Surprising Article About Salt River

[eric1978]

This is a snippet I found in an article from MO Game & Fish:

SALT RIVER

"The Salt River, in northeast Missouri, is another tributary to the Mississippi River. "Largemouth bass can be found from below the Clarence Cannon Dam on Mark Twain Lake all the way to the Mississippi," said MDC biologist Ross Dames.

According to Dames, the Salt River is very similar to an Ozark stream in its upper reaches. Gravel and rock substrates are common, as are riffles, boulders and limestone bluffs. "The river is quite scenic." Dames added.

The Salt River does not take on the characteristics of a north Missouri stream until it hits the Mississippi floodplain in its last five miles. Lots of woody cover and boulders provide ample structure for big bass to hide in.

With the Salt River dumping into the Mississippi, a good forage base is available to bass. Gizzard shad, suckers, small drum, fathead minnows, crayfish and a variety of other small fish make up the food base. While there are no extensive surveys about the Salt River fishery, Dames pointed out that largemouth bass fishermen would do well to concentrate their efforts in the first two miles of the river below the reregulation dam. There is an access point at the site, which is just off state Route H.

Locals have kept it secret that the Salt River is a sleeper when it comes to smallmouth bass, which have been showing up more and more here in the last five years. Chris Williamson, another MDC biologist in the region, has turned up smallmouth bass measuring up to 21 inches in his surveys."

Anyone had any experiences with this river? I didn't think smallmouth could be found this high up in the state.

[Gavin]

http://mdc.mo.gov/fish/watershed/salt/biotic/350bct09.htm

They are there, and they have been there awhile...doesnt look like they are common though.

[laker67]

They swam upstream and turned left.

[ozark trout fisher]

A buddy of mine went floating down below the re-reg and caught a bunch of largemouth and a few smallies. I've never fished it though.

There are smallies in there though, unless he's lying.

[BredMan]

There's no secret to the smallmouth on the Salt River. Not sure why that was stated other than to make the article seem more appealing. That's been known for a good while. Also there have been many bass tournaments held on the Mississippi that include the Salt and they all fish it and know about it. Thats been going on for years. I had one of my best days if not my best day ever fishing on the Salt. It holds just about every fish Missouri offers except trout. One thing, don't expect a crystal clear stream because it's not especially the lower part closer to the ole Miss. It's always dingy or kind of muddy. Lots of farm land run off.

[eric1978]

There's no secret to the smallmouth on the Salt River. Not sure why that was stated other than to make the article seem more appealing. That's been known for a good while. Also there have been many bass tournaments held on the Mississippi that include the Salt and they all fish it and know about it. Thats been going on for years. I had one of my best days if not my best day ever fishing on the Salt. It holds just about every fish Missouri offers except trout. One thing, don't expect a crystal clear stream because it's not especially the lower part closer to the ole Miss. It's always dingy or kind of muddy. Lots of farm land run off.

What sections have you floated? I'd like to give it a shot sometime, but I really don't want to get into the muddy Miss water. Did you fish down from the rereg dam?

[eric1978]

Are there any public accesses around any of the better sections?

Are the Middle and Elk Fork rivers tribs of the salt?

[brownieman]

Hoppers,

cmon wrench...you guys were noodlin weren't ya ??

That 3rd pic explains quite a bit about what happened to you, lmao.

Just tryin to have a little fun without gettin censored, lol

later on

[KCRIVERRAT]

I seem to remember reading something about smallmouth being in the Fox River way up in extreme N.E. Missouri... anyone heard or know of this?

[ozark trout fisher]

I've never seen the Fox, but from reading this....

http://mdc.mo.gov/fish/watershed/fox/contents/

it doesn't sound likely.

From the "biotic community" section on the Fox River's watershed report:

Creek and small river habitats (e.g. Honey Creek, Little Fox River and the upper Fox River) support a richer fish fauna than the headwaters. The most common species were the central stoneroller, red shiner, bigmouth shiner, sand shiner, suckermouth minnow, bluntnose minnow, quillback, shorthead redhorse, channel catfish, mosquitofish, orangespotted sunfish, smallmouth bass and slenderhead darter.