Haris122

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.

I'm kind of bummed out about it. I've been discussing it with people at a gun forum I'm on too. I really liked that they carried it. Apart from the rare real sale at 1 or 2 of the smaller sporting goods stores, none of them that I frequent, ever really had any prices as good as walmart does every day on 9mm and the like. The type of 9mm ammo I get I essentially could only get for as cheap as walmart sells it in even small quantities, if I bought me a 1000 round bulk order online instead. I know in some walmarts they had this rule that they wouldn't sell handgun ammo after 8pm or something, which sucked but I could at least understand a little. And the whole walking people to the register and such after 8pm even in some of the other stores, doesn't really bother me. But completely stopping to sell it sucks. I imagine most smaller stores within a few months, will jump at the opportunity to jack the prices up even more, since they don't have walmart to compete with anymore. At the same time dumbasses like the retard in Springfield really didn't help my cause either. I don't know what he expected was going to happen by doing that ignorant monkey dodo, especially that shortly after what happened in Texas. I'm pro gun but even then, I don't really consider it too unreasonable of a request to not open carry in their store.

Wow, no kidding on the extreme low water. What would you say was an average depth there? Hope those fish get some more water soon. Looks to be on the brink of drying out.

I stopped by briefly yesterday too. We were real slow at work so I left early and dropped by there for about 2 hours until the storms rolled in. I got 2 little largemouth, a bluegill, and a little crappie. I lost another bigger fish that I didn’t see good enough to make out after a brief fight. Cool stuff. I really like the flathead. I still never caught one of them yet.

Was definitely a good day, with way more action than I’ve ever seen or had there before. Jim’s jigs worked like magic and it really helped to see him using them. I’m not much of a jig guy but with his tips and jigs there was a lot of action.

I'm planning on joining you there tomorrow for sure.

Not Taneycomo related, but I fish circle hooks with shrimp a lot for catfish, since I usually let them go too, and last time I caught 2 of them from the kayak, and both had essentially swallowed them by the time I brought them in. I even had the barb bent and getting the hook out still took longer than I hoped it would. I would let it fall to the bottom, reel up just a bit, and let myself drift, along with the bait by the kayak. Both times it seemed I had a few probing bites, but I waited until the fish ran off before I started reeling, and I guess that wound up being too late cause it didn't end up in the corner of their mouth. Guess I needed to reel as they were doing the probing bites, but for the life of me it didn't seem like they were picking them up with those, it seemed just like they were nibbling and letting go.

Same here. Looking forward to some pictures.

Took a little perseverance but I did have some luck eventually, thanks Siusaluki. Your advice really helped get me started in some good directions. Didn't pan out the first day, but as we were leaving Monday, dreary weather kind of got them going, and I stopped at another pier for a few more hours again, and lucked into some sort of salmonid. Nothing too big, but decent nonetheless. It was maybe 2 foot, or maybe a bit smaller, but fought pretty good. Especially at first. Did kind of tire out eventually. I kept expecting it to be pulling a fast one on me, and get off close to shore but it didn't. At least until I got down the rocks to it, to release it. At which point it released itself, by thrashing around some more as I had the line tight to get the lure out with pliers. Unfortunately it broke the line before I could remove the lure out of it's face, so hopefully it got it off eventually later on somehow, without much damage. I didn't get a picture of it, but if I had to guess, I would say it was probably a steelhead. Not to familiar with how different coho's look from them, but it was light gray/silvery, with some of that typical rainbow trout green on it's back. Hell of a fight for a good chunk of it. It actually took me very much by surprise when it didn't give me problems getting it in towards the end of it, but it definitely was a hell of a fighter even with that first long burst it had before it tired out. Glad I had braid on the reel, cause I think regular 6# mono it probably would've broke earlier.

I’m going to be heading to Indiana dunes in a few days, and I was interested in finding out some fishing spots while there. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’d most likely be just fishing from shore but I might be able to bring along a kayak if really worth the trouble, though fishing would be limited to one day, so I’m not sure if its worth the more cramped cab as a result on the drive.

Hopefully the bit about the aging population isn't as severe as it seems. Would suck if they're really having that bad of a problem population age structure wise.

I went down there on Monday, but not much to report. It was busier than I thought. The western bank of the spring seemed to have more access closer towards the red ribbon section than I remember. I think they must have cleared some vegetation from portions of it. Fishing wise I mainly threw my usual, roostertails and jerkbaits, without much luck. Made it all the way down to the red ribbon area without having caught a fish. Then couldn’t catch one in the red ribbon section either. Finally on way back up, in the run by the bathrooms, I tossed some sinking jerk/crankbaits into the turbulent water and got 3 decent ones in short succession before the bite died down there too. Lost another one throwing something similar further upstream where the 2 arms of the creek combine back together. That wound up being all the bites I got before I had to head back. I somehow lost my net at one point and never did find it, which sucked.

I agree there was something different. But I couldn’t figure it out, and I tried an awful lot of different things to figure it out. So whatever it was, it was very subtle I feel like. And it sucks that something that subtle can have that big an impact. What baffles me the most is that, earlier on, before the guy came up to the same spot, I had a good amount of bites from them, doing the same thing I did later on. I just figured I try something different in hopes of catching something bigger, thinking if nothing happens, I can always go back and catch a few more later. That’s the part that’s most annoying. He was throwing his roostertail directly tied on, whereas I had it attached to a snap swivel. He was using mono whereas I was using braid. He was throwing his with a baitcaster (I know it sounds odd, but true) whereas I was using a spincaster. But despite all that, I was having almost the same response as he did at first with bites almost every few casts (maybe not as often as him, but still pretty frequent). Then all of a sudden, I could hardly buy me a bite. And as far as watching him, I did that too. He told me what he was doing even, and at one point he even cast my setup a few times, to narrow it down, and he still got bites. He told me to try reeling a little faster, which I did, but it was still a bust for me, no matter how I tried to change my retrieve.

