moturkey

I have chased smallies in many of our local creeks and rivers on self-guided outings in my kayak, but my passion is shifting towards flyfishing which is quite difficult to do from a kayak. I have taken a few guided smallmouth trips in Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Indiana and am looking for something similar in our home waters. Anybody have any recommendations for smallmouth fly guides based out of STL or that guide within 2 hours of STL? Driftboat, raft, jet boat... doesn't matter to me so long as someone else is driving (or rowing) and it's stable enough to stand and cast. Thanks!

Al, you have a knack for romanticizing our collective passion in a manner that few of us are equipped to proffer. Beautiful story and great pictures. The John Day is new to me but now on my radar. Thanks for sharing, and congrats on what appears to be a wonderful experience.

I managed to fill both tags with two really nice birds this year. Opening day brought a 22lb bird with 10.5 inch beard and 1.25 inch spurs. Bird #2 came Saturday, weighing 23 lbs with a 9.75 inch beard and 7/8 inch spurs (they were busted up pretty good). I also learned a valuable lesson about using GPS tracking apps while hunting. After bagging my bird on Saturday, I packed up my bird, blind, and decoy and hauled it all down through the valley and over the next ridge about a mile to the cabin. Only then did I realize I had left my shotgun leaning against the tree. After making a deposit in the swear jar, I was able to re-trace my steps and find it with relative ease thanks to the GPS. Good luck all!

Congratulations on the new product launch. I just ordered a bag of each color. Merry Christmas to me!

Any guess on opening day 2019? I would assume April 15, but that would mean opening weekend overlaps with Easter (which is late next year - April 21). Anyone think its possible we have an April 8 opener?

I have a trip to Captiva in 3 weeks to chase some snook and redfish, but the red tide doesn't show any signs of relenting and I'm fearful that we'll have to cancel. Has anybody been to SW FLA recently that can share any personal observations beyond the media reports? Also, any recommendations for other forums that have more active content on this topic that I can follow for the next few weeks? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the feedback all!

My brother and nephew caught these over the weekend and I have no clue what they are, so I'm calling on the collective wisdom of the group. Caught at a pond in KC (Kansas). What do you all think?

Rotten carp ceviche. Yum!

I would have been happy to hook a rotted carp this weekend... and double the number of fish I caught.

Al, your numbers (and writing) are humbling. Well done. I rue the day I have to do the string trick on a solo float. I’ve been close a few times, but never past the barb. PS - what’s a guy gotta do to get some paddle-measure pics out of a day like that!? lol.

Would love to but too much going for mother’s day weekend. Lots of outfitters will shuttle your car for you if you can’t find a partner. I’ve used 3 Rivers Canoe rental to shuttle my car on the middle Meramec a few times. Congrats on the upcoming baby... get your fishing in now!!

Yesterday I revisited the same stretch of the Meramec I floated last October and wrote about here: It was particularly interesting to float the same stretch under slightly different conditions. In October, visibility was about 7 feet, flow was about 310 cfs, nearest gage height was about 3.3 feet, and water temps were 56-60. Yesterday, visibility was about 4 feet, flow was 1100 cfs, nearest gage height was 3.7 feet, and water temps were 58-62. The higher flow rate made it more difficult to hold my kayak in spots I wanted to fish more thoroughly, and even though gage height was only about 6 inches higher it seemed like it was more than that. Sandbars that I saw in October were under enough water to float over. The numbers were about the same - 8 smallies, 12 spots, 3 goggle eye, and a flathead. The flathead really surprised me... I was throwing the large HD craw in about 8 fow when it got thumped. At first I thought it was a drum and I could tell it was big. It held tight to the bottom, but when I finally got it up to the surface I had an 'oh s**t' moment. It was way bigger than my net and I was struggling to keep the kayak from drifting into some sweepers, so I dragged it over to shore. Got out of the yak, grabbed the beast by the jaw, got it unhooked and it started going crazy on me and got loose before I could get a picture. It was easily north of 30 inches and 15 lbs. I found a nice rootwad that produced about half of the fish for the whole day, but they were all under 12 inches in that spot. Despite the small sizes, it was blast to get bit on almost every cast for about 15 minutes. Vast majority of fish came on PBJ ned, and the top prize was an 18" beauty on a squarebill. This post has been promoted to an article

I don’t skip jigs with mine, but I can cast cranks dead into a stiff breeze on 12lb copoly with no fear of backlash from my tatula. I use one of the Lews speed spools (don’t recall which one) on my jig setup, and get far more backlash there with 80lb braid than the tatula. Plus, the levelwind assembly on my Lews often gets stuck, which stacks my line on one end of the spool. I’m strongly considering swapping out the Lews for another tatula on my jig rig.