Fishing Journal Entry 15 - Lake of the Ozarks Truman Dam Public Access

7/23/2016

Today I took the family fishing at one of my favorite places - Lake of the Ozarks public access area below the Truman Dam.  The weather was extremely hot with a temperature of 98 degrees.

Emilee with a crappie

The wind was blowing off and on at about eight miles per hour.  The skies were clear to partly cloudy throughout the day.  Unfortunately I forgot to record the barometric pressure on this trip.

Cody with a sunfish

Having spent the entire day from noon until 11:30 at night fishing from a dock I achieved sunburned status.  We fished with all types of bait including minnows, gizzards, shrimp, night crawlers, and cut bait.

Even the baby catfish were hungry!

We managed to catch fish on everything except the chicken gizzards.  Although the fish were biting fairly steadily we didn't catch any giants.  

Some of the fish caught below the Truman Dam

The crappie were biting like crazy at a depth of about 12 feet with the biggest crappie of the day measuring eleven inches long.  

Some of the crappie caught throughout the day

We caught several catfish throughout the day. Although many were small, they were still fun to catch.

Another small catfish

I was unable to keep track of the total fish count on this trip, but we caught a lot of them!

Cody with another fish

Although we didn't catch any big fish on this trip the whole family had a blast.  In my book that's what makes any outdoor experience a successful one!

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day

Fishing Journal Entry 14 - The Turtles Win

7/22/16

Today I took my son along with a friend and his son to a small fishing pond to enjoy some fishing and relaxing.  We had a great time talking and catching fish.

A view of the pond

Having fished in many other places recently, I decided it was time to return to this beautiful pond to see how the fishing would be in the middle of the summer.

2nd view of the pond

There was an enormous amount of aquatic vegetation growing in the pond which brought with it some fishing challenges, but we were able to cope with the situation.

Another view of the pond

The weather was extremely hot with a temperature approaching 100 degrees.  The barometric pressure was 30.00 with a UV index of 9!

Catfish

The wind was blowing at twelve to fifteen miles per hour.

Largemouth Bass

We caught three decent bass.  They were just shy of being keepers.

First Crappie

We caught three crappie.

Channel Catfish

We caught six catfish.  Most were big enough to filet, but we released them all so they could get bigger.

Catfish

We used minnows, night crawlers and even some stink bait to catch these fish.

A couple of the catfish were rather small, but a fish is a fish.....right?

Catfish

As the crappie started biting I began placing them on a stringer.  Upon catching the third crappie I pulled the stringer from the water to find that the first two had been mutilated by turtles.  One was completely gone except for its lips and some of the skin around its facial area.  The other had about one half of one side destroyed.  Once I saw this, I decided we wouldn't be attempting to keep any more fish.  It is better to catch and release than to feed the turtles. 

One of many turtles

In all we caught twelve fish and two turtles, but in the end.....the turtles won.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day (even when the turtles are stealing your fish)