Great Day On The River

[ozark trout fisher]

Left the house at about 10 this morning... Was planning to just go to the Mayers landing access like usual (just upriver of Union), but decided instead to drive an extra half hour to the Mill Rock Access. I was glad I did. This is the first time I'd ever been this far upriver, and it looked totally different, way more like a typical ozark stream than the stretch I'm used to fishing.

When I got rigged up, I decided to start of by fishing the deeper pools, because the riffles were really shallow in the area. I tried that (fishing with a nightcrawler along with a split shot) for about an hour, and caught only a couple sunfish. Finally, I decided to try one particularly shallow riffle downriver of the access. The water was less than a foot deep, but I fished there for about an hour, and caught three quality smallmouth bass, along with about 20 sunfish. I was shocked to find the bass holding in this water (the exact place I caught the biggest of the bass was only about 7 inches deep, I checked later), but the technique produced a few bronzebacks. That's all I needed to have an awesome day. The catching was slow, but the fishing was great.

It's a really pretty area, with a a bluff just above the riffle I was fishing. The water was the typical color of the river this time of year, a bit stained, but pretty shallow and very fishable. The river flow was perfect for wading, but I wouldn't suggest anyone try to float it. You might be able to make it work, but there would be plenty of dragging.

It was really just a nice day to be on the river today. The high was less than 80 degrees out here.

[ozark trout fisher]

Also, all bass caught appeared to be purely smallmouth. No spotted, largemouth, or smallmouth/spotted bass hybrids were caught or seen.

Very different from the Union area, where it seems the majority of the bass caught are spots or largemouth, although I do catch a smallmouth down there from time to time.

[Al Agnew]

Good to hear that they were smallmouth. I fear for the upper Bourbeuse, although so far the spotted bass haven't exploded in population above Noser Mill. In the stretches between Noser Mill and Union, it only took about 4 years for the spotted bass to increase from nothing to the point where they outnumbered smallmouth.

The smallies on the upper Bourbeuse really get squeezed in the summer when the water gets low. They will always try to hang around current rather than staying in the dead pools, but the current areas really get shallow on the upper Bourbeuse. I'm not surprised you were finding them in shallow water.

[ozark trout fisher]

Good to hear that they were smallmouth. I fear for the upper Bourbeuse, although so far the spotted bass haven't exploded in population above Noser Mill. In the stretches between Noser Mill and Union, it only took about 4 years for the spotted bass to increase from nothing to the point where they outnumbered smallmouth.

The smallies on the upper Bourbeuse really get squeezed in the summer when the water gets low. They will always try to hang around current rather than staying in the dead pools, but the current areas really get shallow on the upper Bourbeuse. I'm not surprised you were finding them in shallow water.

Your not kidding about the smallies being squeezed in... It seems 100% of the water is either super shallow riffles or dead, deep pools.

It's odd about the spotted bass. I can't believe how fast they can take over smallmouth bass water. It's a pretty sad deal.

[bourbeusefisher]

I agress about the Spots.Most of the time the fish that I catch this time of the year are Spots. Winter is the only time where I catch quality Smallies.

[riverfish86]

Same here. In the summer, spots and largemouth dominate. We do most of our fishing between mill rock and peter's ford.

Once the water cools off and they congregate it's a whole different story.

[BredMan]

Talked to a guy who participated in a "Stream Clean" just a couple weekends ago on the Bourbeuse. Not only did they get plenty of junk but they caught the heck out of everything and it was like that all day. He's a 'catch-n-release' guy so it was some great fishing for him.

[eric1978]

Left the house at about 10 this morning... Was planning to just go to the Mayers landing access like usual (just upriver of Union), but decided instead to drive an extra half hour to the Mill Rock Access. I was glad I did. This is the first time I'd ever been this far upriver, and it looked totally different, way more like a typical ozark stream than the stretch I'm used to fishing.

When I got rigged up, I decided to start of by fishing the deeper pools, because the riffles were really shallow in the area. I tried that (fishing with a nightcrawler along with a split shot) for about an hour, and caught only a couple sunfish. Finally, I decided to try one particularly shallow riffle downriver of the access. The water was less than a foot deep, but I fished there for about an hour, and caught three quality smallmouth bass, along with about 20 sunfish. I was shocked to find the bass holding in this water (the exact place I caught the biggest of the bass was only about 7 inches deep, I checked later), but the technique produced a few bronzebacks. That's all I needed to have an awesome day. The catching was slow, but the fishing was great.

It's a really pretty area, with a a bluff just above the riffle I was fishing. The water was the typical color of the river this time of year, a bit stained, but pretty shallow and very fishable. The river flow was perfect for wading, but I wouldn't suggest anyone try to float it. You might be able to make it work, but there would be plenty of dragging.

It was really just a nice day to be on the river today. The high was less than 80 degrees out here.

My buddy and I are both off on Tuesday and we were thinking about hitting the Bourbeuse that day. I was thinking about Mill Rock down to Wenkel Ford. You think with this rain we've been having (and looks like we'll have a few more days) that stretch should be semi-floatable by then? How long you think that stretch is OTF? About 8 miles or so?

[ozark trout fisher]

My buddy and I are both off on Tuesday and we were thinking about hitting the Bourbeuse that day. I was thinking about Mill Rock down to Wenkel Ford. You think with this rain we've been having (and looks like we'll have a few more days) that stretch should be semi-floatable by then? How long you think that stretch is OTF? About 8 miles or so?

Either 7 or 8, can't remember of the top of my head....

I would think it would for sure be at least semi-floatable. Even a couple weeks ago, you could have muscled through the riffles, and have lots of long pools that would be easy to get through. You would be wanting to fish the riffles mostly anyway, so getting out of your boat wouldn't be all that bad. It would be real comfortable, cause you'd have to get out of your boat often, but you could do it. It just depends on how much your willing to work on a float. The water levels could rise significantly also, which would both help the fishing, and make floating a heck of a lot easier. Just know it doesn't rise, you'll be dragging through about every riffle. It might be worth it though. It would definitely be a long day of it.

I had planned on getting out on it in my kayak this weekend (paddling upstream, and fishing my way back down from Mill Rock), but a back injury sort of put a kibosh on those plans. Oh well.

[eric1978]

Either 7 or 8, can't remember of the top of my head....

I would think it would for sure be at least semi-floatable. Even a couple weeks ago, you could have muscled through the riffles, and have lots of long pools that would be easy to get through. You would be wanting to fish the riffles mostly anyway, so getting out of your boat wouldn't be all that bad. It would be real comfortable, cause you'd have to get out of your boat often, but you could do it. It just depends on how much your willing to work on a float. The water levels could rise significantly also, which would both help the fishing, and make floating a heck of a lot easier. Just know it doesn't rise, you'll be dragging through about every riffle. It might be worth it though. It would definitely be a long day of it.

I had planned on getting out on it in my kayak this weekend (paddling upstream, and fishing my way back down from Mill Rock), but a back injury sort of put a kibosh on those plans. Oh well.

I don't mind doing some dragging. I think with the rain it should be pretty doable.