David Goddard Posted October 29, 2019 Posted October 29, 2019 I went to my favorite Ozark stream for a short half-day trip on Saturday, Oct. 26th. Got there by about 9 a.m. and caught a 12" smallie on my first cast on the new Z-man Crawz on a ned head. Fished around with a ned rig for a while and caught maybe a dozen more smallmouth and one small largemouth. A few nice smallmouth, a 15", a 16", and a 17". Rain started and the water started to rise fast enough to watch. I have seen this water rising start an absolute feeding frenzy on what I just call creek baitfish: small suckers, darters, top minnows, brook silversides, and many others, I'm sure, that I've either misidentified or don't know the name of; so I switched up to a jerk bait. My favorite creek jerk bait is a Rapala x-rap, color is dependent on water clarity, but its the best creek jerk bait I've ever used. First 10 minutes with the jerk bait and I caught probably a 6 or 7 more fish. This time with a 3 lb largemouth mixed in with the smallies and a couple smaller largemouth. Moved on to the other end of this pool and caught a nice 16" smallie and another 3 lb largemouth on the ned. Switched back to the jerk bait there with no success and moved back to where I started. Waded out really deep to get to some of the sections of the pool that I hadn't reached yet. About 3 twitches in I got slack-lined on the jerk bait and immediately thought I had snagged a rough fish. Then a big old LMB shook his head at the surface. When I was fighting the fish I thought it was like a 4.5-5 pounder. A big one, no doubt, but I have caught them that size in this stream before. When I landed this fish my jaw dropped. It was a 6.64 lb largemouth that was 23" long. Biggest stream fish for me for sure! I fished for another hour or so catching a few here and there with another 16" smallie. I had to head back to host a Halloween party though and ended the day with 25-30 bass. Amazing trip and I can't wait for some more creek and river excursions as all of the lakes are fishing so tough still! MOsmallies, Quillback, Daryk Campbell Sr and 27 others 30
Quillback Posted October 29, 2019 Posted October 29, 2019 That is a good one for any body of water, congrats! FishnDave, David Goddard and Daryk Campbell Sr 3
Smalliebigs Posted October 29, 2019 Posted October 29, 2019 2 hours ago, David Goddard said: I went to my favorite Ozark stream for a short half-day trip on Saturday, Oct. 26th. Got there by about 9 a.m. and caught a 12" smallie on my first cast on the new Z-man Crawz on a ned head. Fished around with a ned rig for a while and caught maybe a dozen more smallmouth and one small largemouth. A few nice smallmouth, a 15", a 16", and a 17". Rain started and the water started to rise fast enough to watch. I have seen this water rising start an absolute feeding frenzy on what I just call creek baitfish: small suckers, darters, top minnows, brook silversides, and many others, I'm sure, that I've either misidentified or don't know the name of; so I switched up to a jerk bait. My favorite creek jerk bait is a Rapala x-rap, color is dependent on water clarity, but its the best creek jerk bait I've ever used. First 10 minutes with the jerk bait and I caught probably a 6 or 7 more fish. This time with a 3 lb largemouth mixed in with the smallies and a couple smaller largemouth. Moved on to the other end of this pool and caught a nice 16" smallie and another 3 lb largemouth on the ned. Switched back to the jerk bait there with no success and moved back to where I started. Waded out really deep to get to some of the sections of the pool that I hadn't reached yet. About 3 twitches in I got slack-lined on the jerk bait and immediately thought I had snagged a rough fish. Then a big old LMB shook his head at the surface. When I was fighting the fish I thought it was like a 4.5-5 pounder. A big one, no doubt, but I have caught them that size in this stream before. When I landed this fish my jaw dropped. It was a 6.64 lb largemouth that was 23" long. Biggest stream fish for me for sure! I fished for another hour or so catching a few here and there with another 16" smallie. I had to head back to host a Halloween party though and ended the day with 25-30 bass. Amazing trip and I can't wait for some more creek and river excursions as all of the lakes are fishing so tough still! Dude that is absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!.....kudos on the great outing. It's always very fun to look back at the GIANTS you catch where you don't expect......that is a killer creek bass no doubt, obviously a very fertile creek, treasure it David Goddard 1
Mitch f Posted October 29, 2019 Posted October 29, 2019 That is a dandy for sure! Very very nice! David Goddard 1 "Honor is a man's gift to himself" Rob Roy McGregor
jdmidwest Posted October 30, 2019 Posted October 30, 2019 Keep your lips tight and they may be there again. Good fishin. David Goddard and Daryk Campbell Sr 2 "Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously." — Hunter S. Thompson
David Goddard Posted October 30, 2019 Author Posted October 30, 2019 13 hours ago, Quillback said: That is a good one for any body of water, congrats! Thank you!
David Goddard Posted October 30, 2019 Author Posted October 30, 2019 11 hours ago, Smalliebigs said: Dude that is absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!.....kudos on the great outing. It's always very fun to look back at the GIANTS you catch where you don't expect......that is a killer creek bass no doubt, obviously a very fertile creek, treasure it I have to say the healthiest bass I've ever seen in Missouri come from here! For sure a very special place.
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