First Cast

[Hog Wally]

With a little break in the storms I dropped the boat in with my daughter Macey and ran a short distance and literally caught this big one on my first cast   Followed by several dandies, then the sky opened up and we high tailed it home 

[Smalliebigs]

15 hours ago, Hog Wally said:

With a little break in the storms I dropped the boat in with my daughter Macey and ran a short distance and literally caught this big one on my first cast   Followed by several dandies, then the sky opened up and we high tailed it home 

nice one buddy!!!.... the thought of you and Macey  running around in the rig in the evenings brings a smile to my face. Macey has seen more big river Smallies than most guys will ever see in a lifetime...... great job!!!

most of all I hope for your bite to hold out for a few more days and see you and Ben crowned Kings of the Meramec, even though I already know the deal there.

[Al Agnew]

Well, I had kinda the opposite experience on a different section of the Meramec yesterday.  Started out looking for the situation that Hog Wally had told me about on his sections of the river.  Couldn't find fish.  Tried about everything I thought might work.  Was catching only the occasional small fish.  So I went to fishing a big walking topwater just because if I'm not going to catch fish, I'd rather not catch them on topwater!  Fish, fish, fish for about a half hour with nothing...then KAWOOSH!  It was a very thick, though spawned out, 19 incher.  Then back to nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, until the thunderstorm started rumbling...one more cast.  SLURP!  17 incher.  Hey, if you're only going to catch two good fish, I'll take those two on top any day!

[Hog Wally]

2 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Well, I had kinda the opposite experience on a different section of the Meramec yesterday.  Started out looking for the situation that Hog Wally had told me about on his sections of the river.  Couldn't find fish.  Tried about everything I thought might work.  Was catching only the occasional small fish.  So I went to fishing a big walking topwater just because if I'm not going to catch fish, I'd rather not catch them on topwater!  Fish, fish, fish for about a half hour with nothing...then KAWOOSH!  It was a very thick, though spawned out, 19 incher.  Then back to nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, until the thunderstorm started rumbling...one more cast.  SLURP!  17 incher.  Hey, if you're only going to catch two good fish, I'll take those two on top any day!

I haven’t caught one on topwater yet   Good to know that is starting up.   

[ColdWaterFshr]

This always seems to be the toughest time of year for me for smallies.  May to early June.  What gives?

Topwater theories?  slow retrieve walk the dog lures first and then as you get deeper into summer, faster moving buzz baits?  or smaller baits early in summer and working up to larger baits as summer progresses?

[fishinwrench]

4 hours ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

This always seems to be the toughest time of year for me for smallies.  May to early June.  What gives?

It's during the transition from waders to bare legs and soggy balls.  It haunts me too.  Only lasts a few weeks though.

[Al Agnew]

11 hours ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

This always seems to be the toughest time of year for me for smallies.  May to early June.  What gives?

Topwater theories?  slow retrieve walk the dog lures first and then as you get deeper into summer, faster moving buzz baits?  or smaller baits early in summer and working up to larger baits as summer progresses?

This is a weird year because of all the high water.  Usually by May they are about finished spawning, and maybe they have the post-spawn doldrums.  But I fished three days this week, the other two times on very clear water, and saw plenty of smallmouth still spawning.  The Meramec day was slow, but the day before, floating a smallish clear stream, I caught more than 60 smallmouth, including 10 that were between 16.5 and 18 inches, and nearly all were on topwaters.  Then today I waded one of my pet creeks--fished about three miles of creek in 6 hours, caught 65, and I swear I got nearly every fish in the creek over 8 inches to hit my topwater, but way more were not getting or staying hooked than what I caught.  Honestly, I think I had strikes on at least 250 casts.  It was simply crazy.  Fish would come charging out at the lure from 20 feet away, out of every conceivable spot that could possibly hide a fish.  This creek doesn't have big ones, but I caught 10 that were in the 15-16 inch range.