Review Of "paddlers Guide To Missouri"

[Stoneroller]

This book title should be edited to say "Paddler and Angler's Guide to Missouri" This book is published by the MDC and is very extensive both in the information about general paddling including what to expect, what to bring, and what not to do and excellent details about access points to all of the major rivers and most of their floatable tributaries. There is even a section from MDC concerning tresspassing and floating access.

The book is broken down into the river drainages, which makes referencing nearby floating/wading/fishing options very easy. There is detailed information about the major landmarks along the river/stream including spring branches and their drainage. This book should be issued to fishermen when they purchase their license. The book is spiral bound, making it very easy to open it fully or fold one side over to keep a map handy. The only real drawback I can think of is it would be nice to have it printed on water resistant paper instead of the raw stock they use. But I'm sure that would hurt what is probably the biggest perk to this amazing resource, the price. It's an entire $6 to have this indispensable piece of literature in your library.

Get to your local outdoor store, book store, MDC regional office, or www.mdcnatureshop.com and get your copy. Do it now!

[eric1978]

It's a good general reference to the larger streams in MO. If I'm going to an unfamiliar river or stretch of river, often I'll go to the MDC website and print off the page I need and stick it in my Pelican...it's all online and you can get it for free. But I bucked up the $5.95 for the book, too, just so I could have it in handy book form. Definitely worth the money.

[Stoneroller]

Yes this book could be more comprehensive especially if the title were to be appended. although each river usually has an access marked that is only floatable during high water and another downstream that is considered the highest floatable put-in during normal flow, making the area between these two points prime for wade fishing.

I think MDC went with the larger streams and rivers in part because of the trespassing issue, had they outlined many of the smaller streams they could be seen as sanctioning public access to those waters, even though it's a grey area of legality. also because it's a floater's guide, although there are many specifics about fishing in the stream/river descriptions.

[eric1978]

Yeah, if they covered every creek in the state, the book would be about 500 pages (that's the book I'd like to have). Plus I think they only did the streams that have MDC accesses.

Where are you in St. Pete?

[Gavin]

Its a must have for planning a float trip....but I also use 200 Missouri Smallmouth Adventures by Tryon, and the Delorme Gazetteers......If I want good maps for a float... I go to the USGS site and download a free 7.5 topo. Cheers.

http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/b2c/start/(xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd)/.do

Here's another link that I use allot...

http://wdr.water.usgs.gov/adrgmap/index.html

[Stoneroller]

I live near the harvester exit off of 94.

[Al Agnew]

The book is a revision with additional rivers of the old "Missouri Ozark Waterways" book written by Oz Hawksley and put out by MDC. Oz was a great guy who personally floated all the Ozark rivers while compiling the original book. It was first published back in the 1960s. The descriptions of the rivers in the latest edition is still almost word for word what Oz wrote back then, at least the Ozark rivers.

I have been buying these books ever since 1970 or so...they'd revise it about every 7 or 8 years, it seemed. I think I still have one of my original copies. Back then it was a smaller paperback without the ring binding it has now.

One thing that would strike you if you saw the original book is that a LOT of the accesses listed on it are no longer usable accesses. New bridges have wiped out a lot of the old accesses, and there used to be a lot of unimproved fords with county roads leading to them that have been closed over the years. It's a good thing MDC is providing as many accesses as they do, because otherwise floating a lot of sections would be almost impossible.

By the way, there are two mistakes that have been there ever since the first book that I've found. One is on the Meramec, but I don't remember exactly which stretch. But the book says it's 161 miles from Short Bend, the highest access listed, to the old Hwy. 66 access. It's actually 163 miles...at some point in there two miles were dropped. I know because I once floated that whole thing in one trip (12.5 days) and I measured the miles on topo maps over the whole thing. And on Big River, it says it's 1.2 miles between the old Vineland Bridge (now no longer there) and the Hwy. 21 bridge. It's actually 2.2 miles.

The book doesn't leave out many streams that are marginally floatable. The only streams totally left out for whatever reason are Castor River and Whitewater River, and a couple Mississippi tribs that are marginally floatable. I've floated a number of streams starting higher than the book covers, however.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Like Al said, its been around forever. It wasn't intended for anglers alone, even though they probably give it the most use. Tryon's Smallmouth book is a good choice for anglers, especially considering the fact its not meant for boaters. It does lack information on shoals, obstructions, etc., but there isn't anything in Missouri a person with reasonable experience can't handle safely.

[hank franklin]

I haven't bought a version in several years but I actually find a fair amount of errors and omissions. The Shawnee Ford bridge on the Bourbeuse for example (Highway AN) is not in my version. We found a large cave entrance just yesterday on the Meramec that's not listed.

But those are small quibbles. So many of Oz's descriptions have this brief little poetic quality. He gave just enough detail to whet the appetite but not so much to ruin the surprise. If it wasn't for that book I might never have gotten into canoeing.