An Interesting Float Adventure

[Al Agnew]

Six creeks big enough to furnish some fishing for smallmouth bass enter the Mississippi between the Meramec, just south of St. Louis, and Cape Girardeau, where the Mississippi leaves its passage along the edge of the Missouri Ozarks. Two of these six creeks have similar size forks upstream from their mouths, so in reality we're talking about eight creeks altogether. Geologically, these creeks come off the steepest edge of the Missouri Ozark Plateau, so they drop fairly rapidly in their headwaters, but slow down as they approach the big river.

In order from the farthest upstream, they are Joachim Creek and Plattin Creek, which enter the Mississippi at Festus, Establishment Creek and it's tributary fork Fourche du Clos Creek, which enter the river near Bloomsdale, River Aux Vases, which comes into the upstream end of Kaskaskia Island, Saline Creek and its tributary the South Fork Saline which enters the river at the lower end of Kaskaskia, and Apple Creek, which forms the northern border of Cape Girardeau County. There is another creek, Indian Creek, which comes in below Apple Creek and in the past had a small population of smallies, but it was always pretty small and fragile and has suffered from development in the Cape area.

Starting around 1970, spotted bass invaded first Apple Creek, and then the rest of the creeks in order upstream, reaching the Meramec by the early 1980s. So, whether or not the lower sections of these creeks ever had a lot of smallmouth, they are now spotted bass water. But the faster upper sections have mostly remained smallmouth habitat, at least in the case of Saline, River Aux Vases, and Establishment. Apple Creek has an old mill dam 15 miles or so above its mouth that formed a barrier to spotted bass encroachment for many years, but I haven't been on Apple for a long time so I don't know the present situation there...Apple is the slowest of these creeks and is spotted bass type habitat well above the mill dam.

And...of all the creeks within an hour or so of where I live, I had never fished two of these 8 streams. Until today, when I added one of them to my list. Mary had to go somewhere that would bring her pretty close to this creek, so I got the great idea that she could shuttle me as she traveled to her destination. We loaded my solo canoe on our Highlander, put the Prius racks in the back of that vehicle, and drove both vehicles to the take-out, where we left the Prius. Then we went to the put-in, a high bridge with no good place to park, where we unloaded the canoe on the road shoulder and Mary left for her destination. I dragged the canoe and gear down to the creek and started what would be a ten mile float.

The creek up there had just enough water to float most riffles, but a lot of it was bedrock bottom and very shallow ledge rock riffles. At first, I was seeing few bass, and my first catch was a 12 inch spotted bass. I was surprised. Spots that far up the creek? The water was clear, slightly brownish stained but with visibility of 5 feet or more. It was in the 60s and with that clear, shallow water, looked like it should be a good topwater day. Sure enough, after that first spot on a spinnerbait, a 13 inch smallie took a Sammy.

But, there wasn't really much happening in the first mile or two. Then the creek dropped out of the bedrock bottom section into more typical Ozark habitat with gravel and cobble bottom. There were some pools that were flat and mostly devoid of cover, but other pools had nice logs and rootwads, and the occasional rocky hole. I began to see more fish, but they were still rather uncooperative. I began seeing smallmouth on beds. Aha, that explained the lack of feeding activity.

One thing about these direct tribs of the Mississippi--you'll see a lot of fish that aren't typical of normal Ozark streams, coming up out of the big river. There were longnose gar spawning on every riffle. Big drum swam in the bigger pools. I saw some huge carp. Quillback carpsuckers. And...a very scary discovery: There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of silver carp, those horrific invaders of the Mississippi that are famous for jumping from the sound of an outboard and smacking the operator. They were all of two sizes, about 14 inches, and about 18 inches, and they ran in schools of 4 to 20 or so fish in every pool.

The creek remained about the same in character for the next few miles, with a nice mix of pools and riffles, log and rock cover, water in the pools from 2 to 4 feet deep with deeper areas around big root wads. I started seeing more and more fish, and getting some action on the Sammy, but a lot of fish were striking and missing. I switched to a popper, which often works to get those short-striking fish, and caught a few on it, but it wasn't getting as much action. I switched to a different popper, and immediately caught a beautiful, fat, 16 inch smallmouth/spot hybrid, then three more smaller ones. But then that popper hit a drought. I switched back to the Sammy. Same thing. I threw my homemade twin spin off and on, and caught a couple really fat 15 inch spotted bass. I threw a tube in some good looking root wads and caught one nice rock bass.

