riverrat

Thanks for the tips Al. I think I'm learning more about fishing this year than I ever did by just fishing. I'll Be glad when I finally get the time to perfect all the new techniques.

Rastus states in his post that he is going after Labor Day so boat traffic shouldn't that great.

Fished the smallmouth management area Saturday. We had torrential rains in the few hours before daylight. Under normal circumstances I would have canceled, but it takes an act of congress for me to get on the river this year so I went anyway. The river at the put in point was clear except for where a small wash entered the river upstream a ways. This created a mud line about 1/4 of the river. We would be fighting these conditions all day. I caught a 14" largemouth running a buzzbait subsurface in the put in eddy. My buddy caught a 16" LM about the same time running a buzzbait on top. Tried fishing the mud line with no luck. Below the first shoal the muddy water mixed making the river dingy. Had a few blowups on the buzzbait and some little dinks were slapping my sammy. Tried various lures with no success. Finally outran some of the mud into clear water only to run up on 3 other boats. Tied on a green pumpkin fluke and caught 3 smallies 12-14". Had 3 smallies 16-18 grab the fluke and run towards me by the time I caught up to them(close enough that I could see them in dingy water) they spit it out. The last 2/3 of the float was muddy. I still enjoyed myself even under these conditions. We only landed 20 fish between us with 4 of them being spots. Muddy water conditions are not presently in my bag of tricks.

Thanks Wayne, I'm going to pick your brain some more. Do you use Power Pro on your sammys, and what size. I tried braids when they first came out and had trouble with the visibility on bottom bouncing baits, in my opinion it does make a difference. I also tried the line on jerkbaits and had trouble adjusting to the no stretch. Is the no stretch hard to get used to when walking the dog?

I sent you a PM

The post is right $16.00, but they catch fish. If I could get a penny on the dollar for lures in my basement that don't catch fish, I could easily buy a lifetime supply of Sammys.

A Sammy is a topwater "walk the dog" bait similiar to a Spook, but with a lot different action. I've only used it on this one float so I'm not an expert, but I already like it better than a Spook, which I've used for years. It's made by Lucky Craft for 16 bucks a piece. I believe it comes in 4 different sizes.

O.K. I think I have most of this figured out, only because of where I'm from. I might listen to this album at a later date and maybe on a public radio station.

I have a golden retriever that sheds a lot, plus the older I get the more I shed. Could this be a 2sheds?

Floated a long, tiring 13.6 miles from Hwy 17 to Riddle Bridge today. The reason I float so far is I really like this section of the river and don't know any accesses to make it shorter. The sky was overcast until about 1:00. The river was low and clear for mid August. I started out with a spook, my buddy his usual buzzbait. I wasn't getting any hits on the spook so I switched to a buzzbait. We caught several small ones early, and I tried Wayne's tip to run it subsurface with no luck-I'll keep trying it. Switched to a fluke with no luck. Caught a few on a Salty Sinker. About 11:00 I tied on a Sammy I had purchased last night. Made me nervous fishing with an expensive lure in a river full things trying to take it away from me. I liked it from the first cast-easy to walk and action that looks like a shad or minnow in trouble, easy pickings for a bass. About the 3rd cast the fish told me they liked it too. The numbers today weren't that great 52 bass with 18 over 12". The bigger fish were 2 largemouth @18" 1@17"; 1 smallmouth @18" 2@16". We only caught 3 spots.

Thanks Wayne. This is right my alley floating the river and trying new tactics. I'll post a report tomorrow night. I've got this feeling so I think I'll bring a camera along.

Wayne thanks for the input, I have a few questions. I've never tried a subsurface buzzbait. I usually use a 1/4 oz buzzbait, should I use a heavier one? Also I've noticed that you prefer a Sammy to a spook, I've never used one and would like to know what different action it has than a spook.

After a 1 month hiatus, I'm finally able to go fishing tomorrow. I plan on taking a 14 mile float so I can't use bottom bouncing baits. I'll be using a buzzbait, fluke, spook, and torpedo. Any other suggestions? Thanks Riverrat

Speaking of herons, about ten years ago I stocked a dozen grass carp in my buddy's pond as a birthday present. A couple of weeks later I saw a heron gulp down 2 of them at $4.50 a gulp. Maybe we could convince MDC to do a study on how to control heron populations and use Taney as the test program. I would suggest raiding the nests for eggs and to help defray costs concerned trout fisherman could volunteer. To keep from wasting the eggs maybe we could have a heron egg cooking contest. Any volunteers on judging the contest?

Its one of the sounds of the river so I would.

Kyle, Thanks for the report. Sorry the fishing wasn't better. I think your trip last year was the exception. There are two outfitters on this section and they don't make money by keeping people off the river. During the week it's a completely different world. I've fished the lower 60 miles of the Big Piney and in my opinion, Six Crossings to Ross Bridge is the best as long as you don't try it on the weekend.

Cory, the Senkos I use are "fatter" than the ones you have shown. Chompers make a Salty Sinker which works better for me than the Senko.

I'm heading down to the Big Piney for a floater with some friends the second weekend in July. I usually hit the smallies on a sneaky pete with my five weight fly rod, however, I'm thinking about taking a spin rod with me also. Can anyone tell me what kind of plastics I need to throw at them. Any help is appreciated. Kyle Did you go?

Wow, thats not even the article I was referring to. I was worried about him that day. Theres another article in the life section. I promise to take computer lessons from the kid across the street.

Have you read Brigman's article today? Would someone who is more computer literate than I please post a link to the story. Thanks Riverrat

I got my answer on smallmouth bass stocking this morning. I must say everyone I talked to at MDC was very helpful in tracking down this answer. They were doing a study on smallmouth spawning and returned the brood stock to the river and instead of wasting the fry they brought them along.

Has anyone ever heard of MDC stocking smallmouth in streams? I've always read that smallmouth weren't stocked because the numbers were much more dependent on the success of the spawn. I found out today that in 2004 MDC stocked 22,000 on the Gasconade in eastern Pulaski and western Phelps Counties. This is exactly the area of this float. If anyone is interested, tomorrow I find out why.

My wife

I caught 1 that I'm pretty sure was a hybrid. I didn't mean to imply that half of the bass were spots only about 10 out of 60. We caught a lot of largemouths in the eddies. I have noticed that the higher on the Gasconade I fish, the fewer spots I catch. Have you caught many above Hwy 7? Reading about the spots on the Meremac has me alarmed. Have we permantly damaged prime smallmouth habitat?

Click on the Life section. What has happened to the home waters poll? 1000 members and only 35 votes, come on guys it only takes a couple of seconds.