405z06

Stacy King seems to be a genuine and good person. Denny Brauer & Hank Parker the same.

The Bluffs float won't get too busy until you hit the Huzzah, in my experience. And the fishing can be hit and miss. I have had some really good days on this float, including my personal best smallie. I prefer this float, like most floats, in the middle of the week. I don't like the weekends mainly because of the the jets, but other canoes have never been a huge issue for me on this stretch. On the other hand, once during the middle of the week I floated from Ozark Outdoors to Blue Springs ranch. You would have thought it was Memorial weekend. I literally could not believe how busy it was for a weekday. I love that stretch, but will never do it during the weekend during warm weather months.

A lot can change in one week, but we were still finding them shallow with Wiggle Warts on main lake points on the Osage. We couldn't catch much in the Niangua nor the Glaize, but on the main (Osage) channel, we point hopped and usually caught at least one fish per point. Caught some really nice quality fish on Sunday. Monday was a little tougher, but still plenty of 15"+ fish. On Sunday the bite died about 11am, and Monday it died about an hour earlier about 10am. Red Wiggle Warts seemed to make a difference. Other color didn't produce nearly as well, for whatever reason.

yes, that is def. a spotted bass aka "kentucky", and a pretty nice one for a stream. I caught a bunch of them this holliday weekend at Lake of the Ozarks.

Fished this Sat & Sun. Didn't catch a single female, didn't see any bloody tales, no beds. The males we were catching were 13-15 inches. Mostly behind docks where there was a concrete pier of some other support structure for a walkway. I threw a bubble gum trick worm and my partner was throwing mostly carolina-rig lizzard. He said on Wed (a few days prior) he was catching larger fish on jerkbaits between (not behind) docks. Not this weekend. We also hit some main lake points that have been historically strong w/ Wiggle Warts, Jerk baits, Spinnerbaits, etc, but they weren't there. The development where my stepfather has a place has 3 different community docks, in the back of a cove, each dock has ~ 10-12 slips. Normally you can see beds everywhere behind all 3 docks, even in muddy water, but I saw only 1 bed, and it was shallower than most beds I usually see, so I am not even sure if it was in fact a bed. Also, we cleaned some crappie yesterday that they caught on Friday before I got down. Every single one of them were full of eggs. I had read some comments somewhere and heard word that the crappie had spawned, but that is not true. At least mid-lake area.

floated 9 miles on Sunday 4/11 near Onondaga and between 3 of us in 2 canoes we totaled 4 smallies and 1 largemouth. A disappointing 1st trip of the year. Weather was beautiful, though.

Back in the mid-80's when my dad bought his first bass boat, we were at Kincaid lake in So. Illinois. I wasn't driving age yet, but usually had the duty of pulling the trailer out and parking it and the van. Afterward, I walked down to the ramp and got in the boat and we were off. Very shortly thereafter he realized that he forgot to put in the plug. He dropped me off at the ramp to get the van/trailer, while he was doing figure eights out in the lake in an attempt, I guess, to avoid taking on water. Well, like I said, I wasn't even driving age yet. I could take it in a straight line and park, but backing the trailer up was something I had never done. I jack-knifed that son of a gun so hard...it was brutal. A friendly fisherman at the ramp who was watching this all go down came over to me and offered to back it up, and did so successfully. There was no damage to the boat, thankfully. The trailer is another story.

We fished all day Saturday starting out around the 25MM and then, looking for some clearer water, moved to the Niangua. It was a very tough day all around. I think we caught 3 largemouth, 2 spots, and 2 whites. That's it. And the largemouth were sub-15". We had planned to fish all day today, too. When I was at Osage Beach Tackle, the guy working there last night said the most consistent fishing and bigger fish were within 6 miles of the dam. But the weather man who had predicted rain in the PM got it wrong and the rain came early, so I ended up not fishing today (Sunday) and drove home. I had heard that the tournament leader out for some tournament out of PB#2 had a weight of just over 16 lbs. 2nd place was approx 14. The equates to fairly tough fishing for LOZ. I hope wherever y'all were, you were catching fish.

