abkeenan

Nice fish getfished. What kind of jerkbaits and colors did you use and what was your speed or cadence on the retrieve if you dont mind sharing. Might come down there in a few weeks to check on the house, dock and get a line or two wet while im down there. -Brett

Wondering if anyone could maybe share their experience or preference on these two reels. My father and i bought the Quantum KVD baitcaster last year and they started having problems not too long afterwards. Looking at the BPS reviews on the KVD it seems i am not the only one who has had issues with it. Took Dad's reel back to BP before Xmas and got the return money back on the KVD and spent some more money to get the old man a Citica. My reel is actually at Table Rock (I live in STL) so i cant get it til i get down there to get it and return it, thus i have some time to get more opinions on the matter. So the Citica is 119.99 and the Curado is 179.99. So when i go back i am going to most likey get one of the two. Is the Curado worth the extra $60 over the Citica? Also heard that the Abu Garcia Revo SX are a pretty good reel also, anyone have anything to say about those? -Brett

The bass x look great with a wide assortment of colors. The jewel and chomper both have the same EWG hook while the war eagle and bass x do not. You guys think the EWG is a better hook?

I always set my trotline in the same cove as my dock or the next cove over which is 100 yards further. Jugs are clearly visible at both ends with all my information written on the jug in black sharpy ink. Always remove it before i leave the lake. But i understand how others can hate trotlines because i have also seen the way that others use theirs. Looks like they have been in the water since the river was damed and that really bothers me that someone would be that lazy and discourteous to the lake and people trying to enjoy it. Just like everything else their are jerks that make a bad name for the rest of us who abide by the rules and try to have some respect for the water, anglers, boaters, skiers and wildlife. -Brett

this is the line i like: http://www.magicbait.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?...igCatchTrotLine

i am not an expert but i set out a trotline a few times a year and i love the whole process. Bass fish early morning until around 11ish, eat lunch, go catch perch for bait until around 3, set out the trotline, eat dinner, go back out and bass fish until whenever. Catching those perch is a ball in itself on a little tube jig and lil spinner on ultra light stuff. Heck sometimes u catch a bass or have a cat try to eat the perch when u are reeling it to the boat. Sorry for the rant, just good memories and cant wait to get til spring/summer to do it again. As far as the trotline goes make sure u get the one that has the little beads that are seperated by an inch or so every 5 feet or so with the clip with the swivel that you can unhook from the line. Its better for many reasons: the beads dont allow the hook to slide up and down the line, the unclipable part makes it easier to reload on bait, replace if hook it bent/lost/etc. and also when u have a fish on instead of having to get the hook out of the fishes mouth (how tough are catfishes mouths!) you just unclip the whole rig and get it out later = much easier, especially on the bigger cats. The swivel helps keep them on the line due to the cats innate ability to roll with power. I like putting my trotline from snag to snag in the water, usually trying to find water from 15-20 feet anchored in the middle of the line by something heavy enough (small anchor, scrap metal, brick, rock, etc.) to keep the middle of the line down on the bottom. I hook the perch in the back just behind the dorsal fin. I dont use sunfish because they seem to die much quicker than the black perch on the hook. Also on the hooks that come on the trotline i replace with heavier circle hooks that hold the cats on longer and gets them in the crook of the mouth everytime. Make sure u have your line marked with jugs and i try to keep out of the way where i know bass fisherman are going to be fishing. Also make sure u either keep the board that the trotline comes on in the package or make something where u can wind it back on when you are finished using it, if not u will have the biggest mess and tangle ever. Also might take along a big container/bucket of some sort to put your cats in cause they like to really slime up your boat/carpet. Hope this helps. -Brett

Ok so i am running low on jigs and am wondering which jig between the two brands i should stock up with this winter. Both are similar in price. The poll feature on this website isnt working (or it is an im an idiot which is also a possibilty) so i will just go with a quick format and you can respond with the A, B, C, D, E choice and a quick blurb about why/why not you do/dont prefer them. A. Chompers Football Jig B. Jewel Football Jig C. Jewel Eakins Jig D. Jewel Pro Spider E. Other Brand

