Gasconade River Trip 9/22-9/26

[BobK]

September 22-26

Water Temp: 72

Notes: Fished around Indian Ford by highway #42 near Vienna, Mo all four days. Top water bite was terrible. Spinner Bait ok along with jerk bait and rattle trap. Five inch Chomper by far best lure.

Water pretty cloudy Wednesday – Saturday due to high water the week before down by Hazelgreen.

Thursday: Water still on slow fall and cloudy. Chomper best bite. Tried red and green crank baits without much success.

Friday: Some rain fell overnight but not enough to affect the river level. Water still clearing up but cloudy. Jerk bait did work but the chomper still best bet.

Saturday: We had some success with a rattle trap and jerk bait but the chompers still caught quality fish.

Weather: Hot and humid Wednesday and Thursday with highs around 90. Cooled down Friday and Saturday with highs around 75.

High sky all four days and extremely windy Thursday with approaching cool front

Caught several 14-18 inch smallmouth, same with largemouth and one 14 inch sauger....all catch and release. I haven't kept a river fish in 32 years.

[BobK]

[Al Agnew]

Cool...a sauger. I've caught them on Black River, but not any of the other Ozark streams.

[Brian Jones]

Cool...a sauger. I've caught them on Black River, but not any of the other Ozark streams.

We've caught a couple over the years in the Vienna area as well. Usually about that size and always by accident.

[Seth]

We fished a tournament out of Rollins Ferry this weekend and the guys that won it ran all the way to 42 and 63 and caught a 12 pound five fish sack. I've never fished that area, but gig a lot of suckers there in the fall/winter when the water clears up really well. Looks like I should be rod and reel fishing there during the day as well.

[FishinCricket]

We fished a tournament out of Rollins Ferry this weekend and the guys that won it ran all the way to 42 and 63 and caught a 12 pound five fish sack. I've never fished that area, but gig a lot of suckers there in the fall/winter when the water clears up really well. Looks like I should be rod and reel fishing there during the day as well.

You sure they weren't just pullin' your leg?

[BobK]

Doesn't surprise me about the tournament. The Friday we fished we encountered about six boats screeming down the river within two minutes of each other. When we floated past them they told us they were fishing a tournament out of #42 that went from 4-7 pm and 7-11 am that Saturday.

We watched them pull a few small ones out but nothing of size. Two weeks ago the water was still clearing up from the week before. Last weekend should have been pretty good.