Good Day- No pics and a lost fish

[Kayser]

Met my dad on Saturday and went fishing on a stretch of river close enough to Rolla, taking out the kayaks. I caught some largemouth, goggle eye, and lots of green sunnies and smallmouth. My dad was playing around with crappie in the brush, and hooked into something BIG on his ultralight. It jumped, big head shakes, and was brown- my best guess was 5lbs or so. After about 5 minutes, it wrapped him around a limb underwater and snapped the 6lb test. I couldn't believe he was able to keep it on for as long as he did, but was almost sick when he lost it.

Later, I was throwing a beetle spin in a chunk-rock area with some current and got slammed by a fat and healthy smallmouth, probably 16" and 2.5-3lbs, Took about a minute to get in on the 6lb test, and it was definitely my best smallmouth this year and probable my second-best ever, but it was a runt compared to the fish that my dad lost- his would have been a wallhanger (fiberglass, folks)

I was very happy to see the quality and number of fish in this stretch- definitely improved from previous years. Whether it's the trees blocking the river, or muddy water during gigging season, or us just getting better at river fishing- who knows? All I know, is I need to chase more smallmouth- starting to find bigger fish is putting trout on the back burner for the warmer months.

[Mitch f]

Had to be a huge smallmouth. Saw an old grizzled guy once at the boat ramp on the Gasconade. He swore the best way to catch a big smallmouth was on a crappie jig. Said back in the seventies he caught one 7 lbs while fishing for crappie. Tell your dad sorry

[mfbab]

As the story goes, the float-n-fly was started because crappie fishermen started catching smallies that way in middle and east Tn.  Before long there were special hair jigs. bobbers and rods on the market, but it was originally just basic crappie jigs.