BassMaster#1

another pic

You sure that isn't the Huzzah as that water is super clear. Looks like you guys had better luck than us on Sunday. A buddy and I did the stretch from the spring down to scotts ford. We were thinking the warmer water would hold more smallmouth, but that wasn't the case for us. We saw a lot of rainbows and brown trout. We hooked up with 2 fat 13" largies on jerkbaits and 2 17' trout. Glad to see MDC stocking a lot more browns, but I should have went further up river or further down river as the deep holes wasn't holding many smallmouths. At least we didn't get skunked and got the first fish of the season under our belt. Nice fish

Yeah, that buddy would be me. I had the Malone cross bars on my ford explore. The clamps that hold the bars to my factory side bars broke loose. Malone did send me out their top of the line Cross Bars With some cash. These new racks are a lot better, but I'm glad no one was behind us on the hwy.

I floated from the spring down to adventure outdoors on Sunday (9 mile float), and I have to say there were a lot of trout. I was surprised to see so many browns. We were smallmouth fishing, but my buddies ended up hooking 2 17" rainbows. Only caught 2 largemouth. One fat 13" and one 12", but the trout were all over the place. Didnt see many smallmouth. Thought the warmer water from the spring would be the ticket, but that wasnt the case.

I'm In for the WIN!

What can I say, the big river has been tough on me this year. I haven't been able to get out much this year with the honey do list, but just finished up that so I've got fishing on my mine the rest of the year till the second one comes in October. I floated the section from Rockford beach to Twinrivers about a month ago because it was close to home. Moguy and I did well last year on this stretch despite all the rain we ended up getting. Well, it ended up raining 2 days before I went and muddied up the whole stretch. I didn't catch a single fish and decided it was going to be a bad day just by looking at the water and not catching a single fish within the first 2 mile stretch. You could only see in the water about 6". It reminded me of how the lower Bourbeuse river looks, not to mention all the paddle that was involved with this section. I've been wanting to get familiar with the Big River, so decided to float Morse Mill to Cedar Hill section today and pass on floating the Meramec. First off the float was long, second the float was long, and third the fishing was bad. This was close to a 10 miles float with a fair amount of smallmouth water, but more frog water than smallmouth water. There were some pretty good stretches of nice smallmouth water, but the problem was the water was only a 1.5" deep. I also felt the water was a little murky from the rain on Sunday night. Visibility was about 1.5", but certainly not that off colored green I remember when I floated the lower section last October. I ended up catching 6 smallies and 1 catfish. The biggest was 13" and the catfish was 3lbs. Caught them all on tubes and 1 on a topwater. All were caught in ripples and 4 from one spot including the catfish. It was certainly a rough day to say the least. If I floated this section again it would be with a trolling motor. Some goods spots, but way to shallow for my liking. Next time I head out, it will be the Meramec or smaller tribute streams. If this was a 6 mile float it would be ok, but I’ve decided 10 miles is way too long unless your catching fish all day. Below is the pic of the 20" catfish and one of the spots I had to walk my kayak around the rocks. There are two sections like this, the one at the beginning of the float and this one in the middle of the float.

I too used to use Yo-Zuri, but find that it curls up to much. I have now switched all my spincast out to P-line Fluroclear. If you want something that cast far use the nano fill with a leader. I was skeptical and used to think it was a weak line, but don't let anyone tell you different. I caught this 8lb redfish on my trip to new orleans a month ago. I was worried the line would snap from what I read, but it held up. Red Fish are some of the hardest fighters I've seen and If the line can handle these fish it will certainly bring in any smallmouth around here. Any way Yo-Zuri is a great line, but for distance it can’t stand up to the nano fill. For good around line I would go with a P-line.

