Andy C

Missouri Smallmouth Alliance is membership based and is mostly for the St Louis area. Dan Kreher and Matt Wier run that one. Ozarks smallmouth alliance is based out of the Springfield area.

There aren't enough officers available to enforce the rules as it is. I've been on lakes in southern Illinois that allow larger motors to run at idle/no wake (very subjective and no one follows those rules anyways). IMO, the 10 hp restrictions keeps the big boats off the water making for a much more peaceful experience. If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Now you can use a big motor, just operate it at no wake speeds. Will increase the pressure from bass boats for sure.

I've floated from hwy 150 to mackinaw river fish and wildlife area a few times...

You can also slightly bend the whopper plopper blades to adjust the sound to your liking...

It's incredible heartbreaking to see the disdain with which our politicians treat our wetlands, rivers, and streams here in Indiana. It's appalling.

They are native, but the river systems in the area have been greatly altered! Orange is native range, dark red is non-indigenous.

It does. It will embed a picture if you post the BBcode--use the IMG not URL link. If it works it will look like this

Upload to IMGUR, then post the link.

Just the access to waterways. Find other means. Private launches, US army corp boat ramps, city parks, etc.

Some of the lips will work better than others, and I use a good bit of cement to keep them from spinning on the shank. I'd recommend using them on articulated flies. I've caught a few fish on them but I don't typically throw them much any more. The first time I made one, I took it to a local area to try out. I was tossing a short cast to see how it would act and this muskie crushed it with about 10 feet of line out!

This is a good place to get jigs. You can custom order with whatever size hook/lead you want. It's out of springfield IL as well, so rather local. Most of my hair jigs for smallies are olive/dark olive or baitfish colors. Can't ever go wrong with white or black as well. Best to keep them sparse most of the time ;). https://www.lurepartsonline.com/Lure-Making

Start making some phone calls. IDNR, IEPA, county water district, etc. Disgusting.

That is a great section of river. Gregg is a great guy, and so are the rest of the people in the MSA. Attend if you can.

I am sure they will suck that thing down. The grass carp around here select for certain kinds of leaves. I see them pulling branches of walnut trees when the river is flooded, and any downed walnut is stripped of it's leaves in hours while the maples go untouched. They do love the maple seeds (helicopters) though, cottonwood fluff, and other leaves. I'm going to have to figure how to tie a leaf imitation.

I would make sure those invasives aren't going back in the river alive. The rivers here are absolutely loaded with them. Say goodbye to any aquatic vegetation that is palatable to grass carp in the river.

One of my absolute favorites. Go if you can, Matt and Dan from the MSA are great people.

Norm would be fishing the parking lots and park benches.

Everyone catches a skunk from time to time. My first time there, but I have fished the Bull shoals and Norfolk tailwaters down in Arkansas enough that I was well prepared for the midge hatch. We ice fished the reservoir the next day and had great success as well. Waxies on small jigs caught fish about every 5-10 minutes. Lost a great big brown trout that didn't want to put it's head into the auger hole. The state park let us use a power auger to drill holes thankfully, the ice was at least 20 inches thick!

I was just in that area for a ski trip back in early march. It's a long walk in but well worth it. I only fly fished one day, and most of that was spent teaching my buddies to fly fish. There was an incredible midge hatch and fish were rising everywhere. I had tied on small griffith's gnats prior to heading out that morning and didn't have to change the rest of the day. There are some good sized fish there. I had several in the 15-18" range and lost another that would have been in the low 20's. That fish made a big run downstream and was impossible to stop on 7x. Caught around 20 fish or so. Getting from the road to the water was an adventure, the snow had to be at least 4-6 feet deep in spots and had a 200 lb weight limit. I could walk on top but a couple of my buddies were sinking waist deep with every step!

Crazy. It is amazing how much that canal affects watersheds in the area. One of the few places with bridges that flow a river over another river. What do they do now, continue to spend millions repairing levees or spend multi-million returning it to a semi-natural state.

The swim bait with a scrounger head has been in my arsenal for quite sometime, seems to be a little better than the chatter bait IMO.

I think it presents the bait in a much more natural way. I find it more enjoyable as well.

I use both, but the fly rod sees a lot more action these days.

Egg patterns and wooly buggers are what I have the most success with.