Fishing in a barrel

[Al Agnew]

Since today was supposed to be the last warm day for a while, I was going to go fishing somewhere.  The original plan was to take the jetboat and fish somewhere on the upper or middle Meramec, but I neglected to check the battery situation last night, and this morning I found the starter battery was totally dead.  I could have worked around that problem, I suppose, but instead decided to take one of my infrequent wading trips to one of those spring holes where the smallies stack up this time of year (and where lots of people know they are there).  You won't ALWAYS catch a bunch of them, but at least you know where they are.  I tend to take one, possibly two trips a winter to one of these spots...I get a little guilty pounding them too much, even though that doesn't seem to bother a lot of other anglers.

I waded across the river above the spring entry, noting that it was flowing strongly but still wadeable with care, planning on fishing from the bank opposite the spring.  I noted also that there were a couple of anglers on the opposite bank downstream, one of them obviously fishing for bass with a big spinnerbait, which I thought was probably a good choice in the murky water.  The current was strong, but there was slower water on the upstream eddy in the spring water, and that's a place I usually catch a dozen or so.  I was keeping it simple, having brought along only hair jigs and a couple jerkbaits.  I tossed a hair jig in, fully expecting a strike no the first cast.  Nothing.  Fifteen minutes later I had lost two jigs and gotten one bite...that I missed.  Meanwhile, the guy on the other side had caught three or four smallmouth.  Then a jetboat came up the river.  They stopped below me and began fishing with crankbaits, and caught several.  I finally hooked one, a nice 16 incher.  The guy on the other bank recognized me...he is a Smallmouth Alliance member.  We chatted for a bit, then he went farther upstream and I worked my way down to his spot.  I hooked three or four there, nothing big.  The problem was that the current was so strong that my jig was being swept downstream too fast.  

The jetboat guys were having equipment problems, apparently.  Their trolling motor didn't seem to be working.  They pulled up on the gravel bar and put on waders, and started fishing just as I was.  I decided to climb up on the bank, go around them, and head down to the next pool downstream, which always holds a bunch of fish as well, often bigger ones than right below the spring.  The deeper water where the fish usually hold was on my side, beneath a high, steep bank covered with trees and brush.  I'd planned on wading back across the river at the riffle above it and wading out to where I could fish that deeper water, but the riffle was deep and narrow and looked very difficult to wade.  I walked on down the bank, found one place to drop off it into water along the edge that was shallow enough to stand.  But the current was still quite swift, and it just didn't look like the fish would be holding there.  I tried a few casts there and from the top of the bank downstream, with no luck.  Then I began to study the situation a bit more.  There was a big, nearly slack water eddy on the other side of the pool that is usually about two or three feet deep, not deep enough to hold fish when the water is clear.  But in the murky, high water, I thought it just might be where a lot of the fish that inhabited that pool would move to escape the heavy current.  The riffle below turned out to be easily wadeable, and I crossed, walked back up, saw where I could get out into the river at a good angle to fish that big eddy.

It was still only three to four feet deep, but the fish were there.  The first one I caught was a 16 incher, and then I caught a bunch more, both smallmouth and goggle-eye.  When they stopped biting the hair jig, I switched to a jerkbait and kept on catching them.  I even caught my third 16 incher on an errant cast out into the main current, which was strong and only about three feet deep at that point.  I fished several more casts out in the current with no other strikes.

The jetboat guys drifted by me and told me they were giving it up.  I finally exhausted all the willing fish in that spot, and headed back up to the spring branch hole, this time planning on fishing it from the same bank where the Smallmouth Alliance guy had done well, but a little farther down from where he had been fishing in a slower eddy that still had some depth.  Yep, the fish were there and I caught several more.  Then I walked up to another spot on the pool, still a little below where he had been fishing but right where the jetboat guys had spent most of their time.  I caught eight fish on ten casts there, including my fourth 16 incher.  And lost another hair jig--I was starting to get low on them.  I went up the bank another cast length, and caught a half dozen more.  Then I walked up to the mouth of the spring branch itself, noting that it was beginning to get pretty late and the light was noticeably lower.  First cast at that spot produced my fifth 16 incher.  Second cast, I got hung up and lost another hair jig.  I figured that was a good time to call it a day.

At that point, I realized that I was pleasantly tired and almost unpleasantly hungry and thirsty and had to pee like crazy...I hadn't eaten or drank anything since 9 AM, nor had I peed since getting up that morning.  Which just goes to show how wrapped up I get in fishing!

[Mitch f]

I'm pretty sure I could fill in every riffle, eddy, and every guy's name in your story?

[Smallieguy87]

Sounds like a great trip Al. I need to get out and try some winter fishing. I'll sometimes go in the late fall but I find I'm not usually successful. A lot of the streams I frequent aren't really the best for winter fishing. I've really enjoyed some of the winter reports I've been reading....maybe a learn a thing or two and have some luck during the winter months.

[Norm M]

 congrats Al, persistence and attention to details pays off . I've been there, spent all day on the water without noticing the passage of time or tending to bodily needs. Those days are quite enjoyable .