smallmouthjoe

Well my crayfish pattern produced a giant goose egg this weekend at current river state park. I did however have luck with a clouser. Caught my personal best on it this weekend! Thanks for the recipe BBT. I'll do my best to give it justice.

Indeed Teddy would be rolling over in his grave if we sold off the remaining vestiges of our public lands to those obsessed with the idea of progress (i.e. some sort of psychological disorder, brain damage). Common sense will prevail and any measures to take property from the public will be laughed at even it comes to the floor.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm trying to hone in on something that is effective and easy to tie with my travel kit. I'm going to Current River State Park this week for a job and will give a status report on how I fare. Thanks again.

Hello Everyone, I just wanted to get some feedback on my attempt to tie a crayfish pattern. I know its just a pic however any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks for the tip and thanks for the info on the trip. I'll most likely hit this stream again in the future, it's a quieter Gasconade.

Hello All, Just wanted to report on how the overnight trip last weekend turned out. The water was low through this section especially for a solo loaded down with all the necessities for a two day trip. We had to drag through most riffles but my company and myself didn't mind too much. This was a slow river with long flat pools that required a considerable amount of paddling. This was my first time on this river and it reminded me very much of the middle section of the James. We took our time with this one, so much so that a two day trip turned into a three day adventure. I counted approximately fifty cows in the stream in the fifteen miles that we floated. We saw a total of five people during the entire trip and had our pick of gravel bars to camp on. Oh yeah the fishing. The fishing was pretty good. Largest fish went around 16.5" and was caught on a shaky-head with a strawberry kiwi finesse worm on it. Good numbers were caught on a Bomber 4A crankbait, crayfish pattern, brown back with a chartreuse belly. Averaged approximately 35 fish a day. I love the Gasconade strain smallmouth, I feel they fight harder than the white river strain. All fish were healthy lacking any parasites on their gill filaments or body and had a good thickness value. Thank you to everyone who helped me mark this river off the list. I'll surely be back on it sometime soon.

Thanks for the info. I expected there would most likely be downed trees considering the lack of floating and I'll deal with it in order to escape the crowd.

Hello everyone, I'm keen on getting information about a good overnight float on this river this weekend. Is there enough water? What access points should I look into. Any information would be greatly appreciated considering I know little about this river. Thanks and take care.

Just enroll in grad school, it's the perfect blend between an 8-5 and being in high school! Geez, what to do tomorrow? Go out and do research which includes swimming around looking at darters, or take the day off to go fishing? Tough decision.

Also, beware the fat ladies wearing confederate flag bikinis that make men want to claw their own eyes out.

I regularly catch spots below Lake Springfield, good ones at that.

Very sorry to hear about Stan the Man's passing. The best Cardinal there will ever be, the best person baseball will ever know. RIP #6.

I'm curious if Jen and John presented any data in regard to the smallmouth bass management areas? It seems to me that if they had sampling sites within the management areas that the length frequency data gathered in these sites would be indicative of what we would see if there were increased length limits and reduced creel limits state wide.

Hello, I am looking for information on a spring on the Osage Fork that the locals call Big Spring. The spring is located about 0.75 mi. upstream of the Atlanta Rd. bridge. My question is, how large is this spring and how much water does it input into Osage Fork? Someone told me that it doubles the size of the Osage Fork and that the water down stream of the spring input stays cold year round. Does anyone know if this is true? Thanks, Joe

Good lord! A double, I bet that was fun.

They had plans on putting a concrete boat ramp at that access so maybe that's it. Sorry they were rude to you, no need for that.

I have always had difficultly identifying the variables that accurately predict where you would use one over the other. But I think Al's statement may be pretty accurate. On rivers where the clarity is reduced jigs seems to work better, tubes in clear water.

I love the sweater.

Great shot. Makes me wonder if the short-eared owls have shown up yet.

Thanks for the information guys. I'll check out Boiling Spring, 10,000,000 gal. per day is the low estimate I'm getting from sources. Should be large enough to significantly reduce the summer water temps in the river near the spring. I have a site below Alley Spring and am currently looking at Greer Spring. The NPS is very protective of their spring branches and I will most likely not get access to the branch itself, even for a scientific survey. Thanks again.

Thanks

Hello, Does anyone know what the largest spring on the river is? I am a grad student at MSU studying the fish community in spring fed rivers. I need a reach of stream with that keeps a cool water temp year round, less than 70. Any information would be a great help. Thanks, Joe

Hello everyone, As the title suggests I am looking for info on the best section of the Eleven Point for smallmouth. Maybe headed out east either to the black or the eleven point for a weekend away from the city and need some advice. Thanks,

I was thinking of hitting the Black this weekend and was wondering about the float from Lesterville to HWYK. I've never been on this river before and was wondering if leaving a car at HWY K access is ok. I always feel the need to ask on unfamilar rivers. Thanks,