Haris122

I don't think I have the finesse to shoot underneath others' lines, and my accuracy is so-so, so I guess I better stay in the less crowded spots. What's some of the most entertaining things you've seen there on opening day?

What you're saying is, put on some more line in the reel, cause it's going to get broke off due to snags with other people? What should we expect as far as fishing etiquette? Short of not fishing, how do we go about not constantly getting tangled with other people?

Cool, hope to see you guys down there.

Actively targeting trout, I usually tend to gravitate between 1/24th and 1/8th but this last trip to Meramec Springs, I even had some, if not more hits on a bigger one too, though I don't remember exactly what size that one was. If I were actively going for White Bass, I think I'd probably take the 1/24th completely out of rotation, and lean a little more on the 1/8th over 1/16th, but that's me. I do sometimes have issues with the smaller blades not spinning but more so in slower water. Sometimes an extra twitch early on in the retrieve, gets it going.

Me and Mike H went to Meramec Springs today, and almost had the entire park to us. We got there a little before the siren went off, and stayed until it blared out again. In that time, I don't think there were more than 2-4 other people there. So the entire park had 4, maybe (though I doubt it) up to 6 people, fishing there total for the day, and we were the only ones that stayed the entire time. It stayed cold the entire day but the fish were cooperating nicely. I caught 8 or so rainbows, while Mike got somewhere between 15-20, with both of us losing quite a few before we could net them as well. I got mine on a variety of single hook roostertails, as well as a jig, but I kind of had to pick my spots with the roostertails, as they tended not to buy it if they had enough to time to look at it real good. Mike got his on an assortment of flies who's names I'm not familiar with. All of the fish fought hard, with several rocketing out of the water a number of times during the fight. About the only thing missing was real big fish, as the ones we caught seemed to range around the usual stocker size or a little bigger. It was really cool to be able to pick whatever spot you wanted to fish, whenever you wanted it. I'm going to try to make it out once more before c&r closes next week, and then I'm planning to finally see what opening day is like for once come March.

I've been having the trout skunk me all winter long at the urban trout lakes. Granted I haven't gone as much as in past winters, but still. My aim is to actually get one of them this winter before they get so rare that it's a pointless venture. With today being the first day of February, and all lakes being open to catch and keep, time is beginning to run thin, it feels like.

As far as here in MO, even if diagnosed correctly, it would probably take a good 10 or more years to even register cases of it. And then it would still be tough to know if it was deer that did it. Like I said, it transferred from cows to humans, I dont doubt it will transfer from deer to humans.

I don't think mdc said the disease isn't transmissible to human beings, in fact, over time, they've been saying more and more that there's a good chance it is, cause it's transmissible to monkeys. If essentially the same disease jumped from cows to humans, good chance it can jump from deer to humans. I think that's mainly why the mdc is so serious about the disease. It's not like ehd or something else, that takes it's course, and kills off what it kills off, then essentially disappears until the next outbreak. It just keeps increasing in prevalence (there's very little to no resistance to it), even if it's a slower death for the deer, it's very difficult to eliminate from the environment, and unlike most animal diseases, it has the potential to directly affect a chunk of the human population too.

What gift shop was that from?

I was about to head there today, but then I tore a muscle playing indoor soccer last night. Sounds like I had the right idea. How long did it take to bring in those 21 inchers?

You know I didn't even pay attention to that. I want to say yes, but not 100% on that.

I got off work early yesterday and stopped by Unger to check the river out there. Up by the bend and who knows how far upstream of Greentree Access, the entire width of the river seemed frozen over. A bit downstream from the bend south towards Fenton, there were some sections where the main channel was still opened up. I cast out there a while but got nothing, not that I was expecting any bites anyways. Just upstream of the 44 bridge, at Emmenegger, it looked all froze over again, and back open some a little downstream of the 44 bridge. Mini Ha Ha seemed like a good spot, cause just downstream of the ramp, there was a decent size stretch that seemed completely open, even right by shore.

Man, that's a pretty wide stretch of the river too, to freeze up completely. Granted current does appear to slow down some there too, so that probably is why it did it in the first place. You walk downstream any further? Before I got sidetracked, I decided to check it out last week at some point, and the river was still pretty open at the little accesses further down the trail.

Was the entire width of the river frozen over?

I forget how cold it was a few years back, but I went out to Busch and caught a few fish ice fishing. It was pretty cool. This cold spell I haven't been able to do anything cause I've been down with a cold or flu or something, since early last week, alongside a really annoying ear infection. It's really getting old. When I get over this, I'm looking forward to heading back out. I think had I been at full strength, as long as there's no wind, I would've tried my luck even in this weather for at least a few hours on a couple occasions. But with some serious wind, forget it. That stuff just drains the energy right out of me.

