Smalliebigs

Thanks John....I owe a lot to Mr. Hog Wally.....all I can say is we had to be concentrating and ready for that bite...I may have had only one bite but, it was one of those very memorable days for sure ☺

Thanks Bret all I can say is your next brother....I know Hog Wally is chomping at the bit to see the same look on your face that I had on mine staring in awe at one of these beautiful Ozark beast.

man.....come on Aaron. Data???? hahahahahahahaha.... You and I have seen the electro shocking boats shocking and where they were shocking was not the area you would be if you were actually looking for fish to float up to the surface hahahahahahahaha. The data is only as good as the process in which it was collected......Mitch and I have had lengthy conversations about this very subject. How difinitive can the data be if it is not collected and preserved or analyzed correctly or accurately. The river is more fertile below the Huzzah than above. Aaron has seen more on that river of it's biodiversity and it's creatures than 99.9% of us. Before Spotted bass My dad and I used to nail so many huge Smallmouth from Pacific to Times Beach I can't tell you. My half brother who has passed away was on a MDC boat in 1996 while attending Mizzou electro shocking......they shocked up a Smallie that was very very hush hush....he claimed it was a state record by a length and girth measurement. He wanted to go get a scale and they wouldn't let him.....he only has an old Nokia 865 phone without a camera. I can remember his voice when he called me freaking the hell out from the ramp. He was an avid river fisherman who never exaggerated like most....similar to Aaron. The Lower and mid Meramec has and produces bigger fish than above the Huzzah.....just not as abundant now

I have seen some very big ones in the Niangua and I saw a monster one in the Big Piney once.....very cool looking critters

exactly hahahahaha

ding ding ding ding......winner winner chicken dinner.....She has told me things that are just rediculous

Thanks Al

I feel the same way....It has always burned me up as to why the MDC stocked certain tributaries with Spotted Bass??? This was an obvious huge mistake on their part.

Wow!!!!....looks killer!!!!!

Awesome!!...beautiful Browns

Hahahaha that's awesome!!!....good luck with that mystery. That sure looks like hell of a good time with some good people. I know Bret is one best people I have ever met....and I'm sure the rest of the fellas are great people as well. Kudos to you guys ☺ Homemade sausages....mmmmmm

All very interesting points Jim....Al Agnew knows a ton about the Spotted bass influx on certain Ozark streams. Here is the beast....she or he was right at 4.9 and 4.10 on Aaron's digital scale which we checked for accuracy as they can go out of calibration after awhile. Aaron and I were a bit flabbergasted when he netted it

It's just that Aaron your opinion is from someone who has lived in the river corridor his whole life and is on the river daily.....sorry but, I respect the hell out of that kind of hands on knowledge base. As far as forage goes I'm sure Aaron was laughing inside like me....we see bass on that river chasing and eating giant schools of shad. Much bigger than most would think. We both use baits bigger than most do knowing this. I am not a student from Mizzou doing an internship who has never seen the river before....just dude who loves the river and it's native fish and is out on the river making observations as much as possible. I agree though some investigations would be nice to set up a base for any needed regulations. Jim you asked on another thread why some have an indifference to the MDC and mine stems from the tagging bounty....I mean study they did a few years back. The answers to questions posed to them at their meetings showed a massive amount of ignorance on their part. That being said being said I think the MDC is one of the better state agencies in the country and value what they do immensely. I know they are hamstrung with funding and personnel to do what they would probably really want to especially when it comes to enforcement of game codes.....I am realistic.....it is what it is. If they wouldn't have said a few things to me and my friends at Powder Valley in regards to our questions pertaining to river bass I wouldn't be as skeptical of their motives and common knowledge of the river corridor and it' fish.....they are a great agency for the most part though IMO

Awesome Aaron!!!!....agreed on all You must realize these fish Aaron knows very well, they are his friends that he gets to see annually. Slow growth rates are a big factor Jim. Protection and angler education on these fish and how they live and feed in the corridor is huge. Spotted bass invasion is not good....I don' know if you saw the dinosaur Hybrid Smallie/Spot I caught yesterday??? But after we landed it I just sat there with my mind racing about how many times this fish spawned and how old it was....how much has it effected the native Smallie population??? At first I wanted to fillet it and make dang sure it was out of the river but, both Aaron and I were in awe of it as it was just an amazing fish so we couldn't harm it's Unicorn arse.....it was a catch 22 going thru my brain like a freight train. So let' just say it isn't gonna be in the river ever again and it will have an awesome rest of it's life and we may see a pic of again someday. But very cool thread Jim....I just hope it can be civil....I accept all opinions and Don't want to ban anyone's form of fishing especially gigging.

Thanks Mitch....they both were very impressive fish. Seriously man the conditions were tough.....we had a couple REALLY good bites and capitalized on them. This Hybrid was a FOOTBALL

Dude today was really cool in many ways...I have been smiling from ear to ear and my wife says I've got my swagger back hahaha. Both of those fish were very neat fish to see in person.

