Meramec Craws

[Mitch f]

Well, Aaron did it again today.....he has a pretty unreliable cell phone signal so he wanted me to post them for him. 

15 pounds of smallmouth for best 5

he had 5 fish over 18" his partner had 2 more over 18"

i believe these were 2 of the biggest

 

 

[Hog Wally]

Every single one of the 25 keepers we caught in 2 hours, were on the latest color pattern we whipped up the other day Mitch.  Maybe they would've bit other baits? I couldn't buy a bite on a crank which is what I consider my go to bait on the river.  There is nothing better than the feeling of a giant Smallie picking up the craw. It's very obvious  

[Gavin]

Awesome!

[Smalliebigs]

1 hour ago, Hog Wally said:

Every single one of the 25 keepers we caught in 2 hours, were on the latest color pattern we whipped up the other day Mitch.  Maybe they would've bit other baits? I couldn't buy a bite on a crank which is what I consider my go to bait on the river.  There is nothing better than the feeling of a giant Smallie picking up the craw. It's very obvious  

Yes it is brother  and that is very impressive in these water conditions....you really pulled from your memory  bank and fished a "historical spot" today great job!!!

[Seth]

Seeing Aaron catch these fish on natural colored craws in this muddy water makes me wonder if the whole dark colors for better contrast in dirty water even matters.

[Mitch f]

11 minutes ago, Seth said:

Seeing Aaron catch these fish on natural colored craws in this muddy water makes me wonder if the whole dark colors for better contrast in dirty water even matters.

Yep, I'm with you.

Im used to the spinnerbait, crankbait mindset for dirty water....this really makes me think

[Seth]

2 minutes ago, Mitch f said:

Yep, I'm with you.

Im used to the spinnerbait, crankbait mindset for dirty water....this really makes me think

With that said, I did just order some supplies to make some custom spinnerbaits for high dirty water. They are going to be 1/2oz with a single #7 colorado blade in a couple of your typical dirty water colors. It may be a bust on these river fish, but I've had good luck fishing that type of bait in muddy lakes for green bass. We shall see....

[Smalliebigs]

1 hour ago, Seth said:

With that said, I did just order some supplies to make some custom spinnerbaits for high dirty water. They are going to be 1/2oz with a single #7 colorado blade in a couple of your typical dirty water colors. It may be a bust on these river fish, but I've had good luck fishing that type of bait in muddy lakes for green bass. We shall see....

sweet!!!!.....I love single big thumping colorado's

[Al Agnew]

I think the key to using natural colors in very murky water is in knowing, almost for sure, that the fish are in the spots you're fishing.  When you know the river like Aaron does, that's not a problem.  (Besides, I recognize the spot where those in the photos were caught, and we've already figured out it's a no-brainer spot for big fish  )  The fish, if they are there and willing to feed, are able to find your lures no matter what color they are or how much or little noise they make.  But if you don't know they are there, you can waste a lot of time fishing lures like the craw in places where you are wasting your time.  Unless I have a real good idea that there are a bunch of fish in a certain spot, I'm more likely searching for them with faster moving lures, and in that case, I want something that I think they can see and sense more quickly and easily.  But keep in mind one more thing...if you can see down 18 inches into murky water, that means that light is traveling 36 inches through the water without getting absorbed in order to go down, bounce off the object, come back up out of the water to your eyes, and no more than that.  Which means that most of the light is only penetrating 36 inches down into the water, which means that a fish lying in water deeper than 36 inches isn't going to be seeing very far at all.  Which means that said fish is locating its prey by other senses, and color probably doesn't much matter, period.

[dan hufferd]

I found one on Indian creek near Neosho Mo years ago that was bright red. It was so red I thought it wasn't real or boiled, it was very alive and hard to catch. Only one I saw ever.