Mitch f

This has been on my mind for quite a while...especially for the smallmouth. Although Bo has caught a couple of dandies lately, it seems the days of those big smallmouth are nearly over

When Al floats, he can stay at a constant distance from the bank, making casting much more efficient than me. So on any given stream, I can log many more miles that him on the same stretch because I zig zag down the river!😂

Well I know for sure you and I did the furthest up the Big River and the confluence at the Meramec

What Ham said. It seems to me that Stripers are king there. the Ouachita River has good populations of smallmouth BTW

Yes, it’s very treacherous running if you’re not a very experienced boat operator. With water levels dropping recently and weeds growing so quickly you had to find water farther downstream to be able to make it happen. One morning we had to punt and go back further downstream because the only channel we could run was a small channel in the middle of the river that wasn’t choked by weeds. This channel was full of huge rocks only an inch or so under the water. Even in the deeper water downstream, we needed to have the second guy in the boat constantly searching for rocks and giving me hand signals to make it happen. Once you’re in the spot you want to fish, you only had a certain amount of time to cast as you drifted downstream. The last thing you needed was to drift into a rock and get stuck sideways in the current. It’s no easy fishing but the fish were definitely right in the current and it was the only way to catch them.

Describe what you mean? We used a jet boat of course

Driving home from our Upper Mississippi trip from above Minneapolis. We had 2 average days and 2 that were off the charts good. We used topwater mostly and square bill crank baits. Caught some nice fish. The key, as usual, was finding the right speed current and depth. Combine that with structure of some type and they were almost always cooperating.

Amish use minnows, Mennonites use Whopper Ploppers.

I think the river was blown out

This will give you something else to think about before our next adventure 😜 Ahh, the memories!

I’ve seen dirt bag guys too, but it’s all about percentages!! 😂😂

Geez, be happy you’re rid of her.

Now if they could just figure out a way to eradicate those Asian carp efficiently. I saw a video recently where they cornered the carp against a dam and electro shocked them. After watching he video, it seemed like a great opportunity at first, but their method of closing the deal left me wondering if they had thought it out completely.

Just noticed an 86 degree surface temp? Wow

Nice! I made up my mind to learn drop shotting this year. What’s your set up look like? Rod, reel, line, weight, etc.?

I’m not a professional, just almost as opinionated as you!

All those in-line spinners work well until you catch one decent size fish, then the wire gets slightly bent and never spins at the same speed again. You try to to bend it back...still never works the same. If only they made (and they might) an in-line spinner with a titanium wire, then the rpm would stay fast enough to create the perfect vibration.

2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1 ok 17:1 time to change

I don’t know what to say. He caught 17 to 1 what you did. At some point you just need to stop casting and stand back and watch. Surely he was doing something significantly different.

I agree with much of what all of you are saying. A buddy of mine on this forum owns property on an extremely clear stream. When I first got there with him, I walked up to a spot up on his bank that was the beginning of a big hole with a nice set of logs...my guess was around 6-7 feet deep. I chucked a WTD bait across the river and kind of worked it very splashy and very snappy...trying to draw a reaction strike. As the bait got close to the logs, which was no more than a few feet from where I was standing, I saw a big smallmouth right under it deciding whether to strike. He was literally 6 inches from my bait. I called my buddy over and he wasn’t able to see it. I told him this was a 20” fish, because I got a really good long look at it. One week later, my buddy had a Stream Team event or water quality event in that same spot. One of the stream team guys cast a Beetle Spin out and caught a 21” Smallmouth right next to the spot where I raised that fish. Just goes to show that with different conditions and or different size lures, that a skittish fish can still be caught.

Boneless short ribs sliced 1/4” thick and marinated in Korean Kalbi sauce, then grilled.

https://www.drybagsteak.com/

We had a farm in Paragould Arkansas, my parents home town...About 100 acres. We had a little muddy farm pond in the section where my dad raised cattle. This little muddy pond was full of small bull head yellow catfish, probably never caught anything over a pound. But the pond was full of cottonmouths. One of his cows got bit by one (so he told us) and he made it his mission to kill all those cottonmouths. These things were huge and fat, and would sun themselves in the muddy outskirts of the pond. I bet we killed dozens of them over the years, in the name of being safe to us and the cattle.