Fishing In June

[BigBrownTrout]

Does anyone ever float and fish the current river's blue ribbon area? I've done a few overnight floats on the 11 point river and camped on gravel bars along the way. I'm looking at the current for a June trip, as I would like to see another Missouri river. Looking at tan vat to cedar grove. Is that float doable? It looks like 5-6 miles of river so it would be fished extremely slowly. How does the white ribbon area measure in comparison to the blue ribbon area? Anyone have a solid 6-8 mile float route? We'll be fishing out of the canoes minimally and mostly just getting out to thoroughly fish the good water. Any information about patterns, tippet size, unique things to bring would be appreciated. It seems like the current may have more traffic than the 11 point, but the ability to catch both species would make it worth it.

[Gavin]

Its always floatable from Baptist down if you dont mind dragging a bit...If June is your timeframe...avoid the weekends, especially below Cedargrove...hundreds of boats......

1.1' on the Akers guage is dead friggin low and you will be dragging allot at that level. Not much dragging if its above 1.5......3.5' or above...stay home.

Have fun!

[BrowningFisherman]

It may be a little further than you think baptist to cedar grove is 8 miles and I might guess from walking it that Tan Vat is 1.5 to 2 miles above baptist, it is a great float and one that I plan on doing at least once this summer, the stretch right below Vat can be tricky, and there arent many floaters up that high, I watched 3 people in kayaks dump not 200 yards below the parking lot, It is amazing water in that stretch though great fishing.

[stlfisher]

I wade fish, but most of the floater's I have seen put in at Baptist and go down river. There are a few that put in Tan Vat, but I think the majority start the floats at Baptist and head down river.

[3wt]

Doable if the water is not too low (gavin's the river level guru for the current around here...just do what he says.) If it's kayaks I'd say always doable.

The Blue ribbon area goes pretty quick, you're on teh right track as far as spending a lot of time out of the boat. To get the most bang for your buck I'd recommend getting to ashley creek tough to miss, it's below baptist, so you can spend a good part of day 1 floating and fishing that far. Get to ashley, find the big sandbar, set up camp and plan on spending the rest of the day fishing up and down around there. Same theing for the next morning, then hit the boats, you won't get too far before the fishing slows up and you'll be in some wider slackish water heading to cedar grove. If you have two nights, do the same, but stop at the first big gravel bar down from baptist (on the right.) You'll have some nice wadeable water up and down from there, then do night 2 at ashley. Most around here say that the area near ashley creek is the best fishing, and is a little more remote for wadein, so it's less pressured.

I'd focus on the blue ribbon because of traffic.

Flies - globalls if you have to. Mohair leeches and buggers are good. In June, trico's rule the morning. Little little black or even gray mayflies might fool some - this is one of the toughest hatches to work with, but you should be able to fool a few fish. Maybe some lighter PMD looking mayflies at dusk. June's a bit early, but I wouldn't be afraid of chucking a hopper or stimulator. Soft hackles work. San Juan worms work. Some folks swear by stonefly nymphs - wounldn't guess it due to lack of actual stoneflies, but if you're used to the eleven point you probably have some to try. The current is known for it's caddis flies, but it's kind of the wrong season in june. Still, they can suprise you so have some olive or tan elk hair or other style ready - smallish, like a 16.

It's good water for a 3-5 wt. I go with 6x leaders almost exclusively, and 6x tippet. If you do the trico thing, be prepared to drop to 7x. Some may say 5x if the waters off color, which it will only be if it recently rained heavy that time of year. I've never needed to go quite that heavy.

The browns like the bigger stuff, so if that's part of the draw, think streamers near or after dusk. Some say you'll have more browns than rainbows, but I never have experienced that. The browns seem much less active in the daytime than the rainbows.

It's a great river but don't let it frustrate you. June's a tough time of year. Don't get discouraged if you get skunked.

[BigBrownTrout]

Thanks for the advice. It looks like Baptist to Cedar Grove will be the float with us camping on the bar just after Baptist. Please tell me if you think this is a good option. Get dropped off at Baptist with canoes on Friday afternoon. Camp at Baptist on Friday night, wade upstream toward Tan Vat and hit that water really well on Friday evening and Saturday morning. Camp a couple miles below Baptist. Fish Sunday until we hit slack water and it slows down. Take out around 1 pm. Anyone have a good recommendation on the best canoe rental place? We will be coming from Kansas City.

