Daniel My Brother Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 Thursday I get a call from my friend Mark. He’s planning a last minute wading trip to a couple of beautiful Smallmouth streams the next morning “can you make it?” he asks. With a little help from the boss I shift my schedule around and I’m in. When we arrived at the stream I grabbed my rod, rigged with a watermelon baby brush hog, and was fishing in under a minute. Mark grabbed his throw net and started catching bait. It only took him about 3 casts to get all he’d need. He prefers large minnows and suckers, up to 5 inches, but by the time he’s ready to fish, I’ve already caught 3 Smallmouth. No worries, Mark works fast and plans to catch up. We leapfrog each other on our way upstream, taking turns getting first shot at the next promising hole. The fish are cooperating, and don’t really show a preference for live bait over artificial. Mark starts a conversation with the fish “come on over here, I’ve got the real thing.” We get into a school of Goggle Eye and immediately regret not bringing a skillet. Pan fried fillets sound much better than peanut butter and jelly. Mark’s big minnows are too much for the Eyes to swallow whole and he misses a couple before deciding to cut bait. This move pays off, and soon he’s catching one Eye after another. By the end of the day we had lost count of the number of fish caught, or who caught more. 50 Smallies would be a conservative guess, most around a foot long. If live bait had one advantage it was as a follow up. Several times Mark followed me into a hole I thought I had fished dry, only to pull out one or two more. We fish together a lot. Sometimes he uses artificials, sometimes I fish live bait. I certainly don’t look at live bait as cheating or somehow easier. In fact, most of the time it’s a pain in neck. But if that's what the fish want, you can bet that's what they'll get. Here are few shots from the day. Hope you’re having some luck as well. My best, 18”, around 3lbs Mark’s best, didn’t get a weight or length Nice Goggle Eye tries to swallow a 4” Senko Mark with bait in tow holds a pretty typical Southern Missouri Smallmouth The scenery wasn’t too shabby either…didn’t see another fisherman all day. Thanks for looking, DMB Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted August 31, 2011 Super User Posted August 31, 2011 Great post! Nice fish and beautiful country. Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted August 31, 2011 Super User Posted August 31, 2011 Sounds like a really sweet trip. Great pictures as well. Quote
Super User Grey Wolf Posted August 31, 2011 Super User Posted August 31, 2011 Looks like a great place to fish , thanks for sharing !!!!!!! Quote
Super User J Francho Posted August 31, 2011 Super User Posted August 31, 2011 Some great photos. Nice work! Quote
pitchin fool Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 I love wade fishing for that very reason..NO OTHER FISHERMAN!! Looks like you got perfect water conditions also. Gotta love that gin clear water!! Quote
zenyoungkoh Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 Great river!! I wish there was one like this near my home... Quote
MNGeorge Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 Nice report and really nice pix...looks like a fun little river to fish. The water has been way too high all year on the upper Mississippi to even think about wading, but it's finally coming down now...might get some wading in yet this year. Quote
Daniel My Brother Posted September 1, 2011 Author Posted September 1, 2011 Great river!! I wish there was one like this near my home... Me too! We had to drive nearly 3 hours to get to this one...but it was well worth it. Quote
bryand82487 Posted September 1, 2011 Posted September 1, 2011 What's the name of that river? I might have to make a trip up there one of these days. Quote
Daniel My Brother Posted September 1, 2011 Author Posted September 1, 2011 What's the name of that river? I might have to make a trip up there one of these days. I caught my best on the Jacks Fork River. Mark's Best is from the Eleven Points River. Also some great fishing on the Current River as well. All in the same general area. Quote
sodaksker Posted September 7, 2011 Posted September 7, 2011 looks like a great day! Thanks for sharing. Quote
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