MOsmallies

Great job... Can't wait til my little guy is big enough to start teaching him fishing

Awesome... I plan on using the collar to get the strands situated nicely on the jighead, then tying the strands down with wire and cutting of the rubber collar. How many clumps of skirt material did you use to tie each jig?

Jigs look awesome! I just bought a skirt making tool and plan to start tying my own here soon. Post some more patterns if you have them. Did you tie them with copper wire, or just a rubber collar?

Thanks dude And mic... It's definitely illegal... Underwater spearfishing is only legal in impounded waters in Missouri... And only for rough fish (Page 10 of the MDC Fishing regulations handbook)

Here's the MDC numbers for Crawford County and the regional office in St. Charles... http://mdc.mo.gov/regional-contacts?county=28 I plan on calling the Operation Game Thief line when I get off work.

Let me start by saying I HATE POACHERS!!!!!! I was hoping I'd never see anything like this, but my nightmare became a reality when a friend texted me this picture this morning of a random guy from facebook. Tagged smallie poached on the Courtois with a Hawaiian sling/spear... and I'm assuming all the other dead ones were shot in the same manner. He took the picture down almost as soon as he put it up, but my buddy was smart enough to take a screenshot. I have emailed the pictures to Paul Cieslewicz (MDC Fisheries Biologist / Smallmouth Tagging Study) and supplied him with the individuals name. This literally makes me sick to my stomach. I doubt it will happen, but I hope this @$$hole gets prosecuted to the highest degree. Please feel free to send this to any agents or contacts you may know at the MDC. They need to be hounded with this issue. We're naive if we think this isn't happening more.

I wish that were always the case, but Scott usually catches more big ones. This river is getting hammered yet it still produces nice fish. We'll continue to enjoy it while we can. The biggest one I caught had a healed wound in the middle of the soft (rear) dorsal fin. It was separated and a "V" shaped chunk was gouged out of it's back. I'm guessing either gig or heron at some point in it's life. Like I said it was healed now though.

Awesome pictures and some nice cats! Thanks for sharing. Paul MOsmallies

That's a nice hybrid! And even cooler that you were catching them on a homemade wtd lure... I love the paint color scheme.

KC... I'm assuming you think that largemouth might have been caught off a bed, but i assure you it wasn't. It was cruising around on a large flat with two other decent fish. I made a cast about 10 feet in front of her and she just swam up without hesitation and engulfed my bait. Might have been the easiest catch all day. This was definitely a cool little creek, but at it's current flows, we just didn't see a lot of 15" plus fish. That largemouth was the biggest one we saw and were able to catch it. Sight fishing to cruising fish is still pretty fun even when most the fish are 8"-12". Paul MOsmallies

First of all, good luck this weekend aarchdale... I hope you give us a report and pictures after the trip. Secondly, a small part of me wishes spearfishing would be legal on some of our ozark streams. Only for rough fish (Carp, Gar, Drum, etc.). With a specified season, creel limits, and highly enforced by the MDC. If it were open to streams, I would love to get involved in this sport. I see so many large carp and gar that would be a blast to chase underwater. On the other hand, the majority of my being is happy that stream spearfishing is illegal. We already have enough issues with unethical and illegal gigging taking place on our smallmouth populations. I would imagine that spearfishing on our streams would just give our state's abundant hoosiers more opportunities to break laws and kill smallmouth illegally. Lastly, my brother in law used to free dive in the gulf, chasing wahoo and cobia. He actually held the Louisiana state record for wahoo until his buddy bested him a week later. He gave it up a couple years ago after he lost a buddy to a tragic spearfishing accident. I miss hearing his stories but it's probably best since he now has two small children. Here's a few of his pictures...

Very cool Mike!!!!... I might send you a PM

I've got em proudly displayed on my kayak already! Thanks Phil!

darn... Nice Smallies and on fly tackle to boot. Thanks for sharing the pics and cool video!

RPS's trick definitely helped the Sammy sit much more upright when at rest. I replaced the belly treble with a size 4 from a size 6. The feathered tail treble is still a size 6. This combined with a Medium action rod and 10 lb co-polymer line resulted in much better and more consistent walking action. I love the action and look of this bait now. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can put it in front of some smallies this weekend. Thanks again for everyone's suggestions. Gavin - If you still have that Sammy 85, I'd be happy to make the modifications and send it back to you. I've really enjoyed this process and would love to fix a bait you may not be using in it's current state. I already have all the materials, so there'd be no cost. PM me if you're interested. Paul MOsmallies

Look like killdeer eggs. Very cool looking! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killdeer

Cool looking little fish... Those would be awesome to have in an aquarium

Corey from Huzzah Valley should definitely be able to hook you up

Check out Jack's Guide Service as well

Awesome fish Andy and a great story Chief!

