top_dollar

Did that place used to have this sign? or still do? This was my favorite thing ever when my dad took me fishing as a kid, but i cant seem to find it when im down there anymore.

Any of the major brands have good options around 200$ IMO. I've got a med lite st croix eyecon, and a fenwick elite tech med lite. I like both of them, I probably prefer the fenwick because the handle is super comfortable.

The stretch and the float of mono make it useful for me with a jerkbait. Also when crappie fishing 2-4# mono cannot be beat. You simply cant cast a 64th oz jig without the right rod/reel/line setup and part of that is 2# mono. The best I have found is that trout magnet S.O.S. the 4# trout magnet line will bend out a #4 owner light wire hook, and it's super thin and very manageable.

I'm a mono guy all day with a jerkbait. Nose down is fine, but I'm convinced I'll get more bites with that bait sitting as horizontal as possible, so I weight it that way. A 5'6"-6' med heavy fast rod with 8-17# mono gives you the best all around jerkbait action in my opinion. If you use a stiff rod with braided line your jerkbait will dart back and forth like crazy and you'll get lots of bites, but hooks will pull out with bigger fish. Too soft of a rod and you won't get good action on the jerkbait. The semi-stiff rod and mono gives me the best action while keeping all the fish buttoned up. Braid has its advantages, I doubt too many guys are flipping heavy cover at table rock, but 65# braid is the way to go tossing jigs/worms and frogs around swampy areas. When I'm tossing a weightless wacky worm, high vis braid is the way to go so you can see the line move, I do use a 10-15# FC leader though. Also anytime you're throwing a small single hooked bait a really long way, the braid will allow you to set a hook better if the fish bites it 100 feet away. Although anymore, the jigs I pour use owner needlepoint hooks, which arent letting go no matter what. So I use a med light spinning rod with 6#fc, or even a light power spinning rod with 4# mono. Another huge braid advantage is trolling crankbaits. I love to troll with 9ft downrigger rods spooled with 15# metered braid. The thin diameter allows maximum depth. The lack of stretch gives you good hookups 200feet behind the boat, and the metered braid allows for perfect distance management. The 9ft parabolic downrigger rod gives you the cushion needed to not pull out hooks I tend to agree with the thought process though that if the fish doesn't care about the hook, split rings, and plastic bill it probably doesn't care about the line either. They are pretty dumb animals. That said, the line can certainly affect the action, depth, and rate of fall of a bait so it certainly does matter.

The lower Meremec from valley park to the Mississippi has got the be the ugliest stretch of river in the state. Plenty of fish...but its gross!

Big river above leadwood.

I fillet all my fish. Everything else just goes into the compost to drive the dog insane.

Bass taste pretty great to me. Generally, IMO, bluegill and crappie are much easier to catch, taste about the same, and are more plentiful/sustainable (in terms of biomass/acre of water). That said, as was mentioned before, bass in a small body of water tend to be quite prolific and will require some harvest. Also, massive fisheries like the huge reservoirs have fast growing bass populations and can handle significant harvest. I agree with the bias of not cutting a smallmouth bass, but really I only feel that way about large smallmouth in the rivers where there is just not that many fish. I have no problems cutting a smallmouth out of table rock or stockton, if its a 15-16 inch bass its going on ice no matter what brand.

What is the farthest up the big river you would run a jet boat? I'm pretty ignorant of the things, and their capabilities.

Do NOT google BBC lounge.

Drove by 21 on my way out and there was about a dozen cars in the parking lot. It was crowded but there was some room to fish.

Hit busch yesterday and once last week for a few hours each afternoon. Crappie were biting well at 33, 38, and 6. A few small bass and bluegills mixed in. I imagine they are biting the same at any of the dirtier lakes. Jigs 1-3 feet under a float. I used swimming minnows, gulp minnows and maribou jigs. They all worked equally well. I had to use a cork because they were so shallow. Mostly dinks, but between my brother and I we would've had a decent mess of 10" fish had we chose to keep.

A quick soaking in vinegar, and a light scrub with warm soapy water and steel wool. A mild acid will work similarly to an electrolysis bath. It should be mostly silver at this point. Then rub it with oil and bake it in the oven at 400F for at least an hour. If you aren't going to be using the pan very often, repeat the oil/bake process a few times. If you will be using it often, then just 1 time will be fine as cooking in it will build up a good coating.