Flyguide7

That looks like a turtle trap but it might be someone’s dock side fish box.

Nice chunk!

Here a couple of gills I painted up this morning.

Yep.

Once I add the split rings and the Gamagtsu trebles the bait suspends. It should be good for clear water.

Lately I have been having issues keeping me off the river; back problems, motor problems flooding business travel So I bought some lure blanks on line, and air brush and a bunch of paints and started painting my own lures in an effort to match the hatch. The Meramec is full of Ozark Shiners so I decided to attempt painting some baits to look like them. It keeps me from pouting when I can’t get a smallmouth fix.

Thanks Aaron. My boat isn’t fast by any stretch but I will be careful buddy.

I will be hitting the river hard this weekend. Hopefully get an opportunity to wrestle with some ole green bass.

Yes they are! Do you still live up there?

Here’s a picture of a good one I caught in Michigan on Labor Day in 2008. It was the only fish I caught that day, but when I was fighting it in the clear water it had another one chasing it just as big. I had no scale or tape on board at the time but my buddy said it was around the seven pound mark. I will never know but it was awesome. Since then there has been a 9 and a 9.98 caught in the area. The latter was caught on a danged night crawler of the fellas dock!

I love Stockton, it is a great fishery! Sadly my lake is so low due to lack of rainfall my Ranger is stranded on my boat lift and may be there for a long time or until I hire a crane to lift it off (which I cannot afford to do). The year before last in the fall I fished it about every other weekend and I had some 35-50 fish days fishing by myself. I have caught a lot of small mouths but nothing over two pounds. Lots of 3 lb spots and 3-4 largemouth and some really nice walleyes. Looking forward to fishing it again once the rains come.

I have fallen through the ice on a couple of occasions during my lifetime. Once while working for an oil exploration company toting seismic cables across a frozen beaver pond in northern Michigan. The 70 lbs coil of cable kept me from going over my head since it caught the edge of the hole. During high school I skipped a class to smoke a cigarette, there was a nearby lake which someone had created an ice shack from a cardboard refrigerator box laying on its side. I was cold so I looked inside and the was a rug inside so I ducked in and to my surprise the rug was covering a 2’ x3’ hole which I feel through head first. I managed to catch the edge of the hole about mid chest and pulled myself out. Terrifying.

Yes I called Basspro today. They are sold out of ice gear. Lowe’s sells a 69” pry bar with a chisel end. That will do the trick. I will rig up an ice rod, I have ice jigs so I will need some wax worms and then I should be good to go. I am also going to rig up some sort of stringer to clean my ice hole. I can properly fish with a dirty ice hole.

I live on a private lake which now has about 4-6 inches of clear ice. Does anyone around here know of anyone selling ice fishing gear? It is time to put some monster gills on the ice.

That was an amazing fish. Thanks for putting her back. She will probably reward you with 5000 babies this spring. Cheers!

GITSOME!

Hit the river today after a four week hiatus. Very slow morning caught and removed 5 spots, on about 2.5#. Ate lunch tied on a fluke and took a few good ones. Been too long away now it’s catchup time. cheers

By simply being born in the USA, we are automatic winners in life’s lottery. I have seen a lot of this world and in my humble opinion there is not a better place to live.

Happy thanksgiving to all my friends on Ozark Anglers!

Yikes!

Sorry for the negative post, Ijust think the river and surrounding environment deserves a little more respect especially from a for profit event. Enough said. All the best guys!

I was told the pic was taken by the confluence of the Big and Meramec Rivers.

I agree and sending them aloft on a dry year is adding additional risk.

Understood, litter on a beautiful stream just makes me sad.