Spotted / Kentucky Bass Moving Up!

[Gavin]

Not sure if Asian Carp are good to eat..if not, gill em, and stack them like cord wood for the racoons to eat.

[trouthunter777]

i like your thinking gavin

[hank franklin]

All asian carp in Missouri must die.

[Al Agnew]

Hank, I think that it depends upon the stream stretch. On upper Big River the spotted bass are still increasing--FAST--and are now up to the Leadwood MDC access in large numbers. Farther down on the river, below Bonne Terre, their population seems to have perhaps decreased somewhat. Smallmouth populations are still a mere shadow of what they were before the spots showed up, but maybe there is hope that the smallies will at least hold their own.

On the Meramec, spotted bass seem to be pretty stable or maybe decreasing a bit in the area above the mouth of the Bourbeuse, and there are still some smallies even below the Bourbeuse. The spots have been pretty uncommon above Meramec State Park for a number of years, and up until this year's spread with the high water, it has appeared that they are pretty well staying below there.

I don't know as much about the Bourbeuse, but I'd say it's probably in the greatest potential danger of any of the streams that have not already been taken over by spots, given its habitat. Noser Mill was a good barrier to their spread for many years, but they've gotten above Noser by now, and I see nothing to halt their further spread upstream.

I'm also really concerned about the middle and upper Gasconade, Osage Fork, and Big Piney. And if they ever get above Bennett Spring on the Niangua I'm really concerned about it as well.

[hank franklin]

We used to catch a fair amount of spots on the upper Meramec, including the Scotts Ford to Riverview stretch. I have notes from a trip in 01 in which we caught 15 spots and just a few smallmouth. This year in three trips below Scotts Ford I didn't catch one spotted. Two of those trips were kind of slow for smallies too, but one trip in particular was pretty hot for smallies, but no spotteds.

Also, we floated above Maramec Spring in June and caught just a couple spotted out of a few dozen or so fish.

Further down, between the Huzzah and Meramec SP, spots have seemed a bit more common in the last couple of years but smallmouth still have dominated, at least in my experience.

I agree, the Bourbeuse is the problem. Had a spring trip last year below Wenkel Ford where spotteds dominated. In fact the only smallmouths I caught may have been a kind of hybrid, similar to the kind you discussed in a post last year. I haven't been on the Bourbeuse as much this year.

From my experience on the Meramec, it certainly appears the "kill all spotteds" reg has had some effect. I know I've killed my share. The Bourbeuse is in trouble though.