Nice Day, Tough Fishing

[Al Agnew]

I've already fished this particular stretch of the Meramec a couple of times this winter. It's maybe the toughest fishing of any of the stretches I fish, but it has such nice looking pools that I keep thinking that the fish have to be there if I can just figure them out, so stubbornly I keep trying.

I headed upstream from the ramp, planning to go up to the one pool I know holds decent numbers of fish, and reached it about 9:30 AM. It's a long bluff pool, lots of deep water with moderately slow to slow current, though not much real slack water. I usually catch a dozen or more fish out of it, but have yet to catch a really big one. The temp gauge said 38 degrees, but the sun was hitting the rocks strongly and I thought the fish might be soaking up some sun and getting active.

Halfway down the pool, I'd had one bite that I missed. Then, in a spot that was perfect, the biggest very slow eddy, I hooked one fish, lost it, and caught a 16 incher on the hair jig. But that was all for the whole pool, even though I tried a couple other lures in that eddy hoping there was a concentration of smallies there. One fish out of the only really sure hole...not good.

I fished a couple of marginal pools with a jerkbait, nothing. The water was very clear, visibility about 7 feet, and I could see the jerkbait and see that there was nothing even looking at it.

I went downstream to the pools I really wanted to concentrate on. There are three pools. The upper one is a long bluff pool, south-facing bluff so it catches lots of sun. Deep water, 7 or 8 feet in moderately slow current in the upper portion, 12 feet or more and huge boulders in the lower part of the pool. I've caught fish out of it before, but never very many. Through a short riffle is a pool that I haven't decided whether there are any fish in it or not. It's narrow, with a submerged rock ledge on one side dropping off into 12-14 feet of water and a steep gravel bank on the other side. There are large eddies on both sides as you go down the pool, but the current is strong in the deepest part, so perhaps it isn't a winter sanctuary. Through a short, slow riffle is the third pool, and it seems to have everything, very deep water, a creek coming in, eddies, sand drop-offs, a rock bank dropping off into very deep water with a huge, slack eddy on the downstream section.

Well, I hooked and lost one medium size fish in the upper, faster portion of the top pool, and caught a 12 incher in the lower portion. Nothing in the middle pool. I really fished the lower pool hard, pounding every bit of it, and caught one 14 incher. By that time it was after 3 PM, and there were a couple of other pools on down, but they were marginal. I fished them with the jerkbait, hoping that the rise in water temp to 41 degrees might finally turn some fish on, but got nothing.

Definitely not a red letter day for fish, but it sure was nice to soak up some sun and warmth after all the cold weather we've had.

[bs1827]

Still sounds like an enjoyable trip to me. Glad you had the opportunity to get out!

[Seth]

Your trip produced more than my last three outings on the Gasconade have produced. I've managed one 14" kentucky, a goggle eye and several missed fish on my hair jigs.The fishing went from great when it was 42-43 degrees to down right tough now that it's 38 degrees. Makes me wish I still had one of those underwater cameras to drop down and just see what the heck those fish are doing because I know they are there. I need to get some craft hair ordered and whip up some float n fly jigs and give that a try. Maybe that will coax them in to biting.

Al, do you add scent to your baits during the winter? I'd like to try some, but I've read that you shouldn't add it to hair due to it messing with the action of the jig.