Meramec Invitational Tournament...tough Fishing!

[Seth]

36 boats entered and only 18 weighed in. 10 something took first and we had fourth with 7.53. Should of had 8.5-9 pounds, but I lost a solid 2.5 pound small mouth that would have replaced a 12 incher we had in the live well and put us in second. The muddy water made for some tough fishing. Most guys had 2-3 keepers. There were some good ones caught though. I believe big largemouth was 3.9 pounds and one of my buddies got big smallmouth with a 4.35 pounder! It was 21-22" if I had to guess and an absolute beauty of a fish!

[Mitch f]

Thanks for the info, Seth!

I've got mixed feelings about river tourneys, I've been in one and they are fun. The only thing I don't like about them is that they release the fish in one place, and it's usually at a bigger, well established big boat ramp. So every Tom, Dick, and Harry can have access to a bunch of bigger fish within a short proximity to that boat ramp. I wish they would make you release them in the hole where you caught them, regardless of the inconvenience.Having said that, I think they are fun as heck! I will still enter one if the opportunity arises. Edited to say, I think I'm pretty sure what the big one was caught on.....

[Seth]

I feel the same way. Tournaments are a lot of fun, but like you said, it puts a lot of nice fish in close proximity to public accesses. You know a few of those get caught by somebody drowning worms or minnows just trying to catch some fish to eat and hauled home. You also have guys who will "ramp camp" if there was a tournament recently at a nearby access. It's not very sporting in my opinion, but it's definitely effective. I'm not a lake fishermen, but I have heard of some pretty epic sacks of fish caught around PB2 following the big bass bash and other big tournaments.

It's a shame that the guys that had the big smallmouth only had three fish total. They still got 6th and only had three fish!