The creek slowed a bit more, with deeper pools and more logs. On the Mississippi tribs I usually fish, this would be a signal that the smallmouth were getting scarce. Some of these streams have a very sharp demarcation line between spot habitat and smallie habitat. But not this one. I was seeing more and more smallies. I raised a big one, had it on for a short time, and it got off. I hooked another good one, got it to the canoe, and it escaped. I switched to a third popper, and immediately caught a nice 14 incher and a largemouth. Then I came to a good pool with deep water and big logs. There were overhanging trees and a lot of brush, and the best cover was almost impossible to fish. I got past it, and made a cast to the downstream end of one of the big logs. The big smallie came off the log and charged the lure from five feet away, hitting it violently, one of those truly memorable strikes. And it stayed hooked. I didn't measure it, but I took pictures of it on my paddle blade, and I know how long the paddle blade is. The fish was pushing 20 inches. Right below, I got another one, this one about 17. In the next mile I got more action both from smallies and big spotted bass, 15-16 inchers. And then the stream slowed a bit more yet, and began to dig into its banks as all these creeks do at some point on their travel to the Mississippi. I caught one more nice 16 inch smallie and a couple more good spotted bass. And then I reached high mud banks, a narrowing channel, fewer riffles, and finally in the last two miles I was in almost totally flat water.

The final tally was about 30 bass, almost evenly divided between spots, smallies, and largemouth, with 5 hybrids in the mix. And although there were a few more spots in the lower sections, the three species were almost evenly distributed as well. All in all, a very interesting float, and a creek I'll definitely fish again.

I'll post pictures tomorrow.

[eric1978]

Weird wild stuff. Sounds like one heck of a diverse little stream. The only Mississippi creek I've fished is Joachim, and only about a mile of it (where it had all that bedrock). Sounds like a cool place to explore, fishing or not.

[Gavin]

Sounds like fun...I've fished Joachim a bit, but its been a long time. Headed down to camp at Hawn in a month or so...might have to explore a bit. Thanks for the report.

[Mitch f]

I have fished Joachim Creek in Festus, a good friend owns property that has river frontage. It is capable of producing large fish in the 20" range. This stream is one of Missouri's great treasures. Last year he caught a guy wading on his property with a stringer full (well over the limit) of 15-17" smallmouth, dragging them down the river. The guy claimed he had no idea what the limits were. These streams unfortunately are susceptible to 1 or 2 bad eggs destroying the fish population. There is really no way to police these streams very well. The only good thing to say is at least you cant' get those darn jet boats (I own one) down a small creek like that...............ha ha

Anyway, sounds like a lot of fun Al! thanks for the post

[Dan Kreher]

I have fished Joachim Creek in Festus, a good friend owns property that has river frontage. It is capable of producing large fish in the 20" range. This stream is one of Missouri's great treasures. Last year he caught a guy wading on his property with a stringer full (well over the limit) of 15-17" smallmouth, dragging them down the river. The guy claimed he had no idea what the limits were. These streams unfortunately are susceptible to 1 or 2 bad eggs destroying the fish population. There is really no way to police these streams very well. The only good thing to say is at least you cant' get those darn jet boats (I own one) down a small creek like that...............ha ha

Anyway, sounds like a lot of fun Al! thanks for the post

Stories like that are always tough to hear as we are all well aware of the fact that it doesn't take that much harvest of SMB to greatly degrade the fishing quality of an Ozark stream, particularly small creeks like that. As part of the MO Smallmouth Alliance's conservation efforts, in addition to pushing for more restrictive MLL and creel regs, we will be making a strong effort in conjunction with the MDC to educate anglers on what the extisting regs on stream SMB are in the first place. Any serious SMB angler should already know the statewide regs - 12" MLL and 6 fish creel. There's really no excuse for that after 35 years on the books. The novice or casual angler may have an excuse, but the guys that can really catch 'em in good numbers -- and who can really put a hurt on a stream fishery if keeping up to MO's statewide legal limit each time out -- know the law.

Regardless, I do know that without any real enforcement presence on our SMB streams -- and I understand the realities of that issue and am not trying to open up that can worms again -- knowledge of the rules is the next best defense against overharvest. At few stream accesses do you actually see any posting of what the statewide regs actually are and this even occurs unfortunately on SMB Special Regs waters as well. MSA has been trying to do its part with its "Free the Fighter/World Class" smallmouth informational signs posted at most MDC accesses in MO over the past 15 years, but we are not responsible for posting the regs themselves or to construct and maintain signage at stream accesses. If there's nothing to post our sign on at the access, we cannot post one of our signs there.

MSA will work with MDC Fisheries/Enforcement to get this situation mitigated. We realize that large woodent access signs cost money and are problematic to maintain given floods, emergency firewood needs and target practice and all, but we as an organization will be stepping up to get something done here.

What good are having regs to protect, preserve and improve fisheries if no one is aware of them when they get to the river? With active citizen participation this problem canget fixed.

