Clear water

[Gavin]

Joe is being factious. He has given up on MDC after 20 years of complaining about them. Was a loud voice till they wore him out. I don't care about them either. Waiting to cut their funding. Could fire Nick & Jen Girondo as a measure of goodwill.

[Wart 57]

1 hour ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

That's just not accurate Al. You're straining to make you're argument. I have actually fished a few of those waters and your description does not mirror my experience. There is no doubt I have not fished as much as you have but I have had total opposite results. 

 

Right.  No smallmouth there. Don't Bother !!!

[ness]

More of a trout guy, and I’m feeling really good about that lately. 

Carry on. 

[Chief Grey Bear]

So let's recap years of information posted here. 

Report after report has yielded nothing but excellent results on these same waters. Some afternoon marathon floats of 20 miles have yielded 200 fish days. 

Never once have we heard about the miles and miles of barren fish land that now inhabits an increasingly large portion of our floatable streams. 

It was once the demon MDC and their inept management that was the cause of great demise of our most noble fish. 

And the giggers. Don't leave out the giggers. They are decimating thousands of miles of the best Smallmouth waters! 

Lets not forget the meat hunters. Those like Oneshot that enjoy meal of Smallmouth steaks and a baked potato. 

And now we have spring water. Who would have thought spring water would have been the culprit. We have now lost 100's of miles of Smallmouth waters to spring water. 

 

 

[Chief Grey Bear]

11 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Sure.  I'll provide the boat if you'll pack us a killer lunch.

I don't know if it's a temperature thing or not but the good Smallmouth fishing always seems to be not in the middle of the best trout water.  Except for winter, so that makes me think it is probably a temperature thing.   

The only time you'll find Smallies in Bennett is during the Winter, you aren't likely to catch one in the spring branch during Summer.  Am I wrong?   Take 20 steps upstream from the confluence during Summer though and there's a bunch. Go the other direction downstream under the 64 bridge....No Smallies, or darn few until you get past Winchester gap, then it's smallmouth heaven from there on down and your surprised to catch the occasional trout. 

Is that not the way it is?  Somebody back me up here. 

It will be my pleasure. How about some BBQ?

[Hog Wally]

1 hour ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

So let's recap years of information posted here. 

Report after report has yielded nothing but excellent results on these same waters. Some afternoon marathon floats of 20 miles have yielded 200 fish days. 

Never once have we heard about the miles and miles of barren fish land that now inhabits an increasingly large portion of our floatable streams. 

It was once the demon MDC and their inept management that was the cause of great demise of our most noble fish. 

And the giggers. Don't leave out the giggers. They are decimating thousands of miles of the best Smallmouth waters! 

Lets not forget the meat hunters. Those like Oneshot that enjoy meal of Smallmouth steaks and a baked potato. 

And now we have spring water. Who would have thought spring water would have been the culprit. We have now lost 100's of miles of Smallmouth waters to spring water. 

 

 

Smoke another one dude 

[thewhitesnoop]

On 12/6/2017 at 6:13 AM, Old plug said:

One thing you should think about when discussing the where, how and when on this forum if you really want to conserve your area do not encourage people to come into it. There must be 20 times more fisherman today than years ago. Some on here like to advertise for what ever reason. That is not really very good for anything but personal attention. Fishing spots are not some horn of plenty. 

 

Interesting thread.  Out of all these posts, good and bad, this one is by a wide margin my favorite!

[thewhitesnoop]

On 12/6/2017 at 9:05 PM, fishinwrench said:

Do you even realize how boring it would be around here if all we talked about was how awesome our lives were?

Complaining and cussing the negatives is what gets things done here in America.  Being easily pleased insures that the only way you'll go in life is downhill.   

So do yourself a favor and find something to piss and moan about !

I also like this one

[MoCarp]

I look at it this way ...if a state fisheries were an NFL team..you can be Cleveland or you can be New England

so are we competitive relative to other states fisheries management?..... very much so.....Can we do better?

ask yourself that HONESTLY......

we COULD have streams full of 3# smallmouths......we should aspire to do better

if that means giving up fish stabbing...99% of the public would say it is, if it meant giving up a few fish dinners 80% of the public would say YES!

[Chief Grey Bear]

On 12/6/2017 at 7:43 PM, Al Agnew said:

Meramec below Maramec Spring--practically zero smallmouth in the summer until you get to the first big pool below Cardiac and Suicide, about 4 miles downriver from the spring.  Numbers for the next 7 or 8 miles are far inferior to sections both above the spring and on downstream.  

Current below Montauk--pretty much zero smallies until you get around the mouth of a small warm water tributary a few miles below Baptist Camp.  Not many on downstream until you get past Cedargrove.  A marginal but sometimes decent population from Cedargrove to Welch Spring above Akers.  VERY few below Welch Spring for the next several miles.  You have to get past Pulltite to start finding them in numbers worth fishing for, and below Round Spring before the fishing really gets good.

Eleven Point below Greer Spring--not many for at least 10 miles, not a really good population for 20 miles.

North Fork below Rainbow Springs--hardly any until you get close to Dawt Mill, a long way downstream.

Jacks Fork below Alley Spring--even though it's not trout water, the smallmouth fishing is pretty poor until you get closer to Eminence.

They don't really appear in the Little Piney until you are well below the best trout water.

Yes, if you really want to work at targeting them, you can catch some smallmouth in the trout water, but compared to other sections, it just isn't hardly worth it.  Yes, they congregate around the spring mouths at nearly all the big springs in the winter.  But I suspect that the vast majority of those fish are summering upstream and moving down into the spring water for thermal refuge in the winter.  I doubt that many are living downstream and moving up into the warmer spring water in cold weather.  And even in the winter, you won't catch many EXCEPT in the first few good pools below the big springs, until you get below the influence of the spring water temperatures.

I would like add in all fairness to Al, we have two totally different styles of fishing. 

Al will fish many miles of stream in a day. 12, 14, 15+ miles in a day. He admittedly catches the easier to catch fish. 

On the other hand 5-6 miles are about all I'm good for. I enjoy working the brush and beating the banks. 

We use different styles of baits too. He uses faster baits like spinners and WTD and the like. 

I use slower baits with lots of soft plastic types and slow wide wobble cranks that pierce deep into the water column .

 So it stands to reason our experiences on the same waters can be different.  I should have stated this earlier but I didn't.  After I thought about it for a while I came to realize the reasons why.  So I just want to put this out there.