Big River vs Meramec

[joeD]

Washington State Park will be effectively closed. As far as rentals and shuttles are concerned. It'll be helpee selfee. I'll take the Big this time of year. Don't expect non stop action. Hit and miss but a chance for a good one.

[WannabeAngler]

On 10/14/2020 at 8:23 PM, joeD said:

Washington State Park will be effectively closed. As far as rentals and shuttles are concerned. It'll be helpee selfee. I'll take the Big this time of year. Don't expect non stop action. Hit and miss but a chance for a good one.

Scheduled for a 9am departure at Washington State Park tomorrow. 7 mile float on one of their kayaks. So, hoping for a good day of learning. One is better than most of my outings this year, so the bar is pretty low.

[WannabeAngler]

Learned a lot today. Wish that we could have gotten on the water earlier, but their rentals don't start until 9. Once we were picked up, we were dropped at what I think is Blackwell and started around 9:45am. We went upstream just above the bridge where we dropped in. My buddy was floating and fishing for the first time. He is brand new to the entire thing. Two casts with a green pumpkin lizard and he hooked a 14 inch smallie. We were hoping it would be that type of day. 

It took around another hour of floating before I finally caught one. I was throwing a Baby Brush hog and hooked up with a 1 lb 12 oz largemouth (I think...no rough patch on the tongue, but his dorsal was connected, and the tail had a solid horizontal bar and wasn't patchy...) Caught one more smaller largemouth on that. It was on my ultralight set up, because it's the only other rod I have besides my medium, so it was a fun little fight with the first fish. 

Started off with the Tackle HD Craw, but didn't get any takers. Threw on an ExoPod from BioSpawn that I got in a Mystery Tacklebox when I did a trial run...and that was the winner for the day. It was a slow float and I was just throwing at every piece of cover I could find. Missed a few, but ended up catching 7 total in the 4 miles we were on the river. The biggest was right before we got to the ramp where we were taking out. Had just put back on the ExoPod, threw at some submerged tree, and didn't even feel the fish hit. It was just heavy pressure. But, it's my PB (which isn't saying much, but is working its way up now that I'm getting back into it).

A nice 2 lb 6 oz largemouth. I think it was about 17 inches long, but I forgot to measure him because I was stoked to get one more before getting off the water.

When I got home, I was talking to my wife and I told her "you know how I said that I had an itch that needed to be scratched?" She finished the sentence for me,  "It's gotten worse hasn't it? You got into poison ivy..."

That pretty much summarizes it.  Time to find some kayaks this winter...

[moguy1973]

10 hours ago, WannabeAngler said:

 

 Time to find some kayaks this winter...

 

Yeah, get your own.  There are several brands with sit on top kayaks that are very reasonably priced, and will be way better than the rental boats you rented yesterday.  Then you can outfit it the way you want, put in when you want and where you want (if you have a buddy or an understanding wife to shuttle you), and you'll be much more comfortable.

[WannabeAngler]

3 hours ago, moguy1973 said:

Yeah, get your own.  There are several brands with sit on top kayaks that are very reasonably priced, and will be way better than the rental boats you rented yesterday.  Then you can outfit it the way you want, put in when you want and where you want (if you have a buddy or an understanding wife to shuttle you), and you'll be much more comfortable.

Yeah, I have both. Buddy I fished with yesterday and I have been planning already. The park rented Perception Access 11.5, which they really weren't bad. The seat sucked  horribly though. Starts at $500 which is fine by me, but want something I can outfit a bit more. I don't know that I need a gigantic $1500 monster, but fortunately, I think marketplace is about to be full of kayaks this winter from the COVID purge...

[snagged in outlet 3]

2 hours ago, WannabeAngler said:

, I think marketplace is about to be full of kayaks this winter from the COVID purge...

I hope they all sell them and take up golf.  😁