May 6 Float

[MOFishwater]

Went down to Bearcat Getaway for a weekend of camping w/ some friends, had a Stream Team cleanup planned and wanted to check out the conditions. Had not been down since the dam break. had a wonderful float, barely any garbage visible (water was super high). Finally got my first MO Smallmouth, i've floated and fished the Black numerous times and always got skunked aside from some shiners hitting my fly. Caught the one pictured on a beetlespin w/ a dark grub. Started raining about 1.5m from the putout, unfortunately and we started paddling pretty hard so we could get out of the rain sooner. Of course, the fish started hammering my buzzbait right about that time. Had some monsters whack it but miss, ended up w/ 3 decent fish and lost a few on the fight. Prob missed 5 more that had poor aim. River is looking decent, there is some silt on the bottom that didnt used to be around but all in all looked good. Ended the trip w/ a stop at Taum Sauk to visit the waterfalls. Nice weekend!

Waterfalls at Taum Sauk:

[Griffster]

Thanks for the report and pics too. Glad to hear the river...is not too bad. I hope to get down there a couple times this summer.

Cg