Mitch f Posted March 10, 2012 Author Posted March 10, 2012 Pic of finger... "I'm not EVEN going to click that pic and make it bigger!!!" Wow! Something I picked up on in the first post was - "ultra clear water". An interesting discussion would be how to fish clear water vs colored water on these rivers for smallies. It's just harder to catch any fish, especially bigger fish when it's very clear. We usually pray for rain so the river will be up a foot or two. I always watch the river levels on-line to try to determine the best time to go. Because of my job, I can plan around my fishing schedule so with a couple of good weather forecasts, I'm ready. Sometimes though, like yesterday, two people's schedules just come together and you have to live with it. When we got to the river, I was thinking to myself it was going to be tough when I saw the clarity of the water, probably 8-10 ft. Usually under these conditions I'm making long casts in the shade with smallish lures and working them pretty fast, but when the water temps are 52 like yesterday, you need to get lucky a little and maybe cast right on top of them and grab their attention more like a reaction strike. Typically when the sun is high, the fish tend to be right smack dab in the middle of cover, making it tough to put it on their dinner plate. I think the sun played a role in warming up the water enough that the fish were getting up to shallower water. Thats why they began to get active around noon, which is usual in the winter.I'll Let Al talk about his take on it and yesterdays all important lure selection and presentation. "Honor is a man's gift to himself" Rob Roy McGregor
Al Agnew Posted March 10, 2012 Posted March 10, 2012 The 18 incher had gig marks; a mostly healed hole in the back right behind the head, and a scraping scar from another time on the side opposite the one in the picture. We also caught a 15 incher that had possible gig marks, but it wasn't so obvious so I'm not prepared to say for sure. Ultra clear water...the visibility yesterday was 6-7 feet. Ordinarily, with water temps in the low 50s, crankbaits should work well, and I think Mitch had a pretty good crankbait bite happening last week when the water was up some and murkier. But I've never had good luck on crankbaits in very clear water. I believe the biggest key to fishing ultra clear water is to fish as fast as the conditions allow. If the water temps are in the mid-40s and below, you HAVE to fish slow, and then you want to use lures that are naturalistic and blend into the bottom colors--like hair jigs, of course. But I've found that with water temps up into the 50s, the fish are active enough to be willing to go after stuff that's moving faster, and in my opinion, the best thing you can do in clear water is to use lures and techniques that don't give the fish a real good look at the lure. So the upshot of all that is, I was using a Pointer 78 and fishing it pretty fast and aggressively. Three to four fairly hard twitches at a time, with no more than a couple seconds' pause, then three or four more. The biggest fish was in water about 3-4 feet deep, charged out from around a big rock and swiped at the lure once, missing it, then came back and engulfed it. I was using the chartreuse shad color so I could see it well, and thus usually see the fish as well, and adjust my retrieve depending upon how the fish approached the lure.
Greasy B Posted March 12, 2012 Posted March 12, 2012 Al, Mitch, Thanks for the report. My nephew Art (smallie understudy) and I went out today despite the rain. It was great catching the first bass of the year. Art got a nice Smallmouth with a tag on it, cool. His father touches the Claw in spite of Kevin's warnings and breaks two legs just as a thunderstorm tears the house apart. Kevin runs away with the Claw. He becomes captain of the Greasy Bastard, a small ship carrying rubber goods between England and Burma. Michael Palin, Terry Jones, 1974
Mitch f Posted March 12, 2012 Author Posted March 12, 2012 Nice fish Greasy, tell him congrats!! "Honor is a man's gift to himself" Rob Roy McGregor
Brian Jones Posted March 12, 2012 Posted March 12, 2012 Great fish. I knew we should have went to the Meramec Friday instead of driving all the way to the Osage. Shame on us.
Smalliebigs Posted March 12, 2012 Posted March 12, 2012 Al, Mitch, Thanks for the report. My nephew Art (smallie understudy) and I went out today despite the rain. It was great catching the first bass of the year. Art got a nice Smallmouth with a tag on it, cool. Nice job Greasy!!! now he gets $75....were you out on the Courtois???
Greasy B Posted March 12, 2012 Posted March 12, 2012 Thanks, we were a couple of miles below Sand Ford. Some pretty good looking water mixed with shallow areas of shifting sand and gravel. The shore was trashed, lots of garbage and shanties. I wonder where the fish was tagged? His father touches the Claw in spite of Kevin's warnings and breaks two legs just as a thunderstorm tears the house apart. Kevin runs away with the Claw. He becomes captain of the Greasy Bastard, a small ship carrying rubber goods between England and Burma. Michael Palin, Terry Jones, 1974
Mitch f Posted March 12, 2012 Author Posted March 12, 2012 That fish was tagged in the Courtois "Honor is a man's gift to himself" Rob Roy McGregor
ColdWaterFshr Posted March 12, 2012 Posted March 12, 2012 Wow. Thats a good 35 miles+ that fish travelled. Very interesting.
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