Nice Getaway!

Well, Zim and I took a rare little spring vacation. We left on Thursday for a spring crappie fishing weekend in Missouri and drove back home today. We left all of our stuff behind and went with a guide for three days. We fished for three straight days without watching any news at all! We even ate out at a local restaurant there. What a treat!


We fished at Mark Twain Lake, which is a brand new place to us. You can see on the shoreline where the high and low water level difference can be 30 feet, depending on the time of year and rainfall. There are even high and low piers on the boat ramps for launching boats depending on the lake level at the time.



They also have more vultures than we do at home. This is a vulture party on shore.


The dam is the Clarence Cannon Dam built in or around 1962.


We caught our limit of crappies and took home our possession limit, which was twice the daily bag limit of 15 crappies each, so 60 crappies in the freezer. Yes! The biggest ones went as big as 15” and 1.75lbs. Those are some nice crappies! Normally they would be in shallow on banks around this time, but the warm weather is running a bit late this year. They obviously had not spawned yet, so we had to find them in deeper water off shore, but what a blast!




And in the process, we got a 15.1 lb. 31” flathead catfish which made for some nice fat fillets too! Besides the crappie fishing maniacs, people set trotlines for catfish all over the lake, but I guess it’s not too common to land one on a 10 foot crappie pole with a crappie jig without breaking something. That was fun!!!



Our guide, Kenny Wilkenson, has about $60,000 worth of Ranger bass boat rigged purely for crappie fishing with a 250 HP Yamaha motor and power poles in the back, and connections for spider rigging poles in the front. The newest toy is a Garmin Livescope that shows a live sonar view in front of the boat, so you can watch the fish swimming or hanging in the timber and literally lower your bait or jigs right into them. Too funny. That was new to us! In addition to the timber everywhere, the locals have lots of brush piles they weight and sink around the lake to hold crappies.



In the photo above, you see sunken timber and a crappie 9.5 feet down in about the center of the screen (which is 8 feet out in front of the transducer for the trolling motor). On the Livescope, you would see him swimming around in view. You can make out the shape of the crappies compared to the catfish swimming around. That’s about $3,000 worth of fun right there.

We now have a pile of crappies and one catfish in the freezer. We met some really nice folks down there, and everyone was having a good time. We could see the difference with the world turning green and leaves and blossoms on trees as we drove south on Thursday. They are a few weeks ahead of us. We can now look forward to spring here!

That was a nice break!

Nice!! Glad you 2 had fun and caught some fish.

Great pics,looks like you guys had a great time and stocked up the freezer at the same time.

Them garmin live scopes are amazing aren't they. Glad you got down this way for a break. Nice bunch of specks.

Jealous, I am! Looks like a lot of fun this time of year.

Chris

Outstanding I am happy for the two of you.

Looks like a blast !

Way to go.Nice catches and pictures.

Thanks, Flipper! Boy, we needed that.

We sure did, Boco. The catfish was a nice bonus for the freezer too!

Thanks, WT! The Livescopes are amazing. I had never seen one in use. What a toy!

That was fun, Chris! Hang in there. It will be spring there eventually!

Thank you, Leftlane!

It sure was, Nessy! Great time out on the watah!

Thanks, Bruce!

You were within an hour of my house.i fish Mark Twain a lot. This weekend, we were at Truman lake putting the slabs in the livewell! Glad you two had a good lil getaway!

Great times is great memories

Wow, Gary! That really makes sense because there are nothing but nice people like you there! I hope you had a great weekend too!

You got that right, Rags!

Hey there Chickie ! I knew you two were having much deserved fun ! So happy to see the results and your gorgeous smile says volumes !

What a fantastic passel of fish !

It is nice to be taken care of on vacation, once in a while. I know it was as fun for your guide as it was for you and Zim.

Good for you in traveling ...after all, last I read, this IS a free country " You don't need papers to travel from state to state ? " Hunt for Red October ....

Im so happy for you. You both deserve life, happiness and fun times amidst your work.

It will be my turn next, planning mine asap

Thank you for sharing with the Tribe . Hug those feathered peanuts for me .

Incredible. That sounds line a great trip. I'm glad you 2 had a great time. Thanks for sharing

Thank you, Sharon! It really felt like a free country for a few days there. It's nice to be home too, and the girls were glad to see us. They started carrying on from their run when we pulled down the driveway. Too funny! They would have gone fishing with us if they could. I'll check in this week and see what you're up to.

Thanks, Adam. We needed it!

Well done you two.. Congrats..

Looks like a great time. Interesting terrain and habit in that area.

Thanks, Dewey!

It was, Snowy. It was nice to see the world a bit greener than it is at home right now too!

Awesome pics, Those sure are some Fattys, I can only imagine the fight that flathead was on a crappie pole.

Thanks for sharing the nice photos! Beautiful fish!

So happy to see that you guys got crappies, crappies, crappies, crappies, crappies, crappies, and some big ones too! You will have many great meals out of those. Congratulations on a great trip.
The crappie fishing has been phenomenal here as well.....ate them 6 nights in a row and am ready for another kind of fish now.

Thanks, Pinedoggin. I really thought I would just get that catfish up to the surface for a photo of his face, but then as soon as he got a look at us he made other plans and the fight was on! That was a lot of fun. We weren't sure he wouldn't just break off or straighten the hook before it was over!

Thank you, Trapper7!

Thanks, MnMan! You know how badly I had crappies on my mind!
Crappies Crappies Crappies Crappies Crappies Crappies Crappies Crappies Crappies Crappies Crappies
It feels so good to have those in the freezer right now.
Sounds like you've had your share! What is your next fishing pursuit going to be?

Id love to take My Wife there! Looks Awesome!

Very nice !

You'd have a great time, 330!

Thanks, Upstate!

Patrice, we are going Saturday am. I am taking my 79 yr old father, and this will be his first time in my new boat. My dad is not a fishing nutjob, like my son and I. My son is also taking his boat, which is my old boat, so we are gonna swarm all over those crappies! Lol

Walleyes, there are a couple of spots close to the house where I usually get a few on opener.

Nice that you got chance to unplug and just fish.. Looks like was pretty good fun..


Mac

Good luck on Saturday, Gary! I hope you guys fill that boat!

MnMan ... Walleyes Walleyes Walleyes Walleyes Walleyes Walleyes Walleyes Walleyes Walleyes (Easy transition!)

Thanks, Mark! It definitely was a good time.

Daggumit now I am hungry again. Breakfast tacos seemed fine until you repeated the word walleyes again and again

Nice !!!!

HA! Sorry, Leftlane! I'm thinking of walleye tacos now!

Thanks, AntiGov!

That’s some nice looking Crappies!!

Thank you for sharing. Looks a lot of fun.
Mac

Yall are gonna make me fat (ok fatter LOL).
I think you and Zim have fabulous ideas I hope I get to shake your hands someday