that have potential for walleyes on Pomme, and I need somebody along with me who is considerably more experienced than myself at this trolling thing. Have boat, will travel.

[powerdive]

We'll do it! Always wondered about Pomme, and for me it's really no further away than Stockton.

[coyotewhacker]

Take a look at your Pomme map and find Lightfoot Park about halfway up the Pomme arm on the west side of the lake. Now, look slightly to the north and across the lake on the east shore..the river channel swings over against the bank making a long bluff with a nice flat on either side of the bluff. Interesting looking water, eh? Based on something that Steve Fellegy passed on to me, I think that spot and others like it have the most potential for walleyes in Pomme. We will find out, mon frere'. Pomme is a really pretty piece of water, is not all that big, and supports a real nice fishery. Being a bit removed from the bigger towns, and being on the small side, it does not get the heavy boat traffic that the more southern lakes get, and Truman intercepts a lot of the fishing pressure from the north. I kinda like it that way. It is not unusual to go up on a weekday and see three or four boats all day long.
Then there is that muskie thing, too. CW would like to tangle with just one someday. A big one....with long, sharp teeth. Take its picture and let it go.....as long as it promised to not eat walleyes in the future.
.........muskies lie, don't they?

[Ozark]

CW - I had ahold of a muskie once on Pomme - or it had ahold of me for about 5 seconds.

I was catching crappie out of flooded trees, and while I was bringing one in, something took the CRAPPIE. It wasn't a small crappie, either.

If you want to duplicate the experience, just tie 6 lb. test and a crappie rig to the back bumper of a pickup truck and have someone floor the gas pedal. It had to be a muskie - no bass or catfish in the world was ever that fast and strong.


I'd fish for muskies up there, but MDC says it takes a fisherman an average of 48 hours between muskie bites. I'm just barely patient enough to catch walleyes, so there's no use trying something that's even harder.

[coyotewhacker]

Sam...I was fishing in the Lindley arm last year with Billy, and I had just caught the first "meanmouth" I had ever seen, or even heard of at the time. We were both fishing with fairly light gear, so that was something of a fight. Billy had on a plastic bait of some kind, probably a salt craw, and had retrieved it almost back to the boat when the whole world exploded about 6 feet from where I was sitting....a muskie about 3 feet long hit that lure on top and I almost fell out of my pedestal chair in the front of the boat. Billy had virtually no line to play the fish, and we were in a lot of standing timber, so the outcome was pretty well set from the git-go, but he and that muskie had a great fight for several seconds. I think both of us were close to cardiac arrest from all the excitement.
You do know that there is a muskie lake pretty close to you, don't you? There are some pretty fair trophy size muskies in Fellows Lake, just north of Springfield. The lake has a 40 hp limit on outboard engines, but it's so small that you can get from one end to the other in a jon boat with a 5 hp outboard in just a few minutes.
48 man hours per muskie hit is probably a very generous estimate....lots of guys fish for months and never even get a follow. Kinda like some of us walleye "fishermen".......
Observe that I used the term "us" and not "you guys".
I have a sneaky feeling that many of the muskies caught in Pomme de Terre are accidental hookups by bass fishermen using big crankbaits or big spinner baits. I did see two guys in a small aluminum boat trolling with a 5 hp outboard catch a small (24" or so) tiger muskie out over a shallow flat. I think they were after white bass. They didn't have a clue what it was.They kept it out of the water so long hung on a De-Liar that it probably died after they finally put it back in the water.

[reelxtc]

I'd be up for a muske trip to Pomme. I've invested in everything needed for spoonpluggin'. The other fisherman look at me like I'm crazy when I troll by at 4-5 MPH, but it produces Musky (and big bass). Three nice ones in a hour up in the land of cheese.

[coyotewhacker]

We can probably make that happen. The muskie fishermen that I have talked to tell me that fall is the time to get on a big muskie in Pomme, so mark your calendar and we'll git 'er done.

[powerdive]

XTC - Trolling's illegal on "Class A" musky lakes in Wisconsin. So you must have been on some lesser body of water--which makes "3 in an hour" all the more impressive. Speed kills!

So what's the fastest you'd troll for walleyes?

[reelxtc]

PD,

I've trolled for walleyes at 3-3.5 MPH.

Haven't caught any walleyes spoonpluggin'. We were on a smaller body of water in Wisconsin, about an hour from Hudson where I used to live. We had been catching Northerns, then a front moved in and the pike quit and the Muskies went crazy.

[powerdive]

Really! You used to live there? Getting to be an awful lot of ex-cheesers and Vi-queen fans around these parts.......

[Tablerock]

ReelXTC... I'm an old Spoonplugger...!! I even have an honest to goodness "Buck Perry Trolling Rod" complete with a Penn 109 MF reel spooled with wire line. I have another 109 MF spooled with No-Bo trolling line. I still have a bunch of spoonplugs around here somewhere. Ahhh, the memory's. We used to catch a bunch of fish back in the flatlands years ago with that gear.

[powerdive]

Wow, TR, you ARE an old fart! Since we lived in SE Wisconsin, we used to make the trek to Menominee Falls (suburb of Milwaukee) every couple months to shop at the Northwoods Trading Post (Fishing Facts) store. That was back before Bass Pro and Cabela's retail, and was probably the idea they both built off. There were mounts on the walls, lodge-type fixtures, a trout stream running through the store--and of course, all the people and gear you saw in the magazine every month (George Pazik, Carl Malz, Spence Petros, etc.). I had an 8.5' Eagle Claw trolling rod with a Penn 209MF reel spooled with wire line. Believe it or not, that fiberglass rod snapped in two while setting the hook on an 8.5-pound northern (had to handline it in).

Ahhh, simpler days!