405z06

I always seem to come away somewhat disappointed in this stretch. Like you said, there are so many good looking spots: Villander Bluff is awesome. That first 90 degree right-hand-turn just downstream from Campbell bridge. It all looks like bass heaven. And i've caught fish throughout, but it never quite matches what the scenery leads my mind to believe it should be, if that makes any sense. I consider the Meramec my "home" water, the place I fish the most, and I like to keep it above the Huzzah if possible. I fished this stretch and more (from Onondaga to Blue Springs) last Saturday. The levels looked fine on the USGS, but when we got there, the water was very muddy. Total bummer. I think we caught 7-8 fish total (2 people), not a one was > 12".

Was down there Saturday morning. It was a little muddy, but nothing was closed.

Haha, no, it's not just you. I took 4 pics with his phone. I am going to have him forward me the others, because that does look crazy now that you mention it.

My friend Joe and I decided to float on Saturday and enjoy the 70 degree temps before the sleet & snow came on Sunday. Fishing was mostly slow, especially between put-in and about 11am. I think we had 5 fish combined at that point, all dinks: 2 spots (I hardly ever catch spots that far up on the Meramec) and 3 smallies. We were mainly throwing jerkbaits. I was experimenting with the Ned Rig/Midwest finesse thing. Then we hit a little run that I always like to stop at when I fish this stretch of the Meramec, but we almost didn't stop because the current is fairly heavy and It seemed more of a warm-weather spot. Or so I thought. We stopped anyway, if for nothing else than to stretch our legs and let the dog run about. We had been on the spot about 15 minutes and caught nothing. I had put my rod back in the canoe and was lying on the ground to ease my back pain, waiting for word that Joe was ready to move on. Instead, I could hear him say he had a fish on and it was pulling hard. After a nice, strong fight (with the help of a strong current), He landed this fish: We didn't have a tape measure with us. He is calling it a 20", which I think is safe. We've caught and measured many fish in the 19-19.5" range over the last several years and this fish looked quite a bit bigger than anything we have caught. We caught about 8 fish from this hole, a couple were nice 14-15", the rest dinks. We even had a double at one point. All the fish at this hole we caught on bottom-bouncers, with the big one caught on a sweat beaver. After leaving the hole, we probably caught 5-6 fish combined the rest of the way. We even caught a couple of fish on spinnerbaits. Another day or two of warm weather and I bet it would have been crazy good.

True story, I have never caught a trout. I've only actually seen one live, it was caught on a jerkbait while fishing for smallies on the Susquehanna in PA. One time I was wetting a line at the low-water bridge at Scott's Ford before a float and had something on that I think might have been a trout.

I dunno. It may only be Memorial Day - Labor Day. I don't think I went to any of those access points this year. I tried Morse Mill one time this spring, but flood debris had it closed completely.

There is a nice, little stretch right above where you guys put in at Byrnes Mill that holds smallmouth, and some nice ones. It seems like you can go a couple of miles each direction and rarely catch a smallie, but they really like it in this little stretch. My personal best came here a few years ago. A couple of summers ago I floated from Morse Mill to Cedar Hill and we caught quite a few smallies. In fact we caught way more brown bass than Spots. But they would be bunched up on very specific spots. Basically anywhere there was natural rock. Those places were few a far between, but once you found a spot, you could call your shot. If there wasn't rock, you might as well have not even picked up a rod. They started charging to park at Morse Mill, Cedar Hill, and Rockford Beach, so we kinda stopped hitting the lower Big.

Ditto that on Ozark Outdoors. Their facilities are top-notch, they have a nice store full of stuff you might want or need. And they are super-accomodating if you have some fisherman in your group. And it seems that many of the campsites at BSR are kinda faw away from the river, whereas almost everything at Ozark Outdoors is close to the river.

I didn't catch the comment about the spots in the original post. That is wierd. FWIW, I fished Scott's Ford to Indian Springs the week before and we didn't catch a single spot. As a matter a fact, I don't think I have ever caught a spot in that stretch. I will occasionally catch one around Onondaga, but it's still pretty rare.

