Gavin

Thats good water between Baptist & Parker...Fish counts are lower than the Park to Baptist stretch, but there are some very big fish down there...Not many rainbows down that way...and afternoon fishing for brown trout is usually pretty tough...hit it early or late for best results. Cheers.

Guess those poachers hired an unfrozen caveman lawyer!

That second one is priceless...Thanks for the report.

Nice fish...but dude...ya need a smile on you face for the pic.....Go catch it again...have camera.....will travel.

Looks like fun...thanks for the report!

I use a 7wt most of the time....sometimes an 8 or 9wt...It just depends on the size of the bugs that I'm tossing..

Tie one that looks like this...Ants can be good but I fish hoppers & beetles more often. Cheers.

Sounds like a great time....thanks for the report & pictures.

They pop up all the time on the St. Louis Craigslist....

Wear some polarized glasses and spend some time looking for fish, and note types of water they are holding in......Fish were the fish are and not where they aint. Cheers.

He's no hero.....but you gotta laugh at that!

I'd go with a pontoon over a canoe or kayak for floating the White or Norfork when they are running generators. Swamp a canoe or kayak in big fast water and your gonna have a problem. I wouldnt want a toon if I had to cover allot of slow water, paddle upstream, or fight the wind.......but they do excell on fast flowing water, mild whitewater, and they are virtually impossible to flip....Wear your PFD, carry a pump, and you should be just fine in a toon. Cheers.

First two pics on the left are from the first stop, the rest are from our afternoon float...those bridges all kinda look alike, LOL.

Its 266cfs on the Steelville Guage today....Thats about perfect for wade fishing around Cardiac/Suicide, IMO.(I wont wade down there if its over 500cfs, but your mileage may vary). Getting close to white fly time too... Cheers.

Its a complete waste of money...but its allot of fun and you can tie exactly what you want...You can probably get started with a decent vice, tools, and a few materials for $200 or so, but the costs and materials pile up over time..Check out the Danvise...it sells for less than $100 and they are pretty nice. Cheers.

Thanks...I've had that box forever. Old Town used to sell the boxes, but they arent available from Old Town anymore. Basically a toploader pelican box with two brackets that clamp to your gunnels with 2 wing nuts. Think the closest thing available today is the Pelican 1430nf (no foam) box with the the 1438 boat bracket kit. Cheers.

They mass produce the little buggers...And disease would spread quickly if they didnt take some preventive measures.....The same can be said about most of the beef, chicken, & pork that you pick up at the market...Its not something you can control unless you want to grow your own so I dont worry about it. Cheers.

Nice!...looks like allot of fun! Had fun on Friday..no monsters but topwaters and flukes were producing good numbers.

Plans for an overnight on the Big Piney fell through...but Friday was still good day to be on the river. I'm not saying exactly where, but you should be able to figure it out. Launched my solo canoe in off a low water bridge in the early AM and paddled up about two miles...Lots of slow water so it was pretty easy to cover ground. A bit of murk to the water (3-4' visability) and a weedy bottom. So I started with a big topwater and it didnt take long to pattern them up...Rocks & shade. Caught fish steadilly till the sun killed the bite around 10:30am...Time to head elsewhere. My buddy Mike called as I got back to the bridge and said he was on the road and we hatched a plan for an afternoon float. Met up downriver around 12:30pm, then ran the boats up to an access on a small feeder creek for a 6-7 mile float back to our vehicles. Water was very clear, low, and a bit cooler. It was a bit of a chore to snake the boats down that creek...but the fish were friendly and eating on top. Get out there...this heat seems to have the fish on the prod. Cheers.

The bite picks up in the fall, but come September 15 youll start getting allot of jet boat traffic from the giggers & deer hunters.

Nice fish. We used to fish that lake allot back in the 1980's... My friends Mark, Mike, Rick and I were all in our early teens at the time and we would run around that lake all day long in a little jon boat equipped with a small outboard. We'd leave right after breakfast and our parents rarely saw us till dinner time. We used to catch some really nice bluegill in that lake but we never had much success with the bass. Thanks for the report.

Those Keen Hood Rivers look like there worth a shot....I have an old pair of Simms Flats boots that have worked pretty well for floating and wading on gravel bottom streams...toss on a pair of old cotton socks tie em on and off you go...No felt on them though. You definitely want something to protect your ankles.. I tend prefer neoprene socks and my Chota felt bottoms if I'm floating/wading a stream with a significant amount of slippery bedrock.

Think the concensus was that the Meramec just doesnt have much good habitat or wild reproduction to be a blue ribbon stream...and when you compare it to fisheries like the Current, 11pt, or NFoW...it just doesnt compare. The biologists wanted the best habitat, and wild fish under Blue Ribbon regs...and the Meramec just didnt measure up. Limited amount of good habitat, nasty floods....might as well close the park, bottle all that spring water, and hope that the smallmouth fishing takes off.

Its just not good habitat for them...if it was they would be there in abundance.

Hwy F bridge...about nine miles up from 47. Skinny water up there too.