Haris122

Me and a fishing buddy were planning on hitting up Mark Twain Lake sometime next month, but recently someone told me that the boat ramps are about to close down due to the virus situation. Tried to find more info on this and I think I did come across something saying most of the ramps will be closed, but I figured I see if anyone here has any more info about it. Like how long that’s supposed to stay that way and such. Thanks for any info in advance.

Unfortunately I still didn’t make it down there. Maybe next week I will instead.

I work this weekend, otherwise I would’ve been down there today, but I think I’ll go either tomorrow or Tuesday. That said, is anyone down there today, and if so, how is the fishing and the crowd.

I think there’s still a few parts of it that are still kind of nice looking. Some of the area around Unger I think still looks nice for example. Not like some of the big floating stretches but still better than some of the rest.

Wasn’t expecting that stupid photo bucket logo all over the ones I posted.

Beautiful pictures guys. Here’s a few of mine. Will try to get a few more posted. Meramec between Sherman Beach and Castlewood I believe. http:// Red Ribbon section of Meramec between Hwy 8 and the Springs. Castor River Shutins at Amidon Johnson Shutins on the Black River

Wish I could help but unfortunately when I went none of us 3 caught a single crappie though that was what we primarily tried to catch. Minnows, jigs, little crankbaits, all that, and not one crappie.

How do you tell them apart from a smaller white bass. The picture looked a lot like it.

I’m out again as we speak. Guess it’s nice that the phone has service at this spot. Though 7th day at it is really testing my patience to where I’m on the phone way more than I should be. I’d be happy if I get one and it at least doesn’t go more than 10-15 yards before falling back down and dying in short order from the first (and hopefully only) shot. And wouldn’t mind seeing if the bullet opens up with this ammo, and if it stays inside the deer or exits out, too. I’ve only taken 3 deer ever so far, each time I shot at least once more cause I was either surprised that they got back up, or didn’t drop at all, from the first shot. But nowadays I’m thinking 1 definitely didn’t need any followups, and leaning that way in regards to another one. Last one unfortunately did. I’ve seen 7 deer so far this season but each time they’ve seen me first. Feel like I was hitting up good spots but for whatever reason hardly saw any where I thought they‘d be.

Sounds like it got some potential for bigger fish in the deep spots. Either way nice scenery I would imagine.

I've had years when I've seen less than this one, but that's not saying much. Seems like I hardly ever see any. Figure one of these years I'd have a season where I see them frequently, but not looking like it's this season either. I'm hoping to have a clean kill like she did. Except, I'd hope they drop right in their tracks and don't get back up. My rifle caliber is not as potent (7.62x39), but I think my bullet selection this year is better than what I got my first 3 deer with, and in general I haven't got any shots that were all that far anyways. Now I just need to get a shot opportunity to really find out if these rounds do the job as humanely as I hope they do.

I always wanted to float that stretch to see all of it. I've waded the stretches from hwy 8 to cardiac, and cardiac to a bit downstream of suicide, but once I hit a deep section around a bend downstream of suicide, I couldn't figure out a way further downstream. What did you guys do, take 2 cars and drop one off at scott's ford, or did you have someone else shuttle you?

Nice, how has rifle season been going for the rest of you guys? I’ve sat all day in the woods the past 5 days and saw deer only 1 day. Saw 4 of them Monday on 3 separate occasions but each time they saw me first and bolted. I’m catching up on sleep today since it was forecast to be windy, and then going to give it another go tomorrow, and if necessary maybe a day next week and a day during antlerless. Hoping it doesn’t get to those last 2 days though. But the general area I’ve been at has been pretty dead despite lots of good signs.

Past weekend, I went down for a weekend trip to Reelfoot with a few buddies of mine that had been there before. The hope was to get into some good fall crappie fishing down there, but unfortunately for the life of us, we could not find any of them or any sunfish for that matter. The two things the lakes are most well-known for, we did not even get a single tiny fish of, haha. We got there Friday late morning and fished from then on until end of Saturday at the Upper Blue Basin, and then for the last day we gave the western-most portion of the main lake a shot. We didn't hit buzzard slough or any of the other spots further in-between unfortunately. There wasn't much catching going on, but what was caught was generally decent sized. We started the trip off by having a nice fish break me off. I was throwing a pink jig a fellow member here made (Jungle Jim), when I thought I got snagged, then a bit into trying to drag my snag in, I realized it was an actual fish. Anyways a bit into the fight, the line broke and with it my first good fish of the trip escaped. Afterwards it was a very slow Friday. My one buddy lost a little white bass by the boat, fishing with minnows, and that was as far as I remember all the bites we had until Friday evening. Half an hour before we had to bring the boat in for the day, that same buddy caught a 8 lbs channel cat on shrimp, near a little channel leading to another portion of the lakes. That was all for that day. We tried fishing from the bank that night some, but in the end nothing seemed to bite, so we got ready for the next morning. Next morning for a while there was again no action, but same buddy then caught a 14" Largemouth on a little twister tail as we we're throwing stuff towards the bank. Then a while later, just before we're about to try on the other side of the lake I make a last cast with a little crankbait and hook into a nice gar. It took me for a bit of a ride, and even got the line stuck on the propeller for a bit, before that got cleared, but we eventually netted him. I wound up with what I believe to be my first spotted gar. It was a nice fish. I would estimate it to be probably 4 lbs. We let it go and kept going, and eventually started throwing stuff towards a bank with tall grass. There I tossed another jig JungleJim made and hooked into a nice Bowfin. Once we brought him in, I kept throwing the jig some more, and then hooked into an even bigger Bowfin. We brought him in, and I would guess this one was probably about 4 if not 5 lbs as well. This made it 2 different species now, that I had never caught before. Next few hours went by with no further luck, until we hit the same spot that the big cat was caught at. We fished there the last few hours of the day and the same buddy that caught the big cat, ended up catching a decent sized Bullhead. Right before we were about to head back, I noticed I had something on too, and got an even bigger Bullhead on shrimp as well. Never having caught a Bullhead before regardless of species, this made it 3 new species for me. All good sized for their species I would say. The last day we hit up the main lake, and same buddy caught a Drum early on. Then middle of day, I caught an even bigger Drum as well. That was all the fish we caught. Unfortunately my other buddy had no luck this trip. I've been on that end before. On the way back to "dock" though, we had a 10 lbs asian carp jump into the boat right at his feet. We took a picture with it as well, but then just tossed it back. It wasn't as action filled a trip as I hoped it to be, but in the end it did get us some good sized fish out of it. And what I found odd, is that nothing seemed to touch minnows that they threw. Weather wise worked nicely too. It wasn't too hot, cold, or windy, though it was a bit too sunny for my taste.

Maybe a few shallow spots on the meramec but still had lots deeper spots for the most part.