Mitch f

I think if you tell the guide what you are after before you go out, he will put you on a different pattern than the "Norm". I sometimes agree that a guide doesn't help. However, they probably know the body of water better than you and you can learn form their techniques. I personally am about 50-50 on guides in Missouri. Zipstick is one of the most knowledgeable guides on the Rivers in Missouri. I have learned a tremendous amount from him, so he would be the exception. If you are going to a new area, I would hire a guide for the first day, then go out on your own. As a general statement, I don't agree with your post.

The pictures are great! I'm a proud daddy too!! My little girl Audrey is 9 months and the first chance I get, I'm going to put a fishing rod and a golf club in your hand. I know she loves to sit in my boat in the garage, so I'm pretty sure she's ready to take fishing. Right now I'm content to read her bedtime stories.

I'm resting my stomach for a few days, I just got back from Mexico City on business. How about the week after next? your boat or mine?

Smalliebigs: how big was the personal best..........seems like a really nice fish!

Zoom Super Fluke Zoom 4 inch finesse worm Chompers 4" double tail hula grub any type of double dipped Tube

Thanks for the pics! looks like a fun afternoon!

Eric, They weren't talking about this exact fish, but in general. I showed this pic to Al at the SMA Bronzeback banquet and he said it was probably 3/4 smallie. The funny part about this fish is that as soon as the fish was visible my brother said "WOW, What A NICE SPOT!" I told him" NO, THATS A SMALLMOUTH!"

Back in '02, Table Rock Guide Rick Lapoint and I entered a Skeeter only Bass Tourney in the Detroit River. There were over 100 boats entered which included the local talent of some well known Lake Erie and St. Clair guides and Bass Pros. One of the Southern pros, Alton Jones, was the MC of the event as well as one of the contestants. After the tournament was over, I got a chance to meet Alton Jones and his family, he introduced each one of his family members one at a time. Rick and I ended up getting third in the tourney weighing in 7 smallies around 24 lbs. At that tournament they had a drawing for a brand new 2003 Skeeter SX190 with a 150 Yamaha V-Max. Alton's little 6 year old daughter was the one who was to reach in and pull out the winning boat number, we were boat 6. When she drew the number she had to turn it upside down and right side up twice to decipher whether it was a 6 or a 9. Luckily for us it was a 6 and we won the boat. BTW, that's the only FREE boat in my life that ended up with taxes and paying off a partner costing me $12,000. Now I know what your thinking; The reason you respect Alton so much is because his daughter pulled your boat number out of the jar. Not at all, the thing that impressed me most about Alton was the fact that he got second place in the tourney fishing with his 8 year old son. He out fished us and all the local pros with an 8 year old who never boated a fish! When he won the Bass Master Classic a couple of years back I felt happy because he was such a nice guy and an extremely good fisherman.

I caught a nice one this year on the Meramec,just under 18" that just absolutly slammed a jerkbait. They fight like hell! I've seen quite a few on the lower Meramec. Someone at the SMA told me that he talked to an agent who said if you catch one to throw it up on the bank. Not me, he's probably still swimming.

My eight year old daughter and her friend starting trying to make their own creations on my tying bench when I was out of town. Bunny strips everywhere, marabou laying on the floor, etc. They left the bottles of head cement open and it started drying up. What if anything should I use to cut the head cement and make it usable again?

Al, I'm curious about the Gunfish, you caught a 22" largemouth a few weeks ago on it and it seems to be your "go to" topwater bait. How does it differ in action to the Sammy?

There is nothing wrong with eating carp, fixed correctly it is very good. The grass carp in China is one of the most sought after table fare. Remember they believe you should always eat fish and meat bone-in so they have no problem with the small bones. Americans are the ones who insist on filleting fish, the chinese think that ruins the taste. I wont eat dog either by the way

Maybe she was feeding up for the spawn

I think we just found the solution on how to plug the BP oil hole!

