esox niger

Ive been fishing connected creeks with some success this year. caught more big fish this year than the last 18years combined. ill just chalk that up to lots of time spent closer to home fishing the brown water, and some serious unemployment as well. you should see the guides on my rod that are 1/2 worn through and my line with thousands of little cracks in it.. anyway to the point...ive started to scout around the missouri, with the water down its alot easier to get out on the wing dams and even get the kayak out there sometimes, but ive had very little luck. anyone have any pointers as far as tactics locations and good all round flys. I supose im targeting catfish and the white/hybrid/stripped bass. mostly fishing floating line and 1/40th ounce lead eye flies....mostly white/yellow rabbit strips and brown ddh flies 2-4 inches long. id like to find areas with shallows where i could perhaps stalk fish early morning or even at night..im not sure where that would be or if i have a hunch i dont know how to access. i guess i could check out the old chain of rocks bridge ....been to alton dam but I feel a bit out of place with my fly rod. chesterfield valley is my closest access point. thanks

Darth clam worked only if you call snagging fish right above their lip any fun. unbelievably i caught two like this with 1/2 an hour..one downstream drift the other with upstream drift. how did i do that? makes me feel accurate. but otherwise duped. I wish i knew exactly what these fish are doing all day so i could catch them.

Hey Oakie whats up budy. I knew what that link was going to be before i ever clicked it. yeah hes got a great blog...ive been checkin his stuff out all summer. I just got some furry foam and ive been tying up his darth clam. I have a hunch im onto something with the clams...couple days ago i went out with some makeshift clams just using what i had. the best one, which wasnt very durable, i made outa thinskin (brown mottled plastic) some lead eyes and a little white rabit fur for the foot of the clam. i cleany hooked up with a drum up in the shallows then i believe i got not one but two bites from buffalo. I may be on to something, but im not 100% those two werent snagged but i dont think they were. i was using alot of weight and casting down below me in the river. the sinkers and fly would catch up on the bottom towards the bottom of the drift. then its just a matter of breaking it loose and letting it catch so the fly is sitting on the bottom as close to the fish as possible. i need to try this fly some more . Im even thinking about tying them two or three in a row just to increase my efficiency. i will post when i find out if my hunch is right. thanks for the tip its a good one. anyone interested in rough fish should check the site. lots of ideas if you like to tie.

yeah , they are a major pain in the but to fish to. ive realy only been using larger flies. i think maybe i should use some little scuds or something...even with that said....ive never seen them even react to flies droped right in their faces...like no interest or curiosity. i think they mostly graze the gravel and filter it out. i dont think they realy chase much...unless you get realy lucky.

Hey budy! i think you may have hit the nail on the head with your algea coment. Im starting to think that a surprise attack may be the way to illicit a curiosity response. maybe a slightly noisy entrance close to their head. thought ive gotten plenty of responses over on warmfly.com about dead drifting nymphs...so im still not sure, gota get out there and spend some time to figure this one out. (you had any luck over at creve couer lake with the carp?)

Thanks for the tip....i did try one bright yellow glow ball with no luck. they seem so focused on the 2 square inches around their mouths its tricky to get the fly in the box but i will keep at it and try different things till i get it. as a note I have had some luck with grass carp on a cream colored egg pattern. lately ive had luck on both common and grass carp with a brown holographic dubbed leach...i actualy call them sculpins but they are basicly a dubed wooly bugger with lead eyes. that fly has been money with white bass and catfish as well. a great all around fly. i got that pattern from stu tompsons DDH leach. Im going to try that in smaller sizes and colors and see if i cant increase my number of hookups. fyi...ive got a post over on warmfly.com thats gotten a couple more responses if anyones interested in checking it out

If i hadnt caught two buffalo in the last couple of days id say they were as impossible to catch as the asians...ive certainly done way more than my fair share of casting and why those two fish bit when no other fish would look at my fly is beyond me. does anyone have any tips on sight fishing to buffalo or redhorse suckers? I caught both fish on the same fly....green maribou tail hackled body and big black bead chain eyes on about a size 8 streamer hook....looks kinda like a damselfy nymph mostly but could pass as many things i guess. for the most part I see fish nose down in the gravel or rocks or in the riffles feeding....but i cant get their attention with anything. the two fish i did catch were a little different.....one was in riffles with its buddy and they must have nosed up to move or something and i put the fly about a foot and a half up and they both "bolted" so to speak in the direction of the fly ....i thought they were scared but hooked one in the mouth....the other was in an edy with his buddys up off the bottom. however, 95% of the fish I see are nose down unresponsive to much of anything. all i can think is I have to dead drift something on the bottom right to the fishes nose. (im good but when i cant see my nymph it gets hard) and these fish dont seem to be looking upstream...more focused on their noses which are in the dirt. what does a guy have to do catch these fish? anyone any good at catching these guys? id love to find out how its done and what flies work well. im trying to tie up some good baby clam flies. but i realy dont know what i should be throwing. Thanks

