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Joe is being modest, that Brown looked like a breaching whale when it broke the surface. Truely a spectacular fish and an awesome fight. Joe had the hot hand this trip, just look at the Rainbow he caught the previous evening. https://www.flickr.com/photos/129201984@N05/sets/72157650111071427/

I like some of the boxcar art. I think they should officially give some of the artists a few cars to paint.

Congrats. Puppies are a lot of work but a lot of fun too. I have a 7 month old pup at home and love it.

Nice. pretty fish.

Dang it. I can't resist a good jerk bait. You know you can't buy just one.

Good game. Hope the Cards can pull it out tonight. Lackey pitched great and Kolten Wong redeemed himself from last year. Congrats to the Royals too! It was awesome to see them dominate the Angels.

Awesome game. Congrats from a longtime Cardinals fan... Now where did we put Don Denkingers phone number?

Oh please. Catch a 20" fish and I will take your picture. But, thanks for being an excellent guide and fishing partner.

That is one ugly seat. I think with your wood skills you could produce the same thing in a nice wood and add the upholstery, or maybe a nice webbing, or cane. Consider yourself challenged!

Thanks. Yeah, I was a little apprehensive to stick my finger into it's mouth when it was filled with a Gunfish. Made me want to have a small net handy. Though it would of been worth a hook in the finger! :-)

I agree. I have seen the same behavior on other clear water streams like the Mineral Fork and Crooked Creek. When the water is clear and cover is minimal the fish can be anywhere. It's surprising how many times they can be laying in the shallow water side of a run with nothing but gravel bottom all around. A.B.C. Always Be Casting. Be careful with your wading, don't be crunching around in the gravel pushing a wake of water when you move around

This report's a little late, but better late than never. I went out last Friday with joeD when the cold front was pushing through, had the day planned all week and wasn't going to let a temperature drop stop us. The entire day seemed to hover in the mid 50s with very low cloud cover and light mist on and off all day. With the drop in temp I thought the day would be marginal at best. Boy was I wrong. Definitely proves the best time to fish is whenever you can, you never know how it may play out. Surprisingly the water was a little low and fairly clear, I had not been on this stretch all summer and I was assuming the water would be a little higher with all the rain we have had this summer. We started out throwing Super Flukes and Sammy 85s. I think I picked up one on a fluke and one on the Sammy, nothing to write home about but it was a start. Throwing to all of the typical spots, heads of riffles, scour holes, pour offs, etc. Still nothing special and a fish here and there, no real pattern…yet. When we came to the first hole, a place I usually don't like because they never seem to pay off, the game changed. First cast into the hole with the Sammy and the water exploded from a nice smallie, missed it. A few casts later the same thing, small fish but cool top water hit, landed it and put it back. JoeD started hitting them too and we quickly realized we had a pattern. Top water baits in the slow water, sometimes from the edge but just as many from the middle area. The fish smashed the lures every time they hit, no subtle bites here. I switched over to a Gunfish 95 to get a little better "walk the dog" action out of the bait, that Sammy 85 is hard to work consistently, at least for me. Fishing improved for me with the Gunfish and JoeD stayed with the Sammy, both of us consistently catching fish. Most were in the slow holes with just a few from the traditional summer pattern faster areas. Nothing with notable size for the most part, just a lot of 13"-15" fish. Except for this one. 20.5" of awesome. Came from the deep center of the river straight up and blasted my Gunfish…missed, then immediately turned and ate it completely. No kidding, the entire bait was in the mouth and I only saw the line going to the fish with the mouth closed during the fight. Takes a big smallie to inhale a Gunfish. A couple of hard drag stealing runs under the canoe and I finally had landed my biggest Smallmouth to date. Oh yeah. We fished in a well known section of the upper Meramec. No big secret, lots of guys fish it.

I'm a split decision on this. I like that the access is currently limited at George's creek but man is it hard to drag a canoe up to the road since the farm access closed 1/2 mile down stream.

I really like the iPad slot. Very clever.

I still don't see any sense in having offshore racing boats on an inland lake.

Well, the good news is they're not fishing. I can't imagine what it looks like from the smallies point of view though! :-) Probably pretty ugly.

Yep, really scary the way the rivers are treated. In a perfect scenario there would be some restrictions put in place for the amount of boats any stretch could handle in one day, but unfortunately that will never happen. We can add this to our collective list of grievances about the decline of our rivers. Gigging, over harvesting, ATVs, over use, trash in the river, etc. Sigh, and it's only getting worse. I will continue to go during the week and hopefully not encounter this insanity. It's like LOZ, avoid the weekends between Memorial day and Labor day. Enough of this. Anyone fishing?

Okay, I couldn't resist. More photos of the Bull float from previous years. http://www.937thebull.com/photos/bull-float-trip/ Here are some of the scariest. Starting with this one. WTF, this is probably one of the most dangerous things I have ever seen. The rest of these just make me sick.

Here's the link: http://ozarkoutdoors.net/bull-float-2014-packages-prices/ Looks like its a weekend thing with concert. Found this pic. Definitely not my thing. I'm annoyed when I see just one other floater on the river!

I love the double hook ups. Fools you for a few seconds thinking it's a really big bass.

+1 on the chips and salsa being a meal in itself. Get me around good salsa and I can make a pig of myself. Absolutely no self control. Of, course a good margarita makes it all go down pretty good too.

Nice. Well done.

LOL. I think I need counseling!

Excellent. Very nicely done. Congrats on a great fish!!!!!

Here are a few more photos from the trip. this was a 3 day trip on CC in late July. Check out the awesome new canoe seats. Gotta have a little comfort at my age! This was the 18.5" fish A nice fat fish Joe brought to hand Same fish, absolutely inhaled the tube jig.