A Day On The Current...

[Al Agnew]

I was in Arizona last week when the warm weather began, and couldn't wait to get back to MO and take advantage of it. And then yesterday was cold and rainy. Ah, but the forecast for today looked pretty nice, sunny skies and highs in the upper 40s. So this morning I told Mary I was going fishing somewhere, I just couldn't decide where. A check of the USGS gauges told me that the Meramec was going down after a 12 inch rise, after already being higher than normal. Murky? Maybe very murky? What was another choice? Current River? It was very low and had gotten only a slight rise. So...fish a high and possibly very murky river that I knew very well, or a very low and probably extremely clear river that I didn't know well at all?

I hitched the boat trailer to the vehicle, loaded up my rods and tackle, and came back into the house still not decided on where I was going. I told Mary that. Mary firmly believes that the good spirits will tell you what to do if you use a pendulum to ask them. If anybody knows anything about this, fine...if not, suffice it to say that even Mary calls it "woo-woo" stuff, but it works for her, and it's never steered me too far wrong yet, either.

The pendulum said Current River. So be it. But I still didn't know WHERE on Current River I wanted to go. So I just took off in the general direction of the Current, although from where I live there are two ways to get there. One way puts me on it around Powdermill and Logyard, the other way leads to Van Buren and points downstream. Since it was so low, I at least decided enough to go the Van Buren route, down Highway 67 to start. But...cut west off 67 to Van Buren and Big Spring, or go on south to the Doniphan area? I was "wildebeesting". (Anytime Mary and I can't decide upon something and keep changing our minds in mid-stream, so to speak, we call it "wildebeesting", because one time we were in Africa watching the great Serengeti wildebeest migration, where they were all bunched up at the Mara River. They knew the river was full of crocs and dangerous, but they had to cross it. So one would jump out into it, and then lose its nerve and splash back to the bank. And another one would stick a foot in it and back up. Classic waffling behavior, hence the term we coined, "wildebeesting".)

I even drove past the turn-off at Hwy. A leading through Williamsville on to Elsinore and Van Buren...and then turned around and took it.

Yep, when I got to Van Buren the river was very low and very clear. Go on to Big Spring and fish downstream? Maybe I would have done that, but this was the first time in about 6 months that I'd had the boat out and had done nothing to winterize the motor, so I wasn't too sure how reliable it would be. It wouldn't be pretty to take off downstream of Big Spring and have the motor conk out. So I put in at Van Buren and headed upstream.

Other than a canoe float a couple years ago from Waymeyer Access, seven miles above

Van Buren, I hadn't fished this stretch in many years. So I didn't know where the wintering pools were, nor how easy it would be to run. I just took off upstream looking.

Going upstream is often easier than going downstream in a jetboat. It's a little easier to read the water for me at least. There were a few tricky spots, and there's a run just above Van Buren that's scary in that there are lots of rocks close to the surface in water slow enough that they don't make a lot of swirls on the surface, so it is startling to not see them until you're going past them. There are also a few channel splits where it isn't easy to which channel has more water until you are right at the junction. But I kept going. Not seeing a lot of obvious winter water. Kept going. Got up past Waymeyer. Kept going. Getting chilled. Hand on the tiller felt frozen. Kept going. Paint Rock Bluff. Gorgeous scenery. Nobody on the river. Finally stopped just a short distance below Logyard.

Quiet. Sun warming me. Nearly lunchtime, and I was hungry. Ate some venison snack sticks and potato chips, washed down with a Coke. Finally put the trolling motor down and read the temperature off the transducer attached to the troller. 49 degrees! Warm enough for jerkbaits. I was glad of that, because I don't have a lot of confidence in fishing jigs in ultra-clear water, especially when I don't know it well. The jerkbait is a great "search bait" when the water is warm enough.

An hour later I hadn't caught a fish. Hadn't even SEEN a bass. Then I saw one looking at the jerkbait. Swiped at it, missed. Followed it in. Not very big.

Next pool, I finally caught one. Hate to admit it, but it's become a ritual of mine to kiss the first smallie I catch when I haven't been on the water for a while. The 12 incher got a smack.

A few yards downstream, got another one. This one was about 15 inches, and had three more following it that were a little bigger than it was. Things were looking up. But then they weren't. No more fish for a while. Who cared? Beautiful day on a beautiful river. A little while later I caught a couple more. And then a couple more, none of them very big, one of them about 14 inches. Caught a goggle-eye. Caught a shiner.

Finally I came to a shaded bluff hole that wasn't all that deep but had some nice rocks and a couple of big logs. Caught a 15 incher at the first big log. Downstream was a complex of three logs lying side by side with big rocks under them. Just looked like a great place for a nice fish. I watched the jerkbait dip under the surface, twitched it down alongside the outermost log, water about six feet deep, lure down close to the bottom. Never really saw the fish, never felt it, just kind of sensed it by ESP. Set the hook almost instinctively. Saw a fat bronze side flash. Good fish. Strong fish. REALLY strong fish. Didn't look all THAT big, but FELT big. Took a long time to get it in. It was a very fat 18 incher. Not too shabby at all.

I looked around after releasing it. Noticed that the sun was getting rather low and I was still maybe 9 miles above Van Buren. I definitely didn't want to be running downstream in low light conditions. The sun was already low enough and mostly downstream, making it hard to read the water. I decided I'd better start downstream.

Those island channels look a lot different when you're approaching them from upstream. I went right when I should have gone left. Water petered out into a gravel shoal only a couple inches deep. Shut down the motor real fast and put it in neutral, hit the lift button. Boat slid up onto the gravel but I didn't suck any gravel into the intake. Looked like I'd have to drag it back upstream into water deep enough that I could start it and go back up to the head of the island. Forgot to put my hip waders in this morning. Luckily I had an extra pair of boots. Took my shoes and socks off, put the boots on, rolled up my pant legs, and jumped in. Dragged the boat upstream. Water was cold, but bearable (much deeper than my boot tops, though). After 30 yards or so I could jump in and run the trolling motor for a bit, then start the motor.

Two islands down, did it again. This time I was able to run the wrong channel, but the pucker factor was pretty serious.

Past Waymeyer. Into the civilized water--a few miles above Van Buren the river leaves the Scenic Riverways and cabins are everywhere, which shows what the whole river might have looked like if the feds hadn't taken it over--and I stopped at one last good-looking pool. Two more small fish. Sun very low. Head on down. Made it to Van Buren with no further adventures, and with light enough to take my time loading up.

Called Mary to tell her I was off the river. She asked me if I'd had a good day.

"Absolutely."

[Justin Spencer]

Nice when you can have your "own private river" to fish and float. Most people still aren't thinking about the rivers yet, what a great time to get out! What a bonus to catch some nice fish.

[gotmuddy]

Nice when you can have your "own private river" to fish and float. Most people still aren't thinking about the rivers yet, what a great time to get out! What a bonus to catch some nice fish.

That is one thing I love about fishing on mondays. There is almost no one on the river.

[riverman]

Paint Rock down through Boat'n Hole, and then on to the Winona cabins has got to be one of my favorite stretch's of river to fish. I have always caught a lot of fish throwing a panther martin. Seems like ones with a solid orange blade, or anything with hair around the hooks works best.

[DaveMac]

Thanks for the report. I felt from your writing that I was along for the ride - except for the part where I had to jump out into the cold water!