Floated a new river last year

[drew03cmc 102]

The little lady and I floated down to Boiling Spring from Piney Beach back in August. The day left a lot to be desired as it was cold and ended up rainy. We put in about 1030 and for the first half hour, we floated peacefully with the current, me directing, her riding, and I caught fish decently, 5 in the first half hour, one on a fluke and the rest for the day on soft craws (yes, the HiDef Craw accounted for two). I had my first follow on a Twin Spin. After about the first 45 minutes, it started raining. I don't mean drizzling, I mean biblical rain. The river came up feet overnight after we got off the water. I paddled my posterior off for the rest of the float, stopping just long enough to catch one smallie from the Gasconade and then paddle. Those two rivers are polar opposites right there, but both support jetboats. Those wakes are pretty exciting to have to cross. I'm typing all of this to say that I will be back down there in May to see what the prespawn looks like. I was intrigued by the rivers and they are calling me back now...in January. It's surely a bad idea.

[timinmo 241]

Drew,  I think we would all like to be on either of those rivers this May.  Your post brought a question to my mind when you mentioned May being prespawn.  My guess is under normal conditions by the middle of May the spawn is winding down on many of our rivers and streams. Maybe I am wrong, I'm hoping that some of the more experienced anglers will chime in and give us what they think is the normal time for the spawn. Either way I hope to be there pre, post or during.  Any thing but sitting inside.

[Al Agnew 2,395]

Spawn can start in early April, and can go on until early June.  Mostly depends upon water conditions...seems they will spawn as soon as they can, so if the water is warm enough in early April to get them going they will.  If it stays too cool, as it does sometimes in cold spring weather, they still feel the pressure to spawn, and if it hasn't warmed up enough by early May they'll go ahead and spawn anyway.  But they don't all spawn at the same time, and if there is a lot of high water making spawning difficult, seems like some keep trying up into June.  I've seen spawning activity by the first or second week of April, and seen them still spawning in June.

So I wouldn't call May "pre-spawn".  On the rivers I fish, pre-spawn is late March/early April.

[fshndoug 175]

Al,what is the address for the smallmouth alliance meeting in st.louis where you will be speaking.Thanks

[Harps 84]

How long did you float? There's like a week of river between Boiling Spring and the Gasconade. I'm confused, maybe.

[MOsmallies 492]

3 hours ago, fshndoug said:

Al,what is the address for the smallmouth alliance meeting in st.louis where you will be speaking.Thanks

Tuesday, January 16 at 7 PM - 9 PM

Goff Moll American Legion Post 101
2721 Collier Ave, St. Louis 63144

[Terrierman 1,681]

That's actually a fairly old river if talking our time scale.  On the planetary scale, agree.  On the scale of the universe, too small to measure.

 

[timinmo 241]

Sometime after I posted I realized that I kind of "high-jacked" Drew's thread.  That was not my intention, I should have started a new thread, sorry Drew.  

[Al Agnew 2,395]

Harps, you're getting your Boiling Springs mixed up.  I think he's talking about the one on the Gasconade a couple miles below the mouth of the Piney, not the one a long way up the Piney.

[Gavin 1,488]

Think you are right Al. There were some cabin rentals in Devil's Elbow called Piney Beach, have seen folks put in at Devil's Elbow before..Easy day float down to Boiling Springs Resort on the Gasconade. Popular area but it can produce some nice fish. They are not usually easy.