Heres some pics from the weekend. The 2 good smalllies were released unharmed under the dock where they hopefully stay for future fun. (dont mind the cleaning board in the background in the one pic, it wasnt used )

tkite- Just got back to STL from TR and fished Sat morning from about 730ish-10am and Today (Sun) about the same times. Fished Beardsley Creek area, the cove down from Big Cedar cove (sorry dont know the names) and also the 86 Campsite area. First thing Sat morning hit a dock in the cove near Big Cedar and only managed 2 fish. 1 short LM and one short smalljaw. One on a 5inch zoom brown worm and one on a chompers watermelon/purple flash jig with a paca chunk trailer in table rock red i think is the color. Those 2 were in about 12 ft of water or so. Also had one pull off a wiggle wart right out of a bush in probably about 5ft of water on the bank out of a bush. Moved to the docks in the back of the 86 launchway cove and caught 3 smallies in the docks, 1 on a green zoom grub and 2 on the chompers/paca chunk jig in about 15-20ft range about midway of the dock. One was a real nice beautiful 3.5lbs and really ate that jig. Will post pics when i learn how to get them from the camera to on the computer. Moved to a point halfway back in beardsley and caught another keeper 2.25 lb SJ on the green grub and had to call it quits around 10ish to go to Silver Dollar City with the family. Was a super enjoyable day and where biting pretty good on Sat. Wish i didnt have to go to SDC to tell u the truth. Went out today and hit the docks in Beardsley and caught one fat little spot on a green grub. Hit point 2 to no avail. Hit the flat/hump across from 86 swim area nada there and then went back to the same docks in 86 campground and caught 2 more smallies, both on the jig, both in same type of water/depth. Not much wind early today as on Sat so fishing wasnt as good in my humble opinion. But cant complain with the weather and fish somewhat cooperated. Dont know if you are in this part of Long Creek but i hope it helps. I would pound the docks at all angles with a jig if i were still down there. The smallies were spitting up crawdads all over the place by the way. -Brett

X

yes my mistake, they are pointer 100 sp knockoff jerkbaits.

If you could only use 3 or 4 colors of stickbaits and your life depended on it what would you guys on the Rock choose to throw? I am getting ready to paint my pointer 100 blanks and could use some suggestions by you locals/guys that fish TR regularly. Dont want to waste time, $ and effort on useless color schemes. Thanks. -Brett

dtrs where did u get your rotisserie motor? if thats what u are using of course for your lure drying wheel. -Brett

dtrs5kprs- thanks for the info. those are some nice looking rogues. i really like that "norman flake" you got going on. i see that you painted one of them belly up, have u used that yet and do u notice any increase in strikes/catching more fish with that sort of pattern giving off the appearance of a dying belly up fish? -Brett

thanks guys for all the info and also leading me to tackleunderground. i had no idea that there was such an expansive wealth of info on just about every topic related to fishing. Tons and tons of people who have tons and tons of experience fishing/tackle making/etc. who just like this website/forum are more than willing to share what they have learned and their past experiences. for those of you who havent checked out TU you really should if you have any questions concerning things from rod building, wood carving, airbrushes and the list goes on and on. again thanks for sharing fellas. -Brett

I recently bought some unpainted lure bodies trying to save some money since i cant really afford the $15 mcsticks/lc pointers and certainly not the $30 megabass stuff. Plus i thought i might be kinda fun. I bought some lc pointer knockoffs that look pretty good and i was wondering if any of you guys here that paint/dress/etc your own lures could answer a few of my questions: 1. What sort of paint that is relatively cheap would you suggest? 2. What kind of clear coat would you go with? 3. How many coats of paint and clear coat? 4. What is the suggested drying time? 5. What size and brand hooks do you suggest that are reasonable but good? 6. I also wanted to try dressing my own hooks with feathers since they are frickin $6 bucks for 2 feather dressed hooks!!!! So how would i go about tying them and then is there some type of seal or wax to put on top of the thread after its tied? 7. Any other tips or advice that i have left out? 8. Tips for testing out there suspending action and tickering with them? Thanks guys- ABK PS- I will be using a cheapy little airbrush that i got from a hobby store.

