Seth

I may be a bit more forgiving than others but I am not nieve. When myself and other guys I know who fish a lot for bass are struggling to catch fish then I will worry. Most of you are just the typical doom and gloomers and like to rain on everybodies parade. Turn in the poachers to Operation Game Thief and educate the ignorant and hopefully they will grow in to an angler who conserves a resource to enjoy instead of raping it. I've spent countless hours arguing with people about this type of thing when it involves blue/flathead catfish and deer. It's not worth my time. I'll mention my points of view and move on. Take it or leave it. I just hope it plants a seed in the persons head and that they eventually adapt those same beliefs. Anglers and deer hunters all seem to go through phases. They start out wanting to harvest numbers and the more they do it, the more they move towards the management phase where you are pickier about what you take. I see it happen all the time. I'm one that went through the same phases and now I am very conservative at what I harvest when it comes to wild life.

Probably read a good report about heroin on the internet before they tried it too. Now all the other druggies will be complaing about a shortage of quality heroin......

I don't believe I ever have. I'm sure they taste fine though. If somebody wants to keep some small ones to eat, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. That goes for any fish. Watching somebody keep and eat a trophy fish is what I hate seeing. That goes for all species, not just smallmouth. That sucks but it's MDC's job to take care of people like that. If they are too ignorant to know or care about rules for fishing then I doubt they care enough to scour the internet for fishing tips. It's like anything, you have a few bad eggs in every bunch. In my opinion, it ain't right to punish the good guys because of a few idiots. The good guys can report anything illegal they see to Operation Game Thief and help them bust the bad guys. Maybe I have never been in the right place at the right time, but I haven't seen this type of rampant poaching during my time on the water. The worst thing I've seen is somebody who doesn't fish much, lucks in to a big fish and wants to keep it. It sucks but I can't really judge them because they aren't breaking the law and they really aren't out enough to do any damage. I'll just congratulate them on their great catch, pout about it on the inside for a little and move on with life.

Down imaging is only effective when the boat is moving. It uses a thin, wide beam for imaging instead of a cone like traditional 2d. For licking up lures in 2D, you need to use switchfire max mode and not clear. Clear makes the screen look cleaner, but it also hides a lot of useful data. It's possible that you have hardware trouble but most of the time, it's the user not knowing how to properly setup a unit.

I throw a 1/4 or 5/16oz green lumpkin finesse jig most of the time. If the water is dingy, I will go to a 3/8oz jig with a bulkier skirt and trailer in black and chartreuse. I only like to use rattles when the water is dingy.

I know a lot of meat fishermen and I can't think of any that target smallmouth bass for the fryer. They all go for catfish, whites, hybrids, panfish or gig suckers.

MDC is like that with a lot of things. Their are a lot of guys who feel the same way about trophy blue and flathead catfish. Catfishing could be a lot better for big fish if they had regs in place to protect them once they reached a certain size. Why people can't keep a mess of small ones is beyond me. Ten five pound cats is a pile of fillets much less if they were all 10-50 pounds. Really I don't see the point of keeping any trophy sized fish for eating. It's just as easy to catch small ones for the table. Throw unlimited doe tags in their too even though it's hunting related and not fishing.

I will accept full responsibility when nobody can catch any smallmouth on the Meramec next year.

I can whip up a bunch of 1/8oz chrome domes pretty fast if need.

You should post more often. That reply was almost as great as the first post in this thread!

During these bigger shad kills, do you find that you catch nicer fish on average or is it just a whole lot of fish ranging small to large?

LOL!! Bravo on that report! I guess I better take some notes so I can do my next report correctly

What's the distance requirement before being able to say "I fished a certain area and caught fish"? Last I checked, Meramec Springs is a 1/2 mile long of fisheable water before it touches the Meramec River. If it had been 3/4 of a mile long, would that have made it OK? If I had said I caught fish in the Meramec River, then I would of just been lying since I never actually fished the actual river. It's not like I said I stood by this rock and threw at this tree. The fish I caught were all throughout the length of the park. I've already talked a couple people that have been down since I was and they didn't catch much at all. Again, just because you fish where there are fish doesn't mean you are going to catch them.

I catch a lot of paddlefish for fun but usually throw them back or give them away. I'd much rather eat white bass or crappie in the spring time. The majority of the people I know that really like it say to smoke it so I guess I need to try it. Maybe that is the secret!

I've been waiting to hear this!

You ever try the deep hole up from Pike's Camp access (Wardsville)? I've heard people say they used to get in to them in that area as well.

