eric1978

Is that MoMo?

My grandfather was in the CCC and did some work in Sam A. Baker state park. Mudlick Trail is a twelve mile hike that leads up onto Mudlick Mountain, which overlooks the St. Francis River. There are several stone hiking shelters at the peak of that bluff trail that my grandfather helped build with his own hands. I saw them for the first time a couple years ago, and it was a really cool experience for me. It was also a very beatiful view.

2, 3 & 4 I know are true. I also have no idea what a "Mo-Mo" is. Is it a Missouri Moron?

Yeah, but they're always looking for an easy meal. If they see some slow moving morsel crawling around the bottom and they think it won't take much effort to eat it, they'll go down to get it. Yes, fish are designed to look up, but they can and do see things on the bottom easily as well. The only time they wouldn't be able to see something on the bottom is if it was directly below them. Their eyes can angle down in their sockets, as we've all seen on underwater footage. I'm pretty sure fish don't think, "Well, it's pretty cold out and there aren't many 'dads around anymore....think I'll stop looking down for meals for the year." Fish have an uncanny awareness of what's in the water around them. They don't miss much. I prefer throwing Pointers and putting it right in front of their faces anyway, but jigs are always my second option for really picky winter fish. I hardly ever use bottom baits in warm months, though, when the 'dads are out in full swing. Guess I'm a little backwards. Of course, smallmouth aren't really a "match the hatch" species, so I'm not convinced it matters. They are opportunistic feeders, and will eat whatever is most convenient for the least effort.

Those lakes are referred to as "oxbows." An oxbow can also be a U-shaped bend in a river, whether or not it's cut off. Oxbow lakes are more common on rivers with muddy banks. And something else that might interest Wayne: My grandma went to high school with Yogi Berra in South City, and they've kept in touch over the years.

MO is farther south than the glaciers made it during the last ice age, and therefore we don't have any carved out glacial lakes like they do farther north (Minnesota a good example, and also the Great Lakes). We are located in what was more of the drainage area of the melting glaciers, so between that and all the springs occurring in the Ozark plateau, we have lots of rivers to dam up. I believe you are right that all of MO's reservoirs are man made, but I could be wrong. There are of course many naturally occurring small lakes and ponds, but I don't know of any big ones.

Agreed. Again, Busch is not below me, I go there all the time for a quick fix, but usually leave unfulfilled. I think the urban trout programs would be a great thing to spend money on if there weren't so many other more natural habitats in need of funding and conservation efforts. Really my only point is that MDC should rethink its priorities.

Yeah, but they won't be for long. Come December they'll pickin' little slow moving stuff off the bottom.

Or just tell those kids to get Daddy in the right position to fish all day with those little paddles, or there won't be any hot dogs for dinner. Seriously though, you could just hack the end off a cheap paddle and keep it handy for corrections. I had thought about that before, until I bought a high-end wood paddle that's so light you don't need to cut any off. I kind of like the extra length to leverage off my shoulder on some single handed strokes.

Some people don't have the opportunity to see the Grand Canyon. Should MO spend taxpayer's money on constructing a papier mache reproduction for those less fortunate?...I'm just messin' with ya man...I can't help it. I, too, am from a non-fishing (immediate) family, so your point is well taken about the local availability for kids who are interested. I spent most of my time fishing the little neighborhood ponds I had access to, and spent the rest of my time marking the calendar down to the next LOZ visit to my uncle's lake house. I never did try one of the St. Louis trout programs, and maybe that's why I'm not a trout fisherman to this day. I like your idea about spending the money on more MDC agents. Maybe they should give them bonuses based on the number of poaching and littering tickets issued.

Or maybe you are lucky enough to have plenty of time to fish, in which case those things wouldn't matter as much. I'm sure if I had the chance to go more often, I'd be able to slow down and take it easy. It's just that I get to go so rarely (once every couple weeks at best), that while I'm out there I'm really focused on catching fish. Sometimes I have to stop and take a deep breath and soak in the surroundings, because all I ever see is the water and what's in it. I'll usually bring my lunch, but most times it remains uneaten until the ride home because I didn't want to stop and waste the five minutes to have a freakin' sandwich.

Acer is spelled acre. Interesting? Maybe, maybe not.

Good luck. I had decent numbers on a white 3/16 tandem willow blade last time I was there, about 10 days ago between floods. I was up a lot higher than where you are, though. Hope to hear from you when you get back.

Well I did actually have some opinions, but I wanted to hear all yours first. cwc87 and brownieman pretty much covered my thoughts on it. Along with more forage and the little kick (or at least lingering stability) in water temps, I also think we'll be benefited by a few extra weeks of a little color in the water. I think all the precipitation may delay the "wintertime crystal-clear river makes for spooky fish syndrome" a little, and keep the fish somewhat more active later in the season. At least I hope!

I think this is one of those details that may be overlooked when purchasing a canoe, and then becomes clear later that it should have been a major consideration. Like Al, unless I'm hauling through slack water or negotiating an obstacle or riffle, I've got my rod in my hand. For the most part I use only single handed strokes in places where I think there are fish, and if you are forced to use a gigantic double blade because your canoe is too wide, you're gonna have to set your rod down every time you want to make a correction. I know there are a lot of guys that use double blades, and maybe there's some trick I can't think of to make single handed corrections with a double. But personally I think you'd be wasting a lot of time in the best areas trying to position yourself when you could be fishing. I keep my paddle across my lap, and I constantly grab it around the middle and give a quick single handed stroke. It takes no time at all and my rod never leaves my hand. If I had to keep setting my rod down to pick up the paddle, I would guess that I would be missing out on at least 10% of possible casts, and over the course of a day, that could mean a lot of missed fish, or just that one 20 incher. Also, every time you put down a rod or a paddle, you're making noise. It's details like this that you may think are insignificant until you get out on the water, and they turn out to be big problems for those who demand, or at least desire, efficiency. I get so few chances to go fishing that when I'm on the water, I want to be fishing and only fishing and not wasting my time doing anything else. Fishing is all about eliminating variables, just like algebra. I think inefficiency is one of those variables and I believe a good fisherman pays attention to ways to whittle down as much ineffiency as possible. Maybe the simple answer is to just carry both types of paddle with you. But that's just one more thing in the canoe.

