ozark trout fisher

Thanks, I'll try that. I did lose a few nice fish and that could well have been the reason.

I think it is going to be a very rough summer on both fish and fisherman, unless something changes. We keep getting rain in the forecast, but nothing or very little ever seems to come of it. The streams in my part of the state aren't quite as low as you describe, but they do need rain. The temperatures the next several days are supposed to be near 100. And it's only May. I don't want to think too hard on where we'll be come July and August.

I was able to enlist a friend to go on this one. But when I have to go solo, I just try to pick a stretch where the accesses are pretty close together by road and use a bike to run the shuttle...I stash the canoe somewhere less than obvious, lock it up, and hope for the best. It is a real pain and always a bit nervewracking wondering whether it will be there when I get back. But I haven't come up with a better way yet. The Bourbeuse is a good stream for that though, because the river winds around so much that it will often be only a few road miles from one access to another.

I just got back from a little two day, one night camp on the Bourbeuse River, and as always, it was a really good time. The plan had been to do a twenty mile stretch, but in the end I decided to go the other direction, and went with a float that only required me to go a little over five miles each day. I thought it was going to be too short, but it gave me the chance to fish a lot of the water I normally paddle through, which I thought was really nice. I pushed off at 7:30 in the morning, wanting to give myself the whole day to fish hard. I noticed that the water was much clearer than usual, visibility as much as 4-5 feet in some areas. Since I was covering such a short distance, the plan was to spend about as much time wade-fishing as floating, so I only made it about a quarter mile down before I stopped to work over a good hole and rigged up my fly-rod. The skunk was off quickly, and I soon got into a pretty decent smallmouth, about 13 inches, followed by several fish in the 10 inch range, before the hole finally stopped giving up fish. I caught most of them on woollies, but got one to rise up and go after a hopper pattern, which was a lot of fun. The problem with that fly though was that you'd be catching 10 longears for every bass. Then I got back in the boat, and for simplicity's sake went to the spinning rod, rigged with a Rebel Teeny Craw. The fish were after that too. Every pool with good cover and current would give up at least one, and most of the time several smallies. The long slow holes weren't as good, but fish (mostly largemouth and spots, but some smallies too) could be caught around boulders, deadfall, and other structure. The fishing did go pretty well dead for a few hours about from 2-5 PM. But in the evening, having set up camp, I went back in my kayak to do some more fishing as things cooled down. From about 7:30 to 8 PM, the fish were absolutely on, and I think anyone could have caught them pretty easily. I was fishing a deep, slow pool, full of boulders of varying sizes. The smallies were in there thick (and a few largemouths and spots), and in that deep water they were almost all good fish, ranging from 12-15 inches. I lost several larger than that, but enough quality fish were brought to hand to make me very happy by the time it got dark. Today the fishing was considerably slower, but still not bad. The lower half of this float has a lot more dead water. While those areas hold fish, it's hard to fish them thoroughly, because the water seems uniform and featureless at times. But even though it was occasionally painstaking, it was worth it. Of course the areas with significant current were usually better, but only if there was good cover as well. Many of the fish in the slow water are small spotted bass, but there are also largemouth and a few smallmouth-and almost all of the smallies in these areas are good-sized fish. In all it was a very good couple of days of floating and fishing. This was helped along a great deal by seeing a grand total of four other canoes the whole time. A couple things I've learned on the Bourbeuse, that just came to mind after this float: First, when that river is fishing well, you don't get anywhere near the numbers that you would on the Big Piney or Jacks Fork. And the maximum size of what you can expect on a given day isn't much different. But the size of the average smallmouth on the Bourbeuse is as good, if not better than most any other Ozark stream I've fished. One other thing; everyone talks about how its necessary to focus on areas of good current on the Bourbeuse. That can certainly be important, but I think it's overblown. With the exception of a couple holes that are completely devoid of current, if there's good cover, there will generally be bass. No need always to look for fast, or even steady current. The slow water areas can be worth your time. Well that's it. I really like this river and hope to get back on it soon. Here's a couple photos (added 5/25/12) A bend on the Bourbeuse that was full of smallies and spots Paddling the kayak down one of the river's many deep, slow holes Camp, right on a very good pool

The plan is finally as close to set as it will probably get . Unless something changes, the first few days I'll be camping and kayaking on a lake in Pictured Rocks that is supposed to hold pike, brook trout, and perch, which is also located about a half mile from Lake Superior. And after that head inland to float and fish for brookies on a couple different rivers.