Uh oh... here we go.... This really isn't the place to mention eating smallmouth. Most everyone on here is die hard catch and release especially on stream Smallies (even if legal). They just take so long to get big. So I'm hoping that the fish you kept and ate were goggle eyes or spotted bass. The only reason I'm saying anything is that you appear to be fairly new to the forum and I don't want you to get hammered by a bunch of people. I hope I'm not coming off as a d!ck That's a beautiful, big smallie, so I'm glad it was released! The markings are unreal! Congrats on the great catch and welcome to the forum.

Great idea RPS... I have size 6 kvd mustad trebles on there currently... Maybe I'll try replacing the belly one with a size 4. Thanks for the suggestion

Nice Riverwhy! The few I caught on the blade crushed it. Was that fish about 7 lbs? You get a pic of it? I wish I could have fished harder both days because the fish were definitely active!

My wife and I headed down to the lake house (Midlake Section near Tan-Tar-A) Friday night to spend Mother's Day weekend with her family. We recently had our first child back in December, so this was my wife's first Mother's Day as well. With the birth of our son, I haven't fished since November, so she knew I was wanting to go bad... but I also knew I shouldn't be on the water all weekend neglecting her and the baby. I took the overnight feed so that I could fish the morning guilt free. I ended up fishing from 6 am - 11 am on Saturday and then snuck out for another hour on Sunday from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm. Saturday I caught 10 with 3 keepers and lost 2 more keepers due to me not paying attention. All fish were caught in 1-4 feet of water. I caught about half on a weightless 5" green pumpkin Senko while it was calm and the other half on a 3/8 oz. chartreuse & white War Eagle spinnerbait when the wind was howling. Biggest was pushing 4 lbs that absolutely crushed the spinnerbait. On Sunday, I didn't stay out long because we had to get on the road, but I had my eye on a couple bedding fish I had been watching all weekend. I rigged up my spinning gear with a small circle hook and a wacky rigged Missile Baits Fuse 4.4 (craw worm). To add weight and the right falling action, I screwed a 3/4" drywall screw into the tail end (basically like a nail weight). This is a killer little sight-fishing rig. The first bedding fish was pushing 3 lbs and was up against a seawall, under a dock walk way, and behind cables. It wasn't an easy cast to make, but luckily this fish was locked on so I was able to make multiple pitches without scaring her off. I finally put it in the sweet spot, watched her go nose down and her gills flare. I reared back to set the hook and my drag was set way to loose. I got her next to the boat, she jumped and spit the hook. Oh well... It was still pretty cool to watch. On to the next one.... This one had me shaking a little. I crept in with the trolling motor on low and got the boat positioned perfectly about 25 feet away. I watched her for a bit and could tell she was locked on as well. Again it took me about 15 minutes before I finally hit the right spot and she nailed it. I set the hook, this time with my drag set properly. Got her in the net, and my hook fell out easily from her top lip. I had my wife snap a few quick pictures for me and release her right back to her nest. I'm thinking she was pushing 5 lbs. I messed around with a few smaller males on beds and landed a couple more around 13-14" before calling it quits. I really wish I was spending this whole week down there chasing them, because I think it's gonna be on fire. Here's a few pics of the better fish... Enjoy and get out there! Paul MOsmallies

Well I was finally able to get the modified Sammy in the water this weekend to see how the action has changed. Now I didn't actually target fish with it, I just threw it off the dock and walked it back in a couple dozen times. Let me also preface by saying that I did not use the optimal rod or line size that I plan on using with it this summer. I tested it with a 6'8" MH jig rod with 15 lb test (not remotely ideal) because that's all I really had with me... The first thing I noticed is that removing that one ball bearing has made the Sammy quite a bit lighter than I anticipated. I was still able to cast it with good distance just fine though. The Sammy no longer sits vertical like a long bobber. It sat at a much more horizontal angle when at rest, with the tail just slightly lower. The strange thing was that it actually laid slightly rolled on it's side when at rest. Not fully on it's side, just slightly off. It actually looked kind of cool laying on it's side like an injured or dying minnow. However... that did not affect the walking action which I was pretty pleased with. With the rod and line size I was using, it would not walk real far from side to side, probably just 6 inches or so, but I think throwing it on a medium action rod with 8 to 10 lb test will help it walk farther side to side. The feathered treble also adds great action that I think may help a few finicky fish to commit. Once I actually use it to target smallies in a couple weeks I'll try to report back again. Paul MOsmallies