MObassin95

Oh that makes sense

Yes. Probably saw a total of thirty or so. Impressive fish forsure. Maybe they don’t come up the river to feed. I would hope not because they could eat anything they wanted.

Wife and I floated the North Fork for the first time today. Floated from Hammond to River of Life Farm. Man, it is a beautiful river. The smallmouth habitat was awesome. Boulders, current, and cool water. The fishing was surprisingly tough. Didn’t get a whole lot of bites and didn’t see a lot of smallmouth. I hope it was a fluke because it would be a shame if such great habitat didn’t support a good population of smallmouth! Also, there were schools of HUGE stripers downstream of Rainbow Spring. That can’t be good for the trout.

No smallies?

PM sent

Spent some time above Delaware Town today. Made it to Wilson’s Creek. Did pretty well. White spinner bait and Roboworm worked best. Here’s the two biggest. The smallmouth had a crawdad in its throat! You can barely see it. My spinnerbait must have interrupted his morning snack.

Neat! I’m excited to try and fish it. Heard a lot of good things about it.

Thank you!

Thank you. Leadmine is appealing becaue I think it is alittle less trafficked than Prosperine. I may just put in at Leadmine and wade/paddle/fish upstream two or three miles then float back down. I can't imagine there's anything I can't traverse (famous last words).

Hello, I would like to fish the Niangua and not super keen on using an outfitter. I would wade/ canoe upstream and fish downstream. I'm torn between Prosperine or Leadmine Access. I can pretty much navigate any type of water. Any suggestions on which would be more productive? Driving from Springy so I want to make sure I have the best chance at success. Thank you!

I did a trip on the lower James yesterday. Caught more than I could count. Nothing huge but enough 12-14 inchers to make it a blast. Best baits were a Hellgrammite imitation in the fast stuff and a swim bait in between. Below Hootentown is beautiful.

Wow, thank you for sharing! That's fascinating. I'm not surprised about the jetboats having a negative affect on the rivers, neither the otters. The otter situation is tough because on one hand I do think we should try to reintroduce native animals that humans have eradicated from an ecosystem, but on the other hand, their population can get out of control because we have also eradicated their natural predators . Spotted Bass must just outcompete Smallmouth. I have been fishing Beaver Creek and there are alot of really nice Spotted Bass, but the Smallmouth fishing is just so-so. The biggest fish I've caught out of there was actually a Spot-Smallie hybrid I think.

Hello anglers, I moved to the Ozarks in 2016, and have fished inconsistently throughout the years. But I've really fallen in love with chasing smallmouth in the rivers over the past year or so. They're such beautiful fish, and the Ozark rivers really are special. I've been fortunate enough to travel alot and I think MO really has the most beautiful rivers in the country. Consequently, however, Missouri also has some of the most crowded rivers. But all is not lost. I think we, as Americans, are more conservation minded than ever. So my question to some of you that have been around here longer than I is: How is the fishing nowadays vs. even ten, twenty, or thirty years ago? Less people eat the smallmouth they catch, but there is more overall pressure on the fish. I'm wondering: are there more smallmouth in the rivers these days because of the popularity of catch and release? But are they tougher to catch because of the pressure? I'm curious to some of the responses! Thanks!

I'm fairly new to the river smallmouth fishing scene but, more and more, I enjoy throwing a minnow shaped crankbait. A crawdad n-rig is a must also, imo.

I'd go James River. Call Hootentown Canoe Rental. Ask to float from the campground to Mccall Bridge.

There was a pretty nice discussion on this forum, over a month ago, about the smallmouth fall migration. Smallmouth obviously migrate to wintering holes in the fall, and the fishing can be good if you find them. But this has been a weird fall. We've had some of the coldest temperatures of the year, and the water level has been hella low. Normally our falls are warmer and wetter. I haven't seen a whole lot of Ozark smallmouth reports either on this forum or anywhere else really. Has the extremely low water and at times really cold weather messed with the smallmouth at all? Has the low water not allowed them to reach their wintering holes? I haven't had a chance to go out in a while now, so I'm relegated to asking someone with more experience.

That's fascinating. Good info. Alot of animals migrate to the same spots year after year, so it wouldn't surprise me if smallmouth do the same. It makes me wonder as our winters get milder and milder, do the smallmouth migrate later? I mean, it's getting pretty common to have consistent sixty- degree weather into December. I wonder if that affects the smallmouth movement.

I don't mean to hijack, but I'm alittle curious for a quick answer. If they leave the smaller creeks where do they go? To the lakes? To a larger river? Example: I enjoy fishing Beaver Creek. Will they head closer to Bull Shoals?

Six hours if you fish just about every hole. But you could honestly make it an overnighter if you wanted to really slow down and fish.

I'm always looking for more fishing partners.

I don't use them much, but if I did I would Carolina rig them. I would probably stick with the baby brush hogs in smaller creeks and streams. I think they are very versatile. Buy a pack in a few different colors then go experiment! Use them exclusively for a stretch of river with a variety of habitat and you'll find out pretty quick I think.

Sweet fish!

Update: Fished from 8:00AM to 2:30 PM. Caught about a dozen or so bass. Smallies, largies and goggle eye. Largest was a 14 inch smallmouth. I sure have fallen in love with river fishing!

Yes, MUCH less people.

Thank you! I normally fish from Mcall Bridge to Indian Tree golf course. The fishing is good there! I think I am going to fish Hootentown to Mccall Bridge. I'll post pictures if I do well!