big largemouth

[Mitch f]

43 minutes ago, Jerry Rapp said:

or maybe that size class fish has been in the river all along. and more folks are fishing the lower river and finding out its' potential?

Doubtful, when 40-50 percent of the tagging study fish were recaught in the first couple of months, makes me believe these are either new fish or displaced downstream by the food 

[BronzebackWarrior]

 So happened its his birthday today so that was a perfect early present for a good guy.. It took about a minute  of fighting to land it, he had his drag set just right so it was a smooth ride, though it was hooked precariously easily could've gotten off .  This happened near the allenton boat ramp i dont really  know of any lakes floodable near their. It was a rush to see a fish like that either way , i like to believe it was a true river  specimen. 

[Al Agnew]

I think it might be a river native.  There's no doubt that bass get washed out of small lakes and ponds in floods, but usually it's the smaller fish...the big ones usually have a good spot that they don't want to leave.  I've caught enough big river largemouths to know that the rivers can grow them.  My biggest, a 25 inch fish that I estimated at around 8 pounds, came from the middle Meramec.  I caught it in February in a short, fairly deep pool, but there is a quiet backwater connected to that pool where that fish probably spent a good part of the year.

[BronzebackWarrior]

nice thatsa true monster,i have no doubt the mac grows some beautiful fish especially with some of the bronze beasts i have  been seeing on here. i carry tape on the canoe but not wading or shore fishing i think im gonna start . 

[bkbying89]

I've caught a couple of nice Largemouth over the years and that one would be nice in a lake or river. Congratulations.

[Smallieguy87]

I've seen some good size Largemouth come out of the big river. Nothing as big as the one in the picture but still good sized. I don't know enough about that portion of the Meramec to make an educated assessment but I know there's some decent Largemouth. It's always likely that some fish get displaced due to flooding especially the flooding that we had during the winter so who knows....either way great fish.

[Pat Magee]

 

My guess is a lot of big largemouth got moved into the river system from farm ponds and Simpson lake when it flooded.

Do you think the opposite is also true? I fished Simpson lake awhile back from my kayak and caught all dink largemouths and a few cats.  My thought was that another flood would go a long way in replenishing that lake with some new fish.

[Mitch f]

 

Do you think the opposite is also true? I fished Simpson lake awhile back from my kayak and caught all dink largemouths and a few cats.  My thought was that another flood would go a long way in replenishing that lake with some new fish.

I really don't know... my first thought would be that Simpson would get plenty of rough fish added after the flood.