I've floated the upper Meramec from the springs down to Onondaga and would say this stretch is the best 6 miles stretch of smallmouth water I’ve seen. Moguy and I both agreed, if a big smallmouth was going to be caught it would be on this stretch. If what you guys are saying is true, that’s a real shame. This is some of the best smallmouth water I’ve seen on the Meramec and really thought it would be a producer when the water warms up. Floated the upper last week with about the same water temps and caught a decent amount on jerkbaits, but I was really surprised when I couldn't get so much as a follower on the jerkbait. The ones we did catch came off tubes and spinnerbaits, but like moguy said one of the toughest days we've had on the meramec in some time, I would like to try it again, but I also want do the stretch from onondaga to cambellbridge or Sappington bridge. Heck, eventually we hope to do the whole meramec up to castle wood statepark. I don't think I would want to fish much pass that. Anyway, if it stays warm the water temps will be hitting the mid 60's shortly. To, bad I won't be able to get back out till the end of May.

JoeD, It was a colman crawdad. It's my buddies and I love that little boat. I have a pond prowler, but it's a lot heavier than the crawdads. I wish I could find one of these crawdad's aroud somewhere then I would get rid of my pond prowler. I also have a kayak which bassmaster and I will be taken out friday, but if it was my choice I would take the crawdad just for being able to take more poles and the trolling motor.

My Buddy and I took off work yesterday to hit the Upper Meramec for our first float of the year. According to the Conservation Report received on Thursday the water was mid 50 and probably hit somewhere around 58 - 59. Right after the bat we noticed the water was only about 6" from normal pool and the water was a little stained for this section. NO big deal as stain can sometimes work to your advantage. We ended up catching 12 a peice with a good mixture of largemouth and smallmouth. Not bad in my opinion for how cool the water temps were. We mainly fished jerkbaits and tubes with me done a lot more junk fishing them him. We got on the water around 7:45 and got off the water at 5. I caught the majority of mine in the morning with the fattest fish of the day coming off a Jerkbait. It was a 14" smallie, but weight 1.75lbs. For being 13", this fish was FAT. This was the second fish I caught and unfortunately I didn't snapped a picture of this on. To lazy to pull the phone out I guess. Around 10 I caught a nice 2.6oz largemouth on a tube. My buddy and I were going back and forth wether or not this was a spotted or largemouth bass. I said it was a largemouth, but he said the mouth didn't go back far enough to be a largemouth. It didn't have the rough scales on the body like a spot so you tell me? This time you can see I pulled out the phone to snap a picture, but that smallie with the big belly was a better looking fish even though he was only 13". Threw some top water dawg baits caught 2 small ones on that, which wasn't bad for how cold the water was. By 10:30 the bite slowed down for the both of us with a few small ones here and there. It was now 3 and the bite had picked back up. My buddy caught a nice 16" and lost another 15" on a tube. We didn't get a chance to weigh that one as the lure punctured the gills and wanted to get it back in the water before it bleed all over the place. I lost all my 4" tubes, so decied to crank a kvd crankbait the rest of the day, which managed to bring in 3 more short smallies for me. Man, was it a great day to be out on the water yesterday and away from the office. Here's the pic of the largemouth and a bonus pick of a smallie with a lamprey eel. The smallie was about 8 - 9" and this lamprey was about 6". Enjoy the pics

Its actually, Mark who owns Adventure Outdoors. He said it was he's biggest smallmouth he ever caught, a little over 5lbs. I think that's been some years ago.

I would say today was one of those wish I had that moment back days. I felt like I really got to only fish 3 miles of the 8 mile float, but with the storm and time constraints I have no complaints. The water felt pretty dingy to me, sort of like the meramec around eureka. Like moguy said we only ended up with 10 fish and a few missed fish. Four were got on tubes and 1 on a square bill, with the one walleye that was pushing 17" and on spot weighing 3.87LB. I did hook up with a nice fish on top water that would have pushed 4+, but go tangled up and on brush and came off. This is where I wish I had my, what if moment, but you win some and you lose some. The fishing wasn't bad for the little bit we fished, but for smallmouth I felt they were far and few between on this stretch. I'm sure I will try it again next summer, but think I will pretty much be hanging up the fishing pole for the bow. I’m glad I finally got to float the big river though. Moguy was up river when I took these to picks, so I did the best I could while holding a phone and tape measure out and hoping the fish wouldn't flop around.

