8 to leadwood

[top_dollar]

Fished 8 to leadwood yesterday for the first time this year.  Lots of people out. Wt was 66 degrees with a few foot of visibility.  It was largely slow for me.  The river was moving quite a bit faster than I am used to and I'm just not good at catching them when it's like that.  Anyhow,  I caught about 15 bass or so, and lots of long ears after switching to a panfish rig.  Almost all of the bass came on a jerkbait with a few on a jigworm and wacky worm.  Biggest bass was a 15 inch smallie on a wacky.   I also lost a LM in the 18" range at the boat while I was fumbling with my backpack trying to get my phone out for a pic, that was humbling. 

I also heard a few whoppers from the locals.  One guy told me I saw a fellow with a stringer full of 5# smallies.  And a different guy told me of a 7# largemouth he caught.  I'm by no means good at bass fishing, but the biggest smallie I've ever caught here was 19inches and maybe 2.5#, and the biggest largemouth was also 19" and maybe 3.5#. Something tells me these guys see a 17" fish and call it 5#.  

[Brian Jones]

Though uncommon, I know of at least one 7 pound largemouth caught through that stretch and quite a few 4-6 pounders in the past ten or so years. As far as the smallies go, that species of fish seems to bring out the big eye in all anglers............. And for the most part that stretch isn't really known for giving really big smallies like some of the stretches of river a few miles downstream......at any rate a good day nonetheless and I appreciate the report. Been wanting to float the upper part but have been impatiently waiting for river and weather conditions to stabilize before doing so....

[Mitch f]

1 hour ago, top_dollar said:

I also heard a few whoppers from the locals.  One guy told me I saw a fellow with a stringer full of 5# smallies.

 

 

[Mitch f]

They were all 17” 5 pounders 😂

[Gavin]

14.75" 5lb bass most likely. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

This one was 17.75" and weighed 3.93 on my scale.  It's fat too.

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

This one is full 18"s and only weighed 3.58.

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

With all the ones I’ve weighed and measured I’m not sure all 20”ers would go 5 pounds.  I caught a 19”er that was barely over 4 but I’m not posting that picture.   Too many landmarks in the background😆.  And I don’t want all you interweb wannabe’s poaching my spots😁.  I’m talking Ozark River smallies here.  

[jdmidwest]

Gotta get out before the Season Openers Bait Slinging starts.  The locals whack them pretty good and stick a knife in them.  Lots of them sitting around this year with nothing else to do.

[Al Agnew]

3 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

With all the ones I’ve weighed and measured I’m not sure all 20”ers would go 5 pounds.  I caught a 19”er that was barely over 4 but I’m not posting that picture.   Too many landmarks in the background😆.  And I don’t want all you interweb wannabe’s poaching my spots😁.  I’m talking Ozark River smallies here.  

I have caught quite a few 20-21 inchers, and not a single one of them was anywhere close to five pounds.  The closest I've seen was one my brother caught last year that was about 21 inches and weighed 4 lb. 12 oz.  I've also never seen a 19 incher that weighed 4 pounds.  Basically, it takes a pretty healthy 20 incher to weigh over 4.  And a REALLY fat 21 incher to weigh 5.  My two legit five pounders were 21.5 and 22.5 inches.