I hope you do man, find some help to buy you a little time here and there if possible...

You're heading the wrong direction for good fishing my friend. :)

But yeah, Illinois is a shit hole of a state for fishing.

Caught some awesome Bgills yesterday, got em all ready to fry...The Missus is crazy for fish of any kind, gonna do up some french fries as well and we have some slaw....gonna be a wild week headed to Nebraska to Turkey Hunt with ****ing 40 degree weather and the usual Nebraska wind plus rain.....gotta love fresh caught fish.

Leaving the shithole of Illinois for a week at Lake of the Ozarks near the route 5 bridge at Sunset beach area. Wanna try some crappie and bass fishing while there - I do not consider myself an angler by any means. However, I have read a few fishing reports and have obtained some appropriate jigs and lures that have been working. That being said, is spawning still active and are there areas to consider within reach of a rental fishing boat that would pay dividends? I know the home we are renting is known for spawning crappie, so the best fishing may be at dockside, but won't mind running around by boat to try our luck. I will appreciate opinions, but I realize that most of CP posters are assholes so will consider the source - much like a fart.

LMAO

Is there anyone in the state of Illinois that actually enjoys living there?

Just go and figure it out when you get there

Swing by and pick me up. I'll guide for free.

Honestly, and especially if you're not a fisherman, I would see if there's a lake of the Ozarks bulletin board and see if they have a guide/charter section. Check some reviews of their services and give them a call. They'll put you on fish quickly (unless weather doesn't cooperate) and will usually give you some tips on what to fish and how to fish when you're solo.

I don't know what a charter/guide would cost in the LOOs area, but it's probably not that different from here, which means something around $250-350 for the day. Some may offer half-day charters, which would probably be about 60% of a full day.

In other words, pretty cheap insurance against getting skunked for the weekend.

So I asked around and this guy (Jack) was the unanimous choice:

https://www.fishinglakeoftheozarks.com/

Hope that helps.

crappie dot com. Then Missouri...then LOZ report. I would copy the link, but my newb status will not allow.

Usually good utd info on this site....good luck!

I was at Current River last Monday and Tuesday. Monday was pretty "meh" in the fly-only area. I took 5 (one on a yellow squirminator, 4 on green mohair leech). Tuesday I hit up the blue ribbon stretch right outside of the park, where I caught about 30. The green mohair leech was working again, as was a cream mop fly and a sz 14 chamois worm. I didn't get into anything big...all of the fish were 12-14 inch rainbow stockers.

We stopped in Branson Wednesday night and Thursday, but Taneycomo was blown out as they had a LOT of water coming out of the dam. It was not fishable, so I'll just hit it next time.

Thanks to all for info'.

Did I mention Illinois sucks? Shot 2 armadillos last September for owner of rental home. They were so happy they took us across the lake to Larry's for dinner. Do that in Illinois and you're in prison.:shake:

Lake Texoma

Those are some yuge stripers :clap:

It’s been a tough weekend here so far, barely able to even get the bluegill to bite... not sure what the problem is

Maybe all the rain and flooding making fishing hard. Texoma was 9 feet over normal and most of the secondary boat ramps were closed. I was there 9 days and was only able to get out to the main lake 2 days due to wind. My little 18 ft Bass boat isn't made for 4 and 5 foot swells. we set 26 jug lines and caught 4 catfish but lost 4 lines because they were drug out to sea by some huge creature.

Had to do a lot of dock fishing and caught a lot of 3-8 pound cats but didn't capture any pic's. The dock there where all the guides come in and clean the fish produces a LOT of 30-60 pound Blue Cats but we didn't get one.

I did hook a gar about 6 feet long but lost him at the boat. He's lucky because I was gonna beat the hell out of him with my ball bat.