OutdoorMissouri.com

Launched out about 6 am Monday morning. It was windy, but not all that bad. Weather said 10-20. Long story made short:
BB and I caught about a dozen largemouths, all small. He also caught two whites while we were harrassing a couple of pods of carp on top. We found one bank with walleyes, and the final tally on them was (I believe) about six each. They were on the small side, averaging around a foot long, but they were hitting crawfish colored crankbaits with a vengeance. The bass came primarily on salt craws in motor oil and watermelon color. We fished out of my boat, and BB was on me all day about positioning the boat too close to the bank. He was absolutely right, though. The fish are in ten feet or more with only the little guys up close to the bank in skinny water. Old Louisiana habits die hard. BTW, if anyone is contemplating a new trolling motor, this was the first real test of my new MinnKota AT 65 with the Cabela's brand sticker on it. It does exactly what they say it will do, and then some. I knew it had the power, but was wondering what the battery life would be. With a pair of fairly new WalMart big yellow 135 amp hour batteries, we fished in windy conditions all day from 6am to 3pm, and when I hooked up the charger last night, they had used up half the power.
Outstanding performance on a big glass boat. The motor has five speeds, and I never had to go above the 3 notch, even into the wind.

Nice report CW.... At least you guys are going. I haven't been out since Sunday and that was a very short trip.
Glad the T-Motor works well.....

Yeah, what he said!!!

Well, howdy, boys. Hey Mike...got your latest effort in the mail today. Looks like your boss has an on-board charger at a good price. Will have to get down and take a closer look at it. That fishing partner of mine needs a new name....I think it will be Rosanna Rosanna Danna. It's always this or always that, or always something. Just goes to show you.

He's been pretty busy with his annual garage sale, but that's over now, and hopefully we can get out between the rounds of thunderstorms. I was really concerned about how the boat would perform, but she came through like a champ. The bass were just not where we expected them to be. The ones we caught were all in ten feet or more of water. I caught one keeper size on a spinner bait, but it came up from about that depth and took it near the boat. Billy had a lot of hits from little dinks, but most of them were too small to inhale the plastic baits. We got on the little walleyes on the south bank...wait...let me get oriented here. Stockton just blows away my sense of north-south, so I have to figure out which bank we were on....OK...the right hand bank of Price Branch as you go in...the one with the steep bluff about halfway back...was where we got the large number of small walleyes. They were jumping all over crawfish crankbaits. One time I hooked one, Billy threw in right behind me, and we doubled up. The only "complaint" I had was that I wished they had been a couple of inches longer. Then we would have been into some filets instead of throwbacks. Still, it was fun and we got some sun and fresh air. We found a school of whites that were hanging out with the carp out in the middle of that cove. We went in on the left bank trying for a small mouth and worked all the way to the back where it gets much narrower. There were several groups of carp rolling around on top, so I worked the boat closer so BB could try to snag one with a jig. He made several casts and came back with big scales, but never hooked up. He did catch a couple of white bass on the retrieves, though. I kept following the rolling carp, and that's how we ended up on the walleye bank. What a plan, eh?

BB keeps making noise about a trip to Table Rock, so we may run into ya down that way, Marty. I was just getting used to weak ice tea color water, and now he wants to put me on gin clear water.....probably want to use 4 lb test line and fish in 60 feet of that glass clear stuff...it's a good thing I'm going back to Louisiana next month and get back on some "real" water that you can pick up and hold in your hand. Along with a rich yellow-brown color, it also has the occasional alligator and a cotton mouth or two. Now that's what makes a fishing trip exciting....Joe Bob Briggs rules apply on a Louisiana fishing trip: "Anybody can die at any time." For those who do not know who Joe Bob is, he was the drive in movie critic for the Dallas Times, and reviewed only horror flics. He had his own tv show on TBS for a while. For those who DO know who Joe Bob is, he's my kind of guy!

CW not all is clear on TR.