Haris122

I read that there's supposed to be some type of meeting in Arnold or something, with MSD and some local council people or something regarding the sewage effluent. Apparently since a lot of the municipalities downstream of Fenton are in Jefferson county, they want MSD to fix it sooner, and think (rightly or wrongly) that they're dragging their feet on it.

Looks good, I don't suppose that was filmed in Missouri?

What's that method? The aquarium looking thing.

Good stuff. I think a very helpful thread. I always try to grab a fish so it's basically resting by the belly on my hands but with trout that gets difficult because they squirm so much. And crappie end up finning me in the thumb from the dorsal fin. Al how much harm do you think it does when you keep the fish out of the water for 10-15 seconds while getting the hook out and then holding it back underwater for like 4-5 seconds and then taking it back out and continuing, if you still haven't got the hook out right away.

I wish there was some kind of sticky topic (maybe in conservation section at that) that basically goes over all that. Including studies that reinforce the most important points. I know they say especially after a prolonged fight, keeping the fish out of water for as little as 20-25 seconds can seriously cut the chance of it surviving (wonder how dipping it in for a few seconds and then continuing the hook removal affects that, cause hopefully it's that many seconds continuously, instead of total regardless of time intermittently put back in water). Yeah, fish are just that hardcore. But yeah, no doubt, you're basically getting high off of the frantic life and death struggle of something. I try to justify it as educating them, for further survival. Ultimately they'd rather get caught and released by me, then either be caught for good from not knowing not to bite a lure, or be "released" by someone who cares even less about taking the necessary precautions to ensure it survives afterwards.

While you guys are on that topic, I remember while reading about catch and release mortality (was trying to make sure I do what I need to for the ones I let go, to keep them as permanently unharmed as I can), that there's quite a few countries in Europe where it's illegal to do catch and release fishing. Apparently, for ethical reasons. I can see their point because of the countless number of people that "release" in as sloppy and careless a manner that the fish might as well be dead already, but seriously, I don't see how proper catch and release is that bad. Yeah, you're kind of getting a rush from the panicked struggle of something fighting for it's life but in the end if you let it go, I think they'd still prefer to have got scared senseless for a minute, than to basically be suffocating to death for several minutes instead. That being said, If I'm ready to head out, and I've got some on a stringer in the water, I'm going to smash them across the head with something and hopefully take them out quick.

Last firearm deer season I had a spot picked out that was on the opposite side of a creek. Well, by the 2nd day of my hunt it had rained so much that I couldn't cross the creek without getting my feet wet. Well genius I was I decided to try to cross over it by walking over a fallen tree. Didn't end up good. Luckily I had spare clothes in the car, so after changing them I decided not to try it again. Anyways, didn't see anything, but on the way back I managed to dunk in a 2nd time in a ditch only 6 feet across, that had started flowing too while I was sitting to ambush the deer. I tried to cross it the exact same way, right before getting to my car. After 5 days I got a deer, and I felt like I definitely earned it after stuff like that.

What access were they at?

Where in the park did you go for a swim? Anyone know if we are still able to enter the red ribbon area just downstream from the park, through the park, while the park is closed to trout fishing?

good question, makes me wonder too now that people can keep everywhere. I guess cause of the weather Suson Park wasn't quite as bad. Yesterday afternoon not too many people were there but hardly anyone seemed to be catching anything either. today was a little heavier and a select couple people seemed to catch them slowly but surely, including my gf. I got skunked both days. As well as on the Mississippi in Cliff Cave Park. Tossed out shrimp at a wingdam both on a bottom rig and suspended by a slip bobber but nothing even so much as bit.

I guess that would explain why the water at Unger Park a few days ago didn't look too bad. So I can't tell, are you and hogwally just bs-ing about the water quality below hwy 30, or do you actually mean it.

darn that sucks. I don't doubt I will go before that a few more times, but definitely not frequently like I normally do.

I guess when you put it that way, it really doesn't seem like much of an impact.