I will be down there this weekend, too. I will be near Tan-Tar-A, I think it's about the 25 MM. I have not seen any reports recently. I figure we will try bass early, and if they aren't cooperating see if we can find some whites. Here is something I found, but it's from the 16th "October 16, 2009 It's been chilly!! Now is the time to put some fish in your freezer before it gets really cold. White bass have still been my main species to try for most days. A bit more spread out now but still the hottest fish biting. 20-30 keepers is average on any good windy day. Caught a monster 35lb 42 inch blue catfish yesterday after catching a bunch of whites and a couple of hybrids. The perfect finish to a great day. Congrats to him on catching his largest fish ever. Largemouth have been feeding heavy on shad. Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits around the big groups of shad will produce numbers and keepers for you. I had a few crappie guide trips before the dirtier water came in and hopefully the dirty water will leave in a couple of days. Did well on taking a number of limits of crappie from brushpiles. Between now and the end of the year fish are going to be feeding as the water temps decrease in advance of the extreme cold coming. "

How long does it take you normally to float from the bridge to Blue Springs? I went a couple of weeks ago and wanted to float from Onondaga to Blue Springs, but because of some bridge construction somewhere (according to the people at BS Ranch) had to start at the Campbell bridge. I guess it had rained a little the night before and the water was up a little. I got on the water about 9:15 and got back to my vehicle at 11:40 LOL. A couple of sandbars I like to stop and wade were too high to get out. Kind of a bummer I really like that stretch, though. If you catch about a 17 inch smallie with a chartreuse/white spinnerbait stuck in the side of it's mouth right near the bridge, that was from me 2 weeks ago. I was swinging him in and trying to dodge a big boulder and the line snapped at the canoe as I was maneuvering trying not to tip.

I noticed the eye on the largemouth. In the past I have caught fish that had previously been caught and got a treble hook in the eye. It kinda looked like that in the picture. I think this was one

Yeah, I don't get his obsession with this. Jealousy is such an ugly emotion.

:lol: :lol:

I'll see your spinnerbait and raise you a tackle box full of Wiggle Warts

It's a really good fishery. I love floating for smallies as much as anyone, and the lake can get really rough during the summer weekends, but you know that and adjust accordingly. The spring and fall is where it's at anyway. I think people overlook how good LOZ is for bass fishing because of the pleasure-boaters.

I always like reports with PICS!

stay classy I wish I had a "hellicoptar" (LOL) and a million dollar Sea Ray. Seriously, that costs nowhere near $1M, does it?

:lol: :D

I know you guys are talking about weekends, but I thought I would share a couple of observations. I floated the Meramec 2 weeks ago tomorrow (a Wednesday) from Onondaga to Blue Springs. You would have thought it was a holiday weekend. I had never seen anything like it. People everywhere. It was brutal. On a Wednesday! Today (Tues) I floated the 10 mile stretch above it, from "The Bluffs" to Onondaga. I didn't see 1 canoe the entire day. There were 2 jets I saw plus a group of guys on a tube. That was it. I caught about 30 fish today, as well.

I live in Fenton, outside of St Louis, and I fish the Meramec a little bit, but never the section you floated. Is there a reason you fished this particular section of the river? It's about one hour drive for me to get down to a really good stretch of the river, either 10 miles downstream or upstream from Onondaga. The Meramec at Steelville is not the same as the Meramec in Pacific is not the same Meramec in my back yard at George Winter Park. I think it would be worth your effort to explore the river a little further west. There are public access points throughout the area and also outfitters like Ozark Outdoors and Blue Spring Ranch you could utilize. I have my own canoe, too, but find it easier - if floating alone - to simply rent from one of the above and leave the canoe at home. Good luck.

Yeah, I struggled a bit on missouri smallmouth streams until I tied on a 1/4 oz double-willow leaf spinner. It is my go to bait, without questions. White or chartreuse. I had never been much of a spinnerbait guy while fishing for largemouth on reservoirs, but if I only had 1 bait to take with me for smallies on the steam, out of a canoe, without question it would be a spinner.

My goodness! Look at the claw in that fish's mouth! That was a monster crawfish relative to the size of the bass.

I mainly fish them texas-rigged with a 1/8 oz ounce black weight. I also carry tooth picks in my tackle box and use the ends of them to peg the sinker about 12" above the hook eye on occasion.

Very nice fish, but that is 100% a largemouth

looks like it's coming down pretty fast