Smallie Seeker

Just returned from a camping/fishing trip on the Bourbeuse. Camped stream side on a friends property. Fished a section on Saturday without any nearby public put-in access. After reading up on OAF I wasn't expecting much but to my surprise we did pretty good. Several nice smallies over 15" along with some soon to be eaten spots, 1 nice largemouth, 1 huge gar and a 10" crappie. Had good luck on chompers, rebel craws and 4" senko's. Storms rolled in Sat. Night and it got pretty hectic. One of our groups canoe's came loose after the river raised 3' and we had to go find it a mile down stream. Didn't fish the other section we had in mind on Sun. due to the muddy conditions. All in all a great trip!

Already hitting the Big Piney from Slabtown to Ross bridge this fri/sat. Wish I knew about this rodeo before we made plans! Have fun guys can't wait to see pics!

Few more from 33.

Been catching some decent bass at Busch lately. This one was from 33 this morning. Having good luck with crank baits, spinnerbaits, and beaver tail soft plastics.

There's a guy who has been working at the 94 baitshop for several yrs and I'm always in there talking fish stuff, asking what's been working, what lakes have been producing, ect. Last year early spring he tells me about a young kid who's 10 yrs old or so, comes in and buys a pack of plastic worms and then leaves on his bike with a Zebco 33 headed towards Weldon. Says kid was back at the shop 30 mins later grinning ear to ear with a 9lber on a stringer that he claimed he caught first cast. Ya never know what you might catch from the bank out there.

I need to get into froggin but I'm torn between picking up a Spro Bronzeye poppin frog or a Booyah Pad Crasher. Been having good luck the last week throwing a Super Spook jr. Nothing beats top water IMO!

No decent sized bass on 35 for me either this year. Caught 10 or so 12"-16" bass yesterday, most coming on a super spook jr. But nothing like it's been in previous years. I've had better luck on 33 for bass this yr. Where did the fat girls go?

When I caught my 22" pb smallmouth it got cpr'd. But that's mainly because I was on a 2 day float and didn't have ice left and wasn't gonna drag her alongside the boat to get tore up. I've never dealt death intentionally to a Smallie. Now with that being said. Huge smallies are caught and eaten by other animals especially otters all the time and it gets worse during extreme low flow or drought when they get trapped in pools. I've caught really nice ones that have shown signs of being attacked. And if it's over 20" it has had many years to spawn and spread it's big fish genes. So me keeping 1 hoss sm in my lifetime to put on the wall at some point isn't going to hurt a thing. I personally think replicas look too fake.

Walnut trees in wet creek bottoms.

Good luck to you. I'm thinking about trolling some rattle traps and maybe try out a figure 8 or two. Can't wait to see the looks I get from other boats lol.

Nice fish! All of em'!

Guess no one ever caught one? It's only been 4 yrs lol! About 5 years ago I was crappie fishing near the dam in the fall with minnows in the evening. My buddy hands me this gaudy clear red plastic bobber that glows and has a rattle in it since it was getting dark and hard to see the bites. Well we decide to leave 10 mins later and as I'm burning the bobber back to the boat it gets absolutely smashed by a big Muskie (THE BOBBER not the minnow!) after nearly having a heart attack I start twitching the glowing rattling bobber at the advice of my buddy and WHAM! Muskie nails it again, takes it under severing the line then spits it out and we retrieved it from the surface. Since then I've been lucky enough to hook up with 2 muskies on accident on 35. Both were small. One on a spinnerbait and one on a crappie jig. On my first outing 2 weeks ago there were mdc study nets in several locations and I assume they were for the Muskie. Hope the harsh winter and the severe low levels didn't hurt the population. Think I'm going to give mdc a call tomorrow and see if there's any new info yet. Might pick up a few oversized baits and try targeting them if the population is still good. All else fails I might just have to find a way to add hooks to that dern ugly rattlin' glow-bobber!

Fished 35 yesterday. 2 bass and 2 crappie was all that a buddy of mine and I could get to bite. Every other boat I passed said they weren't catching anything either. Good news is that it has filled right back up!

I do pretty good at BWL. First photo was from today.

Here's a pic of my 2nd best Smallie which I caught last yr in MO. Now who wants to hear a good fish story? 2 years ago I was fishing a 20+ mile 2 day trip in a southern Mo stream when I hooked up with my biggest Smallie to date. It was late into the afternoon of day 2 and my buddy and I beach the canoe on the downside point of a small gravel island. Beautiful spot where the left and right channels of the stream merge back together and a good rapid forms. I catch several little smallies from the right and left side while wading in the middle. Spot slows down and we're preparing to leave when I toss my Rebel crawdad crank one last time to the right side channel and it gets slammed, rod buckles over and drag starts screaming on my Shimano Sahara as the fish bolts downstream. My buddy runs over and right as I'm saying how I think it's a catfish, the Smallie makes a huge jump at least 60 yrds downstream and we both scream expletives in amazement! My buddy grabs the net and I manage to fight her all the way back up stream, only to watch her dart through my buddies legs, and instincively right into the swift right side channel and back downstream again. Somehow I get her back upstream, and she breaks for the left side channel and back downstream once again?!?! For the third time I fight her all the way up the rapid, buddy nets her while toppling backwards in 3 ft of water, and all I see is his hand sticking up out of the water holding the net up with my fish in it! She was awesome! Lotta girth and had to be hovering around 4.5 lbs. We high five, take some nice pics with my phone, release her and finish the float. Fast forward to that evening, I'm nodding out in the passengers seat when buddy pulls over to heavy weeded side of road to adjust canoe on roof and I hop out to help. Get back in car and a few miles down the highway he asks if I got my phone? I tell him it's in the middle console and he says that he had grabbed it thinking it was his and tossed it in my lap while i was sleeping... Well there's still a Blackberry on the side of hywy 44 in the weeds with pics of my trophy Smallie on it. I had marked the length on my pole and it turned out to be just over 22''. Talk about the one that got away!?!? By far the greatest fish fight I've ever had. Moral of the story? Just because you catch several little smallies out of a spot it doesn't mean there's not a hawg under there that's not as fast as the little ones. And don't drop your phone that has the only pics of your personal best in the weeds!!!