Mammoth to Merril Horse

[Flysmallie]

On 9/28/2023 at 6:05 AM, Mitch f said:

Once I got a jet boat I never looked back. The thing about jet boats is you don’t have to worry about fishing a spot too long in fear of not making it back to the takeout before dark. you can always go back to that spot where you had a blowup earlier too. Too many advantages to count. 

If it would go where I wanted it to go I would have one. 

[Al Agnew]

2 hours ago, top_dollar said:

                   I am not calling anyone a liar.  I certainly do not fish as hard as Al said above.  If I am on the water for 10 hours, I am probably paddling for 3-4 hours, hanging out at gravel bars, exploring, and watching scenery for another 2-3 hours which leaves about 3-5 hours of actual fishing.  In that time I expect to catch 5-10 fish an hour or so.  My day job requires rigorous note taking and attention to detail, so when I go fishing I generally prefer to just fish and enjoy the time I spend.  The fact that I just like to "fish" probably hurts my skills as an angler because I am not constantly trying to maximize my time to catch the most or biggest.  I cant help but be competitive when I am fishing with someone else, but I try to just enjoy my leisure time out there. 

I'm a lot closer to the way you do it if I'm floating an unfamiliar stream.  Then it's as much about exploring and soaking in the scenery as it is fishing--sometimes even more so.  But I've floated every inch of Big River dozens to hundreds of times.  On it I only notice the other stuff in passing.  Everybody fishes their own way, or should; I'm certainly not saying my own way it the only right one.  And it's not a competition for me, nor do I set goals.  It's just the way I like to fish.  Canoe control, accurate casting to tight targets, figuring out the optimal casts as I'm drifting down a bank, and just pure efficiency, are all things I truly enjoy doing.

[Al Agnew]

On 9/28/2023 at 6:05 AM, Mitch f said:

Al’s greatest ability is his ability to control the solo canoe perfectly. Every time you look up he is going perfectly straight down the river and is casting. So yes, he gets at least twice as many casts in as the normal person. I personally suck at canoes and actually hate them.

Once I got a jet boat I never looked back. The thing about jet boats is you don’t have to worry about fishing a spot too long in fear of not making it back to the takeout before dark. you can always go back to that spot where you had a blowup earlier too. Too many advantages to count. 

Unfortunately, there are few if any jetboatable streams in the Ozarks where you can catch these numbers of fish routinely, or at least that's been my experience.  Now that I live on a jetboat friendly section of the Meramec, I've tried fishing it hard in the summer, and I maybe catch 20% of the number of fish on it that I can do on almost any canoeable stream that's too small for easy jetboat use.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Meramec . . . just sucks, to me.  Upper, lower, mid . . . . its dead and you all can have it.  

[Mitch f]

1 hour ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

Meramec . . . just sucks, to me.  Upper, lower, mid . . . . its dead and you all can have it.  

You got to know how to fish it 💁‍♂️

[snagged in outlet 3]

17 hours ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

Meramec . . . just sucks, to me.  Upper, lower, mid . . . . its dead and you all can have it.  

It gets absolutely throttled week after week.

[Mitch f]

13 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

It gets absolutely throttled week after week.

Yes… And still produces 6 1/2 pound smallmouth

[Mitch f]

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

Yes… And still produces 6 1/2 pound smallmouth

Also yours!! @snagged in outlet 3

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

Also yours!! @snagged in outlet 3

We just “said” that was caught on the Meramec.