It is ashame! They get money from EVERY dollar spent and then shut down something that helps fisherman to decide where to go fishing!
I was disappointed today when MDC sent out notice they would not be sending the weekly fishing reports this year. Where do you guys get your fishing reports? I fish LOZ for crappie, Mark Twain for crappie, whites and walleye, and the two big rivers around STL for cats. Although those reports were somewhat General I enjoyed having all the info in one location and it gave me ideas for new bodies of water to fish. Thanks everyone.
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It is ashame! They get money from EVERY dollar spent and then shut down something that helps fisherman to decide where to go fishing!
Sad to hear that but I only real care about the population studies.
For weekly reports I use bait shops.
Speck LIKED above post
That's mostly what those e-mails used as well, which is why some of the lakes had awesome, detailed reports and others had "All Species Slow". I know (at least I think I heard this once?) that Burton provided the Smithville report. Probably now that he is closed they shut the whole program down?! LOL
Seriously, though...I still received all the emails but I never used 'em anymore cuz they weren't accurate. Get fresher, more detailed, more accurate info from this site IMO.
Is Burton still guiding?
For MT I check the South Fork web site. They do fishing reports. For rivers we just check river levels to see were it is.
After the guy who did the MDC weekly report retired it changed. A lot of the new guy's reports had a little info and said see a Facebook page for the area for more.
I do not do Facebook, never will.
But I always liked the MDC report before that. You need as much info as possible and it is good to compare.
Bottom line is the report is only as good as the source.
I'll smoke just about anything (in my smoker)
The fishing is always great. The catching varies.
I get mine here and from c.c friends. I am not a facebooker either but I hear it has a lot of reports.
It really comes down to what lake you go to for most of us. My trips have little to do with reports of the fish bitting better or worse on any given week at any given lake. If I feel like going fishing I go but where I go may be slightly influenced by weekly reports. The annual reports on the other hand are "scientific" surveys. They are useful in determining which species to target more than anything else.
I think if you want good reports building up a network of contacts is your best bet. Those could include making friends with bait shop employees. I'm sure Facebook could be a useful tool but I will not use it.
My observation is that most of the guys here can catch fish when the reports indicate conditions are not optimal. They also seem to go whenever they can not when catching fish is easy. That makes the reports something like sports reporting. Die hard fans don't stop supporting their their teams or going to games because the reports are discouraging.