Greasy B

I've had the same experience on 11 PT. Sometimes it seems like the trout just vanish. Other times when we do find fish they are bunched up in unlikely areas.

I don't have a report but judging by the Gage at Big Piney the water should be perfect, probably has a little color as well. If you do end up going let me know how you do. Thanks,

The only way you could not see the tag would be to not look at the fish. How could you not admire such a fish?

One big fish, except on those occasional slow days when I’m just happy someone in the boat is connecting now and then. Slow pace for sure. If the fish are active I prefer to work the water. In a large river with big eddies I’ll throw into the seam as my boat passes by in faster water then do an eddy turn just at the last chance, then I work the eddy and the seam from the slow side, as long as I’m catching fish I can ride the eddy up to the head of the rifle, do a peel out and do it over several times. When I figured I’ve spooked the fish it’s time to move on. Later in the summer on the warmer rivers I’ll pick up the pace by focusing in the heads and tails of pools. Yea, 6-8 miles is a long day for me. What’s with you fellows saying you can fish all day long? You fellows be crazy…. ship, I can fish for five, maybe six hours then I need 8 hours of sleep and two bowls of Wheaties before I can do it again. (Apologies to Richard Pryor)

That's a long way. When Art turns the tag in will they give him the fish's history? We looked real close for gig scars, fortunately none of the fish we caught had any.

Thanks, we were a couple of miles below Sand Ford. Some pretty good looking water mixed with shallow areas of shifting sand and gravel. The shore was trashed, lots of garbage and shanties. I wonder where the fish was tagged?

Al, Mitch, Thanks for the report. My nephew Art (smallie understudy) and I went out today despite the rain. It was great catching the first bass of the year. Art got a nice Smallmouth with a tag on it, cool.

Bingo! I picked up a Chronarch 51E and a G-Loomis Mossy Back 6’-8” EX Fast, sweet rig. I compared the grip and thumb profile to my other set ups, just enough difference to allow me to grip more of the rod and less of the reel. Thanks,

The Mid Meramec is a treasure. Like many of our rivers it suffers from a blight of misuse, overuse and mistreatment but if you work a little you can find windows of peace, solitude and some fine angling. Knowing this river and spending time on it has been one of my life’s greatest gifts.

Gadzooks! Those are some fine fish. No gig marks?

Thanks for giving the other side of the story Skeeter. I have a very good friend who was pro lake. We shared many a lively conversation on the subject. We're stlll best buddies and a few times a year we fish out of his place on LOZ as well as on the middle meramec.

She is as cute as can be. Your a very lucky man, oh and make sure you you do the same when she takes up the the fly rod.

Thanks Al, Synopsis excellence. If I were a couple of years older I would have had the opportunity to vote against the dam, I am forever indebted to those who did. The unlikely events that saved the Meramec started well before the 60’s and 70’s. If I recall correctly this was part of one of the mega rivers and harbors bills that came after the war. At the Time the Bureau of Land Management and the Corp of Engineers were in an all out race to “tame America’s rivers”. I guess the Meramec Basin project must have been a low priority to avoid the first round of dam building. Budget problems during the Korean War brought more delays. We are indeed fortunate that fate, luck and the hard work of many passionate river advocates prevailed.

Yea, it looks like unloading some serious ducats on equipment is what I'm going to have to do. That was certainly the solution to all the pissing and moaning I use to do about my fly rigs.

The bait casting set up I use most requires me to shift my hand up onto the reel to get my thumb on the spool to cast. kind of half gripping the rod and half gripping the reel. This does not afford an adequate grip to set the hook. I then need to shift my band back more to grip the rod handle to gain enough leverage to set the hook. While this hand shift is only slight it seems to me as inefficient and there is an instant where I'm not in a position react. While I didn't need to read this thread to understand something that has been a thirty year issue i still haven't found a solution.

One of my goals this year is abandon spinning as much as possible. Advantages or disadvantages not withstanding the darn things are just to hard on my hands. After a season of holding the reel stem between my fingers I develop this big knot where it goes between my finger. Heck I still have the knot from last year. Ergonomics is a big deal when I have this thing in my hand for countless hours. I'm not entirely sure but it seems to me that bait casting rods and reels also have their disadvantages as well. what can I do to have a rig that doesn't disfigure my hand and doesn't wear me out?

Yes, good for Brian. Stoneroller is right on the money. Knowledge is much more interesting than blather.

Next winter two thirds will has been turned into fish food and the remainder will worthy of catching. A couple of weeks ago a caught two beautiful 14" browns right in front of the landing at Baptist, I figured the fish had probably been in the river about a year. It was pretty cool I seen them sipping BWO's in a foam line tight to the bluff while we were loading our canoes. Before we shoved off I got my first two fish on my first two cast. Gosh I love that river.

Yea, it was a whole string of events that happened as the country was experiencing an environmental awakening in the mid 70's. Cool story.

I'm not sure how much information is a available online. Probably your best source would be the book Passages of a Stream by James P Jackson. It's a fascinating story of how the first COE dam project to have been put to a public vote was turned down. The vote was a non binding referendum that helped usher in the end of the dam building era. A lot of folks on this forum can also provide insight.

10"-12" is pretty big for stocker browns. I was under the impression that the browns get pulled out of the ponds at Shepard of the Hills at 8" or so.

I'm a believer, i think.

Credit is just like pictures, who need em.

Great fish. I took some big flies to Current a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't hardly find room to make a cast till I got down toward Cedar Grove by the time we got that far down the river the fish shut down. We did get some nice fish drifting elk hair caddis in seams and foam lines on the upper river.

Keep those rod tips tucked in the canoe. Few things are more heart breaking than snapping a rod tip off at the beginning of a multi day float.