12/3/16 Trip report No pics

[Brian Jones]

Fished up river (for us) for about six hours Saturday.  Put in around 9:00 and fished until 3:00 or so.  River was low and very clear with 4-5 foot visibility above a major tributary and 7 plus feet of visibility below it.  Water temp was almost 42 when we put in and a tad over 43 when we took out.  We weren't keeping a hard count but we caught between 15 and 20 keepers with the three biggest being just a tad under 17 inches. Most of the keepers were between 12 and 15 inches.  Caught almost all smallmouth except for one little largemouth. Caught fish on all the baits you'd expect to catch fish on this time of year except for a hair jig and the Mitch Craw.  I don't throw hair jigs and the Mitch Craw hates me. However, it fails to realize just how hard headed Joneses are and I have no plan of putting it down until I'm catching them on that bait as good as hogwally or at least as good as smalliebigs.............................  If the forecast for this week holds true, this might be the last trip for me for a while as once temps drop below 40 I'm generally just spinning my wheels.

[BronzebackWarrior]

sounds like a good day, especially when you slip it in before a cold snap .  

[Smalliebigs]

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 2:25 PM, Brian Jones said:

Fished up river (for us) for about six hours Saturday.  Put in around 9:00 and fished until 3:00 or so.  River was low and very clear with 4-5 foot visibility above a major tributary and 7 plus feet of visibility below it.  Water temp was almost 42 when we put in and a tad over 43 when we took out.  We weren't keeping a hard count but we caught between 15 and 20 keepers with the three biggest being just a tad under 17 inches. Most of the keepers were between 12 and 15 inches.  Caught almost all smallmouth except for one little largemouth. Caught fish on all the baits you'd expect to catch fish on this time of year except for a hair jig and the Mitch Craw.  I don't throw hair jigs and the Mitch Craw hates me. However, it fails to realize just how hard headed Joneses are and I have no plan of putting it down until I'm catching them on that bait as good as hogwally or at least as good as smalliebigs.............................  If the forecast for this week holds true, this might be the last trip for me for a while as once temps drop below 40 I'm generally just spinning my wheels.

first.....the fish just aren't as big up there on average......gigging of bass is rampant up there, catch and keep.....Second you me and Aaron need to go and show you the way of the Craw brother 

[Al Agnew]

I tend to agree, there are fewer really big fish upstream.  Lots and lots of 15-17 inchers, fewer 18 plus.  I suspect that quite a few of the wintertime fish caught farther up on the Meramec are fish that spend the summers in Huzzah and Courtois, and those streams don't grow a lot of 20 inchers in the first place.  Plus, a lot of the wintering holes are smaller and shallower, thus easier to gig.

Ah, yes, the way of the craw.  Smalliebigs, Aaron sent me the photo of the craws you guys produced in the last four days...busy, busy!  You're about 4% along the way to your first 10,000 orders

[Smalliebigs]

13 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

I tend to agree, there are fewer really big fish upstream.  Lots and lots of 15-17 inchers, fewer 18 plus.  I suspect that quite a few of the wintertime fish caught farther up on the Meramec are fish that spend the summers in Huzzah and Courtois, and those streams don't grow a lot of 20 inchers in the first place.  Plus, a lot of the wintering holes are smaller and shallower, thus easier to gig.

Ah, yes, the way of the craw.  Smalliebigs, Aaron sent me the photo of the craws you guys produced in the last four days...busy, busy!  You're about 4% along the way to your first 10,000 orders

Hahahaha Al, Aaron  is an absolute  machine when it comes to being productive, he's like the energizer bunny and I couldn't be more proud of him.

I will say it's  tough to stay the course as our baits are all individually made by hand with a very personal  touch. We  decided  as a group to try to keep it that way but, I must admit it is not the fastest way to produce baits. We want everyone to know we care about these baits and truly want the fisherman who possibly buy them to know we put our hearts and souls into the manufacturing process. This personal touch and our location of manufacturing, on the Meramec River, literally allows us to be able to constantly tweak and test our baits on a moments whim. We probably won't be one of the fastest bait companies at producing baits but, we could possibly  be one of the most organic and personal companies you could ever buy a bait from....all made in St.Clair Missouri  on the banks of the Meramec with the collective fishing IQ of Four of the biggest fishing freaks I know.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I'm waiting patiently.  

[Justin92297]

On 12/10/2016 at 9:27 AM, Smalliebigs said:

Hahahaha Al, Aaron  is an absolute  machine when it comes to being productive, he's like the energizer bunny and I couldn't be more proud of him.

I will say it's  tough to stay the course as our baits are all individually made by hand with a very personal  touch. We  decided  as a group to try to keep it that way but, I must admit it is not the fastest way to produce baits. We want everyone to know we care about these baits and truly want the fisherman who possibly buy them to know we put our hearts and souls into the manufacturing process. This personal touch and our location of manufacturing, on the Meramec River, literally allows us to be able to constantly tweak and test our baits on a moments whim. We probably won't be one of the fastest bait companies at producing baits but, we could possibly  be one of the most organic and personal companies you could ever buy a bait from....all made in St.Clair Missouri  on the banks of the Meramec with the collective fishing IQ of Four of the biggest fishing freaks I know.

I would love to try these craws out but I am not sure how to buy them. Do you all have a website I need to go to?

[mreed81]

11 minutes ago, Justin92297 said:

I would love to try these craws out but I am not sure how to buy them. Do you all have a website I need to go to?

From the sounds of it they have put an actual business together to manufacture these and sell them to bait shops, etc. I believe Mitch is giving a presentation to the Smallmouth Alliance in January regarding the craws. Based off that I would expect them to be available sometime 1st quarter of 2017. Just my guess though.