Thoughts On The Bourbeuse

[Smalliebigs]

I must say if you don't know to fish the Bourb when it has water in the spring and fall, well then you just don't know the Bourb..........Me loves the Bourb and will be there this fall quite a bit.....I already slept with her this spring a few times and she was nice.

[ozark trout fisher]

I must say if you don't know to fish the Bourb when it has water in the spring and fall, well then you just don't know the Bourb..........Me loves the Bourb and will be there this fall quite a bit.....I already slept with her this spring a few times and she was nice.

Trying to block out a day to float it this weekend, if so I'll have a report.......Not many rivers that you can float without it being crazy on 4th of July weekend but the old, muddy, fishless Bourbeuse River is one:)

The more I think about it, I'm happy that so many people have a preconceived notion about what a "beautiful" river is. It leaves the Bourb and others like it for those of us that don't care and like spending time on the river (mostly) in solitude. Thank goodness for muddy rivers, if that's what it takes to keep the crowds away. And I know the people that I do see fishing/floating that river mostly feel the same way that I do.

[Guest Brian B.]

The first time I fished the B I was on my way back from Froggyks in St.Clair, driving north on 47 to head home to Troy Missouri.

Well I pulled down not expecting much.. Holy cow did I DESTROT all 3 species, and I mean right there in Union at the poop ramp, I killed em...

My wife couldn't get me on the phone and was getting scared, LOL..

Some of the spots, my gosh! They aren't a nuisance to me!

[ozark trout fisher]

The first time I fished the B I was on my way back from Froggyks in St.Clair, driving north on 47 to head home to Troy Missouri.

Well I pulled down not expecting much.. Holy cow did I DESTROT all 3 species, and I mean right there in Union at the poop ramp, I killed em...

My wife couldn't get me on the phone and was getting scared, LOL..

Some of the spots, my gosh! They aren't a nuisance to me!

They spots are fun to catch.....especially if you are frying them up afterwards (and letting the smallies go, of course.) The annoyance is you basically need the full limit of 12 spotted bass to have a decent fish fry given how small they are. Though that catching that many spots is rarely a problem on the Bourbeuse, unfortunately.

[Al Agnew]

It's simply a matter of what they largely replaced. Every pound of spotted bass biomass seems to mean one less pound of smallmouth biomass, and when you've cut the population of smallmouth in the river by 50-90%, it means you've also cut the number of bigger smallmouth by the same percentage, and replaced them with spotted bass that simply don't get nearly as big. That's why we don't like spotted bass in these streams.

[Guest Brian B.]

I like the variety- and everywhere I catch spots, I seem to catch nice smallmoth too. How long have the spots been in these "smallmouth" waters- (I mean they are native to the Mississippi River Basin, seems to me they are, well.. Where they live, and that is about the sum of it) are they an invasive species? (Everyone talks as if they are such a nuisance it kind of makes me chuckle a bit) I do clean them, never smallmouth, perhaps if I were in Canada- but here, no, no way. The spots on the Bourb

For me were really pretty nice for filleting- just right in fact, I loved them... (Upriver from the crap discharge of course- a mental thing)

Every truly high quality bass fishery I have ever fished has had more than one thing in common- but species variety is definately a big one.

The lake I was fishing for smallmouth here locally (Baldwin Lake in Illinois) is (was) just slam packed with all kind of species- you name it... And we still had smallmouth to 5lb, the avg size was just under 2lb- yes, a lake, so avg size was bigger than a river, but the spotted bass "nuisance" argument, I never understood it. (Yes- the river/ creek is much, much smaller, but I still don't quite get the argument. I do like large smallies though, so if the round-ups promote smallie. Size I am. Greatful for them.

(Blackberry- -junk-, adds periods willy- nilly without me tapping the period button)

[ozark trout fisher]

Well, never made it over there this weekend.....but managed to free up a day during the week to float the middle section. I do plan to post a report.

[Guest Brian B.]

Please do my "friend"- meaning.. Some dude I don't know- that I hope gives me details on the Bourb'.. LOL

But please do..

[Al Agnew]

You can go back through the archives and find all the discussions we've had on spotted bass in the Meramec River system. But here's the short version...

They are NOT native to the Meramec River system, and ARE an invasive species in those rivers, including the Bourbeuse. 30 years ago there were zero spotted bass in the whole river system. 20 years ago there were no spotted bass in the Bourbeuse above Noser Mill, and there were still more smallmouth than spots below Noser Mill (Hwy. 185).

The reason we hate spots in the Bourbeuse is that it was once a tremendous smallmouth fishery with lots of big fish. Picture this...a fishery with about 60% smallmouth and 40% largemouth...that was typical of the Bourbeuse. So you had a lot of smallmouth, and a good percentage of them were fish over 17 inches. Now, in the lower half of the Bourbeuse, it's maybe 15% smallmouth. The spots predominate. And the spotted bass simply don't get all that big. Spots over 15 inches are very rare. So reducing the smallmouth population to a fourth of what it was also means reducing the number of big smallmouth to a fourth of what there was before. It was trading a good fishery for big smallies for one with lots of small spotted bass. It's as simple as that.

[lee G.]

Al, could you give a run down of the reasons why they are increasing in our streams.

I know that its a study thats not done, but your thoughts would give us all things to think about.