Haris122

So they wouldn't have an issue with leaving the car in the lot overnight then?

Me and some friends were thinking of heading up there in a few weeks for a 2 day trip. Most of the cabin places seem sold out, so we were wondering if it was legal just to bring a tent and sleep at a designated camp site there. And if so, where these designated camp sites are? Also wondered if it was legal to just nap in the boat while on the lake, and maybe do some "passive" fishing for cats and such,(i.e. having rods out while trying to catch some sleep), while the truck is parked near the ramp overnight, or if that would get us a ticket.

Wonder if it will get as bad or worse than last winter.

Call me sadistic, but some of the most fun parts of fishing is when a friend loses a good fish. That immediate unfiltered reaction afterwards can be the best. Also fun is the occasional moments of nervousness or panic, while fighting a good fish in general. Same applies to me when I'm on that end. Though then, it's me who fails to see it being quite as funny.

I bought some new waders a few weeks back and finally got to try them out. I was hoping to multitask, giving both the waders a rigorous test, and expanding my knowledge of the red ribbon section at the same time, so my plan was to start up at the Hwy 8 Access, and wade all the way down to the confluence with Meramec Springs, since I never made it quite far down that way. Unfortunately I was slow to get going, and by the time I got to the access, and started wading it was around 1:30pm. Some people had been camping on the gravel bar, but they didn't seem to be fishing at the time so I got into the water and first decided to head upstream slowly, up to the bridge and back the first hour. Didn't get much action, but it was pretty cool seeing the clear water and the various schools of smaller fish, and other wildlife and scenery around. For the first time, I actually saw a snake chilling on the bottom of the river. It bugged out after I came close enough to notice it in the clear water. I really just threw rapalas and other jerk and/or crankbaits that day, and in that first stretch I didn't get much action, not even in the deeper backwater by the bridge. I was expecting to get some bites from sunfish and such, and hoping for the odd big trout or bass as well, but my catches in that section amounted to only one decent Rock Bass, and a little longear sunfish. Something bigger might have been chasing stuff around, cause I did see schools of fish jumping out of the water, and heard some splashing. Anyways, after that I slowly made my way downstream, with no luck in the riffle, the run, and then the prolonged slowly deepening riffle with lots of slippery chunk rocks within the first mile. Along the way I saw a good sized snake sunning itself on a rock in the middle of the stream, that I steered away from. Finally I got to a deeper pool that went on for quite a while, and that's where I pretty much caught most of the remaining fish. It was a good mix of smallmouth, various sunfish, rock bass, what I think was a shiner, and some fish with weird bumps on it's head. All of the fish however, were on the short side. About the only ones that were a little better sized (relatively for their species), were the rock bass, and possibly the shiner and weird fish (since I don't know how big they're supposed to get). As the pool ended, I tried my luck in the riffle following it to no avail, then a slow, real shallow "pool", and pretty much made it down to around the campgrounds/picnic tables at Meramec Springs, before I decided that I needed to head back fast, before it got dark. On the way back upstream I didn't fish much, since I had about an hour to cover the 3 miles back upstream, but I did stop again in the deep pool and caught a few more smaller fish there. Still, no trout though. The only trout I did see however, was what looked like a nice 18-20" rainbow that I got to witness jumping out of the water. I'm assuming it had been there a while cause it wasn't real silvery in the mid section, but instead had more of a reddish tint. I also saw a couple of turtles, a flock of turkey vultures, and witnessed a deer crossing the river, which was pretty cool. I still need to make my way up a little bit from meramec springs to where I stopped this time, and then I will actually have scouted out the entire red ribbon section from hwy 8, down to a little below suicide access. By the way, I also saw someone had cleaned what looked like some white bass or hybrid white/striped bass near the gravel bank at the Hwy 8 access, which made me wonder if those are found that far upstream on the Meramec or if someone just decided to stop by and clean his catch from somewhere else?

Same here. Slight preference, but preference nonetheless. darn, I just bought me some waders from there a few weeks ago. Wonder if I could've got them for cheaper had I waited. Though, it's a good thing I looked up the online price listed on their website, or they would've overcharged me by a $100 as I was checking out. At least I'm liking these waders. And hope they hold up, cause if they don't and there's no store to return them to, that would complicate things. Though to be honest, I feel like I've heard people say they'd be closing that store, several times now, and yet it's still open. Hope they keep it that way.

I took a boat out a couple days ago. So far, no complaints with the new owners. Everything seemed pretty much the same as before, including price.

Outdoorsman or just about any other thing. But you did say it perfectly about deer hunters. That being said, I do like to know where I can improve. And easiest way that happens, is if I know someone consistently catches fish where I can't (darn you Unger lake lol). That way I at least know it's not just that the particular body of water is devoid of fish that will bite, even if I'm doing things right.

Hope they'd do it Friday too. That's much more likely to be when I can go.

They got the boats out now?

