Haris122

Mmmmmmmmmm car parts (drool). Wow, the wide selection is exciting. I guess I'm starting to feel better about not even hooking any more than 2 fish in the past 6 or so trips. I'm curious though, what is it that makes it such a crapshoot? Btw my very first catch was what I'm fairly certain was a small smallmouth near Unger Park on the Meramec, so I guess there are still a few around in the sections known for spotted ones (just figured I mention it, seeing how there's a lot of smallmouth guys on here).

I'm pretty sure I'll get out there eventually, seeing how I wanted to try some stream trout fishing too, but for the next few days the closest thing to it, would be one of the winter trout stocked ponds/lakes around here (St.Louis). I should probably try Tilles Park again, but it can get a little crowded, and I prefer the more natural setting. Plus with the couple warm days recently I figured that would liven the regular river dwellers up a bit, and it's more interesting not knowing exactly what you hook until you get it in close (in my case in the rare event when I do hook a fish, haha).

Yeah I thought the recent string of nice days would get them back up and around, like that one day last week when I saw them moving about. I should mention I fish from the banks so I'm a bit mobility restricted on the searches for confluences, creek mouths and such. Most of the time I just try to cast the line out as far as I can into the middle of the river, figuring that's where the deepest areas are. Of course, that's where also the most visible current is, so I don't know if that goes hand in hand, since it's an energy expenditure thing for them trying to stay in place where it flows more.

Hi, new forum member and fairly new to fishing as well. I kind of asked this before in the Meramec river forum, but I figure I see if I can get an answer in this one since that seems pretty quiet at the moment. So I wanted to see if there's any fish species or basic rigging that someone with already limited skill/success at fishing (total of 4 fish caught since this summer), should put on the backburn when winter fishing? I ended up spending several days last week and this one on the Meramec near Fenton with the aim of catching any kind of fish, just to see proof that I'm improving at it, and except for one day when the fish seemed fairly active, and at dusk today, there has been nothing biting and seeing how the weather has been pretty nice recently, I expected there to be some more luck or at least activity.

Not to hijack the thread, but I've got a question along the lines of the whole winter fishing thing, do you guys know which fish species to concentrate on hooking if you just want some catch and release action of any kind (on the Meramec south of Valley Park at that)? Or other way around, which ones not to focus on trying to catch, as they take things too slow in the winter, to really have a chance of hooking?

I live pretty close to that gravois creek, but never thought of it as containing fish. Probably cause most of the stretches that I saw were barely a few inches if that deep. Then again I never stopped at the section below the highway, even though I know the water there can get deeper. Actually a few years back, because of heavy rains, the creek even overflowed cutting off the entrance to the industrial court nearby and someone thought they could drive through the "puddle" and got their Grand Marquis stuck in the water. Also know they messed with that bridge by the industrial court. Anyone know if it is still ok fishing wise for anything or did the construction around the place essentially fill most the creek's "deeper" sections up with rocks and concrete chunks? Also, have been to Unger lake near 44 and 270 and liked it. Don't know about winter but it seemed pretty lively during the summer, even though I failed to catch anything (I'm still a beginner). I have seen several 2-3' dead bighead or silver carps on the shore, and there were fish jumping around in the water there frequently too. And nice thing is it's right next to the Meramec, so if it doesn't work out on one you can try your luck at the other(from the bank at least seeing how i don't think there's a boat ramp there). I felt like I hooked something big one time there on catfish bait stuff, and thanks to my rod not releasing the line/drag like it should it ended up breaking the line before I could even see what it was, but it was big.

Well I had a 6' that originally came with the "Mantis" reel that I accidentally broke the tip off from being stored bent in my car for too long, but even with it the same things would happen. And I figure that's a regular length for a rod, that most people make work.

The reel is a Shakespeare "Mantis" Reel, on a Shakespeare "Durango" Rod (Cheap I know, but currently what's within my means). Walmart acquired stuff basically. The rod is like 5'6", and I generally cast from behind me, from my left shoulder (I'm a lefty), so I'm guessing that's overhand.

That bit about the split shot sounds pretty useful. I use the removable ones, and I don't have a lot of problems on normal casts, but there are plenty of times that that happens, when my reel locks up on itself when I'm about to cast, but I'm definitely going to try that out. Maybe I should try putting all of the stuff on the main line maybe, as opposed to having the hook on the leader? Or should it be workable even with a leader? Maybe I need to put a split shot on the leader too, to keep it from flinging from the side of the main line's direction when thrown? Thanks for the help Wolfe.

Hi guys, I'm new on here (and fairly new to fishing as well), just joined yesterday and I didn't find this topic brought up yet, so I figured I ask how I can save myself from over-repeating this problem. Basically I've had several times when I got my line tangled around the bobber without realizing it, and then proceeded to cluelessly wait, for a good 20-30 or even more minutes wondering if it pulled that act on me again, or if I'm just not at the right depth, or right place. My setup is the hook, then on average something like 15 inches of leader line (give or take another 4"), attached to a snap swivel (tied to the bottom of the snap on loop portion of it, with the release portions of the snap swivel squished in with pliers so it doesn't open up and have the line slide off somehow), and then followed by a sinker and two split shots on either side of it some 3-4" up on the main line, and finished off with the bobber (non-slip kind) maybe another 4-6" above it. Now even though it's not the best setup, I have had luck with it, so I'm a bit fond of it and would like to keep it in my limited arsenal of fishing techniques, but I can't quite figure out a method to the madness, seeing how at some configurations of leader line length, sinker/splitshot location from the swivel and bobber there are lower frequencies of tangling while at others they're quite common. Any hints/tips would be appreciated. And cool site you guys have here (I myself have been mostly on the Meramec, so I think it's cool there's a subsection by river/lake).