Seth

great morning bite then it got tough after the sun came out. biggest we could muster was a 3.21 spotted bass.

is the water still clear?

That's one skill I haven't mastered yet. I'll have a spinning rig setup for skipping under docks, but my chances of getting a big one out of a pile of dock cables without breaking off is going to much less than if I was using casting gear. I've pulled some fish out of pretty gnarly places with it though, but they were river fish and half the size of what it would take to win money this weekend.

Man that sucks. I'd love to place another order, but not after hearing what you are going through.

You, me and everybody else is probably thinking that lol. Just got a couple swimbaits in the mail today. Never tried one but figure this would be a good weekend to give them a whirl.

I'll be in my 1860 jet boat. We'll have to weigh in at Alhonna if we do catch a good one, but I'll worry about that if the time actually comes. I'm not counting on having to even make the trip to the weigh in to be honest.

I honestly wouldn't know. I've never actually targeted bass on LoZ....ever! I usually chase crappie or catfish when I venture that way. I'm just going to tie on a big bait, go to the back of a cove and beat every dock I see till I can't lift my arms. Maybe I'll be one of those blind hogs that finds an acorn this weekend.

I just got my buddy and signed up online so we're officially going doing it. This will be our first one. How many other OAF members will be fishing it? We're staying across the lake from Coffman access on the Gravois and will probably stay on the Gravois arm if traffic is too bad towards the dam.

mess of crappie on a muddy shop floor. Very majestic!

Me bleeding all over a 16" brown trout after he manged to flop and stick me with my own jerkbait as I was trying to unhook him.

I've caught one that was right around that 8 mark. I've caught a couple others in that 6-6.5# range. There was a lake that some buddies had permission to fish years ago that was pretty well managed with lots of timber. One guy supposedly caught a 9 pounder twice within a few days. I'm not sure if she was on a bed or what. If any lake could produce a double digit fish, I'd think that would be the one. I've never heard of a true 10 pounder being caught from it though.

A buddy and I are going to do this BBB. Looking forward to it. I've never actually targetted bass on LoZ, just crappie and catfish, so hopefully I'll have some beginners luck on hand.

I've not fished any Osage tournaments this year, but the weights have been down A LOT! Numbers aren't an issue, but getting quality bites is a different story. A lot of tournaments have been won with only 12#. That used to not even be worth weighing. I personally caught a 15# bag of largemouth and won a Bagnell tournament last October. There was another 15# bag and a 6 pounder also weighed in that day. It wasn't but a few years ago when a 20# bag was a good possibility. My buddy and another guy both weighed in 21 and some change in the same tournament two or three years ago. Not sure what the deal is, but it ain't good.

I've not ordered any since last year. When I made my order, it took about a month to get it. When I emailed asking what the deal was, I was told he had been in the hospital due to a heart attack. A few days after that email, I received my baits as well as some extras to make up for the wait. I haven't made any orders from swingoil this year though.

Tommy has seen WAY more big smallies than me and he said it was right around that 20" mark. An 18" smally is doing good to break 3# judging by the few I've seen. Tommy caught one with me in late May that only weighed 2.40#! It was the skinniest 18" smallmouth I've ever seen though.

mid 12 range. There were two in the 11's, two in the 10's and we were in sixth with just under 10# out of 30 something boats. Big LMB was 4.54 and big smallmouth was 4.35. I never thought I catch a 4# smallmouth and NOT get big smallmouth in a tournament on the Gasconade, but it happned. We've had a #2 big bass jinx going this year. At the Meramec Invitiational, my partner caught a 4.80 largemouth, which is a toad for the Meramec and it was his biggest he'd ever caught from there. It got beat out a 5.40!

Caught it on the Gasconade and it weighed 4.02#. I didn't get a length measurement. I've hooked a few other nice smallies in my past few trips, but have yet to boat one. They have spit the hook on me or I yanked the bait right out of there mouth! To say it was a rush watching this big momma come screaming up out of a log jam to inhale my bait in this clear water is an understatement! The numbers of 12-14" fish being caught is crazy with a few good ones mixed in. This is the best warm water fishing I've experienced in my four years of being serious about chasing these river bass. Up until the past few weeks, the last 18" smallmouth that was in my boat was in late May. It should just keep getting better and better the farther in to fall that we get. My buddy Tommy Bench was fishing with me that day as well so he got to net my fish and I got to rub it in his face that I spanked the smallmouth master at his own game. Like he said, even a blind hog finds a nut every now and then LOL! That's the story of my life when it comes to catching these big warm water smallmouth.

fishinwrench pretty well said all there is to say. I usually only fish in during the cooler months, but I never really expect much when I go and sometimes I get surprised. My plan of attack is always fish the mouth of the Maries, run to the dam and fish the length of it and then run down half way and fish my way back down to the bridge. If I've not started catching much by that time then I just head home.

The one I was referring to at at Lazy was a different fish and was much more decomposed than the one in your picture. I am not sure if it was before or after the one you have in the picture, but it seems like it was around the same time frame. I need to talk to dad and see if I can find that picture somewhere.

Was this the 38 pounder? I think it sometime around that time when a very decomposed 28 or 29 pound brown was brought in to the Lazy Valley dock while we were there. Dad probably has a picture of us standing by it stashed away somewhere.

That's a biggun!

My buddy had one about 20-25 pounds crush his square bill right at the boat while smallmouth fishing on the Gasconade this weekend. It eventually made a big run and straightened out the hook. We got a very good look at it several times and it was hooked in the mouth. I've heard of people catching them on liver and worms, but can't say I've ever heard of one hitting a lure. Earlier in the day I had something huge smoke my squarebill and I broke it off on the hookset. It left one heck of a swirl and I almost wonder if it also wasn't a big grass carp because it was identical to how his hit. It wasn't far from where he hooked his carp, but I didn't see a squarebill hanging out of it's mouth either while he was fighting it.

Sounds like an awesome day! We had a stellar day on the Gasconade yesterday as well. The weather and water conditions seem to have finally aligned!

Our tomatoes did decent this year. I think the side dressing every couple weeks really helped out. We got far more big healthy tomatoes than in years past even without suckering the plants. The cherry tomato that we planted produced like crazy. Our squash and zucchini never produced much at all this year though. Lots of flowers, but very few amounted to anything. Guess we won't be eating zucchini bread this winter. That breaks my heart. Peppers did so-so. My bell and jalapenos never seem to get very big. The okra is starting to produce, but I haven't stayed out top of it so I'm sure it's full of over grown okra that aren't worth fit eating. I'm done messing with it at this point even though I'm sure I could still get some more produce from it.

I'm not sure if they move all that much, but the big fish definitely seem to put the feed bags on when the water is really high. When the water was still 4-5' high on the Gasonade this last time around, there were several 3+ smallmouth caught by guys I know. One pair of guys caught a 15# five fish limit of smallies in one day and another buddy landed a 4.71# smallmouth all in the same weekend. The big largemouth were hungry too. The same guy that caught the 4.71 said they caught nearly 13# of largemouth the day before. Most summer tournaments are won with 8-9# during regular conditions. I've never been able to hammer the big fish like that during high water though. It's feast or famine for most when it comes to high water fishing.