Quick question concerning jigs fellas. I know most people here prefer jewel and chompers. I was just wondering on your preferences with the weed guards. Do u guys like the fiber strands, the one thin metal guard or no guard at all? Do u think you have better hook up rates/% with any of these over the other? Do u find that one gets hung up less or more than the other? All suggestions and opinions are welcome. -Brett

Fished on Monday morning and evening and Tues morning in the Dam area. Monday morning got out around 630 with heavy fog near the dam. Fished points using a chompers pbj and either a table rock red paca chunk, watermelon paca chunk or zoom twin tail pbj trailer. All worked well, but the paca chunk seemed to me to be the best cause i think it had a slightly slower fall through the water. A lot of the fish caught were on the drop so watching your line or maintaining feel is pretty important. Majority of fish were caught from 8-18 feet, mostly smallies with a few K's thrown in and one small largemouth that i caught on a purple smallie beaver by the dam spillway. Fished for the blacks until around 8ish and after we had hit the point there by the chateau we looked over and the gulls were going nuts and the whites as well so we motored over and caught them for about an hour until they went back down. Most were the good eating smaller size. My uncle used a tie clasp/u bend type of spoon and i wanted to catch them on top water so i used a spit'n image. A little disappointed a black didnt come up and nail it but still had a ball with the whites. Fog took a while to burn off and drifted south towards the 86 bridge and the action seemed to stop and the weather because sunny and the wahoos came out in full force so were called it quits. Went out again Mon evening and tried the same stuff with similar results. Hit point 2 just before dark or right at dark and caught my first walleye ever in about 20 ft on a eakins/paca chunk. Just had gotten to dark to really see and pulling it in i thought to myself this fish feels somewhat heavy but is putting up about 0 fight. Slung him up and i was shocked to see it was a walleye about 15 inches. After that hit up the docks on the right side of beardsley and caught a few more blacks and had a nice one break me off on the jump. Tues morning more of the same with one real nice 3lb smallie on a green grub dragging in about 15 ft in some trees right infront of our house. Just before calling it quits i threw out a wiggle wart and was just gonna troll our way across the cove to our dock and no more than 3 seconds after putting the big motor in gear wam. Had him on for about 10 seconds and came up and spit the wart out. It was a fun little bonus while it lasted. Had to leave TR shortly after that unfortunately. Throwing a wiggle wart in the timbered points in 20 ft or less of water might be a good way to pick up some fish. Would also try hitting the docks in the evening again. Just my thoughts but couldnt test it as i had to come back to STL. All in all a good trip with good weather. Cant wait to get back soon. Hope this helps. -Brett oh ya forgot to mention that we caught the crap out of nice big sized goggleyes on smaller softplastics like the smallie beaver, green grub and a zoom brown worm. thought we had a bass and low and behold it was a dumb goggleye. Caught 6 of them in the day and a half i got to fish by accident.

posted this on another thread but dont know if anyone saw it or not so i made my own topic. Couple of questions about using the spoons. I have never used a spoon in my life so bear with me. I was wondering if you tend to use a baitcaster or a spinning rig when you are throwing these? I was also reading Bill B's post and he said that he uses a ball bearing swivel about a foot up the line which is understandable to keep the line twist minimized. I always try to use the least amount of knots i can get away with on any rig. (I have used the little red carolina keepers for years and thought i was the only lazy person on the rock to use them until i heard Bill or someone else say that they also use them also. Made me not feel so bad anymore ) That being said does anyone use the ball bearing swivel with a snap lock attached? That is one knot instead of 3. Just wondering. Also, does anyone change out the trebles on them with just single hooks? Ive heard hook up ratio with fish is the same with either the treble or single but the single is much less likely to snag, is easier to unsnag and is undoubtedly easier on the fishes mouth. Thoughts/help/advice/suggestions on any of this fellas? Concerning buzzbaits, which i have seldom thrown but would like to give it a whirl, when is a good time of year to throw them on the Rock if at all? What colors? People that throw them here...do u prefer the inline style or the more standard spinnerbait looking style? What type of structure/locations would u use them on? Thanks for any help fellas. Hoping to getting down this weekend (Sun-Tues). -Brett

Couple of questions about using the spoons. I have never used a spoon in my life so bear with me. I was wondering if you tend to use a baitcaster or a spinning rig when you are throwing these? I was also reading Bill B's post and he said that he uses a ball bearing swivel about a foot up the line which is understandable to keep the line twist minimized. I always try to use the least amount of knots i can get away with on any rig. (I have used the little red carolina keepers for years and thought i was the only lazy person on the rock to use them until i heard Bill or someone else say that they also use them also.) That being said does anyone use the ball bearing swivel with a snap lock attached? That is one knot instead of 3. Just wondering. Also, does anyone change out the trebles on them with just single hooks? Ive heard hook up ratio with fish is the same with either the treble or single but the single is much less likely to snag, is easier to unsnag and is undoubtedly easier on the fishes mouth. Thoughts on any of this fellas? -Brett