Still a bit high but people were putting in their boats regardless. Even though it was still above the top of the boat ramp by a bit. Lots of activity though. Lots of fish chasing other fish from the looks of it. Of course that was a few days back. Not sure how much the water dropped or activity changed.

Ouch why the hate for roostertail on here. I love those things. I also admittedly don’t catch much but that’s not the roostertails fault. I fished Joachim creek at Herculaneum a few days ago, and the little bass were active. Throwing the same type roostertail, at the same place as me, some older dude had 50+ times that he brought little bass in in the same time frame that I brought in 3. Regardless of how I tried doing it. Made no sense.

Can’t really give you much advice but if it’s any consolation, I’ve definitely been there. Took me several months from catching my first ever fish to my 2nd and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Several years where it was like what you were saying, go expecting to get skunked. It does get better. Maybe not by much but at least nowadays I usually catch something on trips where I give it some time. I fish same way too. Lots of roostertails and cranks. One thing I’ve had pretty decent luck with as far as catfishing, is regular Shrimp. I frequently save a couple pieces of it when I buy a bag of it at the grocery store and a lot of the time something will hit.

Or that the drag worked good enough from that reel.

I had a brief stay down in Branson this past weekend. I didn't fish much, and when I did I didn't catch much, but I did get my nicest fish that I ever caught from Lake Taneycomo there this trip. Saturday afternoon we briefly hit up the public dock at Cooper Creek Access, and threw a few different stickbaits out there for about half an hour, to no avail. A lot of the time floating algae or whatever would get caught on the trebles and lip, and kind of make it a pointless retrieve, but I wasn't expecting much luck there anyway, especially with as little time as we were going to spend there that time. Late Saturday evening though, we hit up the trophy section near the hatchery in full gear and had some action. At first we tried a spot we came across while scoping some more of the place out, earlier in the day. It was a bit downstream past outlet 7 on the map. There we threw the stickbaits for about half an hour, maybe a little more, and after no bites in that time-frame, I was persuaded that we try our luck back upstream in-between outlets 5 and 6 on the map, a location we had some more familiarity with. For a while nothing was happening there either, but I eventually did get a bite on a small shad crank bait cast somewhat close to and parallel to the shore. That got me trying some more in that general direction when bam, in the middle of the night, all of a sudden something big hit and took off with my lure. Immediately dread set in. I was afraid I was going to lose it before I ever saw it, but in what was probably the next 5 minutes, the thing took drag, tried dogging away, but slowly but surely, got brought in close enough for me to make it out. What I had on my line, was a big Walleye. Another minute or so getting it close enough to me to net, and a very lucky netting later (the lure came unbuttoned from the fish as I scooped it in), I had in my net that big walleye. I can't say exactly how big it was, but I imagine easily 22" long if not more, and heavy. I caught a 18" walleye down there before, but this fish was clearly much more massive. Probably about as wide as 2 if not 3 of the one I had caught there before. I can't tell you exactly how much it weighed, but if I had to guess it had to be at least 3-4 lbs. By far my most massive fish I ever caught down there. After figuring out how to hold it up for a few pictures, I put it back in the water and watched it swim off. After that I decided to cast out some more in hopes of catching an equally impressive trout of some sort. I did catch a respectable rainbow that went maybe 15-16", but after letting it go, that wound up being all the action for that night before we took off, after ~3 hours of fishing. Sunday, it got to be about noon by the time we got back to the same spot to fish, by which point more water was being released again. We kept throwing the same stuff, along with some roostertails, but this time nothing came of that spot. After maybe an hour, I decided to try out the spot where we started out the night before. There ironically I caught another fiesty rainbow that went maybe 14-15", but that wound up being it in the brief half hour or so that we still had left to fish. Just to finally see what some of the lower areas of Taneycomo look like, we drove down to Rockaway Beach, and fished from the dock there, for another half hour, but unfortunately without any further action. Wish we would've hit it at better times in the day, and for longer, but overall I'm still pretty happy with that Walleye, and though I wish there would've been bigger or more of them, the 2 rainbows I caught, were far from my smallest ones from there, so I'd say it was a successful little trip.

Thanks for providing some options guys, I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to end up doing. I’d like to check out the ones Gavin has and go from there since that seems like the best deal right now and I like the handle profiles on those.

Like to find a $50-60 5’6” or a 6’ light casting rod if possible for my small omega spincaster. Anyone know where to find any selection for them around stl, cause cabelas, bass pro, and academy all dont have them, and I usually only can find 1 type from denny dennis, and I’d like to upgrade a bit from that.

So a quick bit of background regarding this question, my favorite combo to fish with for a variety of species from trout to bass to crappie, is a 5’6” light action casting rod with one of the smaller zebco omega spincaster reels. I recently got me another light omega reel, and I figured I see if I can up the rod quality a bit since the only one I’ve found in the past that works, is a cheaper $25 shakespeare rod. I figure with a nicer rod to boot might keep even more fish from getting of. I knew it would be a bit tough to find but this evening I went to cabelas, bass pro, and academy sports and didn’t find anything that fit the bill. So anyone know of any places around St. Louis that has any kind of selection on light 5’6”-6’ casting rods?

My main reasoning was having stronger line for similar diameter line size, provided that it does other things about as good as the mono, which so far it unfortunately has not. In case I get a big fish on that peels a lot of drag I’d like to have that extra peace of mind that the line won’t get cut as easily from abrading against the reel. About a month back I had a real nice fish on that took me for a ride, and though the drag did a good job, it really helped knowing that the braid was not going to get cut easily if it had got stuck like the drags on a lot of the lower quality spincasters.