Smallmouth Fishing Around Bird's Nest

[Blazerman]

Smalliebigs, after reading your "rant" had to wonder how you feel about keeping spotted bass. I fish the Meramec around the k bridge and catch as many spotted bass as I do smallmouth. Sometimes more. I have always released the smallmouth. But a few years ago I started keeping and eating any spotted bass over 10" since that is what the Consevation department says to do. The CD says this should help the smallmouth so I feel I am doing my part and found them to be quit tasty too.

[Smalliebigs]

Blaze, I would envite as many people as possible to keep as many spotted Bass as they can catch.What I was referencing was I drove by a low water bridge on the upper Bourbeuse last week and quite a few people were fishing from the bank and catching and keeping Smallies and Largemouth. Hey, they aren't supposed to keep them until after the 31st of May and it's well known that the smallies stack up this time of year when the water is flowing on the Bourb, especially at the bridges,.......they are very easy targets and illegal to keep.Most of the people there I questioned knew exactly what they were doing and some were just stupid.The game warden was called and they said they were going go back and hide at the access.

Blaze all I can say is thank you for throwing back all the smallies as you say you do.....I have been doing the same for over 20years now with Smallmouth on our rivers. I fish your area of the river alot and it in my opinion is the MOST productive and fertile for truly big smallies, so I envy you brother for your choice of a place to live....kudos. One thing, not only do I fish from Sand Ford to Redhorse quite a bit I am very fond of it and cherish it.So that beeing said I have been witnessing a ton of Smallies and mostly big Smallies beeing gigged in your area over the last three or four years or so. The problem has seemed to get worse in the last two years, I was just wondering if you ever see any covert actions on the part of illegal gigging??? I think they are accessing around Plum ford or some the private ramps above there???? If you live at K and love the river and throw back smallies this should be a concern of yours. I 'm not sure how we are going to stop it but, I know the Chief of Police of St.Clair is now going to start to help.so if you know any of these ingnorant fools that are illegaly gigging try to tell them the storm that is comming their way. Blaze I hope to see you out there soon on the Mec.....I want a boat just like yours but, it's probally going to be an Alweld

[Blazerman]

For the record I am not living there yet, but have a very nice place and may be at some point in the future.

I personally have not seen anyone gigging smallmouth but it would not surprise me. One thing for sure, there is plenty of gigging going on. Like most endeavors having to do with fishing, there are probably lots of folks who abide by the rules and some that don’t. Unfortunately, the ones that don’t ruin it for the rest of us.

One fall morning many years ago I was putting in at Scotts Ford at first light and had to wait for some guys with a gigging boat who were pulling out. Once they had moved on, we launched and notice all the remains of the fish they had cleaned right at the ramp. I was saddened to see many large walleye heads in with all the suckers and other rough fish. By large I mean walleye over 5lbs. I have no doubt these guys were not gigging these fish by mistake. There were too many of them.

But I agree with your assessment on how good the fishing is in my area. Like I said in a different post, I think the main reason for this is there is not much easy access between Redhorse and Scotts Ford which keeps the crowds down. That is about 20 river miles that does not get hammered like the upper sections.

Here is proof. one 5lb largemouth and one 4lb smallmouth from last year.

[Gavin]

Some very nice catches...used to fish down below Saranac quite a bit when my Dad & his buddy's owned a bunch of lots in the old Bluffs CG...not much left but a bunch of burned out trailers there today.

[Scott25.stl]

Thanks to all who replied! I had a good time and caught fish so the trip was successful in my eyes.

The gauge read 476 on Sunday morning and to my untrained eye the river looked a little high but not to bad. Visibility appeared around one to two feetish. The earliest Bird's Nest could put me in was 8 but no one showed up until I knocked on the "security guy's" door at 9. He was cool and took me out himself right away after realizing someone goofed my reservation. He suggested throwing craws and told me about a four pounder he caught on the stretch he was putting me in on.

After rigging up, I got on the water around 9:30; way later than I would have liked but better than nothing. I started out with green pumpkin fat Alberts and caught the first fist on my second cast: a 8 inch dink, but a smallie nonetheless. In all I boated 7 smallies, the biggest around 12 inches and a mess of goggle eye, all released of course! I got broken off around a downed tree by a fish that felt WAY bigger than anything I hooked into. Wish I could have gotten out at first light to catch more of the action, but such is life.

A few hours later a front moved in and the wind kicked up and it rained a bit. At this point the fishing turned off. It was a pain in my butt to get the canoe to track straight while fishing with the wind in my face. At one point I gave up and floated backwards on a wide calm stretch with no obstacles. I probably looked like a dumb butt but no one was around and I was sick of fighting the wind. Plus it let me cast up stream.

I lost quite a few jigs to snags and submerged trees. Next time I'm thinkin going about trying Texas rigged craws and other plastics to effectively fish the bottom with less snags. I now have mad respect to those who can throw crankbaits from a canoe in the current with all the timber. There's no way I could have pulled that off without losing a small fortune in lures.

I ran across one jet boater fishing spinnerbaits and what looked like a fluke. It would have been nice to have a motor but man those things are loud when running and I could believe how much mud they kicked up even while idling by me.

Here's a pic of the first smallie I caught. Dont be jealous of that monster! I left the iPhone in my dry bag for the rest of the trip so that's the only pic I got.

Till next time...

[Scott25.stl]

Can't seem to upload the picture from my phone... And for the record "dumb butt" is not in my vocabulary. The OAF auto correct doesn't seem like my harsher language! Ha.

[Scott25.stl]

And nice fish, Blaze! That's what I'm talkin about!!

[Guest]

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[Smalliebigs]

Nice report Scott.......the learning curve on fishing for smallies on rivers can be tough.You might need to try exploring some small creeks.Get yourself a Missouri Gazeteer and do some exploring....just wade up or down from some bridges.You won't have the traffic of the river and the fish are way less pressured....as long as you don't mind wading butt to neck deep in some water. The only problem is you might have to deal with landowners some real cool and some not so cool. I wish I could take you somewhere and put you on some fish, there's nothing I like more than putting someone on some fish thats seems to be just getting into it....very satisfying for me see someone catch a nice smallie and see the grin on their face.

[ozark trout fisher]

Nice report, I'm glad you had a good time.

I really like the Meramec, but the fishing sure can be a lot more temperamental than just about any other Ozark stream I've fished. Not to say that's a bad thing at all, a good challenge is always fun, but the fishing can at times be tough to figure out, at least for those of us who haven't spent enough years fishing it to know all of its intracacies. It's a lot different from the Jacks Fork, Gasconade tributaries, or other streams like that where you can just about always show up on any summer day with a tackle box full of Rebel Craws and catch fish without any real thought being put into it. So basically what I'm trying to say is that any day where smallmouth are caught is a good one.