Al, I'm going to say #2 is courtois?

I returned to broken Duckett rods and 2 Carbon Light rods no problem. I would have to say the STL BPS is top notch when it comes to exchanging/replacing a rod.

I'm pretty sure the BPS in STL has the Shimano and Cranking stick in stock. They don't have the winches in stock and the Ducket's are hit or miss. I would just call BPS or Cabelas beforehand. That way you can at least get one of these rods in your hand before you make your decision. The Mojo and Rick Clunns are heavier rods, but they are true Glass compared to the others. My cranking stick is the 7'6" Compre and it works great. I also have a 7' 3 Duckett rod that I absolute love. If you can hold off you may wait till black friday when Tackle warehouse will have %20 off. Good luck

For the $100 dollar range, I would go with either the cranking stick or the Shimino Compre. If your going to spend a little more get the Duckett or Powell Max. If you want to go even cheaper Tacklewarehouse has the Wright & Mcgill Rick clunn s-glass reaction rod for $65. I heard these rods are decent, but the good thing about buying a rod from bass pro is they are pretty good about exchanging it for another rod if it breaks.

So, do they consider this section the lower or the middle? I'm confused on where the middle ends and the lower gasconade starts. Thanks

Yes, that would be pretty bad for the smallmouth.

nice fish....what section are you one the upper, lower or middle gasconade.

adventures outdoors (meramec) covers up from the springs to Indian springs he rents canoes (metal or oldtown) , kayaks and john boats (or pelican boats) He will put you in at sunup and operates year round He will shuttle your car or take his car either way nice guy. Huzzah valley Busy in the summer They have canoes, kayaks Covers a lot of the huzzah and courtois river Will usually only but in at 8 a.m, but will sometimes meet you in the morning at the end of the float to drop your car off and drive you to resort. Route 66 canoe rental on Gasconade will cater to just about anything Guy has metal canoes and Jon boats will shuttle anytime, but uses his own truck (one man show) a little country, but cool guy

I'm pretty sure the 7 I caught were spots. Had rough patches on the tongue with rough scales and a continued dorsal fin. They were small, so I guess a few could have slipped by. My cousin didn't check his, so I can't say for sure on his. We caught about 17 or 18, which is the most I've seen in this stretch and we started catching them about mile past the spring. Only one way to find out and that’s to go out fishing the stretch again, but don't think I'm going to be able to get much fishing in the rest of the season because of bow season. I am going to try to squeeze a day on the big in October since I've never floated this stream before.

This was a 9 mile float from hwy 8 to scotts ford, but it's a long float. Half of the streatch is pretty shallow fast moving water and the other half is more of deeper pools like the float bellow scotts ford. We pretty much fished only the rapids, lay downs by rapids and any place small creeks joined with the meramec. The trout came out of all the fast moving rapids. The second half doesn’t have as many rapids, but more deeper pools. We fished all lay down's with some flow and at the end of all deep pockets. You should give this stretch at try some time. This is one of my favorite stretches of water on the meramec just for the multiple species of fish you can catch. We also saw a doe/fawn swimming across the river as well as 30yrds from a spike buck getting a drink on the river.

Floated the upper Merarmec yesterday and had a good day. I caught 14 and easily good of had 18 - 20 if they would have stayed on hook and my cousin wouldn't have lost all the lures to snags and trees. Most were small in the 10" -12" and the two biggest went 15" and 15.5" with the biggest weighing 2lbs, which is my biggest smallmouth this year. My cousin caught 19 and could have easily had 25 if he could have kept all his fish on the hook. He would tell you it was because of the M power rod I loaned him, but he did get the front of the boat so he can’t complain to much. Great day and glad we were able to get on some fish. The majority of the fish were smallmouth, but did hook up with 3 trout and a lot of spots.