The scenery on that float is some of the best in the region. The fishing is a little...I guess we'll say inconsistent. There are smallmouth in that stretch and a few trout as well, but nothing spectacular. The smallie fishing does start to pick up in the lower half of that float between Pulltite and Round Spring, to the point where you can seriously target them. Until then, I would throw Rebel Teeny Craws, marabou jigs, and spinners, and enjoy catching plentiful longear sunnies and goggle-eye, along with the occasional smallmouth.

I know 20 miles is too long, really. But I'm just not able to find a float with the right distance for a two day trip on the Bourbeuse, except right at the lower end, and I'm not too interested in that area right now. So I'll have to try to make it work. I plan to start right about at dawn on the first day, and not too long after that on day 2 which will hopefully help mitigate the extra distance. I had hoped yesterday's rain would get the river pushing a bit more water, which might have helped the cause. But no such luck. Still, the gauge said about 90 cfs at Union, and compared to some of the times I've floated that river in the summer when it was all the way down in the 30s and 40s, that's still plenty of water.

The Big Piney is about as good of an option as anywhere you can rent a canoe. It is one of the better smallmouth streams in the state, and the scenery is as good as anywhere in the Ozarks. The crowds aren't as bad as some other rivers in the area like the Niangua, Current, or Meramec, but you still won't have it all to yourself. I like the Slabtown to Ross float for a two day, one night camp trip. The first half of that float tends to be very uncrowded, but half-way through there is a popular rental put in called six-crossings, and below there the party crowd really picks up. But it's hard to avoid that on any river with canoe rentals. The Eleven Point is also a great option, and even though it has a couple canoe rentals, the crowds are usually very minimal. It's a wilderness river, or as close to that as we have in Missouri. For a two day float, I'd recommend Greer Crossing to Whitten. This is some of the best trout water in the state. The Gasconade is one final stream I can think of that you should look at. Here is a list of rivers to AVOID if you don't want the party crowd... Black River Current River Jacks Fork Meramec River Huzzah and Courtious Creek (don't even bother correcting my spelling on that people, I already know it's almost certainly wrong) Niangua River

Nice! An eighteen incher on the Bourbeuse is a pretty special fish, plus a rainbow. Sounds like quite a day. I'm planning to float it and fly-fish it this week, so good to hear it's fishing well.

Reikers to Union. The more I think about it, the reason why that distance seemed wrong to me is probably that I tend to paddle more through more dead water and get out to wade less on the Bourbeuse than I would on other rivers. A 14 or 15 mile float on the Big Piney or Meramec is long for me even for two days, because the fish tend to be spread out through a greater percentage of the water, and those streams are very conducive to getting out and doing a lot of wading. That's not really true on the Bourbeuse. So for me, despite the slow current, I guess floats on that river take less time for me than they would elsewhere. If that makes any sense.

Interesting. Guess I was completely wrong. I don't know why that float always seems shorter to me. Maybe it's because I don't get out and wade-fish as much on the Bourbeuse as I do on other streams, so it just doesn't take as long. But this is encouraging as to feasibility of the float I want to do next week.

You know, I haven't been on it in awhile, unfortunately. Last spring and summer I hit the Bourbeuse like crazy. For a couple months there, it was to the point where I was on it 2, 3 days a week and I wasn't really fishing anywhere else. It's a special stream, for sure. But ever since I've moved out to the central part of the state I've been fishing streams out there. I do really miss it. I know it'll probably be longer than I want, but I think I'll go ahead and try this anyway, just because it's pretty hard to find two day floats on the BB that are the right length. The accesses tend to be at really inconvenient intervals for whatever reason. I think I should be able to make this work with really early starts- and a whole bunch of paddling.

