Fish On....MO Spoonbill Snagging

3/15/14

The opening day of Missouri's 2014 Spoonbill snagging season was upon us, so the crew headed down to LOZ for the annual opening weekend Snagapolooza! Everyone was on the water by 9am on opening morning and it only took about eight minutes before our boat hooked up the first fish; actually two fish. Nick and I hit our first double hook-up ever; something we've talked about but never accomplished until then. 

The action was steady all day and we ended up boating 13 spoonies on day one, which was a personal best for me. If it hadn't have been for John catching a big male just minutes before the BIG FISH weigh-in, Nick and I would have swept the top three spots. As it was we finished 1st & 3rd and John's fish came in 2nd.

 

Pete's 2nd Fish of the day

 Rusty's 1st fish of the day...

 

Nick with a big female

 

Pete with the BIG FISH...weighed 63lbs at weigh-in time!!!

 

Nick's 3rd place fish

  

 

 

 

 

Rusty and I hooked into the 2nd double hook-up ever....two in one day is crazy!

 

 

 

 

 

John's 2nd place fish....

BIG FISH WINNERS
1st - Pete 63lbs
2nd- John 61lbs
3rd - Nick 59lbs

Paddlefishing MO...2012 Opening Weekend

 

Our usual crew of misfits headed back down to Lake of the Ozarks last Thursday to kickoff the 2012 Missouri Spoonbill season. We invited a fellow MissouriWhitetails.com member Nick (Bowhuntks) down for his first spoonbill action and it didn't take us long to get the action started. 

Brian, Big Nick, Little Nick, and myself were on the water by 1:45pm Thursday and within the first 30 minutes Brian had already landed two nice mid-50lbs fish. Big Nick didn't have to wait much longer before he hooked into his first spoonbill ever, which was pushing the 60lbs mark.

 

After coming out of the gates hot the action slowed down for the remainder of the day. We did bang out a couple of small chippers and I landed a decent 35lbs fish late in the day. 

 

 Friday morning we awoke to temperatures in the low 70s and blue skies...what we didn't plan for was the 87 degree temperatures and scorching sun all day...it was a little hot and we may have gotten slightly sunburned!

 The action Friday was pretty slow right out of the gates as we ran up to the 66MM, but Little Nick got on the board around 11am when he landed his first fish of the weekend. 

We headed in for lunch and sunscreen around 1pm and were back on the water by 2:30pm and ready for some action. I changed into my "Mullets" t-shirt for good luck and as we were leaving the cove I informed the boys that the "Mullets" shirt was a spoonbill magnet and we'd always caught fish when I had it on. About 10 minutes later line started ripping off my reel and after a good fight I landed the biggest fish of the weekend when this +70lbs sow came into the boat....go MULLETS!!!

After heading in Friday evening for dinner Big Nick decided to wet a crappie line, but he wasn't expecting to pull a 30lbs blue cat out...but he wasn't complaining either!

Saturday morning our group came our swinging and between four boats we landed eleven fish in the first 90 minutes of fishing. I hooked into this fatty 65lbs sow right out of the gates!

We got run off the lake a couple times because of the thunderstorms that were rolling through, but we managed to make it back out on the water for the last couple hours of fishing...and it was worth it! We all landed good fish, but the trip was capped off when Big Nick's reel started screaming around 5pm and he landed his second fish of the trip and the 2nd biggest when this 68lbs sow came aboard. I put the icing on the cake ten minutes later when I pulled the 3rd biggest fish aboard; a nice 66lbs sow. 

The Killing Crew...after tying up the last two keepers!

Big Nick had to drive to Wisconsin and back Sunday, so him and I headed home late Saturday night but not before we took some group photos...it was a great weekend as usual and we're looking forward to getting another late season trip in....FISH ON BITCHES!!!

MO SNAGGING - TEAM BIG FISH HUNTERS

TBFH 4/11/2009

Team Big Fish Hunters (Brian, Pete, and Nick) headed down to LOZ on 4/11/09 for round 2 of the spoony snagging season. We also had Brian's future step-father Allen aka- THE SQUIRREL on board our boat. We met Juddy, Linn, Brad, and Miller at the I-70-65 junction around 7:30am and headed south for a day full of sun, big fish, and Allen. We saw 30-45 stutters on the way down which got our blood boiling for next week gobble, gobble, gobble!!!!

We were on the water by 9:30am and were greeted by dense fog and about 50 other boats working the channel. The fog lifted quickly and we were treated to 68 degree sunshine and no wind for the rest of the day, it was a perfect day to be on the water.

Brian got the action started about 25 minutes in and the action stayed pretty consistent for the rest of the day. We ended up catching 8 fish on our rig with 6 keepers and The Marshall Boys also caught 8 fish with 1 keeper.

Brian led the way with 4 fish on the day and 3 of those went over 50lbs with largest going 65-70lbs. I ended the day with 1 keeper 35-40lbs. and 1 little guy 20lbs. Allen also caught two fish and Nick was blanked on the day. Miller also brought in a great fish on the other boat 65-70lbs, but I think Brian's fish was a touch bigger.

All in all it was another great day on the lake and we consistently landed more fish than any other boats around us. Dipsy Divers are Magic!!!!!

MO SNAGGING

We headed down to the Osage Arm of Lake of the Ozarks this past weekend to kick off the Missouri Spoonbill season. Team Big Fish Hunters (Brian, Nick, Joe, and Pete) arrived at Levi's cabin around 4pm on Thursday and were on lake within an hour. I started the action off with the smallest Spoony anyone had ever seen snagged and the first Spoony of my career. Joe and Nick each snagged fish later that evening.

From Friday - Sunday morning the entire group (Levi, Andy, Jericho, Danny, Glenn, Nick, Joe, Brian, Pete, Linn, Juddy, Miller, and Derrick) caught around 100 Spoonies total. The group ended up keeping 19 fish which weighed in around 1000lbs. It took a lot of beer and time to clean that much meat, believe me!

Brian ended up with the most fish caught with 12 total and I ended up winning the biggest fish prize when I snagged an 81 lbs. sow Friday evening. All in all it was an absolute blast hunting these giant fish and I can't wait until my next Spoony fishing trip. Thanks for the invite Brian, it was a blast!!!

FISH ON BITCHES!