Haris122

That's how it unfolded for me today (as in the unsuccesful trip). I went to the shooting range, it was packed with an hour long wait (kind of feared that to be the case), so I said to hell with it and went up to Route 66 State Park instead. I don't think I fished the same section moguy did, cause I just went by the boat ramp and a spot nearby I'm familiar with. I only had 40-50 minutes to do it so I just kind of threw a spinnerbait and flicker shad cause that was all I had handy that I was confident in. Nothing happened. Got a few bites on the flicker from some small sunfish that couldn't get hooked on the trebles, and potentially something else small that got away, but that was the extent of the action. I did witness some small bass ambushing a school of minnows of some sort. That was pretty interesting to see. I think after next week I need to kayak the meramec near there. It looks like a cool area for kayak fishing.

darn man, I'm so jealous. I had thought of dropping by 66 State Park tomorrow after practicing shooting at Jay Henges one last time before deer season. I don't think I'll make it but that is a sweet fish. I can't see real good on that pic for the length, that was 20" right?

Suson too got stocked yesterday, in case anyone cared. I agree that winter trout fishing isn't as fair or wild as river or lake fishing, but if you're short on time, and there's a stocked park close, at least there's some good chance of getting some action. Later on when it gets colder, it's going to be even more of a crucial option. But even now it's fun to catch them. It's not the most fair form of fishing, and essentially they got no way out of dying one way or another, but while they're there, even they get tricky to catch after a few days of serious pressure that follows each stocking. There's been many days I haven't seen anyone catch much even though there were plenty of people trying. On top of eating one from time to time, I also like seeing them. Think they're pretty cool fish, and going all the way down to Meramec springs or further, is not nearly as much an option as going to a local park. Most of the time I let the ones I catch go anyways even at the catch and keep lakes.

Anyone know if they started stocking the trout in the local (St. Louis) lakes today? I called the hotline, but can't get any information from it yet.

Congratulations.

Not that it's all that much trouble, but this is what it boils down to. And it would be very careless if it did. I personally prefer getting the license printed out at a store. It feels more official, and like less of a hassle when someone else does it. It's stupid that they're basically telling you, you have to have a computer or smart phone first, before you can get yourself a $12 fishing license. Plus printing out stuff yourself, just seems more prone to forgery. The person can find or make some template and just change a few things, and bam, there they go (at least it seems that way to me). I've never had any of the few agents I've met, really check/compare my license in depth to some database of theirs, that could tell them whether I'm giving them a forgery or not. At least with their printers it makes it a little more difficult to find all materials to exactly replicate it. Whereas just a piece of regular printer paper takes no effort to start the forging process. I would prefer they would still only be doing the printout ones, as long as someone doesn't have to be burdened to drive all over town to get one. I think that's really the only potentially big downside with the printout ones. You need to have a car or some means of transportation to get someplace where you can buy the license. But it would prevent people from not intentionally getting one, and then buying one on their smart phone once they see the agent checking others' licenses on down the shore.

True, it just seems that a lot of people on ozark anglers, catch plenty close or bigger than that on a frequent basis. So it might not be quite as big a high anymore for them. Here's the pictures of it finally.

Yeah, I was surprised they stopped renting them before this upcoming weekend. Wish they would've at least let you rent it until 7 or 8 like usual. I didn't see why they needed them in by 3 pm. But yeah, I still need to work out how to get the picture posted.

