Big Piney Fish Report

[creek wader]

Float/fished the Big Piney, 2 days, June 27 and June 28. Put in at Sand Shoals and floated to Boiling Spring the fisrt day. The 2nd day we went from Boiling Spring to Mason Bridge. 1st day was a beautiful day, partly cloudy with temps in the 80's. Water was at it's usual summer flow. It rained hard that night and most of the the 2nd day it rained, until we could see the take out. Then naturally, it cleared up and became a beautiful sunny day. Boiling Spring canoe rental and campground was wiped out in March by the floods, nearly all the cabins and the general store were wiped out. He nearly gave up on his business, but with help from his neighbors, Licking, Mo. businesses, and a local Morman church suppliing plenty of manpower, and all of his savings, it was rebuilt. It makes you feel good about your fellow man. Anyway, I used my inflatable yak. The Boilings Springs canoe rental gave me free shuttle both days. I owe them one. The others rented three canoes. Since, I was the only fisherman, the others insisted on having me play catch up with them. So, I didn't do any power fishing. Mainly fished the runs and below the riffles. I skipped most of the long deep pools and never spent much time in one spot. I wound up with about 40 smallies and about 20 google-eye, along with too many sunfish to count. I used mainly soft plastics. Anything resembling a crawfish worked well, along with senkos. I also, used a rooster tail and it gave me plenty of action with the smaller fish. No real size to report on the smallies. The biggest landed was 14 ", along with several 12"ers. Most were in the 10" range. Naturally the big one got away, again. Had a nice one to the yak, but it kept going under the boat. I was using 6lb. test and it made short work of it. I didn't have my drag set properly, (had just snagged up and had to break my line and didn't reset the drag, oops). I know excuses. It wasn't that big, maybe 16" or so, got a few decent looks at him. This section gets alot of pressure and I believe that most keepers (state reg. 12>) are kept. It's of shame but, that's all part of it. The section is a goggle-eye special mang. area. I think this helps. Most of them ran right around 8in. I caught one 9" and one 9 1/2". It looked like it had swallowed a golf ball. Not sure if it was eggs or had just had a meal. I noticed several of people keeping the goggle-eye just over the keeper limit. I think that this is common, also. The rain didn't hurt the bite. but I paddled during the heavy showers. So, I missed out on a lot of the fishing, the 2nd day. I think a feller could do pretty good on this stretch, if he took his time and power fished. I may try it again in the fall. If you ever want to float the Big Piney, please use the

Boiling Springs Resort & Canoe Rental, LLC • 573-674-3488

Reservations: 1-800-564-3285

15750 Hwy BB • Licking, MO 65542

Help the guy out. He's a good man and is trying hard to recover. All in all, it was a good trip. ... Wader

[G-ROD]

My buddy and I recently fished the Big Piney too....Overall not too bad, but fun to be out there. I believe I caught a meanmouth bass. Here is a pic of a SM & Meanmouth together. They were caught at the same time, the SM by my friend....................To show the difference, I took a pic of both at the same time. The SM was 15 3/4" the other was 14 7/8"..

We too caught mostly small fish but not as many as creekwader. Lots of dragging between holes. A local at Mason Bridge told us the river was up too. The fishing was better before the floaters started coming..

I have read that the meanmouth is a cross between a smallmouth & a Kentucky/spot. We did not catch any Kentuckies at all. Is this a meanmouth??

[creek wader]

It looked like a smallie at first glance, but after another look it does look like a meanmouth. The crosses vary a lot from fish to fish. They usually have the rough (sandpaper) tounge patch. I believe it is a cross (meanmouth).