My brother with a nice bass from two weeks ago

AWWW , he not ugly , He's Cute! did you tickle his chin and make him purr?

headed out to check the shallow uper reaches of this creek...no cats or whitebass but carp! and to my surprise they didnt spook too easily casting a biger fly, specificly a weedless "ddh" sculpin that ive been getting white bass and cats on. ive spent so much fishless time hunting carp that today was great. got a fish on the first cast and finished this outing with a nice catfish.

yeah Im still catching the whites in both the meramec and my secret connected creek. its hit and miss though, this rain has seemed to change things... a bit. last saturday night was epic night fishing... water was getting way down...between the rain and the missouri river fluctuations things never seem to be the same from day to day, very hard to figure it out. was out last night hooked one good white bass that got off and got a 22 inch cat...better than nothing, but not great.

Seriously, using a little strech fit glove is the shiznit. so smooth....you can feel any tap clear as day and it just feels so good!

why dont you dub those buggers like a DDH leech...then you wont need to worry about hackles

ive had a number of low end reels that esentialy have no drag....despite an external adjuster...i was just pondering this today...but could be if your reel is cheap...the drag could be "nonexistant". id talk to someone in the shop or customer service. i just looked at your real on google shopping....at that price i dont think you get much in the way of drag. to step up...ive got a Lamson Konic....130$ same drag as their 400-600$ reels or you could go with the orvis barstock at 99$...otherwise be careful not to jerk any line off so as not to get a backlash and learn to palm that baby for drag...or finger that line ( get some fuzzy black gloves from the gas station for 2$ you can use the left one on the right hand when it evetualy wears out, you will love the feel of the line over the glove, its so so much better than stripping over your bare finger, I would hate to fish without my glove. it number one increases your ability to feel the strike and secondly it works very well as a drag....that can be an exciting way to fish...my original reel was the same as yours, i used it for 10 years...just learned to not to jerk line off, and to palm the reel. the glove is a new thing i would have fished my whole life if i had know the difference it made. try it

Ive got a sit on ocean kayak...id say a sit in kayak is out of the question, a canoe is easier to fish from sitting down...who wants to do that? maybe. I like to stand and fish, i made two outriggers for my kayak...from pvc. all in all its a bit of work to get out and fish from the yak but it would be about the same for the canoe although they are usualy heavier and therefore more difficult to transport, load etc. my kayak is about 50 pounds and i would dread it to be any heavier. loading unloading dragging or carrying would become more difficult. my set up is not perfect....I end up having to stand with my feet in the bottom of a curved depresion (seat) that can become uncomfortable....with an anchor, rod, paddle, and gear things are slightly crowded, it can be hard on the knees...I use a gandening pad so i can neel and paddle, i can also sit up on the rear of the seat indian style for comfort on distance paddles. moving from one position to another is hard on the knees and your feet over time. id much prefer the yak to my float tube. when i can stand im in the game....sitting to fish kinda sucks..i fly fish so maybe you wouldnt mind sitting? especialy if you fish bait. if you get a sit in kayak how you gunna have an anchor? gunna put it on your lap? or balance it on the shell? have fun. where u gunna keep drinks or bug repelant? can you grab that while your sitting down? things to think about.

wow ! cant believe this stripper section was last posted in may! Ive been getting good action lately in the stl area...meramec river and undisclosed connected creeks...i thought they were supposed to be gone but there not. I also thought these fish Fed durring daylight only...wrong...found that out last night , went out at 10pm with some sculpin flies for catfish...was gettin slammed from the get go straight through 2am...only one good cat at 24inches but a nice quantity of white bass ? hybrids i dont know between 14 and 19 inches.. is it just me or do these fish fight harder in the dark....maybe it was the shallow water that had them exploding after hookset, ive caught these guys durring the day and they fight hard but seemed like they faught harder last night. anyone else caught these fish at night? i remember googling that and nothing realy turned up. someone said under lighted areas but this area isnt that lighted...full moon or just normal activity? ps i like brown sculpins tied fat ddh leach style size 2 hook

Nothing on the puglisi shad flies yet...the brown ddh sculpin is a killer. went out at 10pm tonight to fish a creek conected to the missouri. the creek was down and the white bass were in town. ....Holy McShiznit! #1 i didnt know they were on at night. #2 they seem to fight harder at night. those things fight like hell to begin with. probably 7or 8 14-16 inch fish and 5or 6 17-19 inch fish. got 2 cats with the best at ?24 inches. love those bass. 20 lb test tippet with my 8weight and they were rippin out line.

Thanks Okie.