I meant to go to Meramec Springs today but things didn't work out quite as hoped so I opted for bush ca. Good thing I called first cause it turned out that today was their last day this year that they rented boats and even then only until 3. As a matter of fact we may have been the last boat rented out this year. Anyways me and my gf opted to go to 35 since we didn't have much time to work with while we had the boat so it was closer than my other choice, lake 33. Despite the annoyingly excessive amounts of milfoil or whatever plant that is in much of that lake, I managed to get 2 bass. Nothing really impressive but certainly good for me, with one closer to 13", the other to 12.5". Got the bigger one on a shallow diving but elongated crank bait looking like a purplish shad, and the other one on a white beetlespin. My gf got a 7" sunfish of some sort on a white rooster tail. Anyways, since we had to return the boat key by 3, we opted to try 33 by the spillway afterwards. I got a 6 or 7" crappie on the same bettlespin, then she got a small 7" bass on the same rooster tail, followed by me getting another 12.5-13" bass on yellow one after that. Anyhow, since she was getting hungry we were maybe 7 minutes from leaving when I hooked my biggest bass yet, on a flicker shad. I got the hit not far from shore and it still gave me quite the struggle for a good minute if not 2, but thankfully it stayed hooked until I got it in. Anyways 17" might not be that impressive for some of you but for someone that probably never even broke past the 14" mark on largemouth it was quite the high to finally have coaxed out on of those big lake 33 LM. I'll try to get a picture of it up tomorrow if my phone cooperates.

Mitch I have gotten better about it, noticeably so, but I still am not one to pull out impressive catches. That day, I had got a bite from a little black bass, but it got off, and that was the extent of my action for the 2-3 hours I fished. I occasionally catch a decent fish or numbers of them, and sometimes even numbers and decent size together (today I caught 5 fish at Bush wildlife, most around 12.5-13, and my by far biggest Largemouth Bass to date at 17"). But by and large it's usually 1 to 3 smallish fish here and there. As far as what I do, it's hard for me to pinpoint it. First I try to target spots that look to me like they should hold fish, then I tend to throw the kitchen sink all over nondescript spots, and then back again to the spots that look good. Generally I don't catch much in deeper water far from shore though. Sometimes I am limited by how far I can move up and down or where to cast, other times I'm either in a friend's boat, or my kayak, or a bank where freedom of movement isn't a problem. Especially if I'm mainly fishing for catfish and such, I will throw something out and tight line it and leave it in rod holder. But usually I'm actively fishing in the meantime for whatever will hit. My lures that I have most faith in nowadays, tend to be in-line spinners, shallow spinner baits, crappie tubes on a 1/32 oz jig head under slip bobber, and certain crank baits. The ones I do worst with tend to be bass jigs, most top waters aside from torpedoes and buzz baits, and a lot of the soft plastics. I think it just doesn't come as natural to me as to a lot of folks, so my learning is slower paced.

darn those are some real sweet fish. I spent some time from 4-6:45 this afternoon fishing the meramec at Unger again and struck out. Then I see you guys with those monsters. It's a humbling feeling. Haha

Was the water low enough to be able to travel the bank much smalliebigs? Most times I've been there, I've only been able to fish right by the boat ramp, and just a little further upstream of it.

Anyone been down there or to the special trout area downstream of Meramec Springs lately? And if so how did it go. I've been thinking of going down there soon, possibly this weekend if things work out.

I had me a nice Hybrid/Wiper or real nice White Bass Wednesday afternoon on the Meramec at Unger Park. Thing was maybe 13-14" but it was a really fat football shaped one at that. Fought me real good and for a little while longer than a lot of recent catches on a medium rod. It never jumped so it had me wondering if it was a carp or cat at first, cause it just kept dogging against me underwater, never to even surface until I pulled it to shore. I got it on a spinnerbait with a small plastic minnow on the hook portion. First time in a while I got one in more pressured waters with that lure. Aside from that I got a little drum there as well, but that was on a worm so it wasn't much of an accomplishment. All in all it was good fishing in a small amount of time relative to my usual success rate at that location. Don't have any pictures, cause the drum was small, and the hybrid squirmed out of my hand and into the water after I got the hook out and was reaching for my phone. Didn't even wait for me to get the measuring tape out. But it was a welcome fight, I'll say that.

Anyone attend the one today at powder valley? I wanted to go see what people are discussing but didn't make it.

How did that buffalo fight in comparison to the bass?

Sweet Fish.

