Seth

It's about like pulling a backstrap out of a deer. Just make sure you eat it fresh out of the grease while it's piping hot. It get's rubbery once it cools off.

Went on the Gasconade yesterday and the water was 53-56 degrees already! That river warms up fast. All I had to show for my efforts was a few little spotted bass. I did see my first otter though. He was very curious about our boat and kept making a weird noise. It sounded like somebody sticking their tongue out and blowing air out of your mouth. At first I thought it was a beaver!

Fried gar chunks and buffalo ribs are yummy. I don't mess with common carp though.

You're alright in my book!

Another awesome report! Those big sows whites sure put a big smile on my face.

I have a nice side imaging unit on my console, but just a 5" black and white Humminbird 728 on the front. I use it mainly for depth and temp. If I was fishing deep brush, I would increase my sensitivity and disable most of the settings that clean up the screen and rely on it more but I rarely do that. It get's a lot more cluttered that way, but shows so much more information.

Finesse jigs and grubs are what pretty well everybody I know uses during the cooler months.

That's what dipsy divers are for. Replace your sinker with one of those, let out some line, troll around at 4-4.5 mph and just hang on to the rod. No need for all that jerking anymore. If you have some 1/2" driftmaster rod holders, you can even put the rods in the holders and save having to hold the rod. All you have to worry about is reeling in the fish when one get's snagged. I would probably get tired of listening to the that exhaust all day while idling around though. I'm used to my purring Etec jet and nearly silent 4 stroke props.

Awesome report. I'm seriously thinking of leaving work a few hours early today and hitting the Gasconade.

I wish your buddies luck at busting every poaching pos down there. It would bring joy and laughter to my heart if I find out they got busted lol. If I had to guess, they would be somewhere outside of Gerald around Melody Lake. I've heard that mentioned in their discussions in the past. I understand why you got pissed, just don't throw me under the bus like it's my fault though. That kind of stuff pisses me off because I definitely abide by the game laws and do my part to try and make the future better for our fisheries. The jack legs doing illegal stuff and jacking things up are just as much my enemy as they are yours. Now go catch some fish and get off my butt.

I just ignore the old grouchy guys who think they are gods gift to the fishing world. One thing is for sure, if you want to thicken up your skin, just go hang out in the smallmouth section of this forum for a while. That'll do it!

I was hoping to get out and do some fishing this past weekend, but it didn't pan out. I'll have something to post for sure after next weekend. Speaking of having tough skin, mine should be nearly leather by now after hanging out in the small mouth section of this forum for the past several months. I realized that releasing big fish, only keeping what I can use and trying to instill those values in to other anglers is just a big cover up. I'm really the most unethical bass fishermen alive due to being related to certain types of people of which I have no control over, partaking in the annual fall ritual of gigging suckers and for being a young man who owns a jet boats and likes to catch bass on our Ozark streams.

I agree 100%. For me, it was just a matter of doing it a few times to get it out of my system and then moving on.

Fishing to some is all about catching fish regardless of how they do it. Other's would rather catch them their way or not at all. Some just go fishing to get away from life and could care less whether they catch anything. Everybody fishes for different reasons. Just because somebody goes about it a different way than you do, doesn't mean they are anymore right or wrong than you or any other angler as long as they aren't breaking any laws. Nobody starts out a purist but after they get enough experience under their belt, they pretty well always migrate that direction. I doubt that everybody follows that path, but I'm certain that a majority of anglers do. I had a blast beating the outlets with everybody and catching fish when I first started out. As long as I was catching fish, I didnt care how I did it. The first time I moved away from the outlets, I realized you could just kick your feet and catch fish. After a short career as a shuffler, I started finding new water and go after them the traditional way without shuffling. I'm sure I got cursed for shuffling and beating outlets at first, but I was young and grew out of it. That's why I am not nearly as hard on people who do the same. I just assume they get it out of their system and move on and start doing it the way you and I both agree how it should be done. The one thing I couldn't stand is the blatant snagging that some guys would do at the outlets. They would yank their rod up as hard as they good at the end of every drift. They rarely caught a fish that wasn't snagged. While you will snag a few fish on accident in the outlets, all you had to do was lift the rod up slowly and then do another roll cast.

