Middle meramec report

[MOPanfisher]

Believe it or not, I would be at the front of the line to get a bowl of it.

[Johnsfolly]

26 minutes ago, MOPanfisher said:

Believe it or not, I would be at the front of the line to get a bowl of it.

I've seen the photos of Mitch's wife and his in-laws food. I'm right behind you MOPanfisher!

[snagged in outlet 3]

What time??  I'm in.

 

[Mitch f]

Dried crispy worms on top as a garnish!

[snagged in outlet 3]

I'm out.

[Johnsfolly]

40 minutes ago, Mitch f said:

Dried crispy worms on top as a garnish!

Now Mitch are we talking about nightcrawlers/red worms or the worms from the fish? If we are using the worms from the fish, they are encysted and would be more like puffed rice with a hint of fish flavor. Not unlike a shrimp puff.

[MOPanfisher]

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

Dried crispy worms on top as a garnish!

You aren't scaring me off that easy I am willing to eat crispy worms on top.  Sort of like french fried onions.

[Al Agnew]

The worms are the yellow grub parasite, which goes through a complex life cycle with snails and herons also involved.  Harmless to humans, just very unappetizing.  About an eighth to a quarter inch long, creamy yellow in color, and although they are encysted in the fish, if you pick 'em out they wiggle a bit.  Yuck.

They ARE in largemouth and smallmouth as well, but for some reason almost never the numbers that are typically in the spotted bass.  You can find them in most members of the sunfish family...not sure if they infest other species.

Spotted bass limit is 12 fish, no length limit, over the entire Meramec river system (which includes Big River and Bourbeuse River as well).  Before about 1980 they were nonexistent in the Meramec river system.  They now are found pretty much throughout it.  They are far more abundant than smallmouth over the lower quarter of Big River and lower half of Bourbeuse, and in the Meramec below the mouth of the Bourbeuse.  At least as abundant as smallmouth over much of Big River and Bourbeuse River.  Common on the Meramec up to Meramec State Park, still greatly outnumbered by smallmouth above there, and in Huzzah and Courtois.

While it is almost certainly illegal to wantonly waste spotted bass in the Meramec, I have no idea how zealous agents would be about enforcing it.  Killing fish without utilizing them is not an unheard-of management strategy.  The law states you HAVE to kill every lake trout you catch in Yellowstone Lake, for instance, since they have done much the same kind of number on the native cutthroat trout than spotted bass have done to smallies on the lower parts of these rivers.  Personally, I don't think MDC went nearly far enough in their liberalization of spotted bass regs.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Lake trout were stocked. 

Spots arrived naturally as conditions have changed. Many species, birds, mammamals, fish, have continually expanded from their original territory with the changing climate. 

[Deadstream]

4 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

is almost certainly illegal to wantonly waste spotted bass in the Meramec

It is absolutely illegal.  If I was a spotted bass fan would it be okay for me to throw Smallies on the bank?   Smallies eat crawdads, I trap crawdads...  Any body ok with me feeding raccoons with brown fish.?