lukem

We had an awesome trip. The water got pretty high Thursday night and was still high Fri evening so I decided we would camp at the campground for Fri night and get shuttled in the morning. The water was still dingy, moving fast and a little high and coupled with the cold front, I wasn't able to do any good fishing; we only caught 1 rockbass. But my son loves to camp, paddle and fish so over-all it was a huge success.

Thanks for the tip on the Ned. He would love to pull in a few crappie.

Sounds like you got me all figured out, thanks for the input. But for the record, any person that grew up in STL or has read anything on this site knows about the float trip crowd, and any person who likes to catch the occasional bass should know those terms (I did have to google a Ned rig though)...I've never been on the BP but my handy Paddlers Guide to Missouri kindly gives me river mileages. I guess shame on me for doing a bit of research before bothering folks on here? Point taken on the food: hotdogs and s'mores for dinner and some biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Mineral Spring to Boiling is about 11 miles, Sandy Shoal to Boiling is less than 7. I feel like 7mi is too short but I'm leaning towards doing the shorter section. It will give us more time to camp and not be rushed. Now, any advice on tackle? Anything specific? My usual is worms rigged wacky, the occasional tube and a random crank or jerk. I would really like to get my son on some fish, don't have to be large for him...

Thanks for the replies and confirmation of that particular stretch. Looking into another option but it will most likely be Mineral to Boiling. joeD, do you have kids or do you take kids on trips with you?

I'm wanting to check out the Big Piney for the first time but was hoping to get some advice on where to go. I'll be bringing my 5 year old son with me and we will be leaving home (near STL) early Friday afternoon with the hope of getting on the water for a little bit then setting up camp and finishing up on Saturday. We will be fishing and doing the normal float stuff so 15 mi will be the max, and closer to 10 would probably be better. I have my own canoe so I would like to set up a shuttle and ideally float to the rental place where my truck is parked but if reasonably safe I would be fine having them leave it at an access point if that is what is required. I also really need to avoid rowdy crowds on Saturday At first look, I was thinking mineral springs to boiling springs but it looks like the majority of that section is outside of the NF? Any issues with gravel bar camping or being able to find a decent gravel bar? Any other options or suggestions? I'm looking at doing this on May 13th.

Thanks for posting. I hadn't read all the details but just the summary and the table outlining what activities would be allowed where which is confusing because it makes it look like camping on gravel bars won't be allowed in "primitive" or "natural" areas (page 49). It also states that gravel bar camping is allowed only in designated areas so that is why I was confused. But then in chapter 2, it says primitive camping is allowed but only accessibly by boat or foot for Alt A (pg 64). Alt B only states that primitive sites would continue to be provided but doesn't specifically mention watercraft or foot (pg 70). If it holds to be true that fishing and canoe camping will continue to be allowed as it currently is, the only real restrictions that have impacts are to the users that vehicle camp, use horses or run jet boats. I'm also a little concerned about the wilderness designation but that is off topic I assume for a fishing forum.

Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere but I did a quick search and nothing came up. I assume many here have seen this and I'm just starting to read through it to digest it. My main concern off the top is the possible limitations on gravel bar camping. I don't know yet what they are but it looks like it will be limited to designated areas. If this is being discussed elsewhere, please feel free to direct to that thread but I thought some discussion would be good for various insights. http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?parkId=158&projectId=15793

We floated from hwy 17 to Alley this past weekend. Fishing was good and the floating wasn't to bad from Blue Springs to Bay. We did have to walk through a lot of shallows but the views and the fishing made up for it.

So what you are saying is that even up through July, we can get a rental to take us to Buck Hollow? If that is the case, maybe we would be better off waiting a few weeks and doing it towards the end of June, begining of July. Thanks for the advice.

We didn't have any trouble getting a livery to rent to us and it was the second weekend in June. We just told them we were fishing but Buck Hollow was the furthest up they would go. I would like to go again at the same time but I just don't think it will be able to happen due to scheduling conflicts. Is the fishing better or worse earlier in the spring, say the end of Apr? We released all fish we caught!

I was wondering what time of the year is generally considered the best time to float for small mouth. Last year I did a 3 day float with a group of guys in early June and we caught a TON of fish. I'm not sure that same time frame will work out for us again and I'm wondering if we had a "fluke" weekend or if that is generally a great time of year. Is there a general rule on this river or is all circumstantial? We floated from 17 to Alley Spring last year. This year we would like to float from Prongs if the water is high enough.

Thought I would give a report on how our fishing was. It was the first time fishing Jacks Fork for any of us but I would say the fishing was excellent. We caught tons of 8-12" smallies. Occasionally we would hook on to a bigger one with the biggest being a solid 16". We caught a half dozen plus 15"er's, plus another dozen 13-14"er's. Most of these were caught on bitsy tubes with slider jig heads, wiggle wart, senko, and a gray and white strike king fluke. The bitsy tubes probably produced the most fish but the fluke, also fished with a slider jig, probably produced most of the larger fish. I really wanted to spend some more time working my fly rod but I was solo in a canoe and we were just fishing to hard and long to take much time for the fly rod since I'm just starting but that gives me an excuse to go back and concentrate on the fly rod!

I'm leaving this Fri morning to float and fish until Sunday. I believe we will be putting in at Prongs and floating to Bay Creek I beleive. If you could get us a report of your brothers trip that would be great. And any info on what they were hitting and what didn't work would be great aswell. The river gauges look like the water is expected to drop pretty fast but it doesn't look like it will be to low. I really appreciate all the info on this site, it has helped a lot in the planning of the trip. This will be our first canoe fishing trip and first real smallmouth trip.