cwc87

Blazerman, I fish from onondaga to Steelville mostly in the winter since public access is extremly limited but the private access's are popping up everywhere. I may head your way on thursday if you want to hook up. I love the sand ford area in the winter too. RodMcC you can't go wrong with a lucky craft pointer 78 in chartruese shad for a jerk bait or spend some bucks on a megabass vision 110 or save a little and get a rick clunn jerkbait. Plastics I keep queit on what I throw. Just use smaller stuff is my best advice. I use a 1/4 oz jig weight so I can cast far on my baitcaster and it gets to the bottom rather quickly in the deepest holes. Just drag it. I noticed the water temps have jumped from 44 degrees to 55 hear latley so try to time ur trips on the end of warm spells and you should find success.

Smallmouth River is ultra clear. Never been able to see the bottom in some of my winter holes until now. Went thAnksgiving day and last Thursday and caught two tagged fish a 15.5 and a 17.5 both on plastic The bigger fish bit better those trips versus today. Seemed like the warm up has every peanut bass active and that's what I caught today. They were scatterd all over on wood and big boulders. One thing with ultra low clear water what I've learned is that the suckers get spooked and they tend to spook the bass around and when smallies see a boat the bite gets tough. So super long casts. And hole jumping is needed to catch #s of fish. I pray for rain to protect these fish from the gigging and to make it a little less challenging to catch them. Guys throw ur favorite winter baits with this warm spell n u will catch them Cheers!!!!

Ok I'll weigh in on this. Crappie Are they native? To the meramec. Lucky clover lake flooded and crappie are caught from meramec springs to st Louis now. Any studies on there diet? It seems in the lower reaches of both the meramec and gasconade crappie and spots are more populated and the smallies r less. Just my opinion. Do they eat the smallmouthfry

Green pumpkin. Some with black flake yammamoto. Chompers dark melon pepper. A watermelon early in the year when the trees start blooming. Can't go wrong with at pearl super fluke with a chartreuse tail. Night fishing use black or muddy water black n blue.

I have been seeing eagles at the MDC access's on meramec eating sucker corpses from giggers. Scavengers cleaning up mans mess.

Awesome Dan thanks for the update. Now let the rains continue to keep the giggers off the water.

They are biting cranks in the rivers I will agree!!

I was told back in February at a smallmouth alliance meeting by the MDC guys more info on the smallmouth study would be released (by august). Just wondering if and when this info is going to be available? I do know John Ackerson delievered the info at powder valley meeting and now he has moved his efforts more to working in the current river watershed but, not relating to smallmouth. It seems the project had alot of money tied to it and just wondering how our money is being used to finish it? At the meeting some of the info that was revealed is that out of the tagged fish about 50% had been cashed in. That tells me that pressure on the smallmouth bass is very high. My opinion on the state of smallmouth fishing is that a statewide creel limit of two 15inchers wood work. Easy to understand and enforce. I' ve read through and through most topics on this debate. It just kills me when i see folks keeping smallmouth that have six at a time per person and when I see someone with a fish under 12inches on a stringer. (happened last thursday and yes I made the guy released it).

Awesome report Al! The solitude of going solo and seldom hearing man made noises is always why I go!

I will be headed to the riverton downstream section this coming tuesday or wednesday with a couple buddies one will be in my old town and the other will be in a coosa kayak. Any tips on what the smallmouth are doing is welcome. I will have on the usual sammy, green pumkin bitsy bug jig and finesse worm rigged and ready. Been anticipating this trip all summer. I have not confirmed where i will go on the second day. If we get any rain the jacks fork will be my first option or upper 11 point. I floated the NFOWR this time last year and it was decent. Any other hot rivers i am open for suggestions or send me a pm.

The bass are surviving However, gigging season is 6 weeks from tonight September 15. The season last till Janurary 31 so with all the previous posts on the topic and the awareness is at a all time high. Or, maybe the river gods will bring some rain to muddy up the rivers all gigging season!!

Okay, thanks for the reply. Also, is it still ok to park under the 17 bridge at the gasconade bridge.

Does anyone know if you can float in a old town canoe on this stretch with the current water level. I did this once and the main channel was mossed or seaweeded almost all the way across the river in a different drought year. Any info would be much appreciated.

Just a little info on the main tributaries to the upper Meramec. The lower stretches are still fishable and floatable. From highway 8 down on the Huzzah and from butts bridge on the courtois. The Huzzah has more water less dragging. My favorite courtois trip this time of year is from blunt bridge to butts bridge. The fish are real easy to catch they have no water to hide and no newly fallen trees to hide under. All you need is a small green pumpkin bait on a 1/8 oz jig head or a small topwater WTD lure. These creeks are very busy on Saturdays but if you can get ahead of the crowds at 6 am you can stay ahead of them. If they start catching up with you on a saturday you might as well call it and paddle in to the take out. Good luck.

Put in at sand ford went down. Dont know if the above picture with the dock in it is blazermans or not but that riffle below it in that picture will get u. I bumped going down and I made it fine going up. My set up is a shallow running 1650 express with a 60/40. Fishing was ok the biggest ones just smacked at the topwater. Best bite was small plastics in moving water..