Been in a small fish funk myself much of this year. Pretty much every trip I go I can bring in a few Green Sunfish. Problem is, most of the time that's all I catch, and even then not big for Green Sunfish even. Wish I start getting on some decent sized fish on a regular basis again.

Sweet. Did you look for any crappie while up there.

Sweet fish man.

I'm trying to think where on the lower meramec this is but can't quite pin it down. Isn't by any chance just upstream of the 141 bridge?

I wish I could head out there again this weekend, since I didn't get to fish it any that monday. At the same time I do need to start scouting areas for deer hunting pretty soon, before it gets too late.

The annual prospect report for Mark Twain this year mentioned that you'd have to go through a lot more smaller fish to get enough big ones, compared to the last few years, I just didn't think it would be that hard that you'd go through 100 fish without a single even crossing into the 10 mark. I expected not getting many big ones but I still hoped I'd get 4-5 at 10" or bigger, that I could take home. In the end I just released everything back again but truthfully even last fall none of us caught anything over 10", and even the 10s were few and far between. First time out I could not get anything besides crappie to bite, and even them not easily. This time was a bit different but I still didn't have much variety, and all of them were relatively small ones. I'm surprised I didn't get any white bass or at least a few more regular bass. Cause I did try trolling a crankbait behind me as I paddled between spots. Maybe it was diving too deep, since I saw 2 schools of small shad near the surface, but nothing hit a roostertail fished on top around them either. I need to learn how to catch more different types of fish, and bigger fish in general. I think had I been able to fish that first day, the 2nd I would've got more adventurous in what I try. Next time I'll force myself to try to catch any one species of fish, with at least 2 if not 3 different methods while I'm up there. As many of them as there are, at least the Crappie should cooperate.

I headed out towards there late Monday morning with my kayak, and literally 5 minutes from the cabins got a phone call that someone had got into an accident driving their car into my sister's front porch somehow and that my dad needed help putting up support beams so the porch roof doesn't collapse. So I offloaded the kayak, and headed back to St. Louis, barely just getting to see the lake before I went back. Finally after finishing that up, I headed back up there, reaching my room at cannondam cabins right at midnight. Yesterday I got up early, but still didn't make it out on the water until 6:30. Anyways, water was a decent olive color, and pretty clear from what I hear about Mark Twain usually. Fished mainly around the smaller coves right by the Ray Behren ramp. First fish turned out being best one. A 11" Largemouth that fought on the light action rod like he was a lot bigger. The rest of the time there I got 5 Green Sunfish, mainly smaller ones, and 4 White Crappie. 3 of 4 being only 7", and the "big" one being 8". Green Sunfish I got both in deep crappie-looking water, and in shallow bass looking water. The crappie I too got between 8-13 feet but mainly in water not much deeper than that. Had to get back to St. Louis by 4 so got to the ramp and secured the kayak, and headed out by 2. I was pretty happy the way the fishing started. Unfortunately the bite died down some after the first 2-2.5 hours. Still, relatively satisfied with the trip overall, since I didn't have to relive the defeat from the first trip. 10 fish is pretty good for me numbers wise in that amount of time, just wish they would've been a little bigger. One thing I will say, Mark Twain Lake sure looks nice, and on a clear night the stars up there do too.

I would wager that if the majority of the people living today primarily lived off the land, even in the manner you do, eating animals that most nowadays would look down upon eating, within a little bit of time, even the ones better at it like you would still find yourself in a tough situation to continue living off of it successfully. Nowadays sure, you can pull it off especially if you grew up learning it like you, but if you had most of the people that live in cities, towns, suburbs, as well as even more in the rural areas doing it alongside you, instead of eating chicken and other stuff raised in a facility full of them, pretty soon you'd even run out of racoon, squirrel, and suckers. If those reality shows about Alaskans are anything near true, then even they have a hard enough time with it, without having to contend with a neighbor to compete harvesting something first against, for several tens if not hundreds of miles. I'm all for some reasonable accommodations for the animals we grow to eat, I'm just saying "living off the land" is probably a bit over-romanticized and for different reasons than what people are willing to eat.