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Have you seen a shiner like this?


Johnsfolly

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La Barque Creek is a neat place for being so close to St. Louis and so surrounded by civilization.  I checked it out for the first time a week or so ago, since it is one of the areas of emphasis in the Nature Conservancy's overall conservation program for the Meramec river system, and I wanted to mention it in my book.  Yes, it has a good minnow and darter population, along with plenty of longear and green sunfish, and apparently a few bass, both spotted and smallmouth, come up into it to spawn, because I saw several 3-4 inchers of both species.  It was a little bit murky last weekend in the lower portion but quite clear in the upper access.  It also had some fingerling redhorse suckers.  It would probably be a great place for microfishing, but also probably not any better than any other small creek within the Meramec Basin.  Though it does have the advantage of having plenty of public access; most of the whole watershed is either within public ownership, or owned by research organizations and other entities that protect it.  It's mainly marred only by a bunch of huge electric transmission lines that run through the watershed.

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On 6/20/2017 at 10:44 PM, Krazo said:

what do you use for bait on those hooks?  any weight?  you fish with a tenkara rod?  what size line?  im intrigued with the micro fishing & tackle/setup.

Krazo

I do not use a Tenkara rod. Just haven't bought one. I typically use my 6'6" UL rod when I am fishing spots that I do not really know what might be in the water. If I know that I am fishing a location that may have some spooky fish like topminnows, I have put my spinning reel on a 9' fly rod. I have a spinning reel with #2 P-Line that I use for this fishing. Most of the time I am fishing a tiny piece of red worm on those hook sizes. I have seen where some guys will glue a tiny piece of yarn on the hooks to create a simple fly. The #26 tanago hooks that I use have been snelled with 0.3 lb line.  I will use one or multiple split shot depending upon the flow conditions of the creek/river. When I am not fishing for a specific fish. I will cast upstream or into a school of minnows/chubs and watch the reaction of the fish around the bait. I often can only see the weight so will watch the fish turning on the bait and then anticipate getting a hook set. If I leave the bait too long the fish can swallow the small hooks and I don't like injuring the fish if I can help it.  Since I fish like this to target specific species like darters. On those types of trips I will fish individual fish and I will often add more weight to be able to position the bait within an inch of the fishes face. That can be a real challenge in fast moving or deeper water. There is nothing worse than going for a specific male in a fast stream, taking 4 to 5 minutes just to position the bait within the sight line of the fish, get bit and then miss the hook set spooking the fish and having to do it all again with a different fish. Even for topminnows I will use a weight just to keep the bait suspended straight below the rod tip. I will skate the bait along the surface and not let the weight in the water.

Last night I found a great opportunity to catch a new minnow in a tidal area. I could clearly see the brightly colored males defending areas of the bottom. So this was more a dip and pull fishing situation where I was going for a specific male. Here is my male sheepshead minnow, the 10th new species and the 39th different species that I have caught since March 1 of this year.

Sheepshead minnow - Male (2) - Oak Creek - 22Jun17.jpg

 

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