Thanks for the report. I have never actually fished any of the Meramec above Scotts Ford. Also, I have never, ever caught a trout of any kind. What area did you fish? How does it compare to, say, Scotts Ford to Riverview in terms of bassy-ness?

my friend who alerted the folks at Huzzah Valley about the 2nd spearfishing incident does not read this forum, at least not very frequently. But I indeed did talk to him about the initial spearfishing incident, and even sent him the pictures you posted to his Facebook page. I don't think he would have stopped and alerted anyone if your original thread and pictures had never been posted and stimulated a conversation.

Cool story, bro

That fish has some nice girth to it, good going

He told my friend that he was targeting "black bass". My friend, who is as big a smallie addict as I am, darn near lost it, but decided to just bring it to the attention of the staff instead of confronting him.

my buddy floated out of Huzzah Valley yesterday. When he texted me his trip report, he said he came upon another spear fisherman near the bridge there at Huzzah Valley Resort. He brought the spear-"fisherman" to the attention of the staff and said offender was apparently kicked out. Will update when and if I get more info.

No offense to all the legal giggers out there, but I agree

a couple of years ago a friend and I floated the Big River from Morse Mill to Cedar Hill. You could call your shot on a smallie when the habitat was right, but for most of the float you might as well have saved your energy and not even throw a line. But if there was any natural rock or boulders on the bank, you could pick a few fish up on each said spot. Thankfully we had a trolling motor, otherwise it would have been a long, long day of mud banks.

A crankbait, particularly a Wiggle Wart, is one of my main go-to baits for lake/resevoir fishing. But I almost never throw crankbaits on the river anymore. It's not that they are not effective, it's that I lose too many of them. It's almost comical how quickly I get hung up after tying on a crankbait on the river. Usually within the first 5 casts.

I don't put much stock in any of the old fishing cliches. I've been skunked countless times when everything was supposedly '"perfect". I've slayed bass in 6 inches of water after a brutal cold front fishing in the sleet. One particular trip stands out in my mind. In early May of 2008 my father drove in from Pennsylvania and we headed to the Lake of the Ozarks for a 4-5 day trip. I think we got down there on a Tuesday, made a run to the grocery store, and then launched the boat and got on the water about noon. That first day was one of the greatest days of fishing in my life. We caught so many fish, it was ridiculous. It was a Wiggle Wart bite (my favorite). But my Dad was tired from the long drive the day before and we decided to only fish for a few hours that first day. I was dissapointed but didn't protest too much. When we went out the next day we could not buy a bite. Everything was exactly the same. The temps, the skies, boat traffic, there were no fronts, nothing. Identical. We don't understand nearly as much as we think we do when it comes to fish and when and why they bite (or don't).

I fished the Suquehanna in PA a few years ago with a guide and he had us using a rig almost identical to that, but without the weed guard. He would take 4" Yum dingers (Senko), cut them in 1/2, dip them in some homemade jelly/scent, and hook them on weighted jig. It doesn't look like much, but it killed them up there, and i'm sure it would here, too.

What parts of LOZ has smallies?

Unless we want the polar caps to melt and kill us all, we better all vote for democrats so they can fix it. Slush funds to unions and higher marginal tax rates on everyone in the US will solve this problem.

Its not "your" creek, bro

we should just ban everyone in a tube, canoe, raft, or jetboat. Then we can just let the meth-billlies use the river for a place to dispose of old tires, autos, and farm equipment. My favorite part of the story is when the shooter was asked why he didn't call the authorities, he said (and I am paraphrasing) "they woulda been gone by the time they got there". The officer asked: "Isn't that what you wanted, for them to leave?" Crocker was like: "Yeah, I guess that woulda worked, too". That and the whole "I just shot the guy closest to me" comment leads me to believe the jury will have a guilty verdict within 30 minutes. I am just speculating here, but my guess is Mr Crocker has spent many a day sitting on his property on a Saturday afternoon just-a-waitin' to confront him some trespassers. F him.