Thanks Don House

[riverrat]

We floated from Hwy 7 to Schlict Springs on Saturday. Again there was no traffic on the river. I only saw 1 other boat in 11 hrs, and it was a guy checking trot lines. The weather conditions were less than ideal- a front had moved through 36 hrs earlier, producing bluebird skies. The river had dropped some more this week- it is now at summertime low, which is early. We need a good general rain. We started with topwaters, trying to beat the sun. We tried buzzbaits, spooks, popr's, and torpedoes(last weeks best didn't even produce a strike). We didn't catch many early, but once the sun hit the water about 7:30 the bite got better. I tried a new(to me) lure I learned about on this forum-a wiggle diggle bait (thanks Don House). Believe it or not I caught a 15" smallie on it the with the first cast. A couple of casts later I landed a 17". I ended up catching another 15" and 4 or 5 10"-13" before they quit hitting it. Once the sun started beating down at about 11:00, the catching slowed down. The most consistent pattern then was running a buzzbait in swift water and in the weeds on the edge of the river. I did get to see a neat trick. My buddy was using a buzzbait when a 16" smallie missed it about 5 ft. from the boat. He immediately stopped the buzzbait and the fish picked it up on the fall. The best color on the buzzbait was white with a little red in it. All in all it is was just a fair day fishing- 50 with 28 over 12"- not real good for an 11 hr float, but still beats the heck out of working or honeydo's. By the way I'm starting to feel a little bit like the Maytag repairman. Does anyone else fish the middle Gasconade?

[Wayne SW/MO]

I fished 133 to 7 for the first time not too long ago. The lack of a shuttle keeps me off of it for the most part.

[riverrat]

Wayne, I'd be glad to shuttle you sometime if we could schedule it on my days off. I'm interested in that float, but have never done it myself. All I ask in return is a good fishing report. Riverrat