kevthebassman

darn this second shift job. I'd like to go to that. May just have to call off.

Working good now, couldn't log in 12 hours ago when I tried, and it was super slow.

Don't know where you're located, but there's a guy I know down in Rolla who fishes 'boo and can wrap a blank that looks professional to my untrained eye.

That's one way of putting it Al. I'd settle for all the answers, some of the time, or some of the answers, all of the time. Seems like my luckiest days are merely "some of the answers, some of the time" type days.

Here's hoping they catch fish! The wife reminded me today that I had already spent my allowance right as I was putting a bottle of Crown Royal in the cart!

Now those look like an interesting thing to try. You sold me.

"Of no value" to who? I'm sure it's of no value to people who want to destroy it's habitat, but that doesn't give them the right to exterminate an entire species.

Right on, that's not too far away. If I were to order from you, would I be able to do a local pick-up? Seems silly to pay shipping when I could just drop by while running errands.

Achilles surgery is a real pain, so I hear. Long road to recovery, but my Grandpa had it a few years ago and he's still umpiring baseball and reffing volleyball at 77 years young.

Hey Smalliebigs, you get my PM?

It can be done, salvage title is usually how they do it.

SIO3 and Bman are incredible for sure, women want them, men want to be them. SIO3's fish there looks like it's been hitting the gym, dreaming of becoming a shark someday! Like I said, I'd just like to hook one up and see what happens. PM inbound.

That's insane! WOW is right!

I hope people pay attention and take this seriously. I know that this isn't going to be a 100% solution, but the stories I've heard about this rock snot are pretty grim, just absolutely wrecks streams when it gets in them.

Braid an absolute requirement? I had to sell off a couple of my Shimanos, one of which was rigged with braid, I think the one I still have is spooled with fluorocarbon, but if I dig hard enough in all my crapola I could probably come up with enough braid to at least make a respectable bite leader, and maybe enough to put 50 yards on top of the fluoro. Having a tight go of it still until my 2010 tax return gets here, IRS got it March 7th, they told us we'd have it by June at the latest, Wednesday they told us it was for sure going in the mail October 7th, only took them 7 months. What are you catching those Hybrids on, if you don't mind me asking? If it's anything I can approximate with a fly and present with a fly rod, I'd like to at least hook one up on my 5 wt, and see what that Cabela's rod and reel are made of. I paid an extra $8 for the replacement plan, and I get a new one for free if I should happen to break it, so I'm not shy about putting a bend in the rod and hearing the drag scream. Since I'm such a miserable trout fisherman, one of those hybrids is probably my best chance at feeling 10+ pounds of fish on the end of this line. I'll PM you here soon and we can try and hammer out a date.

An excellent read. Our rivers are under constant assault, and being "loved to death" is a very good way of putting it. My fear is that before long all of our formerly pristine habitat and wild lands will be the domain of obnoxiously drunk a-holes, parking their campers on gravel bars, firing up the generator and christmas lights and stereos, and tossing their beer cans in the river as they pull out well over their legal limit in fish. It WILL happen some day, if we say nothing.

Looks like a blast, I've never been on the Missouri or Mississippi in a boat, always looked too dangerous for my little 14 footer and 1960 Western Auto outboard.

I like the site, easy to navigate, clean interface, very simple and straightforward. The thing I hate most about some vendor's websites is that they get cluttered to death in banners, extra menus, and all manner of "improvements" to the point that they are painful to even look at. Whereabouts in St. Louis are you guys? I wouldn't mind dropping by some day.

I may not be smarter than a 4th grader, but I've yet to meet one that I couldn't take the milk money right out of their pocket if I wanted to.

Ban drunkenness and the consumption of alcohol on the public waterways. You can't be drunk and drive a car, and I'm pretty sure you can't operate a bicycle on the road while intoxicated, so you needn't have a motor involved to be ticketed on the roads. It isn't often I come out in favor of banning something, but when folks make a habit of becoming obnoxiously, dangerously drunk in a public area, they ought to be fined and/or jailed. Go get drunk in a tavern or at home, and save yourself the rental fee.

The Valley Park access I've been to at least, you can bank fish from there, maybe wade for a little ways, but the river down this close to the Mississippi is just a slow, overfished, trashy wreck. I'm sure someone will be along to tell me how wrong I am, but I don't even bother with the Meramec down here. Wading very far will be impossible. The main thing, is that from the fishing I've done, the Meramec isn't a smallmouth river in the St. Louis area. You may find a few strays, but I've never had much luck, especially wading. If one had a jet boat and knew where to fish, you could probably do better.

I don't know if it's the closest, and I suspect it's not the best, but for decent wading and fishing, I usually make my way down to the Riverview access on the Meramec. I usually manage to catch a fish or two there, and it's a little more than an hour drive. I have not actually waded this section of river in waders, but I'd suspect it'd get dicey in places. Wade carefully. For better wading, you can try the Mineral fork of the Big River, Kingston access or Hwy 47 bridge (which isn't really an access, but it's supposedly legal to cross the fence and fish there) but from what I hear, be ready for a long walk before you get into good fishing, it's a hard fished river and I personally have never had much luck there. I hope to change that soon, as some members here have given me tips on how to float it to get into the good water. I'll keep an eye on this thread for more suggestions, I'm always looking to try new waters. I wouldn't expect someone to post up their tiny creek for all the world to trample through, but it'd be nice to give a new spot a try.

Yeah, that cat is out of the bag Al. It seems that for everyone my age (25) it has become a rite of passage to come down and act a fool on the river. I've come to learn that water and alcohol are best mixed in a tumbler glass, after the day is done, not out in the sun during the heat of the day in August.

Now that's a deal. I'll be signing up for that.