jibro

I float from Batist to Akers in 2 days (Baptist to Cedar day 1, Cedar to Akers day 2) every April. Never had a problem with water levels or dragging that time of year, plenty of camping spots on each section. The only pain is the low water bridge at Cedar. If your canoe is fully loaded down it sucks. Is it exciting? Sure as far as fishing goes but not really much for rapids and really fast moving watrer unless its blown out

So i took the 'yak out both Sat and Sun. Put in at Merill and went up about 2 miles and down maybe 3/4 mile.. Caught fish both days the entire time i was out. This river is fishing great this year. Smallies ranging from 10 inches up to 16. Had 2 spots that went 13 and 14. All came on a senko. As usual find the current and their will be fish.

yeah thats why i wont float the current or the meracec/huzzah/coutois in the summer on a weekend. before memorial day and after labor day you are fine on the weekends but the summer brings out the party floaters. big piney is great any time of year, hardly run into anyone there and its not much farther. we went on memorial day weekend and only came across 4 other canoes.

Hell yes!!! just got a kayak 2 weeks ago and im dying to use it.

wading with the canoe is what you will be doing, actaully dragging the canoe is what you'll be doing. I would put in at Eminence and float to 2 rivers. That is a good 1 day float with time to fish. Im not familiar enough with the current below 2 rivers to tell where the next take out would be. You are going on a weekend so yeah you are going to have other people to deal with. If thats not doable go during the week or go to the Big Piney hell i never run into anyone there.

When i woke up Thursday morning i thought i had slept through til Spring. We got to the river at 7:00 on the water at 7:30 temp was 63 freakin degrees. River was high and moving. fished from 7:30 to 12:00. Had very little to show for it. 2 keeper spots and 1 drum that went 9 lbs.. Both the bass were really fat. One had a 5 inch shad down its throat. Evening 4-8 more of the same and we fished hard only to come up with 1 keeper spot that was 14 inches and anther large drum. Again the spot spit up a large shad. Went back to house had dinner and beers and discussed tomorrows strategy. Next morning was chilly again. Fog was so thick you couldn't see the other side of the river. Hit the water again around 7:00. We through everything known to man in different shapes, colors, sizes and just very few fish. Maybe 2-3 keepers that morning. Saw another few guys fishing and they ahd come up empty well by 10:30 one of our crew hooked himself deep with a treble hook so back to the house for some quick surgery. We got to drinkin most of the afternoon and didnt get back out til 5:00 - 9:00 but it made little difference 1 keeper and 1 drum. At this point all of the bass we have caught are coughing up large shad 5-7 inches. Everything we are throwing is not a shad imitation thin fins, rattle traps, crank baits and they are just not taking it. Back to the house to lick our wounds. Sat morning again the fog, again we wait til 7:00. Still not discouraged we venture off again. Finally something good happened that i was waiting for all weekend. Got down to a nice deep hole, lots of concrete, lots of current. We have been know to pull walleye from here in the past. After 30-45 minutes of throwing a crank bait through it something good struck. After a battle through the rough water I landed a 19 inch eye. Caught 2 more keeper bass, and fished till 11. Back to the house as the rest of family was showing up. Rest of the weekend was spent fishing off the deck and around the house. That produced a 16 inch smallie and 181/2 inch walleye. Overall awesome weekend to be at the river. You could not have asked for better weather REALLY!!! Fishing could have been better. You really had to work hard to get some fish. The walleye (as usual) were the highlight for me. I don't fish for them so when i do get one or two its a real treat and 2 that size was awesome. I honestly think the bass had so much to eat by the time we had started fishing that they couldn't handle anymore. The shad were many and huge. Hope everyone had a great 4th.

well after a bunch of research, last night i purchased a 10 foot Precision Pescador. It seems like most people have a 12 foot yak. I opted for the 10 foot because i have a canoe thats 14, 2 feet less really wasn't saving me any room and i like the idea of the smaller yak being able to penetrate smaller area. sure i lose a little storage but if im going to overnight it ill be in the canoe where there is more than plenty of room

wow must have come down hard. how much did you get?

