Seth

Don't sweat it. You didn't ruffle any feathers. I know you was just funning and you ain't the first post I've seen online saying the exact same thing LOL. Asian carp are what a lot of guys I know prefer for bait on the river during August when the fish start feeding heavy again. Just get one to jump in the boat and you got plenty of bait for a night of fishing.

That Paul Blart weighs around 380, benches over 500, and lifts trucks for fun just in case you ever meet him in person and want to say that to him. Actually he'd probably just laugh. He's a member of the Gateway Cats club I'm in and the nicest dude you'd ever meet. He's scary huge though! I wouldn't want to be the bad guy in a dark alley with him on my tail. He isn't the one who caught the fish though, he just happened to be close by while on patrol and came to see it weighed in person. Rod and reel (old rod and reel record was 124 pounds caught on the Mississippi between the Mo river and Alton Dam) Bait: cut asian carp Line: 40 pound mono on a Penn 209 reel

It was caught this morning around 1am up river from the Columbia Bottoms boat ramp. It was 57" long, 46" girth, and weighed 130 pounds. They had to wait till 9am to get it officially weighed and sadly the fish perished. It lived a good long live and passed those monster genes on to many other catfish along the way though. Here's a couple of pictures. The first is the angler that caught it I believe and the second is a member of the Gateway Cats catfishing club I'm a member of it who just happened to be close by when he heard about it and came to watch the weigh in a took a pic.

Yea I bet they are confused when they see you come buzzing by. I bet you would really get some stares if you trimmed your jet up and shot a 100ft rooster tail behind the boat LOL.

That's where I stopped at when we were down in June. The best fishing started a few hundred yards down from Lookout anyways.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but that's a VERY GOOD reason to release the bigger fisih. A blue cat is not able to spawn until it's around 24". Blues and flatheads will lay roughly 1200 eggs per pound of body weight. A 5 pound catfish would lay 6000 eggs where as a 50 pound blue would lay 60000 eggs.

You're right for the most part. Many people fish for catfish the way you mentioned and just have a good time and relax. Most serious catfisherman I know rarely fish a spot longer than 20 minutes if they anchor and most I know prefer to drift fish which can be fast and furious. I don't know about everybody else, but a rod buckling smash followed by a singing drag is pretty exciting to me. It just depends if you are out there to relax and have a good time or put fish in the boat. Everybody has their own methods. For me I go fishing to catch fish, not drink and just fish because I'm on the water so I'd be one to not sit very long in one spot.

If you guys are interested in seeing how big the sport of catfishing is getting, just google United States Catfish Association. It's a forum devoted to catfisherman and has tons of information for anybody looking to try and land a hawg. People all over the nation are on there, but Missouri is one of the busiest sections. There's no better place to learn about catfishing and see why people are starting to treat catfish with the same respect as a bass. Phil if this post is against forum policy, zap it and let me know. Don't want to step on any toes.

I was being sarcastic towards the post about "a 10 pounder can be a world record just like the 90 pounder". My point was that big fish are a lot rarer than small fish. By killing one, you then have to wait a long time for it to be replaced. Catfish are looked at as "kill and eat them all" by most people. When you figure it takes probably 30 years to grow a fish that size, that's a lot of time shot down the drain to replace that fish versus the time it takes to replace a small fish.

You never know. I've ate some blue fillets off a 45 pounder that was awesome, but it was also caught from a small lake and not the Mississippi River.

Yes you are right that it COULD be a world record someday, but if you got a fish that's almost there and you kill it, then you have to wait another 30 years to replace that same fish. A 10 pound will be replaced by another fish in just a couple of years. Taneycomo's trout fishing is better now than ever since the trophy area has been in place for a while. My point is that age is such an important part of catching big fish consistently. The more fish that are growing old, the better your chances of catching a good fish. I'm a big supporter of catfish management to increase everybodies chances of catching big blues. There's a club based out of St Louis devoted to the sport of catfishing. It's MDC's fault for making it to where those big fish can be slaughtered. Hopefully there will be regulations in place sooner than later to protect the monster fish that are swimming the waters today so that everybody in the future can have a much better chance at catching one. I'll stop my whining. The guy got a fish of a lifetime and got a bunch of food for the table. Good job!

I bet if this was a 20 pound brown in place of the catfish, everybody would act like the guy commited bloody murder. Personally I'd much rather catch a monster blue cat than a big trout that the catfish would have for a snack.... Ofcourse and we all know that there are just as many 10 pounders as 90 pounders swimming in the river. The same goes for trout, bass, or any fish for that matter. That's why we catch just as many 5 pound trout as stockers. Think about it for more than two seconds next time.

