Smalliebigs

You can really see the mass hanging off the sides of the hawg trough can’t ya??? Hahaha That fish was soo tall and thick it was nuts hard to tell but, she was heavy. hope you have been safe and healthy

Al these are my only extreme examples and you are ever so correct on the mass size of these river run Ozark bass. This year has been extremely weird for obvious reasons. I made a vow to not post pics on social media anymore, do I consider this site social media??? Kinda but, not really. The fishing pressure I have seen this year has been a detriment at best. I have caught a handful of 18 + smallies and not many 19’s and NONE that legitimately measured 20 inches, which normally would alarm me but, my fishing has been limited to when I can sneak away for a few hours in between Zoom classes for dance, violin and now school. We have been doing our part in staying away from everyone as we live in St Louis County. I hope you and Mary have been doing well Al and staying healthy. At first I was very mad at all this and now I just want to move forward and get thru it and get back to seeing my friends. I really miss my buddies like Aaron and Paul and other fishing brothers..... talking on the phone is just not enough, have to be able to hug them and tell a joke in each other’s face and laugh and see my friends smile. It will happen..... just rough right now. I hope all you guys have been safe I truly do. I am gonna do some cool Trips coming up but, man do I miss fishing with friends

Not always the case though..... I caught a couple under 21 that were over 5 and some 19’s that were way over 4 and close to 5. This first Smallie was 19 + but, not 20 and weighed 4 ++++. The second Smallie was barely over 20 and weighed 5 + but, Al is right though as these both as you can see looked more like a Northern fish in girth than most you will see in Ozark rivers hahaha

Very nice!!!

Yep actually fishing off the back deck of this boat is pretty nice but, the guys in bass boats were giving me a few funny looks. I’ll bring my bass boat down in Early October and put a beat down on fish. It was a little sketchy pulling up to docks and dropping spoons as I definitely did not want to make contact with anyone’s docks.

Well I fished from my wife’s boat and only brought One rod. Fishing from a pleasure boat without a trolling motor is challenging at best Hahaha Water temps at the surface were about piss range I would say. From 5:20 to 6:30 I had a sporadic top water bite but, the fish I was catching were pretty dang nice. Mostly Smallies around 16 to 18 inches. Then I would go to driving around 3 girls in a Yamaha jet boat. Then I would drop spoons in boat stalls at docks that would have the right bank behind them and depth and it was producing some nice Spots. The water patrol checked me at Indian Point and laughed his posterior off as he said he hasn’t seen many guys fishing from a Yamaha jet cruiser

I have never experienced a rise this fast before so I was ignorant as to what could actually happen. My dad lives right near this corridor and is a weather junkie to the extreme and said just to the North West of where I was received 4 inches of rain in 40 mins, not sure if that’s true but his rain gauge on this Site he uses said this. This little valley I was in is very steep on both sides with a Bluff on one side for about a quarter mile. Where I swam to was a flatter area and just was filling like a lake hahaha like I said now I know, I had never seen a stream do that before

This was quite literally a wall of water it filled that tight little valley up faster than I could have ever imagined

I’m an idiot I saw it coming and chose to climb up this gravel embankment at this railroad bridge I was at and couldn’t get out of there the gravel was washing out from under me and I panicked a little bit and just jumped in the SOB. The level had gone up dramatically while I was trying to claw out of there. Should have just stayed put..... like I said even at 51 and doing the crap for a long time I panicked and made some dumb moves

Oh yeah it got off color and it rose and then it came up like 3 feet in a matter of what seemed like 20 seconds

Thanks man..... I used to run down to St Francois river every time it would rain hard enough but, that was in the 90’s

Hahaha no giants but, plenty this size.... sorry the pics suck

Yes in the Winter in 45 degree water.... I got one of my scupper holes lodged on a street sign on Marshall rd right by the Golf center hahaha another dumb move. Pete this creek had a very steep banks or Bluffs really and I was right at a railroad bridge and I kinda had to make a choice as I could not get up this steep embankment of gravel to the railroad tracks. I tried like 10 times digging my fingers and toes as hard as I could to crawl up this railroad footing and just couldn’t, cut my fingers and hands up. By the time I realized I couldn’t get up the hill the creek had trees and rootwads coming down stream and was a torrent. I made the choice to swim for it which was not all that prudent. Should have just sat it out clinging to the hill the best I could for an hour or Two. Once in the creek the force of the water was astonishing and the amount of debris was nuts, as I said at that point I dropped rod and reel and did the survival swim to a flatter spot down stream and pulled myself out and walked thru a then flooded field to the bridge I parked at. I had to wait there until the water receded to even think about crossing the low water bridge. I am an absolute idiot!!! To be fair I saw it rained over 4 inches in 40 mins just to the northwest of where I was but, it’s still no excuse for my stupidity.

I did loose my rod and reel because I had to eventually just jump in and swim for safety and I couldn’t do it with one hand and Two feet kicking

Just want to remind everyone after almost ending my career here on this giant Blue marble flash floods on the upper end of streams are no joke. I barely made it out of this creek because I under estimated how much rain fell just up stream from me and continued to fish because it was so good hahaha. Don’t be like me I was a little lucky and agile and can swim very good otherwise it could have been different. Flash floods are no joke!!! and I’m an idiot

I have a place down there and had my driver side truck window broken out last week at Bootleg. Fishing wise it's a toss up......if you are only fly fishing I would go to the upper Castor River if it were me. Easy wading very clear and fish are aggressive, you won't see too many giants but. you'll have good action and it's an open corridor with room to cast

We caught an actual Pike up stream from there about 5 years ago and no it was not a Pickrel. That looks like a Pike to me but hard to say

Daiwa Kage LT, Daiwa Tatula 2500hd, Daiwa Ballistic xh2500

Yes!!!.... I caught several nice ones about 12 days ago and then this one right before the deluge screwed up the river. No giants yet as that is my dream so I must wait

VERY VERY true

yep I watch some youtube channels that are edited quite well and their content is pretty good but, making movies about little creeks is doing nobody any good. Hell I watch a dude in Canada who only makes axes and chops wood, most entertaining fucker I've ever watched...…..I just feel exposing small streams to the WWW is bad, just my opinion though

I went to my favorite Two creeks Saturday and Sunday. Both creeks had multiple multiple people using them in a wide range of ways. First creek had guys fishing everywhere with cameras and making some video about their adventure. They were doing a summary of the day when I pulled up hahahaha. There was four of them and they all had GoPro cameras and Two rods a piece. They were filming for the one guys youtube page. Our streams and rivers are screwed. The one guy recognized me from social media outlet of some sort and acted like he wanted my autograph or something. I just got back in my truck with tail between my legs and drove away to another creek...….confused and bewildered. The second creek also had multiple people at different bridges, which was discouraging as well. I ended up fishing another creek that I quit fishing a while back because it just seems too small and it seemed like nobody else has fished there in a wile as I saw no signs of people anywhere. To my surprise I caught several nice fish in only Two pools and thought better of fishing any further and left after catch 12 Smallies all from 14 to 17 inches, which was very nice. Driving back to town I couldn't quit thinking about all the people out on the streams......making movies no less hahahaha, oh well I hope the fishing gets really tough on all streams

Meat hunters will gut Smallies no matter what. If you want to beat some posterior bring it hahaha

5/10's :)…….best investment in my feet in a long time

yep I feel the same way and it has lost me a few friends I used to fish tourneys with. I know what I have seen on LOZ and Table Rock in tourneys especially in warm water temps or during the spawn