Yeah, I actually don't live too far from that I think. Gravois creek is the name I believe, but I think that actually dumps into the mississippi, or river des peres, not the meramec. And supposedly it's not constantly carrying untreated sewage, just in high water events, yet most of the time it tends to be a relatively small creek that's pretty dry in a lot of the stretches I see. Now an entire municipal sewer districts worth directly, for several months, that seems like it should have some negative effects on them. Would some stretch of hot weather (not entirely impossible if it lasts until May to fix) cause the extra load of bacteria to use up so much oxygen that most of this stretch ends up with a serious fish kill though? Especially in backwaters and slower current areas where that stuff might accumulate over the months it takes to fix the plant?

Crap. What kind of damage is 4+ months worth of raw sewage effluent going to do to the fish population in the lower Meramec?

Well, yes they do but it's not posted yet (it's going to be interesting to see how they handle little indirect backwater lakes like that as far as signage goes). I was saying that to this friend of mine that wanted to go there, but he seemed to have his mind set on going there regardless. Since he hadn't got out in a bit, the whole point was to go fishing with him, so I said whatever, and secretly hoped Butler wasn't as bad as the Meramec proper was supposed to be. I just tried to minimize touching the fishing line as much as possible.

Went to Butler Lake today. Didn't get much but actually was expecting nothing at all. Ended up with a fat 13" Largemouth on a Beetlespin around 9. One of my two friends caught a 9" White Crappie towards noon on a swimbait, and that was the extent of our success there. The actual lake didn't seem particularly dirty (no distinct sewage smell) by Butler Lake standards but that's not saying much. The shoreline around it however was peppered with even more trash than usual.

Well levee designation aside, I fished at Butler Lake today, and aside from an even more generous peppering of trash than usual (which is saying something), it didn't seem to smell any different than usual. So that's a bright spot. Fishing didn't seem to be much affected for the better since the floods (1 fish for me personally, and 1 for 1 of my fishing buddies in about 4+ hours), so probably not many made it in there I'm guessing.

Jackdizo, I haven't hooked into any moster smallies yet, but the small ones have been some nice fighters no doubt. Equal length wise it's pretty close between the two so far, even though my sample size is restricted to smaller fish. But I have only caught a few smallies in comparison to trout, and with the trout there's definitely some that just give up and others that just fight you every inch of the way, whereas both the smallies I got recently weren't going down without a fight. I got a 15" rainbow below dry fork monday that just would not give up. Also had a little smaller brown that just fought me real good. But lately the bigger Rainbows I hook into, have just been acting like beasts. One of the funniest things I remember was a small 8-9" rainbow at Meramec Springs once just launching out of the water like 3-4 feet to get the hook out. And it got it done.

Sweet, good reports. Jackdizo, which fought best, the trout or the smallies (presuming equal size)?

As far as I can remember it's a 9 pound common carp from the Meramec river. Though there was also a similar sized channel cat from the Missouri river that I didn't weight but seemed close. Both on a medium-heavy rod with 20 pound line. Also had a nice Blue cat once in Illinois that might have nudged out the Missouri top ones so far.

Yeah I figured that's what 500 year levy meant, but most of the record levels for this one were what, like inches higher than the records for the onefrom 93 (or whatever year that was). So the statistics on that claim seem dubious, or something changed in the frequency for really bad floods.

Yeah, more than a bit late. And the 500 year levy claims also seem a bit dubious.

Yeah sounds like a fun idea. I just don't think I could convince any of my fishing buddies to do that. It's a lot of work. I waded like a mile or so from a little downstream of cardiac up to dry fork and then another mile back, and even that was pretty exhausting. I imagine it would be pretty rough to have to do it for the 4+ miles between suicide and scott's ford, but at least all of it would be going downstream, not fighting the current half the time. In the end though I imagine I'd either have to kayak it or just wade some from each direction and then wade back to the access, and just not cover all of it. I imagine like gavin said, at some point I'd come across water that's too deep to continue wading through anyways to get all the way from end to the other.