eric1978

Aw, c'mon fellas. I told you I'm a reefer retiree (reeferee, I like that). It just made me too stupid. Usually I get quieter the drunker I get because my brain stops forming sentences. After that I just kinda grunt, but you'll know what I mean. Please let me in your butt club.

That's it. I'm getting some snaps. Do you guys like a particular size/style/brand?

Thanks for the compliments! The pouch I found at WalFart for like 8 bucks, but I had to mill the piece of ash it's mounted to. I've warmed up to the camo. I was dead-set on red, but couldn't find one for the right price. But it's a freakin' canoe, it's for fishing. And after consideration, I might actually prefer the camo for practical purposes, since I guess red is more visible to a fish from farther off on a gin-clear stream than the neutral colors would be. I'm inclined to think that it doesn't make any difference what color the dang thing is to the fish, if they can see a red canoe, they can see a camo canoe. But fishing is a game of tiny details, and I'm going to pretend that the camo color has a slight advantage.

Nothing goes better with a Miller Lite than a nice fat smallmouth. Nice fish! One fish like that makes a trip.

I like more rods, too, but once I find a pattern I normally wind up throwing the same bait or couple baits the rest of the day. The other rods just wind up in the way. I don't have so much problem with length, but where they rest on the seat thwarts, they kind of cramp my legs a little if I have a bunch with me. The problem with not bringing at least 4 rods, though, is that like many other guys, I got a spinnerbait rod, a rod I like for crankbaits, one for jerkbaits, one for topwater, one for flukes, etc...If they're tearing up the flukes and I didn't bring a spinning rod, I hate myself. Same goes for the other baits. There's nothing worse than chucking a spinnerbait all day with a rod that's too light, or fishing a Sammy with a rod that's too long, whatever.

Try this website: http://www.upperbuffaloriver.com/ There is some fantastic hiking along the Upper Buffalo. I hiked a trail (can't remember which) that takes you to Hemmed in Hollow, and then the next day up on a massive bluff overlooking the Buffalo River, one of the most spectacular views in the Ozarks. With a little research, you can easily find it. I'm not a trout fisherman, so I don't know if they can be found near there, but there are certainly smallmouth in that area of the river.

Brain officially fried.

Lately I've only been taking two rods because I'm still getting used to my new canoe and I'm a little worried about swamping it and losing one. But if I was taking four rods, as of right now they would be set up with: spinnerbait, Wart, Pointer, tube or hair jig. In a month from now probably Wart, Pointer, tube and jig, and will probably stay that way until the water temps start climbing in the spring, then the spinnerbait comes back. When the temps start climbing through the 50s, it will be spinnerbait, buzzbait, Sammy or Subwalk, fluke, and it will stay that way until fall. I rarely go slow and low in warmer months, except maybe in the case of a nasty high pressure front. I'm a creature of habit.

butt...Angling Stoned & Stupid

Have you ever caught a big fish totally baked? It's a trip man. I highly recommend setting that up...if that's your thing. I retired from all that a long time ago. But good times...used to love fishing with a nice bag of pot. It made me concentrate, not as much weight in the canoe, and not as many pee breaks. Lots of snack breaks, though, and it's harder to tie knots for some reason. Oh, and it makes you stupid. Can't forget that one.

Don't take me too seriously, Buck. I just get a kick out of getting you riled up. Everyone is my friend. I'm like Ghandi. Well, except for one guy who got all bent out of shape for no reason. Really, though, if you feel like I'm giving you a hard time, I'm not, so take my comments with a grain of salt. A little note on the word "hillbilly." To me there are two types. Some good, some bad. The bad ones disgust me. The good ones, well, some of them are some of my favorite people. So I don't really have any problems with hillbillies, just hillbillies who litter and poach fish.

I'm a lefty, so my hand pretty much stays that way casting and retrieving. I usually cast with one hand as well, but for longer casts my right hand tends to go to the rod just below my left, not so much for strength, but for a little stabilizing leverage. I don't know why, it just does. I make a lot of side-arm type casts for softer lure entry and to get under overhanging trees, and those casts are always one-handed. You might be ambidextrous, Al. I feel really awkward casting right handed, though I can...poorly.

"We’ve all seen the local poor white trash ignorant beer drinking hillbillies do their thing." -Buckshotdad1960, Old Man River Part I Sorry Buck, I couldn't resist. You should ask a politician about "the Google." It's tough to deny stuff you said these days. Seems there's a record of everything.

Kevin is that your "progression of how you feel after sensimilla" face chart? Mine would look like this:

You must have giant mechanic's hands wrench. Those reels are just too big for me. Or maybe I just have tiny midget hands.

Yes, you can get a car to both accesses, but I'd take the jeep anyway. If you need a shuttle call Skip at Green's Canoe (573) 775-5595. Call him at least the day before you go to set it up. He'll take you wherever on the upper Meramec for a very reasonable price. Pretty much everyone on this forum is a cool-weather idiot. I did a stretch above Scotts Ford yesterday, and did Riverview to 19 two weeks ago. Caught fish on both floats. I plan to go again next week if the weather and work schedule permits. The fish will remain catchable all year, although it's a really tough bite after the water drops into the 30s. Not sure when you plan on going, but I'd think twice about going this weekend. The water was still up yesterday from the rain we had last week, and with the additional heavy rain today, I would think the river is probably gonna be unfishable and perhaps unfloatable for at least several days.

Forgot to mention that one of the smallies yesterday, about 13 or 14 inches or so, had what appeared to be a tiny turtle foot sticking out of his gullet. I was gonna take a pic of it but I was about to be swept into a logjam, so I let him go. Not sure if it would have been visible in the pic anyway. You guys ever seen that? I guess they eat turtles since they eat everything else, but I've never seen it before. Only saw 2 turtles on logs yesterday, so I guess he got one of the stragglers.

You may want to check the CFS flow before you go. We're getting a lot of rain we don't need and things might be blown out this weekend. I'd check the USGS gauges before making any concrete plans.

I've considered it many times, but I always seem to keep working on improving my ever-evolving spinning and baitcasting techniques. I've said it before that I think fly fishing is absolutely the purest form of fishing, and I really admire good fly fishermen. I'll get there eventually, but for now I'm still pretty preoccupied perfecting my current style.

One of these days, Dano, I'll take you up on that. If I wasn't so obsessed with smallmouth, chasing brown trout with a fly rod would be at the top of my list. Thanks for the offer.

It's only as difficult as figuring out whether the chicken or the egg came first. I wish I knew fly fishing...it seems really involved when you're clueless.

Yeah, I guess some of you old-timers who started on Ambassadeurs might get used to holding a rod that way. Those things were like having a bowling ball mounted on your rod; doesn't really lend itself to palming. I would consider the way I hold a rod to be more of a semi-palm grip, since I still have two fingers behind the trigger.

Oh. Guess that website is confused. My mistake.

Deep Thoughts, by Buck's Hot Dad. You should start a blog, Buck.

You also have to consider that CFS flows don't necessarily determine volume of water in the stream. Wider and deeper streams and reservoirs will always hold more water, regardless of flow (regular flow, not talking about periods of flooding). Taney will always have more volume than, say, the Meramec, simply because it's dammed and wider. Larger bodies of water means more available space for more fish per mile. I'm not sure the flow has any direct correlation to population, except that some flows are more ideal for certain species than others. What would be a more relevant statistic is fish per square mile, but that would be a logistical nightmare for MDC to calculate.