Fishing Report /

[ollie]

Went down to Shoal creek early Sunday morning and just like clockwork it rained around 10:00. Not very heavy, but enough to take cover for a few minutes. Luckly I decided to bring a tarp just in case.

I should have known the day wasn't going to go too good when I asked my buddy if he had the keys to his vehicle at the take-out. We were a good mile to mile and a half before we discovered this so we paddled back upstream to go get them. Ok, now were back on track and heading downstream and I'm catching a few g-eyes, but no smallies or greenies yet. Oh well, no big deal right? Then comes the rain and we find some shelter under a railroad tressel with a good flow around the pillars and some depth. I pulled out a smallie and a largemouth finally, but no big size at all. After the rain we got our stuff and moved on. It's around 11:00 now and we "think" we are about half-way through our float....... we find out around 3:00 we are just half-way! I was told and thought myself this was only going to be a five mile float, not 8! So now we are paddling like crazy to make our take-out cause we don't know where the h*** we are! On top of that we had to port twice around two huge log jams. The first one wasn't to bad, but the second one was a bugger! Up a five foot embakement of mud, then around and through the woods to make our own path. Finally back to the creek where we have another 4-5 foot embakement back down into shallow water. Buddy goes first and gets yak into water just fine then comes my turn. Just as I'm about to slide the boat down the bank the mud gives out under my feet and I end-up face down in to boat and rack my kneecap thinking it's broke! Let's just say I have had lots' better floats down better creeks. Mind you Shoal creek is only about five miles from my house, but I have never had the notion to float the creek. This was the second time I have ever floated it and will probably be the last. I know a lot of people like Shoal, but it's not for me. Lot's of long pools with stagnet water and the water is ALWAYS stained due to the farming done around it. I know there are big fish in there, but someone else will have to catch them!

Oh yeah, black seemed to be the color we were catching them on.

[Phil Lilley]

Now you know kinda what Lewis and Clark felt like... smaller stream.

Thanks for the painful report.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Just as I'm about to slide the boat down the bank the mud gives out under my feet and I end-up face down in to boat

And I missed it.

[ollie]

Trust me, you would have laughed after the fact. I know I would have.

[wily]

Ollie, where'd you guys put-in? My wife and kids went to the undercliff campground Saturday morning and caught crawdads, and used a minnow trap and caught some decent fish. If you have your own canoe they'll take you upstream about 4 miles for $10. It's a pretty good float. In the past we've been in situations like you described with the log jams but since they do quite a few floats they keep the river in good shape.

[ollie]

Wily, we put in at Ritchy and I knew that was the chance we would take with that part of the stream. Like I said, lived around here my whole life and I still don't like Shoal all that well. There are streams that are better to fish that are just as close to me. JMO