Not that I'm for killing it in order for it to be a record, but somehow I don't feel like the same fish should be eligible to be a record twice, like the California examples. As a matter of fact that's why I thought they had to "take it out of future contention" once it is a record. I can definitely understand releasing it if it turns out it was shy of the record, but to basically re-use the same fish to up a record weight seems kind of like cheapening the accomplishment. In some fashion, and again, personally I'm for a catch and release alternative, I feel like if verified as a record, it should be removed out of the pool of possible future records. But then again, there's some other things about the whole record process that doesn't make sense for me, such as including private ponds along with public waters as all part of the same record. The way I see it there should be a special distinction between someplace likely to be heavily fished, and someplace where someone can basically feed the fish to a desired size, before catching it as a record. Either way though, that record fish is a beautiful one, no doubt.

I tried to call the "Outpost" but the guy answering made it sound like they're not servicing Busch anymore (something about not getting the contract this year or such). So I don't know who to really call, or if that's even true. Either way, hope the price to rent the boats, and such doesn't change.

Anyone know when they're supposed to be coming out or if they're already out?

I thought they had to kill it to consider it for record contention, for some reason. Is that not the case? Would be kind of cool if they didn't. Maybe there's some other ways that they can ensure the same fish doesn't continue breaking records as it grows.

How's it look, since the tornado? Did it hit the lake any? I've been wanting to go down there again lately.

I went down there Friday with a fishing buddy. We made it there a few minutes after the siren went off, and were fishing after another 6-7 minutes, which was a first for me. I was really happy to get there within that first 15 minutes, but pretty soon my enthusiasm took a nose dive. My buddy caught one 12" on a roostertail and had another bite but get off in that first half hour. I on the other hand managed to not even get a bite from a trout that entire first hot 15-30 minutes, and several hours beyond. Instead I got a little rock bass and sunfish both on a small crankbait. Pretty soon the bite died down for him as well, and we went the next several hours moving slowly downstream without any further bites whatsoever. Then around 11, the proverbial floodgates opened for me, and in short succession I caught a 12", a fat 14", and a little 8 or 9", fishing the run by the bathrooms with small crankbaits. My buddy followed that up with a similar fat 14" tight-lining power bait in that same area, before I caught yet another fat 13" with the crankbaits there again. After that I moved further downstream, and proceeded to catch a healthy but slightly slimmer 14" but this time in slower water, casting upstream from one of the jetties, while my buddy still up at the run, caught another 2 on a crankbait himself, and lost one more. I got a few more bites on the crankbait in slow water, as I made my way down to the next big run, but all of them came unbuttoned pretty much right away. After waiting a bit for some people to leave the next big run, I got my chance and tried the crankbait there too, but despite a few bites, and one in particular from what probably was the strongest rainbow that entire trip, that got off after a little while, no further fish came to hand from there. Eventually other people just started to close in on that spot from all sides, casting where I was casting too, and eventually I decided the place wasn't going to yield anything else, so I let them have it and headed further downstream. One of the last few jetties before the bridge, my friend started getting a hot streak with crankbaits and trout worms, and caught 3, before I caught my 6th one, another regular 12", tying him from a jetty further down, once again on a crankbait. Shortly after that he got one more, that was going to die, so I put that one in the basket too, bringing it to 4 fish for me (he had not brought his stringer and didn't care to keep them) and bringing the fishing day to an end, since he had to head back around 4 anyways. Before I left I decided to release the big 14" that was my 2nd catch, and first fish kept in the basket. But I felt like giving it a bit more of a chance to grow bigger so I released it just downstream of the park boundary in the red ribbon section. It was still pretty lively, and I kept exposure outside of water to a minimum so I hope it did ok and survived. When it swam off it looked like it was doing fine. Overall I caught 6 trout, with half of them quite nice chunky ones with lots of shoulder to them, along with a small rock bass and sunfish. My buddy got 7 trout, with 1 chunky 14" as well, and the rest more along the regular stocking size. He also got a small rock bass as well. In the end it was my best trip during catch and keep season to date, despite me managing to somehow waste the first half hour without so much as a bite. It was also by far the most productive trip with crankbaits I've ever had there. Judging by how thick a lot of those fish were, and how much action the crankbaits were getting I'm almost wondering if the nicer fish didn't come up from the red ribbon area recently. I did see what used to be a nice 16-17" brown dead 2/3rds the way down the spring, which I'm assuming had to have got there from the river.

Judging from the reviews of some of the more expensive brands, I suppose it happens from time to time to them as well, but I got some Bass Pro ones that cost me like 120 in late November, and despite taking care of them, 5 trips or so in, over the course of 3 months, they started leaking on one side like no one's business. Which really kind of sucks when you spend an hour and a half or more driving someplace to go wading, only to find that out. Now on the flip side, I've had some cheap Cabelas that for the most part I just kept carelessly in the car, that cost me like 100 or so, and they're still pretty decent about 2 years now. Though I do suspect they're also leaking slightly. So, I don't know. Maybe the moral of the story is, it's good to have some form of backup waders if you go that far, especially if you go cheap on them.