[Gavin]

Jadwin Canoe is the only one that does the Baptist to Cedar stretch...

If your getting down Friday afternoon...I'd put in and float down to Ashley Creek. Should give you enough distance to weed out 95% of the wade fisherman on Saturday AM and some time to fish before people in canoes get on the water....Good water up and down.

For Saturday..your gonna have to cover some distance if you want to get off the water by 1pm on Sunday.

Some general landmarks & mileage guestimates...

0.Om Baptist Camp

1.5m Asley Creek on river right & Love's Cabin the left

2.5m powerlines crossing the river, Start of the Horseshoe bend

3.0m the tip of the Horseshoe

3.5m Derry Berry.. End of the Horseshoe

4.5m Hoosier Camp on river left..illegal 4x4 access

5.5m Parker Hollow access on river left

5.8m Shaeffer Spring Branch on river left

7.75m Cedargrove.

Make sure you bring a bow saw to cut deadfall..wood can be scarce. Have a great trip!

[BigBrownTrout]

June was too busy to go - but planning on heading down the 22nd - fishing all day on the 23rd and taking out on the 24th at Cedar Grove. A couple more questions...is there camping at Baptist Camp Access? How far below Ashley Creek does the water become slack water - is the slack water deep? I'm now thinking that it may be best for us to fish around Baptist on Friday evening and camp there. Are there any other sandbars to camp on between Ashley Creek and Cedar Grove? I would like to put us in position to split the float with equal distance on Saturday and Sunday, but I would like Saturday to be the more thorough fishing day. We get out of the boats all the time...and fish really slow - so the 8-9 miles from Baptist to Cedar will take us a long time...I never like to be in the boat unless we are in slack water...sorry for asking so many questions. I just want to make sure that I don't get us stuck on the river with no place to camp...

[3wt]

If you're not looking to fish from the boat too much, this will be your kind of water. One of the tough thigns about plannign a fish/float in this stretch is fishing from a boat in fast water, and passing the whole thing way to quick.

No really legal camping AT baptist camp access. Just up and across the river you could camp on a gravel bar if it's still there. Small and rocky, but you could get a tent up - I don't recommend that anyway. There are at least two nice camping gravel bars within a mile downstream. I'd do one of those - definitely within wading distance up to baptist and beyond. If Friday's in play, then maybe put in at Tan Vat (I think like 1 mile up from baptist) and fish/float down past baptist and set up before dark. Oh- one nice thing about the sandbars below baptist is that you're close to decent water for night fishing if you stake out the spots. Might be the best chance for a big brown.

I forget exactly where the water gets slack, but I recall that if you get in at parker and go up, you generally hike a way before bothering to fish. Same goes as you go down nearing cedar. I don't think there are too many major deep spots that are unwadeable in the blue ribbon. The slack water I recall was about waist deep in summer - just a bummer to try to wade through.

In general there are plenty of gravel bars to camp on. I know there was one big one at ashley, and parker is a popular party sand bar - don't camp there if you don't potentially want company. Past that I'm just not too familiar, but I'm sure you won't have too much trouble. Sometimes you can go on google maps and find likely sandbars. Kind of fun to try but it helps to know the river. You'll at least see if there's an abundance or total lack.

I'm trying to plan this kind of trip for my friend's 30th birthday - lots of wading, floating just as transport for the stuff and to get through slow spots. When you do it, let us know how it went / what you'ld do differently.

[Gavin]

I'd load your boats on Friday and float down about a half mile from Baptist to the first the big gravel bar on river left. The river makes a 90 degree bend to the right just below were I'm talking about..Good fishing right there, up, and down...Do a short float on Saturday...go another 2.5 miles or so...and camp down at Derry Berry...its the big gravel bar on river right..just past the 3 big bluffs below the powerline crossing. Good fishing up, and down. Use the horse trails to cover some ground down there...Should give you about 4 miles to go on Sunday...but the fishing isnt as good on the lower half anyway. Have a great trip.