[Dafish]

Friday the wife asked "are you going fishing, as it might be the last decent day in a while?" I was not real enthused as Wednesday I went and it took forever to catch some bait and I fished for 5 hours and did not get one bite. Hit all the good places and not so good places and nothing.

Figured might as well go try again, at least get out of the house. and be happy if I got a bite.
I caught some bait, then figured I would just go to a close spot even though i did not get a bite there Wednesday.

 

[Dafish]

 

[Dafish]

Sunday, I was stressed out form the gas prices and all things going up in cost plus all the Russia news, told the wife at 1pm, "I'm going fishing" caught 2 6 inch shad and figured that was good enough.

I caught more but was tired of taking pictures, also had 5 poles out (I use to use 3 poles but BYB said I needed more)and 4 of them were in with fish on them, after I got done with them, I reeled in the other pole and the bait was gone, what!!!
took me over an hour to eat my sandwhich....not complaining but I was sore this morning

 

[fishshooter]

Nice mess of fish

 

[letemgrow]

Getting an early start!!!

 

[callaojoe]

Nice ones no doubt! Congrats!

 

[BackyardBandit]

Congrats again, you had a much better day than me on the Mo river! We only had 2 and 2 missed bites, but that’s par for the course on the MO around me…
You’d have been in some decent money in the Alton tournament the next day!
Ol broke back:

 

[RRMan]

Congrats again, you had a much better day than me on the Mo river! We only had 2 and 2 missed bites, but that’s par for the course on the MO around me…
You’d have been in some decent money in the Alton tournament the next day!
Ol broke back:
View attachment 229121 View attachment 229123

Backyard, where are you at on the mighty mo? I was thinking about going this next weekend but the river is was low in the KC area. What do you look for this time of year? Do you fish behind the dikes or channel? I'm pretty new to the river fishing but I'm hooked.

Thanks rrman

 

[20']

well done Dafish and BYB!

 

[BackyardBandit]

Backyard, where are you at on the mighty mo? I was thinking about going this next weekend but the river is was low in the KC area. What do you look for this time of year? Do you fish behind the dikes or channel? I'm pretty new to the river fishing but I'm hooked.

Thanks rrman

I'm just a little west of STL. Seems like there's great fishing up your way though!
The river is low here too, which I like. Wintertime I'm not really in the main channel. Usually fishing the current seam at the end of dikes, particularly the hole at the end of L dikes. I also try the upstream face of dikes, back in the dead water behind the dikes whether it's deep or a couple feet deep, or in the holes where there's notched dikes by the bank.

Pretty much use side imaging and sonar until you find fish on the bottom and put fresh cut bait in front of their faces for 15-20 minutes at a time and move on until you find feeding fish!

The biggest struggle for me this time of year is finding fresh bait, and it matters.
Shad, mooneye, and skipjack are king in the cold water, but there's proof in pics above that they will eat carp in 37 degree water too! It was 43 degrees where I was on the MO.

 

[RRMan]

I'm just a little west of STL. Seems like there's great fishing up your way though!
The river is low here too, which I like. Wintertime I'm not really in the main channel. Usually fishing the current seam at the end of dikes, particularly the hole at the end of L dikes. I also try the upstream face of dikes, back in the dead water behind the dikes whether it's deep or a couple feet deep, or in the holes where there's notched dikes by the bank.

Pretty much use side imaging and sonar until you find fish on the bottom and put fresh cut bait in front of their faces for 15-20 minutes at a time and move on until you find feeding fish!

The biggest struggle for me this time of year is finding fresh bait, and it matters.
Shad, mooneye, and skipjack are king in the cold water, but there's proof in pics above that they will eat carp in 37 degree water too! It was 43 degrees where I was on the MO.

Awesome info I appreciate it greatly, I literally just filled the freezer with skipjack last week in anticipation of getting on the river, I was thinking going this weekend depending on weather sounds like another snow storm coming the end of the week and I get to work those so time will tell. Keep after seems your doing great!

 

[Dafish]

I need to remember the good times while during the summer when I am roasting and not getting a bite

for some reason the wifey will not let me wash my fishin clothes and towel with her regular cloths, wimmen

 

[archer66]

Holy e****. You slated em.

 

[RRMan]

@BackyardBandit

Took your advice today and found a couple the pic is a 45lber my fil is holding for me and he landed a 10lber. He also Lost a 20ish at the boat. I bite was decent today had 6 solid hits plus the 3 that were hooked. Thanks again for the info

 

[BackyardBandit]

View attachment 229317
@BackyardBandit

Took your advice today and found a couple the pic is a 45lber my fil is holding for me and he landed a 10lber. He also Lost a 20ish at the boat. I bite was decent today had 6 solid hits plus the 3 that were hooked. Thanks again for the info

Heck yea congrats! That’s a dandy!
Wintertime blue cats are some of the best eating fish you’ll eat, period.
What bait did you use?

 

[Dafish]

Congrats, you will find out persistence pays off.
I went out and caught 2 4 pounders on shad, 37 degrees and lots of debris floating down the river
I netted a soccer ball and some water bottles

 

[RRMan]

Heck yea congrats! That’s a dandy!
Wintertime blue cats are some of the best eating fish you’ll eat, period.
What bait did you use?

We were using skipjack for bait yesterday, we had lots of little hits, that I would describe like little bluegill chewing on a crawler just tap tap tap but plenty of big hits to keep us entertained. We were using pretty big chunks 3inch long by the width of the Skippy. Probably to big of bait but seemed to work just fine.

Definitely hooked on the winter blues

 

[BackyardBandit]

We were using skipjack for bait yesterday, we had lots of little hits, that I would describe like little bluegill chewing on a crawler just tap tap tap but plenty of big hits to keep us entertained. We were using pretty big chunks 3inch long by the width of the Skippy. Probably to big of bait but seemed to work just fine.

Definitely hooked on the winter blues

Don't be afraid to use just a 1x1 chunk of skipjack along with the bigger hunks to see what they are preferring that day.
I will cut a steak of fish then cut the top half from above the backbone up, and also have the gut pocket. My skips might be bigger than yours though, around 12".

 

[RRMan]

Don't be afraid to use just a 1x1 chunk of skipjack along with the bigger hunks to see what they are preferring that day.
I will cut a steak of fish then cut the top half from above the backbone up, and also have the gut pocket. My skips might be bigger than yours though, around 12".

My skips are running about 12inches also I was getting 4 baits per skip. I'll try some smaller ones, the biggest thing for me is getting my boat set up for river fishing, I'm running a fiberglass bass boat and need to come up with more pole holders, I currently have 2, we were only running 3 poles yesterday for 3 people I have the extra poles just need to get properly set up to handle the extras.

Last year we would troll the channel with some bigger poles and had decent luck, 3 outings and 4 fish caught just winging it not knowing what I was doing the biggest being about 25 and the others between 10 and 15 but the poles are almost to big for casting so I am using medium action stuff behind the dikes.

 

[Dafish]

there are some DYI videos/pictures of people using the rear pedestal hole and making rod holders that go in it.
Either PVC or aluminum

I had thought about that last year, then a friend said he would make me a couple rod holders.