A Quick Morning Fix (3/19/16)

[MOsmallies]

After HogWally and Smalliebigs epic day on Friday, I was lucky enough to step out of the on deck circle on Saturday morning and join HogWally for a quick morning trip on the river! I hadn't seriously fished since Thanksgiving due to work and just a busy schedule at home. It hasn't been for a lack of my fishing buddies asking me to go, so I was thrilled to finally be able to take one of them up on their offer! We planned on fishing some new water but building upon a pattern that HogWally has been figuring out over the last 3 weeks. Recent high waters and the cold front didn't deter us but we hoped it hadn't shut down the bite. He was pretty confident the fish hadn't moved completely but he figured they may have changed where in the holes they were holding.

I met HogWally a little after 7 am and launched the "jet boat of all jet boats" before 8 am. Water temps ranged from 49-53 all morning. That cold front really didn't drop them much. The first hole we tried only resulted in one small fish on the Mitch Craw and a few other missed bites. Couldn't get anything fired up on the jerkbait either. We moved to the other side of the pool and I threw my crankbait towards a gravel point that was causing a current seam. My rod loaded up and my first decent smallmouth of the year was in the boat. A chunky 16" that had me grinning from ear to ear. We fished that spot without another bite before making a run upstream once the fog had lifted.

Stopped a couple places along the way. Had a small largemouth briefly hooked on the jerkbait but he pulled off almost immediately. Nothing in the other spots. The bite was obviously off a little from the past few weeks, but we kept grinding and HogWally kept pulling idea after idea from his bank of endless memories and river experience. He was determined to put us on some fish and nice ones at that... And I was confident he would!

We ran back downstream to the first hole we had fished hoping that the sun may have turned the fish on. We kept rotating between the Mitch Craw, a crankbait and the jerkbait. We just weren't getting bit so we moved to the mouth of a feeder creek and HogWally soon set the hook on a fat 14". But that was all we could muster from that spot. I looked towards the front of the boat and could see the wheels churning. Up came the trolling motor and down went the throttle. He was a man with a plan and a spot in mind!

After a quick downstream run we pulled up to a section of river I had never fished before. HogWally positioned his boat in an area that would've been mostly dry had the water not been up. A current chute to our left with a defined current seam and a trough of 4-5 foot water just out of the current. He chucked his crankbait into the swifter water and was grinding it through the rocks. His rod loaded up and we knew he had a nice one. He couldn't move the fish but could only try and hold it while it slowly thrashed it's head back and forth. I kept an eye on the water and saw a thick gold side flash at the same moment HogWally's crankbait came flying back at the boat. He never saw it but we both knew it was a big one. I cast into the same spot almost immediately and hooked another nice one! Luckily we were able to get this beautiful 18.5", 3 lb 5 oz beauty in the net. It had been way to long since I had caught a nice one like this. To say I was pumped would be an understatement. Some quick measurements and photos and she was swimming off strong. We would've had an incredible double pic had we been able to get HogWally's in the boat too. The one he lost was bigger for sure. At least two really nice fish sitting in a nondescript area. This idea/spot had paid off!

We fished the general area for another 30 minutes without another bite so we buzzed back up to our starting hole hoping those fish would've turned on. We only had 15 minutes to fish as I had to be off the river at noon. Had a fish break off on a jerkbait almost immediately and was bumming thinking it may have been another nice one. About 5 minutes later we saw a 14"-15" smallmouth jumping just down stream trying to throw it. Hopefully it was able to shake that $25 lip ring (Smalliebigs - Your replacement has already been shipped!). At least I had the peace of mind that I didn't break off on a giant.

While we only landed 4 fish, I learned a ton from HogWally and had an even better time! I'm lucky to be able to consider him one of my good friends! OAF has allowed me to meet some great people that will be lifelong friends and fishing partners. I have a lot of knowledge and experience passed down to me every time I get to share a boat with these guys! Thank you Hog Wally for the quick morning fix! Those smallmouth and the time on the river has energized me!

[DownStream]

Beautiful fish. Amazing week of reports from the meramec

[Hog Wally]

Your the man.  You are as good a angler as I have ever seen   You caught your fish.  I never seen someone take such care of a fish. Kept em in water and lively  your passion is clear   Thanks oaf for the chance to meet and fish with unbelievable anglers !

[Smalliebigs]

Wow!!!! Kickass report man!!!.....Hog Wally is THE man!!!

Congrats  on that fish Paul, that's a Beautiful  fish

[Smallieguy87]

Awesome report man. You guys are on em that's for sure. Thanks for the reports and pictures! Definitely some good looking fish!