Seth

I am going to have to rig up one of those noodle floats. My buddy has a GoPro hero 4 silver that I would like to use on the motor cowling when we fish together, but he is afraid of the suction mount popping loose and losing his camera in the river. That floaty setup should ease his worries.

That's an awesome fish, but I doubt they are having a hybrid tournament. After seeing what the water level at St Thomas was yesterday, it's no surprise that you caught some hybrids. They always kill the water by the time the weekend rolls around. I'm gonna have to leave work early one of these days when the water conditions look promising and get in on some fall hybrid action.

What are you targeting? IMO, the MariOsa sucks compared to anything above St. Thomas outside of the cold months. That's for bass and crappie. I'm not real sure about catfish as I haven't really targeted them there before.

Hogwally told me 3.8.

The #1 and #3 overall winners from last fall's BBB were weighed in at Red Oak.

Good!

Our club fish off is this Saturday. I better find that shirt so I can catch some fish.

Go practice skipping jigs with a baitcaster if you want to prefish. If I was a betting man, I'd bet that a lot of those money fish are caught by somebody skipping a jig back behind docks near concrete supports. Any dock on that lake could hold a 7 pounder. It just comes down to getting that lucky bite at that point.

Did the rivers flood as often back then? It seems we get a major flood every other year these days. Every time that happens, the riffles seem to change a lot on the Gasconade. They just seem to fill in more and more each time we get high water instead of getting cleaned out. There are several points that the floods have taken out for me too that I miss. They used to hold a lot of fish.

I've seen several people post about killing copperheads on Facebook recently too. Many of them have killed multiple copperheads recently. Are they doing some sort of fall migration or is this just a freak occurrence? I don't recall seeing that many people posting about copperheads at one time in the past. I'm not sure when I even last saw a copperhead on the road or up close. I'm about an hour and a half north of Montauk.

I'm jealous. The Gasconade was rolling mud today......

Swindle caught a big one on Bassmater LIVE yesterday afternoon too.

I agree. A 20" largemouth seems to be rarer than a smallmouth of the same length on the Gasconade. I'm sure a lot of that is due to the fact that a lot of the guys I know chase smallies more often than largemouth.

A 4" wacky senko or PBJ ned rig. It has to be ridiculously slow for that though. I'd rather fish like fishinwrench though and just cover water. I like to cover water and find active fish versus trying to coax sluggish fish in to eating. I've got to really have confidence in an area before I will slow down and picky it apart with those two baits I mentioned.

If you want crappie, you're best best is to hook up the boat and head to Stockton. Tablerock is great for bass and some guys can get on the walleye, but you never hear much for crappie outside February-May.

That is something I've never seen anybody try down there. I haven't bought crickets for anything in years. I'm not even sure who around here carries them anymore.

That's a very generous gesture!

I drive it all the time. It's not bad. It's like a mile and a half long I think.

I need to run down or up and try that area one of these days. There's too much good water to fish down from Bell Chutes and up from Rollins Ferry and I'm not one to run a long ways to fish when there isn't any need. I've heard of some really good fish being caught in that area though.

I used to get the season parking pass when I fished down there a lot more often and they were only $25. I believe they are up to $35 now so I'd have to fish at least 7 times to pay for itself. This was probably my 6th or 7th trip down this year, which is more than I normally go during catch and keep season so I can't really justify getting the season parking pass anymore.

I haven't been to Montauk or Bennett in forever. Do they not have the daily parking pass fee? I've always just gone to Maramec since it was closest and I've never had that much trouble catching fish down there either. I'm typically not a bait fisherman, but I just felt like catching a few that way this time around for whatever reason. Most of the trout I catch come on a trout worm, rubber legged jig or a trout magnet. One thing I wish I had brought with me yesterday was the fly rod. I'm pretty sure I could have caught a few on it the way the fish were acting. Back when I was more in to trout fishing for the sport versus just getting some fish to eat, I would always have the fly rod with me.

I put in at Jerome yesterday and ran up to Boiling Spring. It wasn't too bad. I did mess up and went right too soon about a 1/2 mile below the spring and ended up hitting my lower unit hard enough to put a crack in the reverse gate. The hull didnt appear to have touched though. The only other place I tickled the gravel was the first riffle below Jerome. The high water changed that riffle quite a bit. I'm not sure if a guy will be able to make it through there without ticking bottom by next weekend. I had planned on trying to run up to the 28 bridge, but the floaters were really thick just above the spring so I bailed on that idea. Fishing wasn't too bad. Caught around 15 in a few hours. Most were small, but I did find one good one. This one weighed 3.28. Had a couple others around 2# hooked, but they came unbuttoned.

Dad and I got down around 11 and fished till 2 in the pond hole. Dad netted seven and I got six with many others that came off during the fight. They were biting fairly well the entire time, but they were short striking extremely bad and were hard to hook. Dad drifted velveeta cheese below a float the whole time. I caught my first three on cheese, two on a yellow trout worm and one on a green and white rubber legged jig.

You're probably right, but fishing for a big pay check is a lot more fun.

I went ahead and picked it up and put a Lew's Tourney Pro on it. It's extremely light and I think I'll enjoy it. Fighting fish on it is weird due to how lightweight it is, but I'm sure I will quickly get used to that.