Haris122

"Living of the Land" full time or close to it is sadly a dead end road nowadays. Judging from history, it has been for several centuries, as unrestricted living off the land of even many billion fewer people than we have now, had gotten things to the point of barely having deer here in Missouri (not that that's nearly the sole case of "living of the land" gone wrong). It might have been doable back when there were many fewer people in the world, but nowadays, very few people would live off the land sustainably. Whether we like it or not, our ability to grow food more efficiently, whether plants or animals, is what allows wild animals and plants to make a comeback. So, even though I'm not as passionate solely for Smallmouth Bass, tighter enforced regulations are what has gotten the job done most of the time. Question really is whether you find the regulation change necessary. As infrequently as I catch them I'm all for tighter regulations, cause whether because of my poor fishing skills, or because the smallmouth are overfished where I go for them, I don't see them for squat. And rightly or wrongly so, I'm thinking tighter regulations might let me hook into them more, to see what all this love for smallies is all about.

Sweet, thanks. I plan on heading up there pretty soon, and see if I do at least a bit better than last time.

Anyone know if Mark Twain has any restrictions on using a kayak to fish from? I know Lake of the Ozarks seemed very restrictive on where one could use a canoe or kayak at, but I'm hoping that was only due to the excessive amount of pleasure boaters. I don't recall seeing anything at Mark Twain prohibiting it at the Ray Behrens boat ramp, that one time I went there before but I figure it doesn't hurt to check twice. I know the general idea is kind of crazy/stupid/whatever given the size of the lake but it's not like I would try to cover anywhere near the amount of water in it, that one would in a boat, I just think it would still be a bigger guarantee at some success than just fishing from shore. Also, do you have to pay the fee to put in the kayak, like any other boat if you decide to put in tthere?

Cool stuff. When I went with some friends last fall, I tried what Matt did, and only fish with lures. Couldn't get squat. Finally gave in and used minnows, and got one Crappie. We made it to another spot and then I got 3-4 more on a crank bait. That was it when I went. I think I learned how to better fish for Crappie since then, so I've been wanting to go up there to redeem myself ever since. Now that I saw your report it might be pretty soon I do that now.

Not that I know much about yanking out many of them, even on great days, but I too am becoming more and more of a fan of the single hook roostertails. Both because of the snagging much less while being a good lure for some kind of action, and because the trebles can really do much more severe of a number on the fish's mouth. A couple times the fish end up hitting it exactly so, that you have to mess with those poor things mouths for minutes, before you get all the hook points out. Even with the barbs clamped "barbless" with pliers, the trebles still do a number on the fish. With the single hook, especially with barb bent straight, it's as easy as a few seconds of work and off they go, barely any worse for the wear. Like Al, I do like making good casts with something that's not fished slow, as well. I usually don't have the patience, and in the meantime you feel good about getting it to some spots you really didn't think you would've. And then when they do hit it, it feels all that much better, and more confidence boosting. But my good casts are definitely a relative term. Cause they sure are not pinpoint precision stuff.

Trying to learn how to use a baitcaster. Definitely not coming natural to me.

I hear you there. I don't know, sure they were biting what she was casting out, but you figure, there's bound to be times where you need to (and should be able to) find something else they're biting on after so much practice. It just baffled my mind that nothing else worked until that lone bass finally hooked himself on that crankbait near the end, that day.

I couldn't tell you. I haven't been to Lake 33 up until maybe 3-4 years ago at the earliest, so I couldn't tell you how it looked like in comparison before 2011-2012 or so. I do know they claim to put in crappie structures in there. Pallets somehow attached together and such, from what I saw at Lake 35 once, probably along with the odd used christmas tree.