I was having this problem a few weeks ago when we were down between short creek and fall creek. After idling through everybody a few times I said heck with it and just started running across the shallow flat around everybody. The only thing people did was wave frantically at me to not go that way because of watching all the prop boats smoking logs and bottoming out. They didn't realize I had a jet unit on the back.

Well my boat is built to take the hard use of running the shallow rivers so you should have absolutely no worries using it on a lake.

I have a Legend SS jet boat, which is a Weldcraft hull and then built to the specifications of Cowtown USA in Cuba, MO. It's an awesome boat is all I can say. This is the model I have with a 115/80 Etec jet on the back. 1852 Legend SS Flat Bass

Buddy and I decided that's where we are heading early tomorrow morning. Hopefully we will be on the water a little after daylight. Hopefully I can catch a new PB smallmouth (which won't take much LOL!) I was curious if anybody has been fishing here lately and what the hot pattern is? I've never really targetted smallmouth on the Gasconade before.

When I was down there a few weekends ago, the fish up above Short Creek seemed to be hanging in the shallower water on the south side of the river. They were easy to find because they were so thick. 6-8' of water seemed to be the depth they were holding. Drifting a #16 grey scud right on the bottom drew plenty of strikes.

She just uploaded the pics to Facebook so here you go. The first is me fighting the 19" rainbow, the other is me holding it before release and the last is of one my girlfriend caught on a white jig.

This was the first real fishing trip in my new boat so I never made it up to the outlet to wade fish. My dad and uncle drifted crawlers up above shortcreek and caught a lot of nice rainbows. Also seen a lot of fish caught off the dock at Lazy Valley by other people fishing power bait. They also caught a couple of big white suckers. The girlfriend and I focused on the trophy area from just below Lookout on down to Flat Creek. The best area was just upriver from where it get's really shallow in front of the big fancy houses. The fish were stacked in there as well as other boats. A white 1/8oz jig that I got from Phil's was our best bait. A #16 grey scud on the fly rod was also hot. We picked a few up drifting a pink micro jig and throwing a small rainbow rapala. The biggest fish was a 19" rainbow that was probably pushing 3.5-4lbs. It was a chunk and fought like a demon before I finally got him in. He took the white jig hopped along the bottom. I've got a picture on the girlfriends camera that I will upload as soon as I get it uploaded of the chip. Our total fish caught was probably around 30 in the trophy area, but we probably hooked and lost just as many if not more due to poor hook sets. I'm hoping to come back down in August during the car show and do some more trout fishing this summer. We had an absolute blast!

Are these Hibernators available at any of the fly shops in town? Nevermind, I just found them in fly tying section and also that Lilley has them in his shop so I will just swing by and pick up a few from him.

What law was broken?

How far up can a guy run when they aren't running water in a jet rig? I'm comfortable with running 4" deep riffles (basically if it aint sticking out of the water I'll drive it). It looks like the water is coming on later in the day so I figured I'd run up and wade fish until they turn on the water and then hop in the boat and start drifting. Has anybody had any luck with rapala lately or is it pretty much a micro jig and scud fishery right now? I know I usually don't catch as many on rapala's, but I enjoy sight fishing with them and seeing the trout chase them down and chomp on them.

The first few times I fly fished Taneycomo with the water off, I was guilty of shuffeling. I wasn't much of a fly fisherman then and just wanted to catch a few fish on the fly rod. It got old quick though and I quit and started fishing normally. As long as the guy isn't messing up other peoples fishing, then I'd say let them have their fun and hope they get over it soon which I'm sure most guys do.

Too bad it doesn't have a chance to grow up to world record size now. I'm not sure why somebody would keep a fish that big when 5-10 pounders plentiful on that river. It takes a few years to get a 10 pounder and probably 20-30 years to get a 90 pounder.

Just now seen this thread. I usually make a trip to Alton and snag for bigheads, but didn't make it this year. Last year I didn't get into the carp when I was there, but did get a 10 and 25 pound spoonbill as well as a 3' sturgeon. Asian carp are great to eat. My favorite way is to fillet them out and pressure cook the meat down with Lawry's seasoning salt and lemon pepper till the bones are dissolved. After that I mix some egg and crackers together to form patties out of them. Vacuum seal two to a pack and freeze them for eating later on. When I want to eat them, I just cut open a pack and throw them in a skillet with a little olive oil and basically just crisp them up to my preference and have a fish sandwich.