Lower meramac 5/18

[Justin92297]

Went down to the meramac today and fished one of my favorite spots for when the river is high and   muddy.  Ended up with 4 spots, 2 largemouth, 1 sauger, and 1     walleye. All on cranks 

[Haris122]

Good catches man. I went out for like half an hour after work with stinkbait on 1 rod, and a little crankbait on the other, but it was really muddy, and I soon got my crankbait stuck on a tree while casting, so I was stuck with just the stinkbait, and nothing hit that.

[Justin92297]

16 hours ago, Haris122 said:

Good catches man. I went out for like half an hour after work with stinkbait on 1 rod, and a little crankbait on the other, but it was really muddy, and I soon got my crankbait stuck on a tree while casting, so I was stuck with just the stinkbait, and nothing hit that.

It is very tough sometimes under these conditions, but we both know that's just how the meramac is.  I have my best luck when the river first starts to rise. Rising water is almost always better fishing than falling water at least for me. 

[Haris122]

I made it out this evening for a few hours on the Meramec at Unger. Got a 8-9" drum on a little roostertail, and a nice chunky 14" white or hybrid white/striped bass on a shallow diving bomber crankbait. The drum did good for it's size, but really couldn't fight for that much. The hybrid or white, must have first bit at it once and kind of missed since I felt a bite, but then it hit it again, and this time stayed on. I could tell I had a nice fish on on my light action rod. Nothing more than that, but that fish made it quite fun nonetheless. Got both from the same relatively small area.

[Justin92297]

20 minutes ago, Haris122 said:

I made it out this evening for a few hours on the Meramec at Unger. Got a 8-9" drum on a little roostertail, and a nice chunky 14" white or hybrid white/striped bass on a shallow diving bomber crankbait. The drum did good for it's size, but really couldn't fight for that much. The hybrid or white, must have first bit at it once and kind of missed since I felt a bite, but then it hit it again, and this time stayed on. I could tell I had a nice fish on on my light action rod. Nothing more than that, but that fish made it quite fun nonetheless. Got both from the same relatively small area.

Nice! That is definitely a good day on the river. Do you access through unger park? Because when I fish that area I always access through a park on Marshall road and walk down the bank opposite to unger. I wasn't sure if there was an easier way to access because it is a long and sometimes muddy walk

[Haris122]

Yeah I access it through Unger. I don't know how it compares to your walk, but there is a trail near the lake parking lot (though parts of it are covered by a foot or two of sand from that record flooding) that leads up to and past the big southward bend in the river. Access to the actual river is somewhat limited, due to the extensive vegetation and dead trees, steep drop-offs to the riverbank, and the mud. There's still some spots relatively easy to get to, but thing is there's also a lot of trees and assorted "snag magnets" in the water that limit where you can cast from those access points. Ever since the big flood this winter, access to the river bank has become definitely more difficult and sparse than it used to be. Seems like many of the easy drop-offs to the riverbank have become much steeper from erosion than they were.    

[Haris122]

Fished the Meramec at Unger again Wednesday afternoon for a couple hours and got a 11-12" drum on roostertail. Gave me a fun fight, but that was all I caught.