Andy is a interesting fellow with a nice location to fish. I usually hit that stretch n September. Congrats on ur fish!

I was just upstream of u Al caught about the same amount u did. Plus a nice bunch of crappie.

Wow!! It took me forever to get thru all the posts! I attended the smallmouth alliance meeting last week and tried to retain as much as possible. First, I am familiar with the courtois and the Meramec watershed. However, I have been on the Big,Black,Current,Jacks,elevenpt,gasconade,piney,James,Norhfork of the White,Mineral fk, and have caught my fair of 80-100smallmouth per trip days. Secondly, I am thinking that Al hit the nail on the head with many factors in his post about the headwaters being catch and realease(make them a blue ribbon area) and the areas with special length limit regulation to either be a slot, 4 fish being 14 inchers but, keeping the two current 1 fish 18 inch areas. This whole smallmouth project is such a daunting task for MDC is a reason why they haven't tackled it yet. But, all us anglers showing them this much interest is getting the MDC to realize what a great fish a smallmouth truly is. Being raised in a rual area and having a college degree has raised my awareness how I approach some of my neighbors. Now, with that being said, One tactic that may fly is to put the smallmouth on a platform that can be showcased as a way for folks to accept it like the bald eagle , Elk, ect.. Most of our smallmouth live in depressed rual Ozark areas. If the locals can start appreciating them for bringing in tourist and understand what it is like to catch them. Some of the qustions I have from the meeting/study are: What are the zipcodes from the reward tags mailed to? What are the breakdowns on fish harvested and released? Also, what are some of the Stats on the Agents writing tickets regarding smallmouth being (gigged, live bait in a artificial area, too many in creel, Length violation, ect....) On a positive note, At least the smallmouth are getting some serious attention by MDC and that the time has been long overdue. Tight lines friends!!!

My name is Corey Cottrell and I will be representing Huzzah Valley Resort at the Fishing show in Collinsville if you want to visit stop in. Show starts at noon today and 9 am tomorrow.

Nice to see that you got a trip in before this cold weather hit and that Mary is doing better. I got out from about 1 til 4 on saturday also. Caught about 18 fish. One lm and the rest smallies. Biggest was a solid 18.5 incher and a couple 15inchers but mostly 12 inchers. Plastic was the way to go. The fish were a bit off with not nocking the fire out of it just kinda climbing on. caught my fish nowhere near a spring just a hole that doesnt get gigged that much. Only caught one with gig scars on it.

I havent been on here in awhile. Anyhow, this thread about the travels of smallmouth has really kept my mind thinking. Especially, since I caught a tagged fish a good 25 miles from where it was tagged yesterday. Here goes my insight: last winter-spring we had some small floods but nothing great big and the water table from all the winter snow(moisture) was a bit above normal so the water flow was a good constant flow going into the summer(mid June). I fish the meramec and its tribs on a regular baisis so i pick and choose the best days to fish (during the week). I caught alot of bigger smallies in the meramec last January thru-the first week of May. Then, like a light switch I could not find any big smallmouth in the meramec or at least were i could get my jet boat to them. So, the first week of June came and I took my four year old out on his first creek trip and I caught a $75 tagged fish on a 1/2 mile float trip. That fish was a 18incher and in the clear water I saw a few others the same size. Throughout the summer I tried to find big smallies in the meramec but no luck it seemed they all swam up to the headwaters or into its to major tributaries. Now, after seeing the report at the begining of this thread about a tagged fish that was caught way down river from where I caught my tagged fish yesterday I am getting a good feel of our migrating smallmouth. Not saying that all smallies migrate but now with the evidence in front of me I know what and were they go. Just my 02cents worth.

Go to the primitive camping area on the courtois and wade upriver as far as u dare. Plus there may be some tagged fish so keep your eye on there little backs.

The only time I ever seen hellbenders is while gigging the meramec. I was instructed not to gig them because they are a mucky mess to get off the prongs of a gig so I never did besides I was instructed that they were illegal to gig. I can see how immature giggers and careless giggers can decimate the hellbender population in an area pretty quick!!! Also, the thought of an ozark hellbender swimming around in some ones aquarium in a far away country just makes me sick to my stomach!

The advice is well given in the previous posts. My opinion is 8 down to the spring and the last mile of the trip is the best smallmouth water. In between just relax and enjoy the float. The setting down that stretch is very natural. Largemouth bass are hiding in the weeds so give them some topwater to munch on. Get a early start it takes a fairly full day to float it right now. Good Luck!!

Put in on Thursday at hebron at 9:15 took out at twin bridges at 5:15. River was up about 2-3 inches water color perfect. Never got out of my old town canoe. Fishing started slow picked up as the day wore on but, the pockets of fish were spotty. Maybe the reason for that is the smallies were schooled up and when you catch one the rest of the school were alerted to my presence. Biggest fish of the day was a 17incher. I caught 4-5 more in the 15- 16inch range. Lots of small fish, habitat on that stretch was perfect. My first time on that river and it won't be my last. Had visions of throwing big spinnerbaits and wiggle warts in the spring.