Bass Fishing On The Gasconade River!

Today was an excellent day for bass fishing! The weather was in the 70s and it was clear with a few over casted cloudy moments and the bass fishing was excellent! I took my Osagian canoe, my tackle and last but least , of course, Myself! You know, sometimes a guy needs to get away, and sometimes , nobody wanted to go , or wasn't able to go. Believe me , I am not complaining. I love to go fishing with my buddies, but when there is no one wanting to go, I take advantage of the quiet time , alone with myself. I see a lot of wildlife and such because I am not talking and making noise.

Now the Gasconade is a beautiful , slow moving river , with a lot of good fishing water, and because its getting into the fall, has lots of beautiful scenery. Dad gummed , I forgot my camera , but I have photographed those scenes of turning leaves, minks, deer , turkeys, and otter in the depths of my memory. Oh yeah, lets get back to the fishing.

I started off , using a jointed rapala , and caught a couple of nice bass right off the bat. Say between 2-3 lbs. I thought they were going to tear it up. Then after an hour of that I realized it was time to change lures. I didn't even get another bite so I tied on a lure called the "Bandit" chrome colored with a black back. This lure runs about 3-5 ft in this particular version, which turned out to be the ticket! I made about 3 casts and then I threw the bandit over a sunken log in about 6 ft of water! Bam! A big lineside bass inhaled it and then thought he was going to go south , and did for about 30 yards. I turned the big ole boy with my garcia 6000 bait casting reel and a medium action "Ugly Stick"! Well , ole iron jaw decided , to run all over the river, dragging me and my canoe with him but after several runs I finally tired him out and got him to the boat. I lipped him and hauled him out of the water. I don't know for sure but I guessed him to be 5 1/2 lbs not bad for a river lineside.

I caught 8 or 10 largemouth bass , and 3 small mouth bass and about 8 goggle eye , by the time I stopped to stretch and eat my lunch, and as usual my wife sent way more food with me than I should need for 2 days on the river , only I was only on the river for one! I had a thermos of coffee and of course I always take my single burner stove and my coffee pot so I can make some fresh coffee when I need It. So I cooked a pot of coffee after I ate and drink a cup and filled up my thermos for later.

I stopped on this gravel bar and had my lunch right by this old Slue of the river. It had a lot of sunken log jams and several Lilly pads , it looked like it should be full of bass, so after I ate, being careful and quiet I slipped back up into the slue and proceed to pursue me a good bass or two. After about 15 minutes I tied on a lunker lure, ( buzz bait) white is my color of preference for the Gasconade because it usually always is dirty or colored water. It proved to be a good choice of lure and color. Again! Wham! This turned out to be bigger than the first bass of the day, And he decided to tail stand and try to throw that old lunker lure out of his mouth, But I had a trailer hook and both hooks were stuck in his mouth good and Kenny Wins Again! YEEHAW!

Now I proceeded to catch tons of bass between 2 and 4 lbs the rest of the day , this river is just full of bass , and goggle eye and lots of huge catfish and crappie. By the days end I had six 3-6 lb bass and fifteen 10 inch or better goggleye and 9 huge crappie. I caught so many fish that my arms were aching and cramping at days end. The fish hit about anything that I threw to them. It is sure fun when you catch the fish biting like that. Didn't have to determine a pattern or a lure or color combination, the only secret today was keep what ever lure I was using WET, in the water. My grandpa always told me this " You can't catch fish with your tackle setting in the boat, the only fishermen that catch fish is the ones that FISH!" I have to agree , only that just seems like common sense to me.

Again what a day on the river! A day full of memories , wildlife and lots of BIG bass and exciting catches all day , practically non stop action all day long! You don't always catch fish that easy but when you do it is extremely fun and makes excellent bass fishing!

I just had to share this fishing adventure with you and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed it , and as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you!

So until next time, see ya out there, and keep your hooks wet, but most importantly even if the fish aren't biting , just enjoy the
"Great Outdoors!" Love you guys and gals and good luck on your next bass fishing adventure.