Blazerman

i don't know who did it but we have the cartoon hung at the river where the boat is sinking in the background and a guy is wading up to a dock with all his fishing stuff and he is about to pile it on the dock.And he says to a guy standing there "watch this while i go back for my wife", who is not in the picture. My wife framed that because she said that is exactly how it would be with me.

Congratulations. Beautiful fish and they story with it was great as well.

Also had this beauty swim right up to our boat and then go under the boat and disappear for a bit. Kind of had me wondering if there was any way it could get in the boat. But then it came up on the other side and swam away.

Good job on getting those Spots out of there. That will be a good mess of fillets. The last few weeks I have been catching a bunch of smallmouth between 10” to 15” and a few over 15” up to 18”. Mine have been mostly on soft plastics. Has me thinking there may have been some good spawns the last few years. And this past weekend, with the water getting so low and clear, I started throwing a hair jig and picked up quite a few on it. Including this big drum which was quite a fight on light tackle.

Great articles on the patterns they are using. No surprise they are fishing docks but how they go about it is cool. https://www.flwfishing.com/news/2016-10-07-maloney-leads-by-a-little https://www.flwfishing.com/news/2016-10-07-top-five-patterns-from-lake-of-the-ozarks-day-2

1st Place, Kerry Patrick Malone - 7.16 Pounds Caught at 7:04AM on Saturday on a chatter bait on a point near Alhonna Resort at the 8MM. 2nd Place, Kevin Welch - 7.15 Pounds Caught Sat. 9-11 in the Gravois on a DD22 over a brush pile about 17' deep. 3rd Place, Dustin Henry - 6.96 Pounds Caught Sat 1-3 in the Glaize on a Jig shallow after fish missed his top water 3 times, 4th Place, Joe Bratz - 6.84 Pounder Caught Sun 7-9 near Alhonna flipping behind a dock with a Missile Bait D-Bomb Destroyer My guess would be 1st and 2nd were both weighed in at Alhonna.

When we rented our place on the meramec, the 73 flood was at the time one of the worst any one could remember. And the 82 flood was also really bad. I believe those two earlier floods were in the class that did a lot of destruction and changed the river in many spots.

i am sure this is just like opening day of deer season. The fish will see all this activity and boats and baits will be flying all over and their first thought is it to hunker down and hide. But eventually they will want to eat and hopefully my bait will be in front of one when it decides to and that fish will be big enough to get me a check. Because 30 people will be paid every two hours and you can guarantee no spots will be left unpaid. Which means decent bass are caught all day long. And 4 people will get really good checks. And the best part is, it is doing something i love to do anyway and i do all the time just for fun with no chance of getting a check. Might as well pay the money and see if i get lucky.

Most on my game plan as to where to start and what to use will be based on what and where I have caught big fish before. Deep, shallow, or in between? All of it but top water early and then maybe here and there after that. Main lake, or in the creeks/coves? Again, all of it until a pattern develops. Methodical dissecting of each area, or cover as much water as possible? I like to cover water but will slow down if a fish is caught and then will work and area more thoroughly. I also slow down to fish an area known to have brush or other structure. But not far long. Solo or with a partner? I fish by myself but stay with others who also have boats and we discuss strategy and also call each other if we find something that is working. Multiple techniques and baits, or stick with what you do best? Both I always have my favorite bait on and throw it a lot during the day. But will throw other things for different areas if I think they might work better at that spot. Would you fish behind other anglers, or burn some gas and try to stay in fresh untouched water? No problem fishing behind others and having fished the BBB many times before that is most likely the only choice. We normally fish from the dam down to the 10 mile mark. Would you burn up time running to a weigh location and standing in line with a 3-5lber, or not bother with anything under 6? Any fish close to a check will get weighed. Like the exact 3 or 4 lber. They actually have a good system to get people in and out quickly. Usually it does not take long to get a fish weighed and back on the water. Do you hope it is sunny or cloudy, and how will the weather conditions alter your strategy? Won’t matter except I might try topwater more if it is cloudy.

