smithville

[Miller]

Has anyone hit smithville lately? I was there this weekend for a short while and caught just a few but, have you all done any good?

[ShortStorie]

Fished from noon until 7pm today... caught a couple of small fish below hwy W... both were 4-6' down in 8-10' of water (timber on creek edges). 3 boats on the timber at the edge of the main lake. Everyone catching small fish 6-12feet deep. Motored across the lake to Shady Hollow cove. No luck. 3 other boats but no fish going into them. Wind came up and I headed up lake.

What a difference! Like another lake. Water temps 4-5 degrees higher. Not much action until about 5:30pm... caught one keeper then started watching the othe boats. A couple in a jon boat 20yards from me had it figured... They tied up on timber at the edge of a 9' channel... 3 lines deep, three toward shore... minnows under a float. They had 15+ keepers in an hour and a half... still catching when I left. Said about equal number from shore and from the creek edge... The next boat had a couple of guys that had been out for several hours casting jigs to the bank... Heard the electric knife whirring ... Said they had a dozen keepers. (Didn't say anything about not cleaning the fish while on the lake... It's a no-no)... The 3rd boat had a happy guy... only 2 crappie but one of them was 15"! Me... one keeper and half dozen dinks.. Better observer than fisherman...

Learned a new trick for tying up to stumps... One guy had a 6' length of 2" PVC pipe with a mooring rope threaded through and back... Loop at the end.
He would hold the pipe over the stump, lower it so that the loop was around it and pull the loop tight.. like a snare. Fastened the other end to the boat so it didn't blow against the stump.... Cool... Think I'll try one.

How shallow? Heard one guy yell to another boat "about 8" down, a foot from the bank"

[bmoffitt30]

Shorestorie, how far north were you when you say you headed up the lake? I fished with a buddy yesterday for about 5 hours. Caught about 10 dinks in Rock Creek Cove (just north of W bridge on the west side). Decided to try the river and launch at the free ramp. HUGE MISTAKE! I bent my prop all up on my motor trying to reverse away from the bank. I thought I was in deep enough water but hit a rock. Then while trolling, I busted my trolling motor prop on a stump! 2 busted props in less than an hour! And we didn't catch any fish. Are the whites still in the river? There were about 5 trailers at the ramp but never saw a boat on the water. I believe they all head towards the lake and we didn't make it that far with the bent prop. I can't get the boat fixed until next week. I am afraid I will be missing the best weekend of the year.

PS. Talked to a couple of guys who are afraid that the females have already been in the shallows and did their business and they are not coming back due to the warm weather we had a few weeks ago. I hope they are wrong.

[ShortStorie]

I was a mile or two below the free ramp. A couple of boats came downstream from the free ramp. With the lake still a little low (seems lower than the Corps says) I would definitely use the trolling motor finding my way from the free ramp. Better yet, follow someone familiar with the area. There is a very shallow flat just north of the area I was fishing... the river spreads and the channel is narrow. Sorry about the prop... I put a ding in a stainless prop last year... but ya gotta go where the fish are. I take my prop to Midwest Propeller... Waaay out in Olathe.. but that's where all the shops send them ... worth the drive if you have the time to drop it off and pick it up... save you three or four days getting it back. I saw keeper females being taken. I mentioned the guy who caught the 15 incher but forgot to say the couple who was doing so well said they had caught a 15 incher the previous day.
These warm days will definitely get a lot of fish on the beds but the spawn usually moves downstream so there should still be shallow action next weekend... maybe farther south. Tough year to find them with the weather we've had.

[MoSam]

I was out Monday for a couple of hours and ended up with only 6 keepers, and a whole bunch of small fish. One thing I have noticed is that we have a whole bunch of 8 1/2 inch fish in the lake which is good for years to come! All my fish were caught in 10 feet of water and the fish were suspended at around 6 feet near wood. Next week should be hot, but then again I have been saying that for three weeks!

Short Storie -- make yourself two of those poles one for the front and one for the back of the boat, they come in really handy. I can take a picture of the ones i made if you would like to see what they look like and materials used.

[ShortStorie]

MoSam ... Please post a pic... I'd like to see how those "mooring poles" are made. (Or should we call them "stump snares"?).

Seems like we've got a pattern... They're either 6-8' down on wood or on the bank. If you can find a spot where a channel swings within casting distance of a gravel or chunk rock bank you'd have the bases covered. (Sounds good, anyway)

[cook]

Bmoffit-sorry about the prop.
If you stand on the ramp,at the waters edge,facing the lake,there is a old tree stump about 10 feet out between the ramp and that steep bank to the left.
One winter when the water was low,I attached a old ATV flag to it for when the water rose again.Well,that lasted about 3 days

This has been one of my worst springs yet in this area.I also go to Fl. every year,and had the same bad luck this time.I assumed it was because of the hurricanes-but now I think I just have fish cooties.

Oh,well,there is always next week!!

[bmoffitt30]

That stump is what I hit I would assume. I guess that is part of fishing. I will no better for next time.

[rls1936]

Mooring pole - This is a re-post from ozarkanglers.com

I mentioned this on Phil's new crappie thread and thought some of you might be interested in this idea. We used them 30 years ago where I grew up fishing and it's not my invention but everyone who has seen it around here thinks it's a pretty slick idea. It's a great way to tie up to standing timber when you are deep fishing for crappie against the wood. Advantages include it's fast, you can glide in and tie up without bumping into the treetop and spooking fish, it will hold your boat a few feet away where you can easily fish all around the tree, you can tie to underwater trees and it's cheap, maybe 5$ if you have to buy everything.

1) Cut a length of 3/4" PVC to whatever length you want. This one is 6 1/2 feet but anything over 4 will work. I'd cut it to whatever length you think you can easily stow in rod box or on deck of your boat.

2) Drill holes in 2 end caps foer the rope to slide through. Make the rope fit snug.

3) Drill hole in PVC an inch where one end cap will end up.

4) Insert a piece of rope twice as long as the pole into hole you drilled in the hole and thread it out the near end. You might tie a knot in the rope to keep it from slipping back out but with the rope I use the knot ends up too big. Instead melt the end of the rope into a fat blob and flatten it out a bit. Once it hardens ot will not pull back through if you have drilled a snug hole. Make sure you use a sinking rope if you want to lash on to underwater trees. The rope I use is the colored stuff like rock-climbers use.

5) Thread the other end of the rope through the top of one end cap, down the length of the tube, and through the other end cap.

6) Glue the end caps on.

7) Tie a knot on the end of the rope.

8) In the picture you will notice a pink girl's hair tie on the business end of the pole. You can tuck the knot of the tag end of the rope under this to secure it when not in use.

To use it just pull out a noose on the end, snag the tree or a branch of the tree you want to tie up to, cinch it up tight, and tie off the loose end of the rope to your boat. I just make some turns around the top of my trolling motor which works fine.

I am sure it took longer to type this than it does to make one and you might find it a handy addition to your fishing gear.

[ShortStorie]

Good instructions... even I can follow them
Picture?