Southeast Missouri

[GloryDaze]

I have the opportunity to spend a few days in Cape Girardeau, MO in the near future. I'm wondering if anyone has some ideas of rivers or streams I could float and fish for smallies on??

Any thoughts would be great!!

[Al Agnew]

Closest stream with canoe rentals and shuttle services is Castor River, about an hour or less west of Cape. Castor is one of the clearest streams in the Ozarks, rivals upper Black River in normal clarity. It's not very big, gets too low for easy floating in the summer but has plenty of water in the spring. Lots of smallmouth, but the super clear water can make for tough fishing. There are two or three campgrounds and canoe rentals in the area around the Hwy. 34 bridge.

Other than that, Whitewater River is marginally floatable if you have your own canoe and somebody to shuttle you. More spotted bass than smallies in the sections that are big enough to float.

And a little farther, maybe an hour and a half from Cape, is the St. Francis. Only canoe rental is at Sam A. Baker Park. They can also put you in on Big Creek, which is a St. Fran tributary that would be a nice springtime float. Big Creek is mostly smallmouth, St. Francis has all three bass species. St. Francis also sometimes has a white bass run up from Wappapello Lake, and some years they stay in the river in the Sam A. Baker area all spring. And there is a chance of catching a walleye in the St. Francis.

[MOsmallies]

I sent you a PM