Haris122

Sweet. Any luck with anything else?

Anyone make it out on Mark Twain the last few days? If so, anything biting? I'm thinking of coming up there with the kayak again sometime this spring if I can help it.

Cool, thanks. That's good to know.

I made it out there Monday, after a quick attempt at wade fishing at Sand Ford Access by Meramec Caverns. I got there around 1, and since I was already behind on things, I just fished with little single hook roostertails that qualify as flies. Only caught 1 stocker size rainbow. Had a few more bites, but none of them remained hooked past the initial bite. Later on I caught a little sunfish too. After the park closed, I drove over to the red ribbon area access by highway 8, and waded somewhat upstream and downstream there for another hour and a half. I got a bite from something that looked decent near a laydown, but I have no clue what kind of fish it was. It got off pretty soon after biting. After that I had a little shiner, barely twice the size of the roostertail hook itself. Started out ok, but the few fish that did come in just kept getting smaller and smaller.

I like the way you're thinking. I've been thinking of doing something similar, just cause of the same issue with being on my own. Usually I try to just go upstream as far as possible given the speed of the water, and then fish back down, but it would be nice to not have to fight the current for a change, only to have shortened fishing time on the way back down.

I'll sure try. Going to line up some trips to try them out where I won't snag them on stuff too often.

Wow, those are some beautiful fish. Well, now I got some hope to go there again from time to time and try fishing it some more. Actually went the day you mentioned it, and fished a few different things from the shore at that little peninsula towards the direction I caught that 1 sole crappie, but had no luck, but as long as they're in there, which you proved, I can rest assured that when I do go from time to time, it's not a completely hopeless venture. You hook into any of those chubby white bass or hybrid white bass on the river there too?

I got my order a few days ago. The items look real good and am definitely looking forward to trying them out. +1 on instructions with how to fish them. I'm not much of a jig fishermen, and those definitely help with where to start.

Sweet, I've been meaning to get down there during c&r but haven't made it this winter yet. One of these next few weeks I'll make it down there. Good size to them? And any Brown's or other species altogether play as well? Also can someone tell me when is the last day of winter c&r again?

Jungle Jim if you don't mind me asking, what do you use to get the Crappie to bite from there? I thought I fished Unger lake as much as anybody else, and I've hardly caught anything out of it. It kind of blows my mind that someone consistently catches fish out of there, much less consistently nice ones at that. About the only thing I haven't tried there, were minnows so I don't know if they do it, but as far as lures, I can't say I've had much luck there. I've had one nice maybe 12" White Crappie out of there. That was my first fish. Then I've had a Grass Carp, and a Channel Cat, and some tiny baby bass and such, but not much else. I have seen spoonbills on the shore there before one winter. As far as the actual river, I haven't done great there, but definitely had some decent fish out of it. Especially 14-15" fat White or Hybrid Bass.

I stopped by Butler Lake for an hour and a half yesterday late in the day. Friend of mine had caught a 3 pound Channel Cat on worms, and I needed to get some fresh air, so I figured I check things out there. He kept getting bites on worms by something, but it always seemed to know how to avoid the hook. I tossed out some shrimp, which to my surprise nothing seemed interested in. As an aside I threw one of those little crappie minnow crankbaits in shad color, on my light action rod and after a little while of casting, hooked a 14" White Crappie. After a bit of a lull I also got a smaller, maybe 8" White crappie as well. That was it. It was actually quite a pleasant afternoon, even the fish seemed to notice it cause they were pretty active as well. One sad thing about Butler though, is it's just really dirty. A lot of people fishing there just seem to feel no need to pick up a single beer can or whatever else they bring with them. Out of all the local spots I frequent I would have to say it's probably the most dirty place I go to on average. What are your picks for the dirtiest fishing spots in the St. Louis area?

+1 for hate to fly. Drove all the way down to Florida, just cause of that. The drive did make me appreciate the scenery here in Missouri more. Felt like most of the other states (at least those parts of them we drove through), were much more bland in scenery, and too flat for my liking.

I saw an episode of First 48 a while back where some dude in KC killed this guy while returning fire, that was shooting at his apartment (from way outside his "castle"), after some scuffle broke out between the two guy's friend's or relatives and such. He was deemed to have only defended himself and got off without problems. So I think your odds are at least as good that you will be exonerated assuming, you were really defending yourself and didn't just help escalate the situation to that point. Either way in a life and death situation it's a risk probably worth taking.Then again I also read about some incidents where people seem to have got away with murder while using self defense as an excuse, and that kind of crap irritates me.

darn, that's one of the few meramec accesses I've never been to. And mainly cause I just haven't got around to it yet. Yeah that sure makes you think. I sometimes have a gun in the car but I haven't had the concealed carry license so I never had it directly on me. I've had a few strange cars show up that made me think about grabbing it out of it but thankfully it never needed to be the done. I'd consider it now with that whole free to concealed carry thing but then I'd also be worried that I drop it in the water or something. What are some good holsters for wading, kayaking, and active types of fishing like that?