Welcome to the forum. Glad to have another guy with info on the Meramec. How's the river look now? I'm planning a trip early next week. I'm hoping things have settled down by then.

LMAO No problem, wrench. Let me know if you throw it in any real water how it works...looks like I won't be able to fish for at least another week...so backed up with work. Report back on those kabobs, too.

Well the canoe rental signs are pretty hard to miss in Steelville, you pass one about every mile, but many of them are closed for the year now. Don't know what kind of fishing you're looking to do, but you have a lot of options. Trout around the park or smallmouth anywhere around Steelville on the Huzzah, Courtouis, and Meramec. If you're looking to do a float (rental or shuttle), call Skip at Green's Canoe (573) 775-5595. He's open year round and he'll take you where ever you want around that area. Be sure to call him at least a day in advance to set something up. Report back on the fishing!

Cool looking stream and nice pics! Thanks for reporting.

I like that one. Those are the tiniest blades I've ever seen for primary blades. Have you tried larger ones? Am I correct to assume that you downsized them because bigger ones got hung up in the skirt and wouldn't spin? Looks good.

That's a really interesting point OTF. I hadn't thought about what all this precip will do to the aquifers.

bm, hope you didn't think I was lecturing you...that wasn't my goal or point...I was just expressing how I felt about it since you asked. My only real point was, without actually saying it, is that the first amendment protects people to have the right to speak their minds publicly against the government without being persecuted or prosecuted. It does not, however, protect one's rights to say whatever they want in private arenas such as this one. I, too, am dismayed at the amount of censorship we deal with in our current society, but I guess there's not a whole lot anyone can do about it... Again, please don't think I was giving you a hard time. I agree with you 100%!!!

I'll cast the first vote as "I have no idea," and that's why I'm asking you guys. Note: I posted this in regard to smallmouth specifically, but feel free to vote for stream fishing in general. I'm really more interested in what this will do to normal fall smallmouth patterns of behavior.

Your story reminds me of a day of a couple firsts for me, too. I was probably 11 or 12, and my little fishing buddy and I were fishing from a jon boat in a farm pond his family had. In those days we used T-rigged plastic worms almost exclusively, and we were pounding every inch of the banks of that pond with them. My buddy was outfishing me about 4 to 1 that day, and in all honesty he was just a better fisherman (fisherboy) than I was. He taught me a lot about fishing in the years we fished together. He was just one of those guys that had that instinct...you know the type. Anyway, back then we were really competitive and needled each other constantly about how many we caught and how big our fish were. Well, that day he was really letting me have it. He was pulling out all the stops and giving me a really rough time. He was catching dink after dink and after every fish he'd call out the count. "Let's see, that's 28 for me, what is it? 7 for you?" And so on. Since I was clearly getting slaughtered, I figured if I switched baits, at least I could say I was outfished because we were using different lures. So I tied on this ugly, rubber-skirted chartreuse spinnerbait I think I paid a quarter for at Grandpa Pigeons, you know, one of those loose baits in that bargain bin. I had never used a spinnerbait in my life, so I didn't expect much to happen, but I started castin' it anyway. My buddy kept catching fish after fish, and didn't let up with the insults. "Only an idiot would think that thing would catch a fish." And right around that point I felt a tap and then a HUGE pull and it was on! He gave a jump and I shot a glance at my buddy who was, for the first time all day, speechless. Got him to the boat and got my hand around his massive lower lip and heaved him out of the water. I thought he must have been 6 or 7 pounds, but looking back now, in reality he was probably closer to a heavy 4. That was my first fish on a spinnerbait, and I haven't stopped throwing one since. I released the fish, and laid into my buddy. I really let him have it. I was sitting backward in the front of the jon boat just hurling those insults as fast as they'd come to me. As soon as I was satisfied that he was about as miserable and jealous as I could make him, I spun around to face the front of the boat, and SNAP! My rod tip had somehow made its way into one of the belt loops of my jeans, and when I turned I broke about 6 inches of the tip clean off. Of course it was the only rod I'd had with me since it was the only rod I owned. That was the first rod I broke. Needless to say, my buddy was suddenly in good spirits again. And he was casting a spinnerbait.

On a float on Jack's Fork, we were going through a bit of a tricky stretch of shoals and bends with lots of obstructions. We approached a particularly nasty bit when I reached up to push a pile of branches over my head when my buddy in the back of the canoe yelled SNAAAAAKE! It was like in Stand By Me when Gordy yelled TRAAAAAIN! Anyway, for some reason I instinctively retracted my arm, even though I had no idea where it was. I looked up and it was coiled around the very branch I was reaching for and was in that defensive "strike" position and ready to murder my hand. My other buddy in a kayak behind us is a biologist, and when he took a look at it he told me he was positive it was a cottonmouth. That would have made for a really crappy day....we were miles from any real civilization. Disaster averted. About ten minutes later, I hooked the biggest smallmouth of the trip, a definite 20 incher, and he broke me off after I got a really good look at him, so nature got me back in the end.