Started Out Bad...

[Al Agnew]

Got up this morning and decided spur of the moment to go fish the Meramec. I wasn't in any hurry, since the fishing had been much better in the afternoon the other day when I fished it, and with the cool night before but a sunny day predicted, I figured the river would warm up a little in the afternoon. So I got on the road about 8 AM for the 1.5 hour drive to the river.

I was cruising across Highway 8, listening to NPR and in no big hurry, when suddenly there was a strange noise back at the boat trailer, and then a feeling of roughness. Uh-oh. Pulled off the side of the highway and walked back to check it out. The passenger side trailer tire was almost totally missing its tread! Still holding air, but only a fourth of it had tread, the rest down to the wire reinforcement. I'd been meaning to get a spare for the trailer forever, but never had. Geez, these tires were three years old, but didn't have that many miles and were not worn at all.

I was a few miles from Huzzah Valley, so I decided to drive to there, park and detach the trailer, take off the wheel, and take it into Steelville to get the tire replaced. First place I went in Steelville didn't have any tires that size, but they called another place which had a used one. So I went there and got it replaced.

Now it was nearly 11 AM, but I figured I still had the afternoon to fish. Drove back to Huzzah Valley, put on the wheel, hooked up the trailer, and drove to the river.

There was one other boat trailer in the parking lot. I figured whoever it was had gone upstream a ways, so I motored up to the first good hole and started fishing. Water temp said 50.5. Decided to try a crankbait. I tied one on, made a couple of casts, and it wasn't wobbling right. Tied another one on. Still didn't like it. Tied a third one on. I'd lost two just like this one the other day, and it was the only one I had left. About the third cast, I whacked the top of the trolling motor with it and broke it into pieces. Geez. Maybe I should have stayed at home. Dug out another crankbait, made a few casts. It seemed to be okay...and then I hung it up. Had to go to it and mess up a good spot. Didn't catch a fish until about 30 casts or so, and it was a little one. Well, at least I'm not skunked.

Two more small fish in that first hole. Two 13 inchers in the next hole...and then finally, a good fish took the crank. 17 inches. That's more like it. Fished the rest of the way down it, caught another 14 incher. Went over to the other side, where there were some good logs, so I decided to try a spinnerbait. Bingo, 16 incher. Things are looking up.

Finished that hole, and fired up the motor to head upstream. I went as far as I figured to have time to fish...it was already after 1 PM by this time.

I started fishing my way back down the river at a long, moderate depth, moderate current pool that usually produces a few small to medium fish. Caught a couple in it. Then another similar pool, nothing. Then I got to one of my favorite pools, medium to deep water, rocks, logs, slow current spots, medium current in other spots. I kept fishing the crankbait. Caught one 12 incher out of pretty fast, shallow water at the head of it. But then fished down through the upper half with nothing. I wasn't too concerned, since there is a short section of the lower half with big rocks that almost always produces fish. Sure enough, caught a little one at the upper end of this stretch, then hit the sweet spot and caught 4 fish from 11 to 15 inches in five casts. A few more casts there produced nothing else, so I let the boat slip downstream a few yards to make a cast at the right angle to the single best cluster of rocks. Perfect cast. The fish hit exactly where I expected, and I knew immediately it was a good one. In fact, this smallie fought about as hard and powerfully as any I'd caught this year. I was a little surprised when I finally got it in and measured it--it was 18.5 inches. I sure figured it to be bigger than that while it was in the water!

I caught one more little one, and suddenly realized that the sun was sinking behind the bluff and it was getting late. There were four more pools I wanted to fish, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to fish them all. I started up the motor for the short hop to the next pool, and caught nothing from it. Now it was getting seriously late. Started the motor again, zipped past the next pool, couldn't stand it and made one more stop at the one after that. As the light began to fade, I caught another little one, and then finished up the day with a beautiful 18 incher. I love it when the last fish you catch is a big one. Looked wistfully at the last pool as I motored past it, the sky fading to dark. By the time I got the boat loaded on the trailer it was dark.

The only bad thing about fishing this time of year is that the days just aren't long enough...especially when you spend half the day just getting to the river!

[FishinCricket]

Great report! You showed some real willpower too.. I have picked my way to the boat ramp many times in the dark due to my lack of will power.. lol

[DoctaJ]

Nice report. I have had a day like that (where my trailer tire blew). It was awesome to get to meet you at Bass Pro Shops last week.

[eric1978]

How'd I miss this thread?

Good story report, Al. Sounds like a darn good day, all things considered...

[snap]

Al...a couple of quick questions for you. Looking for places close to home to put my boat in. Would I be able to put in at Merril Horse or Brown's Ford to fish the Big River and where do you put in on the Meramec ???

[Al Agnew]

If Big River is flowing over about 500 cfs at the Richwoods gauge, it's more or less runnable at either access, but I haven't been on it in over two years down there, so I don't know about whether there are downed trees anywhere that will stop you. Some riffle areas tend to get blocked often in that stretch, and it can be tricky to run even if it isn't blocked.

I pretty much fish all the Meramec from Steelville to Moselle. Lots of good accesses. But even with the high water we have now, there are some spots above Meramec State Park where you have to know the river well to run it. I'm not going to say here exactly where I fished the other day, but there was one spot where there was a new downed tree that blocked the river in very fast water, with one little gap next to the root wad of the tree where the trunk was deep enough underwater that I thought I could get the boat over it. Couldn't run it on plane because directly above that gap was another tree, and there was no way I could make a sharp enough turn to avoid it at speed. So I came up to it almost idling, going just fast enough to make headway against the current, pretty much slid the boat over it, almost getting hung up on it. Coming back down I couldn't even get lined up to idle the boat over that gap, and had to take it down a little side channel by getting out and pushing it. By now the river will have dropped enough to make that spot totally impassable unless somebody cuts out the tree. I'm philosophically opposed to cutting out trees, but I'd bet somebody will do it sooner or later.

[snap]

Thanks Al...!!! Appreciate it!!! Thought you might have insight on the Big up there. I agree with you on the trees...if they are there...they're there...and deal with them...but not all see it that way!!! ....and can't believe you won't tell exactly where you were fishing???