Access Hopping Upper Meramec

[mic]

Well the father in-law is in town from KC area. He is originally from Dominican Republic and has never fished the Ozarks. So I busted out the 200 Smallmouth Adventures book and headed SW. In all, we hit three different accesses, catching multiple fish in all of them. My father-in law added three new species to his list: smallies, goggle eye, and a sucker that he snagged on accident. We both lost a couple of decent fish, but only caught dinks. I don't care because I'm there for the experience. Lure of the day by far was the small Rebel Craw, second was a one inch plain yellow curly tail jig, but we only had one. I would have never thought it, but plain yellow clearly out fished the more traditional clear water colors. Finally a 1/32 jig I hand tied with white calf tail and rainbow flash. All in all, we had the river to ourselves once we left the access points, had a great day, and made some new memories. If I go again, I'm taking the fly rod instead.

In one hole, there was either gar or pickerel. I assume they were gar, because I could not get a hook to take even though they hit my lure multiple times. First, even the gar in the Ozarks are beautifully marked. Second, how do you tell the difference?

Tight Lines All

MIC

[exiledguide]

A gar looks like a gar and is scary looking and a pickerel resembles a northern and is not scary looking............. Yellow has always been a good Smallmouth color as a matter of fact a well known Ozark artist about 50 or 60 years ago painted a jumping Smallmouth with a yellow hair jig in its jaw..............or maybe about 30 years ago........sorry

[mic]

A gar looks like a gar and is scary looking and a pickerel resembles a northern and is not scary looking............. Yellow has always been a good Smallmouth color as a matter of fact a well known Ozark artist about 50 or 60 years ago painted a jumping Smallmouth with a yellow hair jig in its jaw..............or maybe about 30 years ago........sorry

Well I'm pretty sure it was a gar then. Pretty sweet looking fish when compared to the ones I've caught in muddy water.

Well now I know. I always read to use "natural" colors (watermelon and such).

[Greasy B]

Gar, even though I haven't hooked one in years I can't help but toss my bait in front of the darn things when they swim by. Usually they snap at the lure, give a brief tug are are gone.