I've voiced my opinion on the matter plenty of times and they know where I stand but really, what am I going to do about it? I don't even know where they put in at other than it's on private property and they fry the fish on the banks right after they get them. I've just over heard them talk about it, never seen them in action before since I don't want to be involved in that type of crap. Knowing their character, I have no doubt they are telling the truth though. Most of the fish they mention gigging are catfish, but they did mention a few big green bass they have got over the years. You can think whatever you want about my ethics. I only take what I can use when it comes to hunting and fishing and stress to others the importance of putting back big fish. I practice what I preach and bitch about the poachers, just like the rest of you. If the fact that some people of my relation talk about killing illegal fish on a remote stretch of some river that I HIGHLY doubt you have ever been on then then so be it. Hell I don't even keep paddlefish hardly because I don't like to eat them but I do like to catch them. I'm ok with not keeping everything I catch unlike a lot of people. Smallie, I know you are a very passionate bass angler and I respect that 100%, but you are the freakin king of jumping to conclusions about people. If you fished with me, you would feel like a moron for thinking I am somehow an unethical angler. I guess guilty by association is your #1 rule. I'm young with a jet boat, therefore I am ruining smallmouth fishing. Yup, that makes perfect sense. Hope you don't jam your wrist beating that punching bag. The brown bass are getting hungry and biting. It would be a travesty if you hurt yourself and couldn't take part in the action because you got so mad over us young jet boat river basser's ruining your life.

I can see where that would be a problem then. It get's hard to stab fish after 6' for most people, especially if there is current. If those smallies have to winter in waters shallower then that then they are definitely wide open for giggers to nail. I'm starting to get to the point where I would give up gigging for smallies in a heart beat. A few years ago when I first got in to river bassin, I would have defended gigging wholeheartedly. I'm sure you can search gigging on this forum and I'll show up arguing with many of the guys who often post in the smallmouth section and defending gigging. Gigging is still a lot of fun and I enjoy it, but I'd much rather be chasing smallies on the rivers these days.

I never have done very well on spinners and spoons except at the buzzer when they will hit anything. I always start off with jigs and if that doesn't produce, move on to an orange trout worm. If that doesn't work, which is rare, then I use bait. Sometimes I rig it on bottom and other times I rig it under a float on a jighead, it just depends where most of the fish are hanging at in the water column. The higher they are in the water column, the tougher the fishing is for me most of the time.

The giggers who have no regard for the rules are the problem. They will go out time after time and kill game fish and do some damage to an area. I've taken plenty of newbies out gigging in my rig and VERY few game fish have ever been stabbed in my boat. The few game fish that have been gigged were mainly catfish in deeper water that were hard to make out. I make it VERY CLEAR that if anybody kills a smallmouth, they are done gigging with me so they make darn sure they aren't bass before stabbing. I don't ever recall a bass being put in my boat while gigging. Of course I don't throw two newbies up there at once who don't know what a sucker looks like either. There is always somebody who knows what they are doing and can point out the different types of fish. I'm not sure what it's like on the Meramec since that seems to be the body of water that you all keep mentioning, most of the gigging done on the Gasconade is within a pretty short distance of the public boat ramps. That leave a whole lot of water for fish to safely hide in all winter. I've seen enough pictures of really nice smallmouth caught off the Gasconade in the past few weeks to know the giggers left plenty of them swimming for us bassers to catch till next fall.The Gasconade might be deeper than the Meramec and provide better shelter for the fish througout the winter too. Again, I'm not positive what the Meramec is like as I don't fish it. All of the gig anything that swims folks that I personally know gig on the Bourebouse, not the Meramec or Gasconade. I guess suckers are harder to come by there so they just stab whatever. Suckers are thick on the Gasconade so I can't imagine why anybody would ever bother purposely killing anything else.

Cool! I wish I had known that all along. I have always put in at Bridgeport and ran up.

I always start out with my jigs and trout worms but sometimes they just don't work as well as bait and I will switch over. I'd rather catch fish drifting bait than none at all. Don't feel ashamed just because you got them on bait.

I noticed that people who aren't staying at Flat Creek are putting in at this ramp. How does that work? Is it open for anybody or do non-customers just pay a fee to use the ramp? I've only put in there when I was staying at Flat Creek.

Another vote for centrifugal here. My mag brake reels do fine with heavier lures but I haven't mastered throwing lighter stuff on them yet.

I use a 7' light action BPS Microlite spinning rod for all of my trout fishing. When throwing the 1/8oz jigs, I wish I had the medium light but the light get's the job done. Ultralights are just too weak for my liking when throwing jigs straight.

Awesome as always Phil! I may have to try and talk my buddies in to heading over to Taney one day when we come down for some snagging in two weekends. Depends how slow the crappie/white bass fishing on the James is though.

That sounds like a good way to end up with an over population of dinks. I'd rather see a length limit to where no fish over a certain point can be kept. I'm not sure what that length should be but I would think 14-16" would work. Keep the small ones thinned down and protect the bigger ones at all costs. I would rather catch less fish but much nicer fish on average personally. This is just my opinion though. Most trout anglers are more in to numbers than size I would imagine.