i would start at Baptist. Day 1 Baptist to Cedar. Day 2 Cedar to around Welsh. .5 Welsh to Akers Plenty of time to fish,relax, and enjoy.

yes i will be below clearwater. the few reports i see are usually for above Clearwater but never below. great fishing down here when the water level is stable

the older i get the fewer people i have to fish with. so im looking for something that i can fish out of solo. I would prefer something that has horizontal rod holders rather than vertical. i fish a lot of rivers and i can see those poles getting broke by tree limbs as i float past

No idea where Rockford Beach is. Be careful out there folks. Big River is smaller but just as dangerous as any river. http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/2014/06/17/missing-man-big-river/10690633/

Does no one fish this river? I can see my report from last year is still at the top. Well no worries all I'm heading down again on July 2nd for a 4 day weekend of fishing and i will certainly report back here. Bring on the 'eyes!!

"Hiking A Friend Out From The River With A Tonka Truck Lodged Painfully In His Lower Chute" Whoa whoa, backup a second. you cant just leave us with that statement, this story begs to be told

it looked about what i remember it looking like. the half of the lake with the dam looked about normal and the shallow half....... well it was shallow id say its right at normal pool

Above Cedar Grove i have done well with really small crankbaits. Especially craw or minnow cranks. Once you get past the low water bridge we have crushed on them on Gulp Alive 3 inch emerald shiners. Rooster tails, rat tails, and white trout worms have caught us quite a few. After Akers start fishing for bass. 3-4 inch brown grubs and senkos the rest of the way.

it was a little brownish, still had 2 feet of clarity but i usually prefer it a bit greener in color. but what the hell do i know i dont catch 18 inch smallmouth when its greener LOL

ooops i got the date wrong too. it was 6/8. i obviously didn't put in at noon today. LOL although...............

if you all cam find those spots based on the pics you're welcome to them

Put in about 6:15 and headed to the dam. First cast in with a senko and had a 11 inch LM on. Such was the story the whole day. We probably caught 20 bass all on senkos most of which were 11 iches. Had 4 that went 12. 1 bluegill that was hand size caught on a cricket the rest were tiny. Got off just as the rain started coming down. Overall one of my better days at Busch. Fish were biting the whole time. Nothing huge but i dont really expect that much fishing here.

Put in at noon. Excellent temps, cool, overcast, River was high but clarity was not that bad certainly were not the best water conditions to ask for but the fish didn't care. Caught fish all day long. There are a lot of long slow streches of this float so any time you find current there will be fish and that held true yesterday. Started off with a few small fish and within an hour had a few 12 inch smallies. Started throwning a craw crank and right off the back of a stump came a 15 1/2 inch LM nice little chunk. Not 20 minutes later we hit my favorite little section of this float and one particular run that always produces a few solid fish. 18 inch smallie took off with the bait, in and out of the current, jumping up and down, great fight. By far the fish of the day. No sooner than i let him go had another 14 incher on. Rest of the day held more of the same. Quite a fe 13 -14 inch smallies, handful of bluegill. my buddy had a decent cat on early in the float but came off after a decent fight. Got off the river about 7:30 just as the darkness was rolling in. Awesome day that i did not expect to have after having to bail on my JF trip.

thanks for the tips Al. accessing from a bridge is something i have been wondering about. i am using google earth to check some creeks out and a lot of the accesses seem like a bridge. I figured just pulling off the road and parking on the shoulder somewhere near a bridge would get me towed. But searching for other peoples tracks and parking spots seems very logical

thank you ness. that one looks interesting especailly since i would rather catch smallies than anything else. i like how low budget it looks. will def check it out

understood. Hopefully with the references posted here ill be able to find some of these gems. No worries all, any fish caught will be returned to their homes unharmed (caveat: there maybe a small hole in their mouths LOL)

nice.thanks for the tip. i will check it out