LunkerB

Hit the blue ribbon area yesterday morning. Pulled up to the access about 8. The valley was completely snow covered and the river discharge up by the park was running about 230. The first four fish that I caught were browns, Two of which were in the 3# range and the other two in the 2# range. what a start. from there I continued to catch fish. All said and done I picked up about 20 fish in the morning, 10 browns and 10 stocker size rainbows. I then decided to head up to the park and fish form the spring branch down to the hole above the spillway. It started off slow but picked up the farther down I was from the spring. Ended up picking up about 12 more fish on this stretch between 1-3:30pm. Went to the lodge and had some amazing fried catfish and made up my mind that I would finish the day below the cable. Dropped in and started cathcing small rainbows and ended up catchin five more by the time that I got to the second bend with the boulders. All fish were released healthy and a little smarter. It was a great day on the current which was needed, the last two times I was there the fish were not biting and I could see them. Another cool thing was on the levee by the retention ponds there was five wild horses that were hanging out when I was fishing there in the evening, it was pretty cool. Ive got pictures and will upload them when I get home later.

Foreigners, especially Asian foreigners, that migrate here dont usually follow game laws. Ive seen it at Busch Wildlife. I have a budy who saw a bunch of asians filling five gallon buckets of fish out of sinking creek and the current river, he thinks it was the folks from the Asian restaurant in salem coming to get fish to sell at the restaurant. What a joke. Not to sound rascist but if you see asians fishing in your area keep an eye on em they might have a bucket full of smallies.

Yea, actually selling the eggs for caviar is probably unethical but selling or trading them with other states or countries to be used to stock a fishery sounds better to me.

Sell em up! Why not. Make money to pay for other things. I live not far from the mississippi and know some snaggers that tear em up beneath the Dam. Spoonies are some of the best eating fish out there I promise you that!

Whitetail deer and turkeys were reintroduced and restocked into missouri from indian trails cons. area from 1930 through 1960 giving us the chance to hunt deer and turkey all over the state. Of course you cant tell some Ol' fools that. They are just opposed to anything govt other than financing bombmaking and drones or cocaine and H reintroduction. Im all for the Elk, every time they breed the number gets cut in half. Dont tell yolo. Did anyone think of how the game camera got put there? Or did the elk just die in front of the camera? It was probably just put there to see what came up.

I fished outside the Park on Monday. IMO the fishing was nowhere near last winter. I doubt I spotted as many fish as I caught last winter around this time. I guess they have not began to stock the browns yet and not to many rainbows below baptist. I caught one two pound rainbow and a 14" brown and was satisfied. I just wonder if a lot of the fish died over the summer or if it has been over fished by worm chuckin rednecks.

That Bearded guy is always out there beatin the crap out of em. Ive been there twice to witness him catch a couple hoggs.

Early October this year, Fish the higher water from a boat, the more generation for longer the better IMO. Throw big jigs when they are running all units.

I think that cost is higher than it should be. One of my best friends growing up had over 300 elk on his family farm in St. Paul MO. I doubt they paid over a thousand or two for an elk. They used the antlers to make some kind of supplement that the chinamen would take to make their peckers hard like an elk antler.

Me and my buddy "Uncle Pauly" hit the bell monday. Started at the rock spillway down from the springhole throwing 1/16th oz maribou jigs in peach and sculpin with yellow heads, We each caught between 8 to 10 fish in the 10 to 14 inch range. Pleased with the good start, we made our way up to the spring hole where we each picked up one more. We then decided to take a break and head down towards the end of zone one, just up from the big spillway. We changed up and I put on a bedspread 1/16 oz jig and paul tied on a peach glowball. I added about five more on the bedspread working up and paul added quite a few more than I did following right behind me. The water was so low and clear that he could see the bites the trout would give the glowball and he would set the hook every time. We decided to leave the park and go hit up moon valley for smallmouth around 11. I was throwing a black and yellow maribou jigs and caught two 10 inch smallies, a wonderful lunchtime suprise. Pauly barely fished and was scouring gravel bars for Daltons. Even more pleased than before we decided to try fishing the confluence with the Niangua area. The recent moss cutting sent a lot of debris down that way so we decided to fish around the bridge a little. We each added one more on either side of the bridge throwing jigs. Feeling out of our element we headed up to the hatchery outlets by the bluff in zone two and worked our way up. I was still throwing the bedspread and paul went back to the glowball in the slower water. We each caught more fish and by this point we lost count and did not care because we each had 20 or more fish for the day but we still worked our way up to the spillway and bridge area. Under the bridge below the spillway at the end of zone 1 was one of the deeper holes and while fishing it from behind I spotted what was easily a 8 to 10lb submarine. It nearly bumped me off my spot and lurked back down into the hole to not be seen again. By now it was 4 and we had 3.5 hrs to drive so we left feeling great about the daytrip. Bennett never fails even though it is not at its prime it was still excellent and I truly believe that it will only get better in the next couple of years after hatchery completion. I dont see how it could get worse with a hatchery the size of shepard of the hills.

The trend of such beautiful, big fish being caught and also released is exciting. It makes me want to pack the truck and head out!

Driving a Kia Sedona with Kansas plates and illegally catching and keeping fish is a felony. Or should be

Maybe otters have tried snagging em up.

Cool. I have always overlooked the lower meramec and might have to hit it.

A friend of mine caught one around 4lbs and another around 6lbs last week. Both released. If the catch and release fisherman catch those big fish and release them, they will be a little more finicky than the last time they were caught and might make it through. Not to mention this river is stocked by two different hatcheries so by winter when I like to fish it, It is prime and all the woMEN are at home because it is too cold to fish. No worries here.

Yeah he told someone to move, "get your fat a** out of the way, im fishin!..please"

Looks great! Can not wait to get back to the North fork.

Your Idea seems good to me. I fish above and below the cable and wouldnt mind a 20", one brown limit. At least a 18", one brown limit to the handicapped spillway. I also agree that the trout are not native and are there for put and take as well, but I would like the oppurtunity to catch bigger fish too

That is a beast!

Wow, These smallies are impressive. I need to get out.