I have a question that I've wanted to ask for awhile about the float from Reikers Ford to Mayers Landing. I've floated that section quite a few times now, and even though Southwest Paddler and Missouri Canoe's sites say that is an 11 mile float, I have always had a hard time believing that. 11 miles is a long day's float on a river that has considerably faster current (if you're fishing hard)-and on the Bourbeuse, that should be really tough. But I've started that float late morning even in the summer when the water is down, and it's always been very manageable, even with some stops to wade fish, eat lunch, etc. Long story short, I think that mileage is way off. I know what an 10 or 11 mile float feels like, and this one doesn't fit the description. Anyone think the same thing, or am I totally off here?? The only reason why I ask is that I am considering doing a two day, 20 mile float on the BB next week, even though my gut feeling is that this is way too far. But if that, a fairly easy one day float, is really 11 miles, then this should be fairly doable. I have my doubts...

I enjoyed it.

Reminds me of some of my experiences chasing brookies in the Adirondacks...Nothing like going through hell and back, paddling and portaging through swamps and waist deep mud for a few 8 inch fish. But somehow it usually ends up being worth it though! I'm already excited for this one...

Thanks for the replies. I'm not totally locked in, but as of this moment I'm planning to head to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, on the Lake Superior coast of Michigan's UP. I'm leaning towards this mainly because of the scenery and the brookie fishing. But I'm still open for ideas.

The regular pole and line record is a good deal larger, 13 pounds 4 ounces I believe. Obviously there was plenty of luck involved here, but my inclination is definitely just to congratulate the guy if for no other reason than he released the fish (which is more than you can say of the majority of folks who catch a record fish on pole and line.) We need more people who would do the same in that situation.

Thanks

Alright, I need a bit of help. I've just recently found out that it appears I'll be able to snag about a week off in August to go somewhere. I'd like to fish for smallmouth or trout, but I don't really care which. I've at least briefly considered a whole laundry list of places from Colorado to Arkansas, but for now, I believe I've got it narrowed down to four, two in Virginia and two in Michigan... 1. The Mount Rogers National Recreation Area/Jefferson National Forest area in southwestern Virginia-there's supposed to be some good mountain stream fishing for brookies and rainbows there. 2. Shenandoah National Park/Shenandoah Valley in Virginia for trout and smallies 3. Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan's UP for smallies, pike, etc. I've actually have visited the UP, but that was years ago and I didn't have really have the chance to check out more than a few lakes and streams. 4. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula-I've heard that the smallmouth fishing can be pretty good in this area. If anyone has personal experience fishing (or even just visiting) any of these areas, I'd be most thankful for a little help. I plan to be camping everywhere I go, and while I'll likely have either have a canoe or kayak with me, any type of water that requires more than that probably won't be an option. Thanks a lot!

Round Spring to Two Rivers has excellent smallmouth fishing, with some good goggle-eye fishing as well. There aren't too many slow stretches unless the water is really low.

Sounds like a good trip. If you start further upstream like you mentioned this week, you should definitely have better trout fishing...The stretch below Vida Slab is starting to get a little iffy for trout by now. Down there it's going to be mostly smallmouth fishing from now to about October. Yancy to to Newburg is going to be a very full day's float with all the dragging you'll have to do. Better start early, and good luck!

Very nice. That part of the creek is a fun wade. I'm hopefully getting out somewhere next weekend, and it just might be the Huzzah...

Thanks. Though I should probably just stop saying that I have a trip planned on a certain day, because of course it didn't work out. I ended up only being able to steal a couple hours for some pond fishing, not the full day I'd need for a float-and tomorrow is a no-go as well. But I appreciate the info all the same, and if possible I'll try to sneak out sometime next week to fish it...We'll see how it goes.

Dang! That makes our issues around here sound pretty minor. Hope you all get some rain out there.

If you are fishing even remotely hard, no. A good day's float if you are fishing can be anywhere from 5-12 miles, depending on your pace, ideally (at least in my opinion) 7-8 per day. A good two and a half day float would be anywhere from about 17-25 miles. Now if you are just paddling and don't mind setting a nice, brisk pace, 35 miles would be doable for a 2 1/2 day float.