Like I stated earlier, I've told people where to go fish multiple times only to see them go and not catch squat. They think I am full of it when I promise I'm not! That's not my style! I agree with you about a pattern being worse than a spot. I had a pattern last year that produced like crazy everywhere I went on the Gasconade. Holes didn't matter and I would catch plenty of fish from area's other boats just fished through. The holes weren't anything specal but the technique was key! I've already talked to a couple people that were down recently that didn't have near the success I did even though they fished the same area's as me. You can put somebody on fish but that don't mean they are gonna catch them! Hey now, I'm only 27 with just a few years of river bassin under my belt but you can bet I will always have a jig, trig craw/creature or tube ready to roll on my front deck! I messed around with shakey heads a bit and while I did catch fish, I went back to my t-rigs, jigs and tubes. This year I plan on trying the bottom buggin' technique with some beaver baits to see if those smallies like it. My favorite way to catch them is probably considered one of those tail chasin techniques though.

I caught all of my fish above the red ribbon area and I don't believe you can keep anything during the winter months there. The regulations say you can't possess any fish in that area so I assume it goes for everything, not just trout. If I wanted/could have kept fish last weekend, I may of had two keeps all day long. It was pretty well a 10" dink fest. The one gentleman ran in to me later on and showed me a picture of one nice one that he had caught and put back but that was it. He only caught a couple while I was fishing the same area as him and I was having much better luck on numbers of fish. I wish everybody was on board with putting big fish back, regardless of the species. Keep some dinks for the fryer and let the bigguns go! The size definitely ain't nearly as good as other area's I fish. Maybe I'm just unlucky at getting the big ones to bite. I'm not sure I'd be able to land one much bigger than the 15 incher I caught last weekend anyways. It was all I could do to land it on 4# test. It kept trying to bury up under a log! I know there are some nice fish in that area, but I sure ain't ever caught one. That's why I used the ultralight. A bunch of 10" dinks ain't nearly as fun on regular bass gear. I'm glad it worked out for you guys. It seems most of the time when I tell people how I caught some fish, they go try it and don't do worth a darn and call me a liar. LOL!

Same thing I was thinking as well and the reason why I posted anything about it. The only reason I bother going there is because it's only about 35-40 minutes away and I don't have to screw with hauling the boat. If the smallmouth aren't biting, I will just target trout. It's fun being able to throw a jig all day and catch both mixed together. I'm hoping to make it back down there this weekend. I sure hope I can squeeze in somewhere since the words out. Might be good practice for March 1st.

If the water get's really high during snagging season, those fish will run up as far as they can. When they do that, any hole of water 10+ deep should have paddlefish in it. When people start hitting them at the Shoals Motel by Galena, you can pretty well follow the fish up the river the rest of the season as long as the water stays high enough. The later it gets, the farther up the will go. During years when it stayed really high for most of April, you could catch them at Springfield Dam. Snagging is great when Tablerock is either really high or really low. If it's low, you never have to leave the Walnut Springs area. When it's high, just keep following them up the river to Springfield Dam. When it get's high long enough for them to make an early run but then drops the rest of the season, it makes for some tough snagging because you can't get to the fish by boat. A kayaker could have all of the fish to themselves if they knew where they holed up. That could be anywhere between Hootentown and Blunks though.

Phil just uploaded this one recently. It's just a pop - let it sink on a semi slack line - pop - let it sink - and so on. I did use the typical "shake the rod tip and reel" retrieve to catch some in some shallow rifles. The trick was to fish it fast enough where they didn't get a good look and they would chase it down and hammer it. That retrieve didn't do anything for me in the slower pools and fished slower.

I posted before reading the other posts. There were several that already mentioned Amart ahead of me.

I'd go with Aaren Martens for the Elites. The guy is jinxed when it comes to finishing #1, but has more #2's than anybody and is always up near the top. The guy is a beast!

The most fun I ever had fishing below the dam was in late May when they were running about 30,000 cfs. Shad were easy to get and we just hammered the nice blue cats. We caught a pile of them and had three over 10 pounds (10,12, and 25 pounder). Caught them free drifting cut shad along the bottom. I've never had another day even close to that since.

Even when it's in an area where it's illegal to possess fish during the winter season? If somebody shows up and starts keeping fish in this type of area, that's a completely different issue and an agent needs to step in and do their job. Same here. I dont have a problem sharing some spots, but there are others I won't mention anything about. If a buddy takes me somewhere and we do well, I won't mention anything since it ain't my info to give. If I find a spot/pattern on my own and it just happens to be one of your "spots" that I wish to share with others, well that's just bad luck for you I guess. I know I won't be losing any sleep over it if you decide to hate me forever because of it. I agree 100%. That's another reason why I don't worry too much about giving out informatin about how I caught fish. If they don't instantly catch fish, they just figure I'm full of crap and don't bother fishing it again most of the time. Happens all the time. There's two ways to spin that. What about the weekend angler who goes out and fishes a spot using info he read and has a much better day than he normally does?