Brian Jones

Is that by chance the current record Brown??

One thing for certain, a human life has VERY LITTLE value in our current society. Prayers for Dylan Poche and his family as I CANNOT begin to fathom the devastation of losing a child.

Took a short afternoon trip today to Lower Big. We caught roughly 15 "keepers" and had seven over two pounds; with the majority being largemouths. This was our big fish of the day; a 20 incher that weighed 4.25lbs. Most all of the fish were caught on soft plastics; though we did catch a couple on crank baits. No jerk bait bite at all. Water temp was 45-46.

Generally speaking, the colder it gets, the smaller the baits we throw. But by cold, I'm talking water temps in the upper 30s. Don't change much about my baits until the water drops below 40.

Thanks Dan. I was hoping you would see this.

All this talk of local control of governmental lands reminds me of all the nonsense regarding the regulation changes on the Ozark National Scenic Riverways from a couple of summers ago and how most on this very site thought that it was a bad idea for control of the OSNR to be taken away from the NPS and back to local governments/interests. I hate big government as much as the next guy but one thing man has proven over time is that we are not very good at policing ourselves.

Anyone know the current status on the proposed Smallmouth regulation changes? Just received an email from the MDC with the January commission meeting agenda and there was nothing slated in regards to the changes.

Patrolman Piercy first reported to his superiors that he was only going about 10mph when the accident happened. Upon investigation it was revealed that he was actually traveling at speeds over 40 mph at the time of the accident. http://fox2now.com/2015/10/29/questions-remain-over-handcuffed-man-drowning-in-police-custody/

Glad it worked out for you smallie. I rarely leave the house on a fishing trip without an extra change of clothes in the truck. And this time of the year, I have a complete set in the boat at all times. I was thrown into 40 degree water from a Charger bass boat moving at a high rate of speed at LOZ in March of 2001. Had it not been for a couple of good Samaritans who saw the whole thing happen I'm not sure what would have happened. Ever since I tend to prepare for the worst.

Love these threads.

Trying to make the most of Christmas Break, I took advantage of the great weather today and had an awesome trip on the creek. Caught between 15-20 "keeper" smallies with 10 being 15" or better. These three were the biggest. A 19 3/4" that weighed 4.40, a 19" that weighed 3.70, and an 18 3/4" that weighed 3.37. The pics are horrible and do these fish absolutely no justice. I was fishing by myself and these were the best I could take. Gonna have to get a selfie stick I guess....................

Awesome fish.

I would recommend you do the opposite. Put in at Campbell or Sappington Bridge and run up to Onondaga and float fish back or fish up through a hole and then run up to the next one. Either way you'll be running up river and will be able to see what you're running. With current water levels, I would imagine there will be spots; especially below Onondaga that you will not be able to drift through. And one thing you don't want to do this time of year is get out and push your boat through a shallow spot or off of a shoal. We run a whale tail on our current boat; a 1752 Blazer SS with a 115 two stroke Yamaha. It really helps with the purposing problem we had and allows me to raise the trim a little higher. I suppose it helps with staying on plane at lower speeds but it isn't as noticeable. Our first boat-a 1650AW Alumacraft with a 90 two stroke Yamaha-didn't require a whale tail and ran great at high and low speeds.

Gotcha. Spots are the only bass I keep out of rivers. And I only keep them from the Meramec watershed where they are a real problem and compete extensively with the smallies for food and habitat.

Why would I post a pic of some fish caught from the Meramec on the Table Rock forum?

Had a pretty good trip Saturday. Caught 10-12 "keeper" largemouth and smallies but nothing huge. And was also able to eradicate a few of these pesky critters as well.

