Smallies sun afternoon

[BrianK]

Fished at Lead Mine yesterday and started pretty slow until got up to the first decent hole.

Found some good water with big rocks and found fish.

All on soft plastic craws. Zip on topwater.

My 9yo caught a nice 14 1/2" fish that gave him a tussle and we caught several in the 13" +/- range along with lots of small fish.

Will be interesting to see how much the smallies slow down with the upcoming cold weather this wk....

(will try, again, to include a pic or 2)

Brian

ps- the 2 fish were a nice double we had. all released. bk

[Wayne SW/MO]

Nice, and the Niangua will sometimes hold up into early December.

[BrianK]

I have only pursued them a few times when the water is cold (winter or very early spring) and never have done any good. Like the lake fish, I've heard of folks catching BIG fish on the bigger rivers in the winter but about now I usually focus more on trout water....

Anyone know the typical water temp that really slows the smallies down???

[fishinwrench]

Brain, I have given up on taking stream temperature readings after having all the "golden rules of river smallie fishing" broken...over and over again, and I think Wayne and several others will back me up on that.

They will move, but there is always a way to get'em to bite. And they still fight like hell in cold water...just don't jump quite as much.

Hey, I think we are like neighbors....SunnyBeach hu?

[crappiefisherman]

where is lead mine?

[BrianK]

LeadMine is an MDC area east of Tunas (on Hwy 73) on the West side of the river.

Yeah, i've never actually checked water temps. The fishing just seems to slow way down but maybe i'm just not adjusting tactics to the winter pattern (whatever it is)....

[Al Agnew]

Yep, my experience is that you just never know in the fall. In my opinion, autumn is the most inconsistent time for smallmouth fishing. I've had some good days and a lot of mediocre to poor ones, no matter what the water temps are.

One of the two best single days I've ever had for big smallmouths (four of them from 19-21 inches in four hours and 3 miles of fishing) came during deer season one year, when we'd had a couple of weeks of really warm weather. It was as if the big ones were getting in one more good feed while the water was warm, and they were hitting fast-moving lures in typical summertime places. I took the temp that day, and it was about 60 degrees. I got in one more trip that year before the cold weather really closed in...water temps that trip were in the upper 50s, and I managed to catch one big one of 19 inches.

On the other hand, I've had plenty of autumn trips with water temps in the low 60s where the fishing was terrible. It's far from a hard and fast rule, but if the water temp is above 60 degrees, you almost need a cloudy, rainy day in the fall to do really well. Once it drops below 60 degrees, sunny afternoons seem to be better.

[Goggle-Eyed]

Hey Brian, what are you doin on my river!?!?!?!

I am glad you had a good trip. I have a few "secret" holes that are usually over looked on that stretch of river.

Give me a call before you make it out again and we can talk. Some of them are just good goggleye holes, but almost always produce a few Smallies!!! My daughters are in the Camdenton Marching Band so I have been spending most all of my time at their Marching competitions. Somehow, I got volunteered to help do the cooking for the entire band (over 200 kids). It is fun but really cutting into my fishing time!!!!!

Joe

[crappiefisherman]

Hey goggeleyed ,my son is in those compititions to, hes a trumpet player for Branson, I saw campdenton in Springfield last saturday and was very impressed.I wish our band was back up to its glory days butit will take a while to pump them up again.IF anyone in this forum want some fantastic day long intertainment , you need to go to one of these compititions. The gate fee is very small and the intertainment is great.Plus everyone there knows someone in the band and is grinin from ear to ear. by the way, did you have a motorhome and cookers set up in the sms south parkin lot?I was bout to go over and get a sandwich

[BrianK]

joe-

thanks for the info on your river!!! I really had the Niangua on my short list to check out in more detail and your report a few wks back just put me over the top.

Made a few visits now and I look forward to checking out every inch of it.

I'll give you a call. would like to get back down again this yr.

Seems like there is a lot of very marginal water (maybe the time of year) but the fish really stack up in those 'secret' spots.

bk