That’s badass. Smashed right through the ice.

Me and MikeH hit up the red ribbon section on Tuesday. We started from just below Meramec Springs in the morning, and made the way down to cardiac by about 3pm , and then headed back up with an occasional stop to fish, and got back to the park shortly before they close. I didn't do too hot, with a total of about 5 fish, most smaller Browns, with a small rainbow thrown in too, but my first fish being a nice 14" Brown Trout that I got on a Rapala Husky Jerk. I don't know if it was the cold, or if the fish was just getting active for the day, but I was a little disappointed with the sluggish fight it put up for it's size. It took me a little to get it to net, but it didn't really go on any runs one way or the other. It just kind of went belly up and continued to shake it's head as I reeled it in. Part of that though might have been because the rear treble hooked into it at the bottom of the head near the gill rakers, probably right as it hit the lure and then tried to shake it off. Wish it would've just got hooked in the mouth. Probably would've fought a lot harder that way. Anyways, I unhooked it quick and it didn't act any worse for the wear after it as it swam off. It was one of a few fish I ever got retrieving a jerkbait the proper way (or at least what I think is the proper way). Mike did better while fly fishing, with 2 nicer Rainbows and more catches in general to show for it. It's been a while I fished that section of the red ribbon area, and going from my memory it seems as if a couple of good spots changed for the worse since that flood. Granted there's also been at least 1 spot that seems to have gotten better but my favorite spot that I've caught my best fish at several times there now, has changed for the worse (in my thinking at least), because the tree that was there got pushed more parallel to the channel than it was before. As Mike commented though, considering how bad the flood was, for the most part that stretch seems to have changed only a little. As an aside, there was like 3 or 4 signs of someone having a little fire on the gravel banks, as if they camped overnight alongside the river, and whether it's related to that or not, I'm not sure, but near the confluence with dry fork, we saw what looked like a few dead fish on the bottom, and one of which that I could see a little better seemed almost as if it was filleted out. It was in too deep water to see very accurately, and since it was real cold I decided not trying to reach for it in the water, but bottom line was that it also looked under 15", so if it was a trout, someone probably kept some they weren't supposed to. I hope to make it out soon again, hopefully after aquasealing whatever areas leak in my waders, successfully. I had hoped I had done that this time, but by the end of the trip I could tell the layer of sweatpants contacting the waders was still pretty damp by the end of it.

Wouldn’t be against some smaller more remote sections of rivers closed off for their protection. Might do the fish some good too, having refuges that might actually get more serious protection. Of course, that is if they actually protect said areas.

As far as the DO problems go, do less but bigger trout actually mean less DO consumption overall, or do they use up a comparable amount of DO as a similar biomass of them but distributed over a greater number of trout.

How did that sucker fight?

Any luck?

Sadly it outsmarted me. Not the first or last time. I distinctly remember one time this summer there, I had thrown out a rod with a circle hook and shrimp, and let it sit while I was messing with my new-to-me casting net. I'd walk off 30-40 feet or so to see if I could teach myself how to effectively throw the net, and without fail for an hour or so, a fish would take off with the shrimp I had on the rod there, and drop it again in the time it took me to run back. I'd wait, nothing. Check the bait, still there. Throw it back out, hold on, wait, nothing. Drop it back in the rod holder and wait, nothing. Finally I go back to throwing around the casting net, at which point it would take it and run with it, only to drop it as I got back to the rod. And that went on for a good hour and a half or so.

It didn’t offend me. I was just curious what kind of things happened. I know some of us do some pretty ignorant things sometime. Just how it is, happens with a lot of people. I was just interested to hear what went down.

I got my first one ever, deep in weldon spring ca, several years ago. Even had a little dolly I used as a deer cart, and it took me forever to get him up and along the main ridge and out to the road. Told myself I wouldn’t do that again. Then this year I hunt another ca the first 5 days, and only see one deer. Having been picked for the 2nd weekend managed rifle hunt at Weldon I decided to go to the same place again. I get one that Sunday and find myself repeating the same journey. At least I didn’t have to leave him there overnight like the first time, but I had him gutted and the dolly brought to the spot by 11, and still didn’t make it back to the parking lot until maybe half an hour before sunset. I tracked it this time with the aid of my fitbit and it came out to be 2 miles, with the majority of that in thick brush and woods.

What problems have you had BilletHead? I’m curious since I’m part of that tribe.