A bit more stink shook off...

[Al Agnew]

Hog Wally and I made another attempt at figuring out the late April Meramec smallmouth.  The day started out clear and bright, and I immediately caught a nice 16 incher on a fluke.  We continued to fish the same spot for a while and the two of us caught a few more small ones there (I think this happens to be the same place that Brian caught his, but we didn't see his post until we got back.)  It wasn't fast fishing by any means, but we were catching some fish.  We hit a few more pools, with the occasional fish, nothing to brag about.  Then the clouds started building just as we came to a nice pool.  Suddenly we were getting topwater strikes on every other cast.  All of them appeared to be 10-12 inch fish, at least all the ones we caught were.  We soon figured out that these fish were all right up against the bank along a steep, almost vertical bank.  We had about a 50 yard stretch of bank that was just loaded with fish.  We then switched to other lures to see if we could go back along this bank and catch some more.  I went to the fluke, Hog Wally to a simlar lure.  It was amazing.  There seemed to be multiple fish every couple of feet all along this bank.  Hog Wally caught several nice ones up to 16 inches, and so did I, with a 17.25 incher for the biggest of the day.  The clouds were getting darker, but we had to run down to the next pool that was similar to see if the magic continued.  Nope.  One little spotted bass was all we got there.  The clouds were looking really angry by now.  We ran back up to our spot, and picked up several more, nothing big.  The clouds were beginning to look downright scary.  Hog Wally got a call with the info that it was storming along I-44.  We took off for the truck, but just had to stop in a couple of spots.   Nothing much doing.  As we finished loading the boat on the trailer, the wind suddenly began to gust, the trees were bending and waving.  I got my stuff into my truck, waved goodbye to Hog Wally, and didn't get 100 feet before the deluge hit.  I kinda drove out of it for a bit, but then it hit me with a violent hailstorm.  I was fortunate to be right next to a defunct gas station with an intact cover over where the pumps used to be, and pulled in under it along with another truck, just as the hail became the size of golf balls. Two more vehicles came along and pulled under as far as they could, but they couldn't get completely out of the hail.  When it stopped, I slowly drove the rest of the way home through heavy rain and light hail the whole way.  Quite an adventure!

It was unbelievable how many fish were in that one pool.  We probably caught 30 at least out of it, and hooked and lost quite a few more.  I had one break my line on the hookset, and on another the braided line I was using slipped through the eye of the hook because I was too lazy to tie a double palomar knot.  And just as unbelievable how few we caught anywhere else.  At first we thought we were catching spawning fish, and maybe a few of them were, but they were just too concentrated to all be on beds.  And most seemed to be hitting to eat the baits, not just carry them out of beds or kill them.  So the Meramec was kind to us, but did not really give up many secrets.

Hog Wally took a few pictures of my ugly mug with a couple of the biggest ones, and sent them to me, but I have yet to get them off my phone.  Maybe he can post them if so inclined.

[Mitch f]

Here's what the storm looked like in Washington, MO

 

 

[MOPanfisher]

Wow, that thing has HAIL and bad news written all over it.

[Brian Jones]

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

Here's what the storm looked like in Washington, MO

WOW!!!  Glad that thing had lost some intensity by the time it rolled through the Lead Belt.

[Brian Jones]

2 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

We continued to fish the same spot for a while and the two of us caught a few more small ones there (I think this happens to be the same place that Brian caught his, but we didn't see his post until we got back.)  

When I think of how many baits these fish see at certain times of the year and how many of us unknowingly fish the same holes either in front of or behind the others, I am in awe of the smallmouth's resilience.  It also shows just how important catch and release fishing is as there have been several "Master Angler" sized fish caught and obviously released from this stretch in the past few days.  

[Mitch f]

16 minutes ago, Brian Jones said:

When I think of how many baits these fish see at certain times of the year and how many of us unknowingly fish the same holes either in front of or behind the others, I am in awe of the smallmouth's resilience.  It also shows just how important catch and release fishing is as there have been several "Master Angler" sized fish caught and obviously released from this stretch in the past few days.  

You got it! 

[Hog Wally]

Today was a short trip by most people's standards but what I consider a good day.  These fish are tough right now but we stumbled on something   Just enough to drive you mad for more.  

[Mitch f]

I'll post them for you Aaron, since you sent them to me

[Hog Wally]

It was a good day!  Storm blew by and I am so crazy to figure this spawn out so I went back out and the bite was ridiculous. Nothing over 14" but in a hour in 3 different stops caught 12 fish or so. 

[drew03cmc]

Nice fish. I figured you'd fish your flukes on spinning gear, but I was wrong.