Seth

Like others have stated, 2# test is a requirement when it's low and clear. I prefer a longer 6.5-7.5' ultralight when using the lighter line as well as it helps with shock absorption on the hook set. I break more fish off with light line on my shorter rods. Next time pick yourself up a few of the green/white rubber legged 1/16oz jigs and hop those along the top of the moss. It's rare that trout don't hit those down there. I seem to have better luck with the pop - reel - pop (like Lilleys do in his jig videos) retrieve versus the constant reeling and bouncing the rod trip but try both. Sometimes the fish will prefer one over the other.

I just got my new Iphone 5s activated yesterday. it's different but I can get used to it. My biggest gripe is Apple made IOS7 smart enough to detect whether you are using a third party lightning cable. If it isn't an Apple brand cable ($20-30) with a special chip in the USB plug then it throws a message saying this accessory may not work right. Just about every other cell phone vendor out there has gone to the micro USB cable for charging but not Apple. No, they have to make a proprietary charging cable and then force you to drop $20-30 on a new one if you break or lose the original.

The 3.08 that beat mine looked to be the same length but it more "shoulders". This fish was pretty skinny compared to the majority of our fish that day.

Hog suckers taste fine but I prefer the smaller red horse (10-15") over anything. Those hog mollies are a pain to scaled because their tails are so flimsy. It's hard to get the first couple inches of tail started with the scaler. The redhorse are a bit "stiffer" and scale easier.

I've caught a few while fly fishing for trout on Taney but most come when tightlining corn or nightcrawlers on the bottom. If they are around it doesn't take them long to zero in on the bait. It's fun sight fishing for them and casting your bait out just in front of them and watching them swim up and suck it in. They do put up a heck of a fight. Big common and grass carp can really make a drag scream as well.

What area of river were in when you seen them?

I've caught my share of suckers on rod and reel as well. Taneycomo is loaded with them and we have caught tons of them on night crawlers while trout fishing. My point was that there are way more suckers gigged than caught on rod and reel.

Those are some awesome browns! I would love to be down there catching some browns right now! Why does Taney have to be 3.5 hours away from me???

It's usually a little bit cleaner than this but I think this was about perfect for fishing. The bass were hungry and were smacking buzzbaits and spinnerbaits pretty good all day long. I've not had much luck with those type of baits when it's low and really clear. I'd say visibility was 2-3'. There is a big difference in water clarity most of the time between this area and the water above Vienna. You can see twice as deep above Vienna versus down here a lot of the time.

I don't think it's an education matter. Some people just don't give a crap about the laws and what impact them breaking those laws have on others anglers. Most people who are out gigging have been doing it for many years. These people also know the difference between fish species and know darn well which fish are legal and which aren't legal.

It's the same with deer hunting. Guys shoot every doe they see in unlimited antlerless counties and then complain they aren't seeing deer a few years later. There's a lot of ignorant people out there.

It's gonna take a lot more people gigging then there is right now for that to happen.

I see plenty of big red horse on the Gasconade. While they are fun to go gig, I'll take the 10-14" suckers all day long for eating. If you couldn't gig suckers, there would be very few harvested. I don't recall hearing many guys standing around talking about fishing for suckers with rod and reel like you do bass, catfish, crappie,etc. You mention that otters have been around for over a decade and there are still fish in the streams. People have been gigging for a lot longer then that. So if you are saying otters aren't a problem then giggers must not be any problem as well since there are still plenty of fish in the stream?

Al's "zoning" sounds good to me. I guess I caught it in the lower section in that case.

I guess it would be middle but I'm honestly not sure how it's divided up. A lot of guys fish above hwy 44 but I've never been up there. Upper to me is the Jerome area, middle would be Rollins Ferry, and lower would be Helds island on down.

Most guys I know who go often just try to kill enough to eat for the night. No sense in gigging too many if you go often. Part of the fun is frying them up with some taders and onions and having a few cold beers after a successful night of gigging. It's also not much fun to be up half the night cleaning fish especially early in the year when it doesn't get dark till late. It can make for some really late nights.

Another good way to eat them that we've done is to pressure cook the fillets with seasoning salt and lemon pepper seasoning until all the bones are dissolved. After the bones are gone, mix with egg and crackers to make fish patties. Vacuum seal two to a pack and stack them in the freezer for later. When you want to eat some, just open them up and crisp them up in a little olive oil and throw on some bread and dig in. It's a little more work than I like to mess with when it comes to fish but it was very good.

Near Rich Fountain We ended up getting second with 7.78. Four were small mouth and we had one large mouth. My buddy had a 3.41 large mouth and got first with 8.70.

Took the words out of my mouth. I've seen a lot of very nice smallies caught on the Gasconade during our tournaments this year as well as the biggest one I've personally seen.

Don't knock it till you try it! A guy brought some of those in filleted up like this one day and they were fantastic!

Not a monster but the best one I've caught in a tournament. It weighed 2.85. Another boat weighed in a 3.08 so we didn't win big smally. After talking with the boat that caught the big smally it sounds like we caught both of them in almost the same spot but they got theirs early and we got ours late in the day. Mine hit a 3/8oz watermelon jig with a zoom super chunk trailer and the 3.08 was caught on a finesse worm rigged on a shakey head. I pitched up to some rocks and only pulled it a few feet and noticed some movement near the bait right as I felt dead weight and set the hook. It never jumped so I thought I had a carp or drum but was pumped when I seen it was a nice smally. It may or may not be my new personal best but it's really close to the one I caught a few months ago on the Gasconade.

1) high sucker populations 2) very small portion of the river gets gigged (most is done near public accesses so that leaves a lot of fish that don't get bothered) 3) suckers are always "running" so the areas that get gigged hard are always getting fresh fish 4) very few suckers are harvested outside of gigging season I don't gig the Meramec but do mine near Vienna on the Gasconade most of the time. That place gets pounded all season but you can go up there all fall/winter and clean house on the suckers within a mile of the 42 bridge. There's a lot of other great water up and down if you feel like running some riffles but most guys don't bother because there is no need. The amount of suckers in the Gasconade is crazy and I don't think it would be possible to clean them out regardless of how many giggers there are.

Cowtown holds a couple gigging tourneys on the Gasconade each fall. The five biggest suckers win. There are conservation agents waiting at the ramp at weigh in to check everybody. It's a fun and very well run event. I talked to an angler this weekend who fishes the Meramec quite a bit and does very well in tournaments about this thread. He said he thinks that river otters are a bigger problem than giggers. He said the smallies congregate around springs in the winter and that he would bet money that the otters clean house. What do you other guys think of that statement?

I would love to see that happen but I know it's not feasible. Heck they can't even keep up with the poachers during deer season and deer hunting is a lot bigger than gigging. My boat doesn't have anything to hide so I would welcome being checked at the ramp by an agent. No offense taken smalliebigs. I'm sure you have a very good reason for for thoughts towards gigging. If I wasn't a gigger myself, I would probably think along the same lines. From what I've overheard, a lot of the guys who have the "kill everything" that swims mentality are ones who have private river accesses well away from the public ramps so the chances of getting caught are pretty well non existent especially if they are frying the fish up right away.

Even a blind hog finds and acorn now and then right Brian? Oh wait, I was talking about me and not you. You find lots of acorns.