Well I had the opportunity to fish with my good buddy Hog Wally this morning. Last night watching Dave Murray's forecast for today was giving me the chills. I even messaged Hog last night bitching about the forecast and that we probably wouldn't have fish jumping in the boat and he promptly sent back a message so full of confidence it got me going (one of the things I love about that guy) The water temps were hovering around 39, the water clarity was a scary Gin color...I could see the bottom everywhere we went in water up to 17 ft deep and the winds gusts were anywhere from 10 to 35 mph I would guess. A cold front pushed thru very early prior to us going out....not exactly ideal conditions. I started out fishing a jerk bait as it is just one of my things, I absolutely love fishing jerk baits these fish were having none of that not even a sniff. The water was soo amazingly clear that I found myself just standing there looking at the river and it's contours and it's fish....just astounding. I'm sure Hog was sick of me commenting on how clear it was, just so fun to be able to see everything. We fished for a bit I wasn't doing anything , Hog was fishing a Craw pattern they just came up with and at first glance I thought it looked peculiar. Then I tied one on and let it fall into about 6 ft of clear water and it looked amazing!!! It is really weird how these colors can look so different in and out of the water. Just as I started with the craw, Hog as he does, says " oh I got bite here" and then set the hook and his rod bent in half. I knew he had something with some weight. Sure enough he did, he coaxed up an absolutely beautiful 19 inch 4lb Smallmouth. This fish was soo chunky and just a perfect Bronze beauty. I was jumping and fist pumping as I just love to see fish like this in person....I was ecstatic. Now I'm pumped as hell and ready to go but, these conditions were just horrific for fishing and the bite was very slow. It seemed like if you could get the craw in front or near a fish they would crush it. We moved on to a few other spots and the wind and temperature were oppressive really. Not much happening but, my excitement was keeping me warm from seeing Hog's fish. We finally made it to a spot that Hog said there is a giant here for sure and I thought to myself what is he talking about?? As it looked fairly vanilla but, I know not to question his knowledge of that river. I made a cast right to the area he was speaking of and wham I had a nice hit and set the hook. Hog says you have a nice one and being the dork I am, I say it seems like a 17 incher. Then a massive blob of Bronze rolls in front of the boat and I see Hog lunging for the net in excitement....low and behold it's a 20 inch FAT Hybrid Smallie/Spot!!!! We were both high fiving each other like little kids. This was such a cool moment for me as I have never seen one this big in person. Guys I know you may get sick of people pushing products on here and I am not a part of Tackle HD anymore as we parted ways. I can tell you this, their 4 inch Craw just flat out catches bigger fish on average. Eventhough we parted ways we are all still friends I love Paul, Mitch and Aaron like my brother. They have a great bait and their jigheads are the best at crawling thru rocks I personally have ever used. Sorry in advance if you don' care for my endorsement but the proof is in the pudding as far as I'm concerned. Now as I sit here eating my wife's delicious chilli, I am wondering how old that Hybrid is???...the biggest one I had caught prior to this was 14 inches. Anyway everyone have a good rest of the weekend This post has been promoted to an article

Sorry mistake post from my phone....I suck

pretty typical response from them in my experiences of calling them on illegal activities....the ONLY time they have ever really done anything with stuff I have reported to them was this clown. From what I was told he only received a slap on the wrist while pleading ignorance.

Am I math challenged??? yes Do I care if a dude won't buy a permit because he can't keep a pan sized bass that grows very slowly by the way, because there is a special management area on a river to help protect and preserve the bass in that stretch??? NO You're comparisons are silly at best. We are talking about illegal gigging of game fish and how this gets exasperated when someone with bad motives does gig Smallmouth, which they do, because the fish grow quite slowly. A boat can and does devastate a section of a river quite easily.....10 Eighteen inch smallies from an area of river is probably 216 years of growth. Nobody has mentioned banning worm fishing or fishing with treble hooks. Prohibit my method of fishing???.....What catch and release with lures??

huh????.... Trophy management might cost the support of people who illegally and mistakenly gig game fish??? this is pure entertainment hahahahahaha Well at least you didn't insinuate we have an itchy vagina. I understand some don't care how big of a fish you catch.....I get it, some like to marvel at 7 inch Spotted Bass they just caught and reminisce about the beautiful area they caught it from.....I totally get it. I like to catch bigger fish and more often and I don't take illegal activities sitting down that affect my local rivers and streams and the fish populations. You can call it bitching and moaning and I really don't care, just like you don't care about my bitching and moaning....it's all good. We enjoy what we like how we like it but, I am not making insinuations that men have itchy vaginas because they are concerned about something that is important to them.

yeah well reading about what some dude cooked after watching the FoodNetwork on a fishing forum makes for a long Winter as well.....many threads on here to make for some laughter, including this one. I'm not the one insinuating alleged men have an itchy vagina on here.

perhaps a test stream with no gigging and compare fish sizes? this is exactly what I want MO Carp :).....but it won't ever happen