As far as poachers are concerned, the best thing you can do is report them to the MDC though the Operation Game Thief hotline and/or educate them yourself when you run into these types of folks when out on the water. Not asking folks to get into a confrontation as that could get pretty dangerous, but just remind anglers of the rules if you are presented with an opportunity to do so.

[Mitch f]

Stories like that are always tough to hear as we are all well aware of the fact that it doesn't take that much harvest of SMB to greatly degrade the fishing quality of an Ozark stream, particularly small creeks like that. As part of the MO Smallmouth Alliance's conservation efforts, in addition to pushing for more restrictive MLL and creel regs, we will be making a strong effort in conjunction with the MDC to educate anglers on what the extisting regs on stream SMB are in the first place. Any serious SMB angler should already know the statewide regs - 12" MLL and 6 fish creel. There's really no excuse for that after 35 years on the books. The novice or casual angler may have an excuse, but the guys that can really catch 'em in good numbers -- and who can really put a hurt on a stream fishery if keeping up to MO's statewide legal limit each time out -- know the law.

Regardless, I do know that without any real enforcement presence on our SMB streams -- and I understand the realities of that issue and am not trying to open up that can worms again -- knowledge of the rules is the next best defense against overharvest. At few stream accesses do you actually see any posting of what the statewide regs actually are and this even occurs unfortunately on SMB Special Regs waters as well. MSA has been trying to do its part with its "Free the Fighter/World Class" smallmouth informational signs posted at most MDC accesses in MO over the past 15 years, but we are not responsible for posting the regs themselves or to construct and maintain signage at stream accesses. If there's nothing to post our sign on at the access, we cannot post one of our signs there.

MSA will work with MDC Fisheries/Enforcement to get this situation mitigated. We realize that large woodent access signs cost money and are problematic to maintain given floods, emergency firewood needs and target practice and all, but we as an organization will be stepping up to get something done here.

What good are having regs to protect, preserve and improve fisheries if no one is aware of them when they get to the river? With active citizen participation this problem canget fixed.

As far as poachers are concerned, the best thing you can do is report them to the MDC though the Operation Game Thief hotline and/or educate them yourself when you run into these types of folks when out on the water. Not asking folks to get into a confrontation as that could get pretty dangerous, but just remind anglers of the rules if you are presented with an opportunity to do so.

Well Dan I agree with you; I guess it will take a long time to change the "Hearts and Minds" as they say of the poachers. One time I was in the boat ramp parking lot at the Riddle Bridge Access on the Gasconade River. An MDC agent was checking fishing licenses and he asked me where I was from. When I told him St. Louis, his comment was "I don't need to check your license, you're not local. The local people are the ones that do all the poaching" I was quite surprised by his response. I will do all I can to report the poachers myself without getting into a confrontation.

[eric1978]

What good are having regs to protect, preserve and improve fisheries if no one is aware of them when they get to the river?

Yep. I had one of those experiences last weekend on JF. I had paddled down a quarter mile or so ahead of my buddies when I caught my only decent fish of the trip. I snapped a couple "fish on the paddle" pics real quick, and just as I was about to release the fish, a young couple came floating by. I asked if they would take a pic of me with the fish and they happily did.

The guy said, "Wow, that's a nice fish. I got a stringer if you wanna keep him." That fish was only about 17 inches, so it would be illegal all year on JF, but he was also oblivious about the closed season for the spawn.

Now this was just a nice young guy who simply didn't know. He was no poacher. I politely informed him of the regulations and he seemed surprised but thankful for the info. He did say he caught a few smallies the evening before where they had camped, so I figure they were probably part of dinner.

I can't imagine how many illegal fish are harvested by people that simply don't know the rules and would follow them if they did.

[eric1978]

Hey Al, some friends and I were wondering...why do some smallies have red eyes and others don't? Figured you might know. Any idea?

[Al Agnew]

Actually, they all have red eyes. Eye pigmentation is controlled by the same mechanism that controls the color changes on their bodies. We know that smallies can change color from darker to lighter (very quickly) as well as changing the dark bars from prominent to invisible. The way this works is that there are pigmented cells all over their bodies (including their eye iris) that expand or contract to make them darker or lighter. The red color in the eyes is always there, but the dark pigmented cells very often have expanded enough to conceal it. If you think back on the red-eyed smallies you've caught, I'll bet you'll realize that most of them were light in color over their whole bodies--the dark pigmented cells were contracted in them.

Catch a smallmouth in bright daylight over clean gravel, and it will most likely be brassy tan in color (which matches the color of the clean gravel bottom) and its eyes will have a lot of red showing. Catch one during the summer on one of the more fertile streams where the bottom is darker and algae-covered and the fish has been lying in a shadowy area, and chances are it will be much darker bronze, with dark eyes.

By the way, I still intend to post photos of this trip, but haven't downloaded them off the camera yet!

[eric1978]

Thanks Al. Never would have thought of that.