Current River Questions

[Ham]

Cajun Angler and I did a three day trip on the Current last week. The river is beautiful with steady flow and plenty of gravel bars to camp on along the way. We sure didn't get hot as the weather had turned cooler and we wet waded in those cool spring waters.

Lots of stuff looked perfect for smallies, but the river was tougher than I expected it to be. I really thought we would do better on topwaters than we did. It was pretty high skies the first two days and the fish did bite better in the afternoons.

Does the Current normally give up big numbers of fish like the Buffalo or Gasconade?

We noticed lots of guys with minnow traps. Are folks primarily live bait fishing for smaliles or is there a different fish they are gathering bait for?

We caught a few Chain Pickeral along the way. Are they in most of the eastern MO river systems?

[ozark trout fisher]

Cajun Angler and I did a three day trip on the Current last week. The river is beautiful with steady flow and plenty of gravel bars to camp on along the way. We sure didn't get hot as the weather had turned cooler and we wet waded in those cool spring waters.

Lots of stuff looked perfect for smallies, but the river was tougher than I expected it to be. I really thought we would do better on topwaters than we did. It was pretty high skies the first two days and the fish did bite better in the afternoons.

Does the Current normally give up big numbers of fish like the Buffalo or Gasconade?

We noticed lots of guys with minnow traps. Are folks primarily live bait fishing for smaliles or is there a different fish they are gathering bait for?

We caught a few Chain Pickeral along the way. Are they in most of the eastern MO river systems?

To be able to help you at all with this I'd have to know where on the river you were. The headwaters reach of the Current has very poor smallmouth fishing (from Montauk Park down to around Pulltite Spring) but below there it is a decent smallmouth stream. I don't think it probably has the numbers of fish that the other top flight Ozarks streams do, but there are plenty of bass in the better sections. Its tributary the Jacks Fork is probably the better smallmouth stream, more on par with the Gasconade, Meramec, Big Piney, and other great smallmouth rivers in the area.

[TroutRinger]

To be able to help you at all with this I'd have to know where on the river you were. The headwaters reach of the Current has very poor smallmouth fishing (from Montauk Park down to around Pulltite Spring) but below there it is a decent smallmouth stream. I don't think it probably has the numbers of fish that the other top flight Ozarks streams do, but there are plenty of bass in the better sections. Its tributary the Jacks Fork is probably the better smallmouth stream, more on par with the Gasconade, Meramec, Big Piney, and other great smallmouth rivers in the area.

Haven't had the chance to fish the Big Piney or Gasconade, but having fished the Current, JF, and Meramec quite a bit, I would say that's pretty accurate. If I was just floating on a hot summer day though, the Current is pretty darn good for that. Not that I ever float without the intention to fish

[Gavin]

Depends on what section you floated...The Akers Ferry to Pullite stretch is usually a fishless wasteland for me. It picks up a tad at Pulltite, meaning that you can expect to catch a fish, sometimes a dozen or so, but its not gonna be a high numbers day. I havent floated below Round in a couple years, but I've had some good days between Round Spring & Powdermill (I've never floated below Powdermill). Mostly plastic on the bottom or flukes...Cant recall a good topwater bite. Its hard to top the scenery, even if the fish dont bite. Cheers.

[ozark trout fisher]

Depends on what section you floated...The Akers Ferry to Pullite stretch is usually a fishless wasteland for me.

That it is...Unfortunately my next trip to the Current on the weekend of October 7 is going to take me through that stretch a lot. I'm floating with some friends of mine and we're going Cedar to Pulltite...Not my first choice for a float but the scenery is pretty awesome through there, so oh well.

[Ham]

We started on JAck's Fork and floated down below Log Yard.

Nice float just not as many fish as it looked like it should have.

[Guest]

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