Brian Jones

If something did go wrong in that situation there'd be one less alcoholic, dope smoking, graffiti tagging, poaching litter bug to deal with. What's wrong with that???

Been going on since 1989 I believe; which is before most of us-with the exception of Al-were even fishing the Meramec. Therefore any and all talk about how detrimental this once a year tournament is to the overall fishery is purely speculation.

http://www.ky3.com/news/local/nixa-man-dies-after-snake-bites-him-twice-while-in-the-james-river/21048998_33223088

http://www.ky3.com/news/local/sewage-spilling-into-gasconade-river-draws-concerns-from-fishermen/21048998_32521018 WeeksHollow.pdf

Forgive me for getting further off topic, but isn't there a cave on the top of Pilot Knob called the "devil's ice box"?? Didn't a kid get trapped in there back in the mid to late 80's and end up losing a limb in the rescue? Seems I remember this happening, and that Reader's Digest had an article about it in their publication. But every time I search the internet for info, I find nothing.

sold pending funds

SOLD

.

Father in law used to catch a bunch of good smallies on the rapala's as well as the old floater/diver rogues. Remember one day on Mineral Fork years ago that he absolutely wore the smallmouth out with a firetiger rogue.

One of my all time favorite SNL skits and I've been 100 percent sober for 100 percent of my life. We are all humored by different things........

Boat ramp courtesy is a thing of of the past; along with most other manners, etiquette, and courtesies in our present day narcissistic world.............

The Midge oreno is another great smallmouth bait from yesteryear.

Shannon twin spin. Always has caught fish and I assume always will.

I saw the video of your trip with Bill on his facebook page. Looked like a great trip.

Quality fishing water OR quality lakes??? There is a ton of quality fishing water within an hours drive or so of StL. It just may not be impounded.

My two big issues with gigging are length of season and lack of enforcement. If enforcement were better, then I would have no issue with the length of the season. There's no doubt in my mind that what happened in Ripley County also takes place on other Ozark rivers and could be largely curtailed with better enforcement and harsher penalties. Anyone who has fished much in the fall or winter has undoubtly caught smallmouth and other game fish with gig marks or open wounds on them as a result of being stuck and shaken off of a gig. The problem I see with limiting gigging on trophy smallmouth water are the length of them. Generally speaking the trophy smallmouth areas tend to be longer in length than the trophy trout areas. Take Big River for example. The trophy smallmouth area pretty much extends the entire river. Though fine by me, if that were to happen it would limit the area that a person could gig to basically a couple of small sections of river around and upstream from Leadwood. Also, not trying to pick a fight or argue but accidentally sticking a game fish is no different than someone shooting a spike buck thinking it was a doe. Though both happen, neither are acceptable. One of the ten commandments of firearms/hunter safety is positively identifying your target. That should apply to gigging as well.

I use Bass Pro's XPS rod in a medium action for throwing jerkbaits and would recommend it to anyone. Have also used it for topwaters as well.

I've had an 844 GL3 for years. It is stout and I rarely use it anymore since getting away from throwing bigger jigs. Anymore I'd rather throw something with a little more tip. Would actually sell it if someone was interested.

I saw that swan back in October in the slough by the bamboo patch. When I was out there on December 13th, it was in the hole above the yacht club.

SHHHH!!!!!!

Fished on the middle Meramec Saturday for about 6 hours and had a pretty good outing. I wanted to get one more trip in before the bottom fell out and the water got too cold for me to catch them. Put in at 10:00 and was back at the ramp a little after 4:00. Caught 9 bass over 12"; mostly largemouths with 2 of them just a tad over two pounds. Also caught 8 crappie and ended up bringing five of them home. Of the ones I kept, they ranged from 10" to just shy of 13". Water temp was 44-45.

I'd say your battery is bad. Same thing has happened to me a time or two. I run a Motorguide 24 volt trolling motor and have experienced the same problems. A couple things I did that helped was to make sure my trolling motor leads were below my depth finder leads. Also, make sure that your graph is turned off at the end of a trip. I forgot to do this once and ended up with a short trip the next time out. Are you charging your batteries after each trip and topping them off before the next trip?

I've encountered them in backwater areas on the Gasconade as far up as the Pointer's Creek and Rollins Ferry areas. But they've never been a problem in the actual river itself. The thing that bothers me the most about these critters is that no one of importance seemed to care until they started threatening the Great Lakes.

It was estimated that this year's float had around 5,000 ploaters. They're not gonna be out of your hair in a half hour.

River pros are without a doubt the best river jet boat on the market. However they are definitely not in the Jones family's budget and probably won't be unless their prices stabilize or we win the lottery that we don't play. Not saying they're over-priced; just not in our price range.