405z06

The little one is fine for a regular canoe, but have to go cargo with the Lab

last I heard they were biting on Dance's Eel and Flying Lures

LOL He lives in the Ozarks lol thanks. Now on to the old original question. How do you catch fish?

Saw this on Facebook from 2 hours ago: Ozark National Scenic Riverways 2 hrs · With all the overnight rainfall, both rivers are closed to non-motorized vessels today. That includes the Jacks Fork River from the Prongs to Two Rivers, and the Current River from Montauk to Gooseneck.

Homegirl is on point, imo

I was supposed to be on the way down tonight from St Louis and be put on by Brian and float Thomasville to Greer starting Sat morn, but I guess things got nasty last night. I have never fished the Eleven Point, but my buddy Joe says it's his favorite Ozark river and swears by Brian and Eleven Point Canoe Rental. Even has EPCR sticker on his truck, lol. I'm sure we'll make it down at some point. Bummer for you guys that it happened on a what I assume should be a busy weekend. Bummer for us because there won't be any bronzebacks pulling our strings this weekend.

I've noticed that I rarely see any G3 jet boats on the Ozark rivers that I float. However, about 6 years ago I went I fished with a couple of different guides over 3 days on the Susquehanna near Harrisburg, PA and G3's were EVERYWHERE there. My old man even bought one before he passed (he lived outside Harrisburg at the time). I assumed that they were a regional manufacturer in the NE, but found out that G3's are actually made in Lebanon, MO, or at least that's where the company's HQ are. I don't know much about jet tin boats, but I assume there is a reason for this. Will the G3 Tunnel Hull jets not work on the Ozark streams as well as ,say, the ubiquitous Blazer?

Floated Slabtown to Ross over Sat & Sun. We were disappointed with our catch (approx 40 smb combined on Sat for 2 people, way less than that on the shorter float Sunday) but after seeing the posts above, maybe we should consider ourselves lucky. Only caught one fish over 16 inches. And I only saw beds on one little 10 yard stretch of the entire 2-day float. There was nothing on them, but there were fry in the area. The beds were big enough that I assumed that they were bass beds. This confused me, as i figured that even if bass were done with the spawn, the abandoned beds would be visible everywhere.

probably about 12" each

Bumping an old thread to announce - to joeD's chagrin - that I caught 2 rainbows on the Huzzah on Saturday while smallie fishing. Both were caught on 1/4 oz Booya tandem spinnerbaits. The first I would estimate was ~ 3 miles above Dry Creek/Hwy 8, and the last ~ 1 mile above. I had never caught a trout in my life before. I cant say I was impressed much. 7" Goggle Eye fight better.

Hit the Meramec on Sat, 9+ mile float ending near Onondoga. Couldn't get anything going, tried everything, 2 of us in a canoe and I dont think we caught 10 bass combined. I think the total was 2 largemouth, 1 spot (furthest upstream that I have ever caught a spot on the Meramec) and 5 smallies. May is historically the month that I do best in terms of size on the rivers, so I have that to look forward to, but April has been a bust.

I've never caught a river walleye in Missouri, but every February I head down to Morse Mill on the Big to see if I can get lucky. I recall reading somewhere that they are sometimes caught on the mill dams on the Big in Feb. It's looking like 60 degrees for Sat and Sun, so I may make my yearly journey this weekend. If I snag something, I'll report back

Def largemouth

I love the Meramec, and I am so, so glad it didn't get dammed back in the day, but IMO dealing with a fleet of 40' cruisers while on a lake in a 21' fiberglass bass boat > dealing with a fleet 150 hp tin boats while in a canoe on a 50' wide river. In fact, to my psyche and morale while fishing, the jets are much more annoying.

No joke! I have only floated the Current 1 time, from Round Spring to Two Rivers on a 4th of July Weekend (!!!!) last year. This is federally protected river. Gorgeous. But I have never seen so many jet boats in my life (and I often float the Meramec on Summer weekends, for the record). It made me sick to my stomach, I thought I was going to be out in some protected, wild wilderness, and it was like an interstate instead. I don't want to exaggerate, but I probably saw 40 jets on that float. Exactly one (1) of them had a trolling motor. These were all pleasure boaters, similar to the flock at Lake Of the Ozarks. LOTS of young kids as owners. I think they give away a Blazer SS with a 40HP Merc upon graduating from 10th grade. I have stated it before, but I would be thrilled if they banned jets on our rivers. Knowing that will never happen, I think they should restrict Jet usage on our Ozark rivers. No jets, for example, above Sappington Bridge on the Meramec ( or maybe Onandoga). Perhaps no jets on any ONSR protected water?

makes me feel bad for ripping their lips

Love that stretch and I agree that Nancy and Tim(?) at Wilderness are a hoot. Even if you go there only 2-3x a year, they treat you like you are their favorite customer. 3-4 weeks ago we wanted to do that float but the rain had been rare and water was low, and they weren't putting people on at Slabtown, so Nancy recommended we float from Ross, through the Fort, and to Lay-Z days. I had always wanted to float through the Fort, so we did. We were in the double digits for smallmouth before we passed the pavilion at Rich's annex. It was unreal. The morning bite on both days was ridiculous. At the end of the second day I had "bass thumb" so bad it was bleeding, no joke, and that had never happened to me. I had been meaning to write up a report, maybe I'll do that tonight. Glad you had a good trip on the Piney!

Really nice fish! They should ban jets above two rivers

in before Drew somehow ties this into Climate Change TM

Yep, that was me, good talking to you, too. Good luck with your endeavor. We had the first few hours to ourselves Saturday morning, so the tough fishing wasn't a result of floaters/rafters. I fish that stretch during the summer a lot just for that reason - to have the first 1/2 to myself, more or less, and usually it is very consistently good, even once the party crowds come out. It was just one of those days, I guess.

I love that stretch starting out at Scotts Ford, but I avoid it on summer Saturdays unless I am shuttling myself and can get on the river real early, way ahead of the rafters. I was on the Meramec on Saturday a ways down from you... I put in at Garrison's and did ten miles. It was the toughest fishing I have ever seen for this time of the year. I probably only caught about 10 smallies, nothing of any size. My friend in the front for the canoe got shutout completely. That is pretty much unprecedented for June on the Meramec, in my experience. The week before on the same stretch was tough but I blamed it on nasty looking water. I didn't have any such excuse this past weekend.

Nice report! I haven't made to the Huzzah yet this year, but I am sure that I will soon. I often times forget there is a bass season, too. Mainly because I never, ever keep any. I don't even own a stringer.

:facepalm

I'm glad you had fun, but I have to say I am bit disappointed in the report after reading the title. The overall numbers are nice, but the number of keepers and weight of the best 5 sound like a "average/ slightly below average" day on LOZ for 2 people over 7 hours. You live there and that's your best day ever?