Haris122

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).