405z06 Posted March 16, 2014 Posted March 16, 2014 My friend Joe and I decided to float on Saturday and enjoy the 70 degree temps before the sleet & snow came on Sunday. Fishing was mostly slow, especially between put-in and about 11am. I think we had 5 fish combined at that point, all dinks: 2 spots (I hardly ever catch spots that far up on the Meramec) and 3 smallies. We were mainly throwing jerkbaits. I was experimenting with the Ned Rig/Midwest finesse thing. Then we hit a little run that I always like to stop at when I fish this stretch of the Meramec, but we almost didn't stop because the current is fairly heavy and It seemed more of a warm-weather spot. Or so I thought. We stopped anyway, if for nothing else than to stretch our legs and let the dog run about. We had been on the spot about 15 minutes and caught nothing. I had put my rod back in the canoe and was lying on the ground to ease my back pain, waiting for word that Joe was ready to move on. Instead, I could hear him say he had a fish on and it was pulling hard. After a nice, strong fight (with the help of a strong current), He landed this fish: We didn't have a tape measure with us. He is calling it a 20", which I think is safe. We've caught and measured many fish in the 19-19.5" range over the last several years and this fish looked quite a bit bigger than anything we have caught. We caught about 8 fish from this hole, a couple were nice 14-15", the rest dinks. We even had a double at one point. All the fish at this hole we caught on bottom-bouncers, with the big one caught on a sweat beaver. After leaving the hole, we probably caught 5-6 fish combined the rest of the way. We even caught a couple of fish on spinnerbaits. Another day or two of warm weather and I bet it would have been crazy good.
Blazerman Posted March 16, 2014 Posted March 16, 2014 Very nice fish. Sounds like a good time. I got out for a couple hours myself yesterday. Caught a few including a couple on a white spinner bait. It was beautiful on the river for sure. I would love to see some warm rain and maybe a little rise that would give the river some color but it doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon.
SmallyWally Posted March 16, 2014 Posted March 16, 2014 Nice looking fish Joe. Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear.-- Mark Twain
Mitch f Posted March 16, 2014 Posted March 16, 2014 Beautiful Fish! What a great day! "Honor is a man's gift to himself" Rob Roy McGregor
moguy1973 Posted March 16, 2014 Posted March 16, 2014 Nice fish. Is it just me or does that fish have an unusually tall posterior dorsal fin? -- JimIf people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles. -- Doug Larson
405z06 Posted March 16, 2014 Author Posted March 16, 2014 Nice fish. Is it just me or does that fish have an unusually tall posterior dorsal fin? Haha, no, it's not just you. I took 4 pics with his phone. I am going to have him forward me the others, because that does look crazy now that you mention it.
Mitch f Posted March 16, 2014 Posted March 16, 2014 Yea, the tail looks like a Gasconade smallmouth. "Honor is a man's gift to himself" Rob Roy McGregor
Blazerman Posted March 16, 2014 Posted March 16, 2014 What a difference a day makes. Here is the Meramec today.
Greasy B Posted March 16, 2014 Posted March 16, 2014 Great fish! This has been a cruel winter. 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
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