North Of The River Smallies

[ozark trout fisher]

It feels more like June than March, and for me today that only meant one thing: smallmouth fishing! I decided to get in a quick trip today before the game (turns out I should have just fished through it.) I've been fishing my favorite north of the Missouri River smallmouth stream on and off for about a month now, but the fishing up to this point has been very inconsistent...I haven't been catching very many at all, and as often as not I've been skunked. I've talked a lot lately about how this particularly stream deals with a lot of problems with pollution, and other limitations, but I don't want to go into that today, because the fishing was actually pretty good for a change.

Let me see if I can describe the stream for you. If you don't look too closely, you'd think it just seems like a beautiful, pristine Ozark border stream. It's a little bit smaller than the Current River in Montauk Park, with quite a few slow, shallow flats, but also some riffles, pools and big gravel bars that would do justice to a stream in the deep Ozarks. Normally you can count on the water being a little bit stained, a greenish-tan Bourbeuse River type color. But today, the water was as gin-clear as any spring-fed stream, and I can't say I've ever seen it look more pretty.

The tactics I would have to use were very obvious from the get-go. In the first flat that I walked up to, a whole pod of nice bass scattered like the wind at my approach. So it didn't take me long to figure out that a little stealth would be necessary. So I got into my "creek sneak" mode, the same type of hands-and-knees fishing I'd use for trout on a touch spring creek. The kind of fishing when you can see them out there feeding, and it's just a matter of a light touch and a delicate presentation to get them to take the fly. Very trouty stuff for bass fishing, and I was loving it.

It actually took me quite awhile to bring my first fish to hand. I went through a few flies that didn't work first (woolly buggers, crayfish patterns, and marabou jigs) before finally settling on a squirrel tail nymph (fished as a streamer) that for whatever reason seemed to be the hot fly...That didn't make much sense, but I won't ask too many questions. But eventually the fish did come to hand, and it was a beautiful eleven inch smallmouth bass, really about as large as you'll get on any given day on this stream. Pretty soon after that I'm into something of a rhythm, and catching fish on a pretty regular basis.

The fun thing about this stream is that you really have no idea what will take your fly. It holds your normal Ozark stream fish: smallmouth, largemouth, green sunfish, and chubs, but you'll also see big schools of carp, catfish galore, and even the occasional gar. This is a product of this stream having a bit of an identity crisis in the stretch where I like to fish it. It is just beginning to change from a clear, fast moving upland stream to a slow, winding tributary of the Missouri River. So you get a little bit of everything. Today I caught smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, green sunfish, a whole bunch of chubs, along with one channel cat. I tried to catch the carp too, but no luck on that point. I've just never seen this stream so full of life, and it was such an awesome thing to see...With all of the problems this stream faces, that it can still give you a day like this on occasion is incredible. Anyway, today was a good one, and I'll now spend my evening thinking about fishing instead of basketball:)

[Smalliebigs]

Sounds fun....I love the marginal streams of Missouri.....like you said it's like the old grab bag game, you never know what's comming in on the end of the line. It's my favorite kind of fishing for sure and now that I have been blown out of the water by Mizzou and Duke....I will be fishing more thru the madness.

[ozark trout fisher]

.I will be fishing more thru the madness.

Me too....