Went to Unger earlier today to practice casting the bait caster I got me recently (boy am I finding those reels to be none user-friendly). Well I decided while doing that I may as well toss out another rod to sit there with some shrimp for carp or catfish. Anyways after about 45 minutes or so, something hit the shrimp and was pulling against the reel like mad. Luckily I was close enough to start reeling while it was still on. Thought it had got off but it just turned out to be smaller than it initially seemed from the bite. It was a stocker size channel cat. First time in a while I caught something of any size there. A few months ago while the river was still flooding into the lake, I got a couple of tiny little fish on a rooster tail there, and that was the most I had caught in probably a year from there. Might be early to make a serious critique of the prospects, but it seems like the flood has done the lake some good in terms of stocking fish in there.

We actually went out to lake 33 a few days ago again and caught 5 fish a piece. We went in the middle of the day and it was scorching in the boat, but they cooperated, even with me this time. Nothing big came out of it but it was still a good time. I think the biggest fish were two 7 or 8" crappie and a 8" largemouth. The rest were mainly Green Sunfish of various sizes, sprinkled in with a baby bass, and another sunfish of some sort.

I feel like for me at least for now, anywhere I'm much more likely to get a gar rather than a bass (white bass types included) is what I consider the lower meramec. As such I feel anything from the bend by Unger further downstream, and in some cases anything further downstream of 141 is Lower. Most the stuff above that still has more of an Ozark feel with lots of trees, and not as much human made stuff built up around it. At least to me.

This was definitely the best outing either of us ever had out there. Nothing big but numbers were pretty good by my standards, and 11" Largemouth are still on the lengthy end for the bass I catch. This exact same fishing buddy of mine actually had caught a 15" one at this lake before. The topwater hits were especially cool to see. This is one of the few lakes I've had any real luck with top water lures at.

Me and a fishing buddy of mine went there early Sunday morning up until early afternoon. Did the best either of us have ever done there. Started out with a black crappie a piece by some shallow lilly pads of all places, with various things (small tube under slip bobber), then I caught a couple of largemouth bass on topwater (torpedo), and then the action continued with the odd fish here and there either on the topwater, the slip bobber with various soft plastics underneath, or a rooster tail. I know my buddy had some on a rooster tail and some worms, not sure what else he got his on though. Nothing turned out to be big. Probably the biggest fish for each of us being a 11" Largemouth. Though he also had a nice redear, we both had decent crappie, and I had a decent bluegill and a rock bass to show for it. Anyways we pretty much just pounded the shoreline or nearby it from the boat. And tried trolling in the deeper water as we travelled between spots, but had no luck with that. I held the lead by 2 fish up until the last hour and a half or so, but then he overtook me and won the day about 14-10 or 14-11. Next time, I'll come be winner. That and I better learn how to fish in deeper water successfully.

Where by Eureka did you go? Route 66 State Park, Allenton, or?

+1. I've hunted in the conservation area, and wanted to try out the pond for fishing, but never actually made it out that far.

I'll say this, I wasn't letting her win. She did it fair and square. Which is fine by me. I'm all for getting her hooked on it so I can do it more often. I just wish it wouldn't have been such a blowout. Makes me question what I've been doing the past 4 years when someone that doesn't know or care as much about fishing, manages to outfish me 10-1, when I've been devoting lots of time and effort to learn and get better at it. I welcomed the challenge of figuring out how to get them to bite without the use of what seemed to be a guarantee. It just gets to me that I couldn't get more than 1 fish with all those things I tried, while she pulled them in left and right all day with just that one lure.

Went to lake 33 this afternoon until closing time, and got my rear handed to me by my girlfriend. She caught 10 fish of various types with just one rod with a roostertail with single hook, while I tried several topwaters, several crankbaits, two other roostertails, a spinnerbait, and a little crappie tube under a float, and got 1 fish finally, on a crankbait, with a few other strikes on of the heddon torpedo or similar topwater lure. This makes it the 3rd time in a row that we went to Bush and I got blown out of the water by her, under similar conditions. That rod and lure are just made to catch fish it seems, especially by her. Maybe next time, I'll be the better one. Though I don't see myself winning by that large a margin. BIggest fish were a 15" channel cat of hers, a 11" Black Crappie of hers, and a 11" Largemouth Bass of mine (my one sole fish).