Anyone catch anything consistently at Unger lake last year?

Went there this Monday, fished halfway along the levy from 2 to just before 5. It was pretty windy, which made it feel a lot colder than it was otherwise. Because of that I started upsizing my hooks and bait after I got 1 small one, so I wouldn't keep having to deal with the tiny channel cats that are always biting there. That worked a little bit but the remaining 4 fish I got weren't much bigger. 2 Blue Cats, and another 2 Channels, all around a foot or slightly bigger than that. That was it. Headed back, and made it out of there just as they were starting to close the gate. Another dude that had been there before me and fished closer to the warm water outlet said he caught 30 or so, including several 5 pounders that he considered small. Wish I'd have got those instead of the truly little guys I tangled with. darn wind there.

I did some ice fishing a few years ago, around here, but it was that one particular year that it remained really cold like in the 10's-20's F or something for 2 or 3 weeks at least. I just used a small camping axe, but I also tied a rope to a tree on shore and tied it to me in case I fell through, and I kept the holes in the ice small. Also you need a ladel or something to keep the hole from freezing over. I think with the recent warm-up, it's not worth it. It would have to be in the 20's or less for at least a week and a half solid for me to think about it. And even then it would have to be a smaller lake, that doesn't have much wave actions, so it freezes over thicker.

I know this was kind of talked about in the past (not so much the gills freezing but cold and c&r), with me wondering about the cold and successful c&r and my mind was put at ease with this. But later on I do remember reading a study in In-Fisherman or maybe even a direct scientific article, that made fish exert themselves to some degree by swimming in simulated current or something when water was really cold, I think some of them definitely croaked after a bit of that, including fish like crappie that seem more cold water active than other species. So I guess, what I'm trying to figure out, is how exactly does that apply. I mean it seems for some things colder water and accompanying lower metabolism seem to help, but in other ways you figure by fighting to get off a hook, they would expend valuable energy reserves that they can't replenish easily in winter, while having to deal with the tougher conditions of winter. Where's my disconnect here?

That smallie looks like a real solid chunk.

Same here, especially if the majority of those have average or larger size to them. When I first started fishing, I think there was a gap of several months between my first and 2nd fish caught.

For my own interest I decided to keep track of the numbers of fish caught this year too. One thing I didn't actively track, was how many trips I made, but I did go quite frequently. At least 33 times were with one or two of 4 other people. Numbers wise so far (still plan on making it out once more before the year ends) I only got up to 251 fish. And that's counting even small sunfish and such. Actually quite a lot of them were little sunfish of various types. I got about 25 species, with White Crappie, Black Crappie, and Rainbow Trout as the 3 most frequently caught (I lumped a lot of the sunfish into 1 group, for the ones I wasn't sure of species type so I'm not counting them as 1 species otherwise they'd be #1). Barely anything bigger than 18" though, and even the ones 15" and over, were few and far between. Those are my stats for the year.

I think this last season they've actually have done more to encourage thinning the population wrench, at least where I hunt, than they did in the past. Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington (where I hunted), none of those counties used to be open for antlerless season in the past. What's more, in both those counties and in ones that were always open for antlerless season, very little public land used to be open for antlerless season. If you didn't hunt private land one way or the other, antlerless season was non-existent. This year they actually had some conservation areas open for it. And I think all of the conservation areas around here, that used to be 4 point bucks only, were opened up to any-deer hunting. I'm personally suspecting they're trying to thin out the population to slow down how fast cwd expands it's range, while they probably try to figure out a better solution to the problem, if there is one. And keep in mind, a lot of this they're doing to the displeasure of deer hunters that want to have more deer, and bigger deer to hunt.

I don't know all the details, but I'm kind of doubting that. I know the past several times someone shot a mountain lion in Missouri, all they had to do is come up with some lie about feeling unsafe, or that their livestock was endangered and they got off free, even though from what was mentioned, that was not the case. I bet if he had proof, he'd have got no grief for it. When I first got my hunter safety certification 7 or so years ago, they even had I think march off limits to coyote hunting, now that's not even the case anymore. I don't see what that extra month would've hurt as far as protecting them. What I don't agree with as far as regulations go, is that you need a deer permit on top of small game permit, to hunt them at that time. Way I see it, if you're only using the type of gun that they require during deer season for other game, then you shouldn't need to get the deer permit too. That's I think a little bit of a scam.

Fished the red ribbon section on Monday with Mike H. We waded from the springs down to cardiac and back. It was slow but steady for me, and I ended up with 13 total, including 2 Rock bass, 3 Brown trout, and 8 Rainbows. Mike was pulling them out with more frequency. Didn't catch anything bigger than about 14" though. I got an ~14" Rainbow, and Mike got a 14" Brown. That's pretty much it for that. Nothing big but it was a fun day overall.

Any more action up there since?