Gone Fishin'

My ole stompin' grounds!  The Honey Hole!  My place!  The James River (Missouri Version).  Spent many years wading up & down this waterway and while the river is everchanging, I learned every single good spot to stop and toss line.....usually to hook a lunker or two or twenty.  When I turned 4 years old, my parents moved us out east of Springfield, MO to a small 3 bedroom house located only about 1 mile from what became "The Honey Hole", an extravagant & wild world of abundant Bass & Bluegill.  By age nine, I had learned to fish and began spending time walking down to the river with my dad to wade the waters and slay the smallies.  Back then, it was a whole different world.  That was 34 years ago before the housing boom took place and developments in East Springfield went thru the roof.  New neighborhoods of residential homes and farms upriver meant cloudier waters, downstream.  Fast forward to today and you can see the physical toll this has taken with the layer of phosphates covering the riverbed rocks.  It's a shame, yes, but to me, its still as beautiful as the first day I hooked into that monster bucketmouth.  From as far east as Steelman Bridge (Division or YY HWY) all the way to Springfield Lake and even down to Table Rock Lake, I've scouted and explored nearly every inch of the James River, rippin' lips off the entire time.  

My 2 cents?  Whatever calls to your soul, you must submit to....you inevitably will eventually.  Get out into the world and explore, and you can start in your own backyard.  RTA