Bourbeuse River

[405z06]

Anyone fish this float? Peter's Ford to the Noser Mill? I have done this float 2x in the past couple of weeks. The first 1/2 of it I like a lot. Fairly scenic and interesting. The water is nowhere near the clarity of the Huzzah or Courtois, but I knew that going in. Fishing has been pretty good both times that I have been, both with smallies and some nice sized spots and an occasional largemouth.

About 1/2 way through the float, however, the water starts backing up a bit from the mill, the current seemingly disappears, and the bass disappear with it. A lot of it looks really nice, but it seemed to hold no bass (I realize the small sample size, let me know if your experience has been different). And with the lack of current, there is no real "floating": you have to really work to go anywhere and it's a long haul back to your vehicle. If if your timing is bad, like it was for me this weekend, you could run into some wind to really make things miserable.

It's just a shame...for St Louis area folks it's about 45 minutes away, the fishing seems to be pretty good, but the last 1/2 of the float is so brutal, I don't think I can bring myself to do that float again. Until next year when I forgot how bad it is

Anyone else have experience with this float that they would like to share?

[Al Agnew]

Well, that comes with the territory on the Bourbeuse. It's one of the slowest Ozark rivers, if not THE slowest. Every stretch seems to have some long, dead pools. There's a pool on the Reikers Ford to Mayer's Landing float that is two miles long! And those long, dead pools never seem to produce anything but a few small largemouths.

[creek wader]

It seems like most of the rivers have the long deep never ending pools. Makes a guy wish he had a square stern canoe with a trolling motor. One such pool that comes to mind, is the stretch on the Meramec River right before Scott's Ford. Below Meramec Spings there's a good current for a few miles, then it just stops and becomes dead water. I've tried to fish that long deep pool and have never even got a hit. It's just part of stream fishing. I guess we've got to take the good with the bad.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I put a trolling motor on the side of a regular canoe. It gets the job done, but it's a hassle during the shuttle. We can stay in the good water longer and motor through the bad. BTW it works better towards the front of a regular canoe.

SIO3

[creek wader]

I"ve seen that done. It'll add some weight with the battery. But, it beats paddling on dead water for a mile or two in 90 deg. weather.

[405z06]

I don't know if I would call it "stretch" of water. I can deal with a "stretch". This is more like the entire last half of the float.

I was looking at a map of the area and, with the way the river bends and swings, it may be possible to take out and skip much of the dead-water section. It is pretty much an empty field in that area. I will talk with the owner/operators next time I have the itch to hit the Bourbeuse again and see if it's possible.

[Gavin]

Its a short shuttle, but the last half of that float kinda stinks...and the fishing on the first half isnt great...I'd go above or below...and take a trolling motor. Lots of frog water on the BB...I run one of the back of my canoe on occasion, and its worked well. You can get a mount from Old Town..