Lloyd

I don't think I have a favorite way to fish. If I do any one thing for long I get tired of it and need to change it up. Of course I love the surface explosions that come with topwater lures, as well as the ability to make long casts and cover lots of water. I also think I tend to catch bigger fish (at least when it comes to smallmouth) with topwater. But I loathe all the missed hits and the number of fish that throw the lure or just come off. And with topwater, I'm lucky to catch two or three fish from a school, whereas with soft plastics I might catch every one of them. That last point is important when I'm creek fishing and there are only so many good pools I can access in a day. Soft plastics also tend to be more weedless, allowing them to be skipped right up to the weeds, root wads, and undercut banks where smallies wait in ambush.

Fair question. They were flopping around at first, but I tried to keep them in the water until they settled down which took about 10 seconds. After the pictures both fish swam away looking good.

On Sunday I waded one of the Mississippi River tributaries south of St. Louis. It was my first time at this section of creek, and since access wasn't all that easy I was hoping the fishing would be great. While it didn't quite turn out that way, it was still worth the trip. I fished downstream about 1.5 miles with a Zara Spook Boyo. Caught a few dinks and then a good one that fought like a maniac with a handful of cartwheeling leaps. A little ways downstream I worked the lure around some exposed tree roots and got another explosive strike. This fish was fighting just like the last one, but it soon turned to dead weight. As I hauled it to the bank I saw that there were TWO nice fish on the Spook. Apparently a following fish had tried to steal the lure out of the first one's mouth. I've caught two fish at a time before, but never two good ones. Also, the difference in color between the two was dramatic. At first glance I would have thought the lighter one was a smallmouth, but given the contrast I suppose it was a hybrid. Anyway that was the last of the action on the downstream leg. Plenty of pools looked like honey holes but if there were any fish they weren’t interested in the Spook. On the way back upstream I switched to a wacky rigged 4” Yum Dinger. Immediately I started catching more dinks. A little further upstream there were a few stretches that were lined with weeds, and they were thick with largemouths. These fish had snubbed the Spook but were more than happy to inhale the wacky worm. While I’d rather catch smallies than largemouth, I’d rather catch largemouth than nothing. There’s a tributary of my favorite creek that has similar habitat and I can’t wait to try the wacky there as I bet it will do well. In the meantime I'm looking forward to exploring other sections of this creek.

One of the spots I fished does have a relatively deep undercut bank as well as a big root wad about 30 feet downstream. I investigated both but it's definitely possible that I just couldn't see them. I've been surprised quite a few times when a nice bass popped out of a stump or small tree branch that I didn't even bother to fish because it seemed too shallow and exposed. Seems they're really good at finding nooks and crannies you had no idea were there. As for the hybrid. Interesting that in my two-year experience with this creek I've caught a whole lot more hybrids than straight spotted bass. Kinda like some of the places I've fished in St. Louis that have way more bluegill/green sunfish hybrids than green sunfish.

Come to think of it, I did see a bald eagle in a tree over one of those pools yesterday.

How things can change from one week to the next. I waded my favorite creek on 9/11 and the fishing was fantastic. I caught over 11 quality smallmouth (16" or more by my estimates), and lost one that looked to be over 18." The water was higher than it was on previous trips this year, so presumably the area had gotten some recent rain. What really surprised me was the size of the schools in confined areas. In two spots I saw schools of at least 10 good fish, whereas I typically don't see more than two to three fish of that size together. Fast forward a week and things were totally different. The water was way down but I decided to check those spots to see if the fish were still there. Well they weren't, at least not in anywhere close to the numbers from the week before. I did thorough searches of both pools, wading right up to the available structure and peering down into it. In both cases I only saw a few fish. So where did the rest go? It's hard to imagine that they went downstream, because that would involve traversing countless riffles where the water barely wets an ankle. And yet that seems more likely than alternative explanations - that the fish went upstream, or that they were still there and I just couldn't see them. Any thoughts?

Good point - this creek is a over an hour from the city. So not all that close, but a lot closer than I was expecting.

Heh that's fine with me. It's amazing how fast an entire day can go by when you're on the creek.

Thanks, John! That's exactly what I plan to do. Google maps/satellite is quickly becoming best friend.

Hey all. I had a bit of a revelation this fall and I thought I'd write about it. I grew up in New England with lots of great largemouth bass fishing in ponds and lakes, so when I got to St. Louis in 1999 that's the kind of water body I looked for. Over the years I fished places like Jefferson Lake near my house, Spanish Lake, and Busch Conservation Area, and caught a few fish, but never enough to get excited about. I also did a few float trips on the Current and Meramec with grad school friends. These were not "take in the scenic beauty of nature" trips but rather "let's get as hammered as possible without falling out of the canoe and drowning" trips, so while I brought a fishing rod on some of them, I never caught more than a handful of small bass and sunfish. Eventually I stumbled across this forum and read stories about people catching good fish on rivers and creeks, but I had to wonder if these were really any better than the lakes I had already tried. That said, I just couldn't ignore the posts people like Al Agnew were writing. Stories of 50, 80, 100+ fish days. Was that even possible??? To me it seemed almost unimaginable, and yet maybe there was something to them. I did more reading and in September, almost on a whim, decided to explore a creek that was rarely mentioned online, but that had a good reputation. As I approached the bank I knew that this was going to be a totally different experience. There were fish everywhere. On my first three casts with a Rebel Wee Craw I caught three fish: two 8" largemouths and a longear sunfish that nailed the craw as it spun wildly on the surface with the line fouled around the hooks. The rest of the day was almost as good. I lost count of the bass but it must have been at least 30, with several over 12" and one around 15." Since then I've explored different sections of the creek, each time going farther upstream or downstream, and each time with similarly great results. The kicker was catching my first walleye, which I had no idea were in this creek, and which I had dreamed about catching since I was in junior high. Now I'm kicking myself for not doing this trip 20 years ago. My eyes are open - there is some fantastic fishing not far from St. Louis. Before this, I always looked forward to trips to Martha's Vineyard to catch bonito and false albacore, and fantasized about catching inshore species like snook, tarpon, and redfish in Florida. Now all I want to do is explore relatively local waters: the Gasconade, Jacks Fork, and Buffalo to name a few. So thanks to all of you on this forum who got me more curious about fishing the Ozarks. That made all the difference.