Yeah I think I'll just save up a little until I can get some decent Simms. Until then I hope my cheap Cabelas ones that I still have, hold out.

I wouldn't worry too much about the unstable bank as I would them fining me for fishing there. That flood did sweep away a ton of bank there, and now it's pretty much a sheer 6-7 foot drop for most of it, but I too would just find the areas that don't look unstable, like around the bridge there. Yeah, the biggest reason I don't fish there much anymore is the Kirkwood parks people. As soon as sunset hits, and sometimes even a bit earlier, they try to get you out of there. At least most of the stl county parks let you stay there for half hour longer, and usually the rangers don't even show up right at that point, and if they do they still don't rush you as much as the Kirkwood ones do. Those guys on the other hand, even closed the gate on me once. They didn't lock it at least so I was able to open it back up and close it behind me, but still, kind of ridiculous when we're talking about an extra 10-15 minutes past sunset. I like fishing the lower meramec more than most lakes and ponds nearby. Mainly just cause of the surprise factor of not knowing what you might catch, and of potentially catching something giant. That being said though, for bass fishing from the bank, it's not easy just cause you usually can't go walk very far before something blocks your path, and even when it doesn't most areas get muddy pretty quick, so it becomes a dirty undertaking. I personally like Unger park a lot. But that being said, I easily caught plenty more other types of fish there than I have bass, and when I have caught those, they've been on the small end.

Not that many when I got there. Though that was basically around 5 with just another hour of fishing left to go. However somehow I still managed to get crowded in by a family of 4-5 that started fishing right around me. Guess they really liked that spot that I was at.

I can't swear to how much Kirkwood parks department cares or not if you cross it, but Emmenegger park has had their bank access taped/cordoned off to use ever since the big flood last winter. They claim the bank is unstable or something. I figured I just don't bother with getting a potential fine so I haven't fished there since that flood. Just a heads up for those thinking of trying it out.

Well, here's my own quick "first week" report. Friday I was off, so after sleeping in and taking my sweet time deciding if it was too late to even bother going towards there, I decided to head that way anyway, and decide on the go just where around there I'd want to fish. Eventually I decided to try wading downstream from the hwy 8 access, as far down towards the springs as I could given that I had another 4 and a half hours before sunset. Pretty soon in, it became apparent to me that my waders were leaking somewhere inside my left boot. I figured I deal with that later since it wasn't a catastrophic leak yet, but as the time passed, and the actual wading got tougher and tougher (surprising how many boulder fields there are on that section of the river), the leak was beginning to irritate me. After making my way a little over half a mile downstream at a slow but steady pace, I decided further wading while having a leak in one boot, is just not going to work, especially with the bottom as slick and difficult to traverse as it was. So I headed back upstream to my car, and even though I had my older waders in the car, I decided it was too late to change into them and give it another try there. Instead I opted to drive a little further down the road, and fish the park from the bank. By the time I started fishing it was about 5 or so. Usually I don't do too hot even when I'm there all day, but to my surprise, fishing a little crappie minnow crankbait, I caught 3 fish, including 2 12" trout, and 1 little sunfish. All near the riffle just down from the fish cleaning station. Both trout were pretty fun fights, but the first one was really feisty for a stocker size fish. It jumped pretty high out of the water several times and took some decent runs. I'm glad I had my drag set a little lower than usual. I'm still surprised it didn't somehow get unbuttoned in all that. Anyways, I also got a bite on a smaller sinking rapala, towards the end, but not near as much action as the little shad colored crank. Not sure if anything hit on the roostertail I had too. Anyways, the park turned out pretty good by my standards, cause coming in people were saying they weren't biting too good, and even in general I always struggle there even when others don't. Btw, I think they had stocked like 700 fish that day. Seemed a little on the low end for the 3rd day of catch and keep season but I'm not real sure of that.

Also, any experiences with Orvis, Hodgman, or Caddis Fly waders? The Simms, unfortunately just seem out of my price range, and the white river stuff, I'm apprehensive about getting the same problems as with the ones I'm returning.

I'm about to try to return some redhead "boot foot" waders (the ones with the boots integrated into the waders right?), that I bought about 3 months back and only used 4 times, because they leaked somewhere in my left boot today. I'm wondering if I should just spend the extra money and try to get some that you actually need to buy boots separately for. Since someone mentioned that you could just use regular hiking shoes, what exactly is the difference between wading boots and regular hiking ones? Could I really hypothetically use my old hiking shoes and have them serve as wading boots, or would I need actual dedicated wading boots? And if you can use hiking boots/shoes, what would be the downside to them compared to wading boots? Are the wading boots somehow warmer, or less likely to damage the foot area of the waders, or more protective of that foot area, or what is it about them exactly that makes them stand out from hiking shoes/boots?

Anyone go down there today, and if so how was it?