Big River below Mammoth needs to be at least 3.25 on the Richwoods gauge for me to even consider running it. Most years I cannot comfortably fish out of my jet boat on lower Big River after about the middle of June. The Gasconade around Jerome is runnable at 1.5 IF you are VERY familar with the river. It is much more comfortable to run when the river is above 2.2 or so. I haven't fished the upper Meramec much the past few summers but the water is still decently runnable around St. Clair and below. Generally speaking, the river is pretty easy to navigate from Onondaga to Meramec Caverns as long as the gauge at Sullivan is reading above 3.00. As Greasy said the recreational crowd can be a pain and I try to avoid the river as much as possible during the summer months. Above Meramec Caverns there is a TON of commercial floater traffic. Below Meramec Caverns, you'll run into the recreational power boat traffic; epsecially during wet summers like this one was. On normal summers the power boat traffic isn't as bad after the first few weeks of summer. One way to avoid the crowds on weekends in the summer is to put in at daylight and run up from where you put in so that you'll always be in front of the canoe traffic. You're not going to get in a full day of fishing but you can get a few hours that'll be relatively peaceful. When I was learning how to run the river and drive our boat I always ran upriver from where I put in. Running upstream makes it easier to read the river and you'll be going against the current which, as you'll soon find out, can affect the way your boat handles; especially when running down river. Good Luck.

Know very little about this case, but remember several on here talking about it in another thread. Pretty interesting report. http://fox2now.com/2015/10/29/questions-remain-over-handcuffed-man-drowning-in-police-custody/

All of the bass I've ever cleaned from our rivers have been wormy; including largemouths and unfortunately smallmouths from a time in my life that I wasn't very well educated on the effects of keeping quality fish...... Now, I only keep spots during the cooler months of the year and they do not seem to be very wormy during this time. In fact, I cannot think of a spot that I've had to discard because there were too many to pick out.

Which is why angler input needs to be a consideration as well. I love fishing the middle and lower Gasconade. I believe, based solely on my personal catches and those of other anglers I talk with, that there is a spotted bass problem in the lower middle to lower part of the river that flows through Maries and Osage Counties. I've shared my concerns with two biologists who work the river. Both are skeptical of my findings because the scientific data they have gathered from their electro-fishing studies in Laclede, Pulaski, and Phelps Counties has turned up very few-if any- spotted bass. By their own admission though, neither has spent any time on the Maries or Osage county portions. But since science has proven there isn't a spotted bass problem up river, there cannot possibly be one down river. That's the silliness of macro management. It's as silly as someone saying that Branson is a dangerous place to visit because there has been 160 homocides in St. Louis City. You cannot possibly use one set of statistics from one piece of pie and make that the gospel for the entire pie. I've never caught a trout out of the Meramec while fishing around Pacific, but that doesn't mean they're not thriving in the Red Ribbon section 100 miles up river.

With all due respect, Chief, someone illegally killing a trophy buck isn't going to decrease the overall herd population to the point where it is harming the resource either. However, the fines and penalties for someone who gets caught doing so sure are MUCH stiffer.

Mitch: That was more/less what I was told by an MDC biologist and verified by a conservation agent. I should've added quotation marks so that you would've known those weren't my words. I KNOW you guys aren't making this stuff up. I've seen the evidence myself.