I have said this before on here. When I grew up we had a rental place at Twin Springs on the Meramec which was at the Stanton exit off 44 downstream from the caverns. Back then, this was late 60s and early 70s, there were no jets and everyone had a johnboat with a prop and everyone ran all over the river. Spring summer and fall. We had a 14 foot john with a 7.5 and ran around like everyone else. My cousin would sit up front because he was bigger than me and I would drive and every time we came to low water riffle he would jump out and hold the boat while I shut down and tilted the motor forward. And then we would both pull the boat until it was deep enough for me to get in and fire up the motor while he held it in place and then he would jump in and off we would go. We did always carry plenty of shear pins and we did go through plenty of them. Never replaced the prop though. And we usually went upstream unless it was up. And having two people was definitely better. Most of our neighbors had bigger boats and bigger motors and most of them had a setup for running shallow. It consisted of a bar they would push down that would tilt the motor forward as they came to shallow spots and I swear these guys could run through 12” of water all the time. and they stood up the whole time as they drove. But I also think they river was deeper than with less long shallow riffles like you see today and there were more fish back then- especially walleye. And we actually never really went all that far. I remember a few trips where we made it to the caverns which was 5 miles upstream. Now days with my Blazer I will run from my place by the k bridge up to the cave which was right below my old cabin and think nothing of it. And that is 13.5 miles. I do love my Blazer.

River was really beautiful yesterday. Had me wanting to fish instead of cutting grass. But the grass cutting won because i knew it would be harder to do later if i didn't get it done.

might not stay that way for long. Just looked at radar and more rain on the way today and they are saying chance of rain the rest of the week.

In 1994 we moved to our new home in St Charles that we had built. One of the reasons i picked the lot was because of the nice woodlot behind it. Once we moved in, it didn't take long before we started seeing different critters include coyotes, a fox and deer. And it wasn't much later we lost two cats that had made their way outside. i never did decide if it was the fox or the coyotes that got the cats but i did find their pelts. My big lab/ husky mix ended up killing the fox. i have hunted off and on for 40 years and where we hunted in Lewis county there were years we would see a bunch of coyotes and years we didn't see as many. i am sure there are a lot of factors that go into it but you can bet in the years there are more, you will see less rabbits. The farmer where we hunted always said shoot every coyote you see. They would harass his cows with calf's and steal chickens like has been noted.

Pigeon roost is plenty narrow. if you put in at Robert Allen and stay to the right along the bank you would come around to Pigeon roost and it would not be difficult. and i do not think the wind would be bad in there.

This was a great story. Thanks for posting.

4500, 5500 and the 1500 were the first baitcasters i ever owned and were bought new many years ago. i still have them and use them from time to time too. i use the 4500 and the 5500 for catfishing mostly.

Also, wonder how much BPS pays for a 10lb Bass?

Beautiful fish. That first one looks like it would be your 20."er. Did you measure it? And also Arron, it is time to change your name to Hog Smallie!!

Beautiful fish. Outstanding to see them so fat and healthy. You are proving over and over why i have always thought the Meramec is the best big smallmouth river in the state.

Yeah Ham I agree. Not very smart. I know when i first got in it took my breath away and i was thinking this might not of been a good idea. But once i started swimming to the boat i knew i would be ok. i was down on my dock this weekend though and put my hands in the water (Meramec) and you could not pay me to get in right now. After two minutes my hands were getting numb. Big difference between now and Oct.

I was launching at Redhorse on the Meramec last Oct by myself and backed down the ramp until I saw the boat start to float. Which is what I usually do. I put it in park, opened the door and saw the boat floating away downstream. I ran down the ramp and looked at the trailer and the strap had broken and the hook was still attached to the front of the boat as it floated away. I was jumping up and down and looking around and there was not a soul around and I was thinking holly sh-t what do I do now. Well I really only had one option and just like TrophyFishR I stripped down to my skivvies and went in after it. And it was cold!! I made it to the boat and pulled the boat from the front over to a shallower area where I could get in. Then I fired it up and pulled back to the boat ramp. I did have a towel in my truck so I was able to dry off and get dressed to head out after parking the truck. Also, made a note to myself to have a life jacket in the truck from now on when I launch since they were all in the boat.

That WAS very cool. Looks like awesome area.

Our group will be down at Gaston’s like we usually are the third week of Feb. I plan on having 3 different jerkbaits on three different rods and will be slinging them for 3.5 days. I will be throwing a Megabass, an LC Slender Pointer and probably a Husky jerkbait. I like the Husky with the Blue/Chrome and orange belly. May be switching through different colors too. I am hearing we may have 25-30 guys in our little tournament this year so there will plenty of jerks throwing jerkbaits like me. And normally someone ends up with Brown over 10lbs. When it is over I will report back on which one was the best.

Man I do not understand why you would not want to fish this tournament. I would think for anyone who lives down there and fishes all the time this would be a no brainer. I do know some locals that are good sticks and they call this the easy money tourney. Normally they take turns fishing to the best spots they know and then take turns weighing in money fish when they get them. And split the winnings. And you never know who will get the biggest bite for the big prize. Just like playing the lottery only a lot more fun

Just got the email for the BBBs and was amazed to see the fall 1st prize payout will be $100,000. That is gonna be wild. Everybody with any kind of fishing boat or pontoon, or probably canoes will be out there with dreams of big money.