I like wrench's way of denoting where the object fell. "WTF" Classic.

I do something similar with most of my spincast reels. I either use a casting rod with the small guides upside down like a spinning combo, or in some cases I have a spinning rod, with a spincast reel, again upside down. The small guides and position of the spinning reel on that one though, do seem like they would be more difficult to pull of.

Well, if that were to happen I'd be screwed on both accounts. Let's hold off on that one please. Haven't killed anyone, indiscriminately or otherwise, and don't plan on either.

In general they are just tools that will function same way every time, and many people are unreasonably scared of them. But if I'd give you that POS Erma 22lr ppk clone I mentioned earlier, doing everything right but with no prior knowledge of this particular gun's problems, you'd have unintentional discharges no matter how good you're training is. What is also true though, many people that I've met or know, CCW or not, own a gun they're not all that familiar with.

I have a little .22lr ppk type pistol that I had got for my sister, and I'll tell you what, that thing is relatively speaking a new gun/design but if anyone would carry that on them, I'd guarantee you there'd be an accidental discharge at some point in time. I had some at the shooting range from just pulling the slide back and letting it go forward on its own, even though the safety was engaged. Went automatic for a couple rounds, slamfiring, until it jammed, which it does quite frequently too. Does the same randomly sometime too, after a few rounds, going into auto. I have to date to find more than 1 brand of ammo that I'm remotely comfortable shooting through that thing more than 1 round in the magazine, and 1 in the chamber at a time. Just saying, if you are going to carry, put a lot of time into learning the gun, cause first few times I took that thing out, it didn't do that (jammed a ton, but not that). It just so happened I was using the sole brand of ammo not to notice it doing that at first.

+1. Back when I had all the time in the day, I didn't have the kind of money for gas or other road trip related expenses, to go to allegedly good spots but on a rare occasion. I'd either have to take my chances on a few longer distance trips where there was still no guarantee of having a good day of fishing, or more frequent trips to spots close by, that I could almost guarantee, wouldn't be good fishing. Most of the time I opted for the spray and pray approach. Nowadays, the expense of going further isn't as much of a problem, but finding the time is. So the way I see it, there's really no escaping it. I figured eventually the day would come when I'd break through that wall with sheer persistence, that I'd be good enough of a fisherman to catch fish in those tough spots consistently, and then could enjoy any trip. And I still haven't completely given up on that idea. But I've realized there's aspects to fishing that I can't improve. Some spots will never be as good as others.

Well, every now and then they have the occasional "fair" rating for fishing a certain area. I feel like a lot of the times it's a relative term. So far out of Simpson the fishing has been relatively good for Crappie, in terms that out of the 6 fish caught there, 5 have been crappie, but bass on the other hand, nope. I need some better fishermen to go fish that place and find out how they do, so I confirm either that location just sucks, or I'm not skilled enough yet to use the lake to its true potential. Any takers? As tempting as that may be, I think I'll pass. I've noticed I have a serious bias towards traveling west, and especially south of the main metro area for fishing trips. Not even bulletproof vest related, I just really hate spending any time in traffic going towards the other side of town when I can get out of the more congested areas quicker going south and such.

Was commenting on something just a bit ago, and got an idea on this topic since there's a lake in St. Louis County that I frequently visit with a lot other features about it that I really like, but with the worst history of fishing success for me personally. I'm talking about Unger Lake. Caught a grand total of 2 fish. One good sized White Crappie, and one decent Grass Carp. As well as 2 or 3 turtles. This in so many fishing trips that I've lost count. Most of it fishing from shore, but once or twice I also tried the kayak with no success. So that's mine so far. Won't give up on it completely though. Maybe it changes for the better with these recent high water events on the Meramec by it.