Sorry for the delayed report fellas but there is nothing really to report on unfortunately. Got out last Thurs. @ 10AM from Pacific Palisades and ended at Allenton @ 3PM. I threw everything but the kitchen sink at them and they were having none of it. Water was dirtier than what i would have thought and it was blue bird skies all day with no clouds. I started off with a small 5 inch brown/green/purple roboworm on a shakeyhead and got no takers. Then switched after about 30 min to a topwater zara spook puppy and had no takers on that either....not even a blow up. Gave up on that and tried a white Manns minus 1 shallow crank bait....nothing. Switched to a green, orange, chatruse spinnerbait....nothing. Then switched to a black and chartruse jig with a black and chartruse crawdad trailer......nothing. Didnt have any bites and it was just horrible. The last 2 miles my friend and i didnt even fish as we just paddled constantly to get back to the car as fast as possible since the fish werent cooperating. Its was not a good first experience fishing the Meramec to say the least. It was a bit tough controling the canoe to get proper boat positioning and being able to properly fish areas that i thought would hold fish so that probably contibuted to the SKUNK. Only thing that i did see was a school of fish i couldnt identify in a pool of water of about 6 inches deep and they got spooked when we got within 10 feet and took off like rockets into the river. Dont know what they were but looked like they could have been white bass or drums?? I dont know if drums school together or not???? Saw a few gars going down river surfacing for air from time to time but that was the only fish that we saw. It was a really frustrating day to say the least. For future reference should i be targeting faster moving current or the slower deep pools? Will the fish be on the upstream side of structure or downstream? Like i said i am new to river fishing so im sure i didnt fish everything correctly.....but im sure they werent biting cause i threw EVERYTHING to no avail. Hope this helps although i certainly can not tell you what they are biting on. -Brett

Thanks a bunch goggleye and Al. Like i said i always have fished table rock out of a boat so i dont know much about stream/river fishing. I have only been in this canoe once on Simpson Lake and there is NOTHING going on there i can tell u that so i figured id fish a river nearby with real fish in it. I am going tomorrow morning with a friend and he has decided that he thinks that the stretch of the Meramec from the Pacific Palisades to Allenton would be better to fish so that is going to be where we are going to hit. Thank you for the info about the stretch from Castlewood to Valley Park as im sure i will fish that next time as that was my original plan because its convenient for me. Should i fish this section of the meramec from Pacific to Allenton differently than you guys have described for the Castlewood/Valley Park section? I will report back after tomorrows trip and let you guys know how i did. Thanks- Brett

Thanks Bman. I already have a canoe so i dont need a rental or any type of service. But looking at the time it takes to navigate the river i guess in order to make it back to my car in Valley Park i would have to put in around the Castlewood Park area i guess. That should put me on the river for around 3 hours or so plus or minus a few hours which is fine. What sort of lures should i be throwing? I was thinking about throwing small crankbaits and inline spinners? Maybe some smaller soft plastics. Anyone been out lately and could steer me in the right direction?

Hello to anyone willing to give me some advice or help. I live in Valley Park and was wanting to fish the Meramec River from a canoe that i own and i was wanting to be dropped off and put in up steam in the Pacific Area and float back to my car at the 141 bridge or 44 bridge that cross over the river. I have never floated a river in a canoe and was wondering if some of you more experienced people here might be able to help. I am an experienced angler but always fish from a bass boat at Table Rock so this is new to me. I would like to fish for about 5 hours or so but dont know the time it takes from Pacific??? So some of my questions are....Places to put in? How long would you expect it would take to float it? What lures would you suggest throwing at this time of year? Are there other stetches of the river that are considerably better? Those are some of the questions i have and any thing else i should know would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. -Brett

I was down last weekend and i wasnt fishing for them but my Uncle and his son tore the bluegills up on crickets near the 86 bridge off one of the islands there. I believe it was the island past the "one tree island" from the 86 bridge if u are heading towards the dam. They also caught quite a few keeper bass, catfish and goggle eye mixed in. They just kept the crickets right off the bottom they said. Hope this helps. -Brett