I was watching that show called River Monsters tonight on Animal Planet. I'm not joking but there was a guy who was wading in the Amazon and while releaving himself had a small Snake like fish swim up his urine stream and crawled up inside his penis. Apparently this has happened several times in this region. I think I'll stick to wading in the Missouri trout streams.

That photo reminds me of why I put down my fishing rod around June and pick up my golf clubs, Ill pick up the rod again around October.

Sounds like a plan, BTW, I wouldn't give up my spots either

please give directions to unknown river, looks fun

Smallie, If I see you I'll stop and talk, I'm driving an 1650 Xpress with a 60/40 merc, olive green.

I guess my grocery store comment was not well thought out! However as I said I don't mind someone keeping fish in the river as long as it's legal. I'm not sure keeping too many Stream fish in Missouri will insure a sustainable resource either.

My wife is Chinese and they think it's crazy to release anything, that's why there are hardly any natural resources left in China. That's another reason they all want to come here to raise their families and not back home.Their mentality is to kill and eat the goose that lays the golden egg before someone else does. My brother in law told me that there is no way they could even have a self serve soda machine in a McDonalds in China because people would gorge themselves on the free soda and bring the food home. In a small way that's exactly the mentality we are dealing with here on keeping the fish. It's based on poverty and the depression era mentality. We are only 1 or 2 generations removed from that generation and they were the ones that taught us to fish. I see nothing wrong with keeping fish as long as it's legal, but if you're eating fish out of necessity, then there is a problem. The bottom line is it will take years and years to change the mentality of these fish eaters and convince them to buy from the grocery store.

They seemed to be in 2 groups, the smaller ones (Less than 2 pounds) were in current about 10 ft off the bank. The larger ones up to 8-10 lbs were in the middle of the river about a foot below the surface of the water. With the trolling motor I was able to get within 10 feet of them before they moved. I ran a spinner bait across their backs and I hit at least 4 on every cast. The next day Zipstick and I went up look at them and saw a bunch of boat traffic in the area that had them scattered.

You're probably right! At least the bowhunting guy is smacking a few. I'm going to go postal on them myself; clubs, spears, big treble hooks! Not really, I know nothing short of poisoning the river will get rid of them.

I was fishing at the confluence of the Meramec and Big river at Route 66 park yesterday and saw a horrible sight. Hundreds if not thousands of Asian silver Carp sitting in the current about a foot under the surface. I was shocked by the sheer number of these intruders at that confluence.They may have been there before but I have never seem them in these numbers. To make it worse, a guy with a boat entitled "Aerial Bow Hunting Adventures" was scoping out the river for his business. I went up the Big river about 1 mile and saw a few silver carp up there also. I've always heard about this problem in the lower stretches of rivers but I think this hits a little too close to home for me. I'm not quite sure if anything can actually be done short of drastic measures. I know this invasive species filter plankton out of the water removing nutrients for all the bait fish. This would be a bad thing making competition for food and living space. Scary stuff guys!

Paul, those look like good quality jigs! I've been tying my own jigs for years, the one thing I see different about these jigs are the gold plating which I don't have the equipment for. I was taught to tie from the rabbit hair jig master himself, Phil Schafer from Stockton, MO. When I first purchased phil's jigs back in the late nineties, I told him that I loved everything about his jig except the hook; he used a bronze Mustad hook (before the days of the Ultra point). I told him to put a gamakatsu black nickle hook in the jig for better quality. His responded in 2 ways; first, since these hooks don't have weedguards, they have a high mortality rate. He said you can use a steady pull to bend the hook to free it from the obstruction and save your jig. The second point is that a jig with a bronze hook if broken off in a fish's mouth will break down after 2 weeks, possibly saving the fish. Based on these 2 reasons, I only tie bronze hooks for my small swimming jigs now. If you keep a diamond fingernail file in your tackle box you can touch them up to keep them sharp. For the bigger jigs like flipping jigs I still use black nickel hooks.