I attended the open house at Farmington. IMO, the meeting appeared to be rather poorly attended. But I had my back to the door for most of the evening so there may have been more people pass through than I thought. Initially, I left the meeting feeling pretty good about things. However after I spent some time pondering what I was told, as well as talking to a buddy who attended the meeting at Powder Valley, I am leaning towards Joe, Wrench, and smallies opinions in regards to these meetings. I WILL give the MDC the benefit of the doubt though until I see the final changes if in fact there are any........ Below are the praises/concerns I shared at the meeting and the responses I was given. 1. Expanding TSA on Big River to Council Bluff: Thanked the MDC for proposing this. Shared with them about how stopping the TSA at Leadwood put a lot of catch and keep pressure on the upper most part of the river. The biologist who is responsible for upper Big River agreed and admitted that they have only recently realized what a tremendous fishery the upper section is and could be in the future. 2. Changing the length and creel limits on stream bass statewide to something other than 12"/6 fish rule: Would make little difference according to the MDC as most fishermen already practice catch and release................ 3. Protection for the smallmouth bass that winter in upper Clearwater Lake: Shared concerns that since Clearwater has no minimum length limit these fish were potentially vulnerable. MDC seemed to be of the opinion that protection is not needed since very few anglers fish during the winter months and the ones who do are not keeping these fish. In fact, I was told by the Conservation Agent who works that area that of the people he has checked during the winter months, none have ever kept any bass.... 4. Expanding the Meramec TSA down to Onondaga Cave: The MDC biologist that I was speaking with doesn't work the Meramec and suggested I contact the biologist in charge of the Meramec. 5. Spotted bass problem on the middle and lower Gasconade: Again, the biologist I was talking to had little knowledge of the Gasconade. I did share with him the pic of the meanmouth that I recently caught and he confirmed that's what it was. He told me that interbreeding occurs when the Spotted Bass are first colonizing and seems to taper off after they get established. He referred me to a biologist from the Lebanon office who was at the meeting and I talked to him for quite a while. I shared with him my concerns about the growing number of spots on the Gasconade below Jerome and how I am afraid that they could become as big of a problem on that river as they have in the Meramec watershed. He didn't seem too concerned but told me that they would be looking into it. He shared with me that his shockings on the upper river (nearly 80 to 100 miles upstream from where I am catching them) are not turning up any spots. I politely replied that if they wait until then to do something about them that it will be FAR too late on the lower river. I also referenced how just because there are very few spots in the Upper Meramec as compared to the lower doesn't mean that the lower part of the river doesn't have a problem. He really didn't have a reply. 6. Keeping the 18 inch MLL on the Gasconade from Riddle Bridge to Jerome: This was one of the most bizarre answers that I have ever been given. According to a biologist from the Lebanon office, the 18 inch MLL causes the MDC to receive a ton of complaints from anglers who fish this section of river and don't catch an 18 incher. It seems that there is some preconceived notion by anglers that fishing this section of river automatically guarantees that anglers will catch an 18 inch or bigger smallmouth. When this doesn't happen, they call the local MDC office and raise ten kinds of hades. Dropping the MLL to 15 inches will give anglers a better chance of catching a "trophy" and therefore end a lot of complaints they are currently getting from disgruntled anglers who are apparently fishing these trophy waters unsuccessfully............... 7. Illegal gigging problem: This is all in our heads. Giggers don't specifically target game fish and in fact foul hooked fish caught by law abiding anglers during the summer months have more impact on stream bass mortality than giggers........................ Sure there are some game fish that get accidentally stuck and shaken off a fork, but there really isn't much the MDC can do about that................................................ 8. Lack of enforcement of codes and lack of Law Enforcement presence: I didn't bring this topic up at the Farmington meeting but a buddy of mine specifically asked a rather proud Conservation Agent at Powder Valley why he never sees any game wardens on the river anymore. The agent responded that just because we can't see them doesn't mean that they're not there.......To that, my buddy responded, "So by watching me from the woods you are able to know whether I have a valid fishing permit and that I do not have any illegal fish in my livewell?" The conservation Agent had no answer. My buddy also brought up the gigging problem. The Conservation Agent threw out the deer season excuse. I understand that they have their hands full during this time. But in reality, a MAJORITY of their calls during deer season come during the 11 day firearms season. Gigging season is three months............... Personally, in 25 years of having to purchase hunting and fishing licenses, I have only been checked three times. Once in 1995 on Mineral Fork as we were floating by the Hwy 47 bridge. Once Labor Day weekend 2001 on the Meramec just up from Meramec State Park. The Conservation Agent was actually in a jet boat and was patrolling the river. The last time I was checked was in April 2007 on the Gasconade at the MDC Jerome Access as my wife and I were taking out.

Any updates from last night's meeting in Van Buren??

Here are some pics so that you can compare side by side. The first is the fish that I caught from the Gasconade yesterday and posted in my original post. The second is a smallmouth/spot cross that was caught in the Meramec in December of 2012. The third is a smallmouth caught from the Gasconade in July of 2012. Though I realize the lighting is different in each pic, you can definitely see a difference in the color and the side markings between a hybrid and a smallmouth.