Seth

Are you long arming that brookie or do you just have big hands?

Just because somebody can afford those graphs doesn't mean they know how to use them. There are A LOT of guys who run those fancy graphs and never take them off the 2d screen. You could accomplish the same thing with a $300 unit. I've got Humminbird 998 on my boat and it is awesome for finding rocks and deep brush. The only time I've used it for actually look for the fish is when I am snagging since paddlefish are so big. There is no doubt when you mark of them with side imaging. Just because you find the fish doesn't mean you can make them bite. Making them bite is where the real skill comes in to play IMO.

The Gasconade is getting pretty tricky as well. There is a big poker run between Hwy 42 and Bell Chutes August 9. If we don't get any rain between now and then, it could make for an interesting run. Three years ago was really low and there were several people who shoaled there boats and had to push off.

Good fish pH!

That's the worst part about weekend fishing. It keeps the banks muddied up too and that doesn't help me with how I like to fish.

Awesome! I wish I had gotten a girth measurement and a weight in case I ever decided to get a replica made. My digital scale that I usually kept in the boat crapped out on me and I haven't replaced it. The excitement of catching that fish had my head spinning and all I could think about was length, picture and release. I'm certain it broke the 4 pound mark though. It had a little chunk to it and wasn't nearly as skinny as my other nice fish I have caught. If it was closer to 21" than 20", and there is a good chance the way it sounds according to how I should have measured, then that may truly be the river smallie of my lifetime.

Makes we wish we had our own version of Lake Simcoe in Missouri. Watching videos of guys catching a limit of 5+ pound smallies just boggles my mind!

I didn't have a scale on hand so no weight, but I am hoping it would have broke the 4 pound mark. No way to know for sure though. The measurement was 20" from the tip of the nose to the fork of the tail using a yard tape. If you look at the pic of me measuring it, it would be nearly 21" had I pinched the tail while measuring with the flexible tape. Take off a little for the bend or the fish vesus if I had measured with a straight edge and I would guess it was 20.5".

Considering you just caught that toad on a topwater, I don't feel TOO sorry for ya LOL!! One feller I know fishes the. meramec out of Red Horse and Samd Ford most of the time. He seems to catch a 20"+ every other year on average. His boat is the one that landed the 4.33 earlier this year, which is the biggest smallmouth I have ever personally seen. He doesn't get to fish as often these days with his kiddos getti g older and taking up more of his time though. I'm sure that has something to do with it.

I feel lucky to have only taken three serious years of river fishing to break that 20" barrier then. I've only personally seen three 20" smallmouth in person now. The first was a 20.25" last year when the river was high that was 4.14, a 4.33 from the Meramec earlier this year (not sure on the length but they guessed 21-22") and this one I caught. Seen a few pictures of 20+ inchers from the past couple years, but they are still few and far between. Honestly, I figured if I ever broke that mark it would be during the winter or early spring. Those bigger fish seem to come a lot more easily during that time frame.

I wish I would have gotten a release photo. Those are nice.

I like to think of myself as a decent fishermen, but there are guys I know and fish against in my bass club that have many more years of experience that I would consider much better at it than me. Some of the folks on here are against tournaments and I can understand why, but they have helped improve my fishing tremendously in a short time. A few of the guys I fish against have helped me out plenty to speed up my learning process on catching these awesome fish. Heck most of the guys on this board have probably forgot more about smallmouth than I have learned. I've never had a hook in my foot and hopefully I never do. I always make sure to not leave hooks laying around in my boat. 90% of the time I have shoes on though anyways. I was just in the water not too long before this so I had kicked my shoes off and was letting my feet dry out.

A big fish ain't legit with the "no way it's that big" posts. I wonder how much bandwidth I saved the forum by posting a pic of the length and proving it really is as big as I said? Maybe I should have saved it for later and let the naysayers have some fun for a while.

This one didn't need any help with long arming anyways. Long arming isn't something I purposely do. Sometimes my pictures make a fish look a lot nicer than it really is though without even thinking about it. I'm not innocent when it comes to long arming all the time. I've got my arm stretched out pretty good with this 18 incher I caught last year.

It was like trying to reel in a raging bull! Those warm water smallies are psychotic! Even the dinks were scrappier than normal it seemed. Maybe I just forgot how hard the fight because I haven't caught many smallies since it warmed up.

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Took my fiance and little brother to the river for a quick trip this evening since it was so nice out. We caught several dinks and then I latched on to this beauty! What a fight! Little bro lipped it for me, took a few pics, got a measurement and put her back. Took it a second to come to but when it did, it sloshed water all over me as it took off with one big kick of the tail!

We went this past Saturday and stayed in the pond hole between 11-3. Lots of fish, lots of good sized fish, but very hard to hook. I landed 4, lost two right at the net, broke 3 off and probably missed 50 strikes on black marabou jigs, white and orange trout worm and a green/white rubber legged jig. Trout worms seemed to give me the best hook up ratio. The trout would hit it and then eventually get it in their mouth enough to get them hooked. I'm not sure where ciRe was fishing, but I seen plenty of fish and a lot of very nice ones. Much better than previous summers. Use 2# test or at least several feet of leader, get some really small jig heads (DJ's and the gas station in ST James carry them), a pack of white and a pack of orange trout worms. Use the jighead and hook it through the middle wacky worm style, throw it out and just shake the rod tip as you slowly reel it in. That always works down there. Orange is my favorite color, but they seemed to prefer white this past Saturday. A lot of times you will have to let the trout hit it and spit it out a few times before they actually get enough of it in there mouth to stick them. Otherwise you just pull it out of there mouth. If one bites and you miss, throw right back quickly because it will still be looking for that worm and should hit again right away.

Had one of those for lunch yesterday. They are good when dipped in enough sweet and sour sauce but not quite as good as a fresh drum.

Here is a pic from the bass clubs Facebook page.

That's a good area. You can usually wear the spots out on just about any rock bank from there to St Thomas and all the way up to Bagnell. There's even a few smallies above Tuscumbia in a few areas, but have yet to catch any that were even keeper size. Lots of good largemouth in that area as well IF they are biting. They haven't been biting near as well as they were for the past month. Earlier in the year, a couple guys brought in 21 pound bags of largemouth but lately it has been in the 10-14 pound range. Whoever can get the largemouth bites usually wins. it's hard to break 10 pounds on kentuckies alone usually.

Hmmm...I wonder if that's why there was such a big difference in fishing quality between Friday and Sunday. I fished a 3 hour evening tournament Friday on the Gasconade and fishing was tough. Out of 15 boats, I had 5th or 6th with two pounds...yea that bad! A tournament was held Sunday at the same location and some very nice fish were caught by the same guys who struggled Friday. It's amazing the difference a day makes. We fished Sunday evening about 35 miles down river and didn't have much to show for size, but the little smallies were sure hungry. Sounds like you had an awesome trip!

That's pretty well how I fished but I couldn't get much to happen. I beat the snot out of eddies near area's that I catch fish at when the water is off, but they just didn't produce for me. I've heard from several guys that there are only a few good area's when the water is ripping and apparently I don't know any of them!