Winter Season Fishing On The Gasconade

[rakloeppel]

A friend of mine and I fished the Gasconade near Vienna, Mo two weeks ago on a beautiful warm day only to be skunked fishing.

The water was super clear like I have never seen it before and cold 42 degrees. I have fished this area for over 40 years but never when the water was this cold and clear.

We mostly threw suspending stick baits and Chompers/Eakin Jigs.....nothing. Matter of fact we really didn't see any type of fish swimming around at all. The river looked dead.

It was very cool to see the bottom of the river even in those deep holes and see the structure that a person usually doesn't get to see during other times of the year.

Where do the fish go when the water gets this cold?????

What could we have done differently to catch fish?

We still had a great time....it was so peaceful.

[Mitch f]

A friend of mine and I fished the Gasconade near Vienna, Mo two weeks ago on a beautiful warm day only to be skunked fishing.

The water was super clear like I have never seen it before and cold 42 degrees. I have fished this area for over 40 years but never when the water was this cold and clear.

We mostly threw suspending stick baits and Chompers/Eakin Jigs.....nothing. Matter of fact we really didn't see any type of fish swimming around at all. The river looked dead.

It was very cool to see the bottom of the river even in those deep holes and see the structure that a person usually doesn't get to see during other times of the year.

Where do the fish go when the water gets this cold?????

What could we have done differently to catch fish?

We still had a great time....it was so peaceful.

It's just very tough to catch fish with temps 38-42 degrees, especially when its very low and clear.

[Chief Grey Bear]

They were all gigged out if their migration holes.

[Seth]

I've never seen many bass in that area. I'd recommend hitting Belle Chutes and working your way up or head down stream and fish the area around Rollins Ferry. I'm going to try and go out later this week after Xmas and it warms up so hopefully I will have a report.