K's And Lm..but

[LarrySTL]

Thanks for the help so far. I am catching some bass though not much size. So far I have basically been in the counties surrounding St Louis County.

When I go to the upstream accesses I find riffles often only an inch or two deep, and pools that are knee deep, sometimes less. Or, I go downstream and find mud bank water that seems to be largemouth-ish at best or stagnant looking at worst and I am catching nothing, or some dinky Ky’s in that water. Is part of the slow action that its late in a dry hot summer ? I see a lot of territory where one more foot of water might make a big difference; is that other foot of water there earlier in the year ?

I’m catching mostly K’s, and some LMs, but no SM so far. Is that about where I am fishing, or something about how I am fishing ? If I can generate a free day during the week, do I have a significantly better chance at some SM if I shift areas and try the upper parts of the Meramec/Huzzah/Courtois ?

Thanks !

[Al Agnew]

I don't know all the streams you've been fishing, but there are smallmouth on the Meramec as far down as the Rt. 66 access where I-44 crosses the river. On Big River, smallmouth are very scarce below Morse Mill, but above there you will find some. There are smallies on the Bourbeuse down to the Union area. On all three streams, spotted bass outnumber smallmouth on the lower portions, and on Big and Bourbeuse the spotted bass probably outnumber smallies over much of those rivers by now. On the Meramec, smallmouth begin to dominate around Meramec State Park, and above there the smallies are very common.

As I told somebody else in another thread, you have another 2-4 weeks of good opportunities to catch smallmouth in small streams. Once the weather gets into an autumn pattern and the water temps start dropping, the fish either leave the small streams or move to wintering pools. I've fished the Courtois and Huzzah in October and never have done well then.

Don't sell very shallow creeks short, though. You'd be surprised at the kind of fish that are in shallow creeks. You just have to be stealthy and make long casts.

[OzarksRiverman]

As I told somebody else in another thread, you have another 2-4 weeks of good opportunities to catch smallmouth in small streams. Once the weather gets into an autumn pattern and the water temps start dropping, the fish either leave the small streams or move to wintering pools.

Al, would this hold true on smaller solitary creeks, like the Finley, around the Olga access on the upper end?