I've added to my arsenal of big fish flies. havent tried the puglisi flies yet but the "ddh" fat dubbed sculpins/ leeches are good on the white bass and cats for sure. the best thing is this bait stays fresh for weeks, months, and even years.

this was maybe a 24 incher i got in the morning....got a 28 and a 22 after the sun went down off a boulder section of bank. all of them on a new fly...Im calling it a ddh sculpin, tied fat. just got some ep fibers and made some nice shad flies...im hoping they like shad better than sculpin...bet they do... now if i can just get myself back to the big fish water before we get more rain. but even if we get rain ive got an alternate spot that benefits from it, so i guess im all good. id like to beat that 38 inch flathead. some big cats out there...

Nice flippin fish dude! where were u at and what were you using. Im giving the meramec a shot right now, the water is way down and i have a feeling theres a deep hole under the 141 bridge that i might be able to reach now. got some new ddh leach/minnows tied up and gunna give that a shot. awesome fish man.

it gets deeper than that...that areas a good 5-8 ft shallower than the majority of the lake. Ive seen one boat come in once, im sure some guys go back there but mostly theyre up that "creek" (large lake arm when the waters up like this) mainly to catch bait then there out to the river. you live in stl? and yeah therse a couple frogs around. not too long ago i saw one bouncing around in the woods and then splash into the water...make a huge wake as he swam out to the log raft then hop up onto a log and watch me. it was creepy and cool at the same time. maybe it all had nothing to do with me but id like to think it did.

Thanks fishwrench, Ive read that on falling water bait fish wish get packed into that area...ive had some luck there...I always give that area some pressure but its never been spectacular. you are correct ...lots of wood debris in that area...only occasional fish found there and the water is typiclly anywhere from 8-16 feet deep while the opening is 15-20 ft across, no rocks just mud and overhanging trees...impossible to fish the channel itself. ive seen and hooked into the bigest fish at the far end of the lake in a large flooded shallow and in other areas of the lake near two beaver tree piles which likely have tunnels or something under them, they dont look like lodges. this little lake is a bit of a trek for me to get to but i love fishing there...im going to try getting out there very early like 5:00am or between 9pm and midnight, should be fun kayak fishing at night, but im ready for the challenge. right now im keying in of upper Creve couer lake where the creek enters. litteraly right below creve couer mill rd bridge. its close to home and promising...if some of the debris would just clear...the water is low now but the area is strewn with large bolders and cuts...would be awesome in higher water if it even gets that high. if you try to fish there i virtualy guarantee your going to fall on your face or your butt. very trecherous conditions definitely have a wading saff of some sort. Im interested in the meramec river too. id like to find some good spots to wade fish there for early morning and night fishing. right above the 141 bridge is the only spot I know of...and maybe simpson lake outlet area. also the outlet of creve couer lake might be good especialy on falling lake levels...but i think night fishing there is off limits.

I havent caught many fish since that approximtely 28 inch fish a few weeks ago...as a note to anyone interested, it had been lightly raining that day about an hour and a half to two hours and i saw multiple large fish cruising. id heard they like the oxygenation from the rain..might be. to all you guys who said it was a spawning phenomenon catching so many cats I think you may have been right. despite the mdc's fishing report giving the missouri river temp at 65 a couple of weeks ago the backwater ive been fishing is now at 89 degrees...well above peak spawn...we will have to see what happens, the water has been so high its up into the tree line and id bet most active feeding fish are back in it. On a positive note I had some good luck night fishing the past couple of knight towards the uper reaches of st. louis' largest oxbow lake . catching gar, which i dont realy care to catch especialy after i had one thrash my pinky. funny thing is as i was reaching towards the thing i was asking myself "how much damage can a gar do" well...plenty. aside from the gar got a 20 inch cat the first knight and a pair of 22-23 inch fish last knight plus a nice 18 inch large mouth and a 23-24inch drum. Ive tried a version of the ddh leach, which i tie like a wooly bugger but using a dark piece of estez and a piece of dark chenile spun together to make the body, however I feel like its not nearly as productive for the cats as the white rabitt strip with yellow estez body and lead eyes. Id realy like to try fishing below alton dam one night or early morning. I felt like a bit of a spectalce out there the last time being the only flyfisher these guys had probably ever seen. maybe it wont be as crowded late at night or early morning.

yeah i think they were bigheads , what were they eating...seemed like minnows but there was some cotton seed too. I sure didnt see any minnows but there were some weird little we waves like a schools of them... ive head about the deciever asian deal at Rend lake, i tried a deciever no luck. would they aggressively boil and hit the surface for cotton seed? looks like i have some experimenting to do with them, even though i dont like them already...id like to catch them. oh yeah, the water report for the missouri this week was 65deg lets say 68 max in the backwater... peak spawn is 81 degrees ...so ive got some time before they leave, if they leave, probably if it gets uncomfortably hot or shallow. the lakes only about 2' shallower than the river though. we'll see what happens. i dont like fishing deep so i hope i dont have to, but i may...id prefer to find them morning and night shallow water hunting.