Three Day Float

[Ham]

When I float camp, my buddy and I are generally on the water by 0730 and fish until 1800 or so. With flows on the current river, 11-12 miles a day would be VERY easy with a LOT of fishing.

BTW, last time on the current, we had our licenses checked by MDC. The agents were friendly and professional. I was glad to see them out doing their job.

[curtisce]

Just got back from our 3 day float on the Current. Started at Round Spring Friday, took out at 2 Rivers around 11 today. Great weather and water levels. I hadn't floated this section before. Is there always alot of moss on the bottom from Round Spring to Bee Bluff? It was really thick in some spots, cleared out after that. None below Jerktail. Caught lots of 10-12" smallies, I caught my largest river smallie 20" I guessed at 4#, pic attached. Otherwise our group of 4 had only 3 other fish over 15". Probably caught close to 200 fish total. Why doesn't this river hold more big fish, not trying to complain those brownies could really pull your line when they were in swift current but it just seems as though there should be some bigger fish or maybe we were using the wrong bait, Pumpkin green finese worms for the most part. This was my first time on the current in sometime, would like to get the point of view from some of you who frequent it more regularly.

[ozark trout fisher]

It doesn't sound to me like you were shorted on large fish at all...On the contrary, a 20 inch smallie from an Ozark stream is a dang fine fish, a once a year type of catch for many of us. Sounds like a fun trip on a great stretch of river.

[Al Agnew]

You did well for that stretch. It has great numbers but not a lot of really big fish; the stretch below has fewer fish but more big ones. Maybe should have caught a few more in the 15-16 inch range, but a 20 incher from that stretch is a terrific fish.

[Born to Fish]

Nice SMB!! That stretch of the Current gets a lot of fishing pressure plus they grow slow in that spring water.

[Bassman212]

We floated round spring down to two rivers back in April and ran into a ton of jetboats after about 9 or so miles of paddling. Didn't see anyone prior to that.

Fishing was pretty good. 8-10 smallmouth and goggle eye per day. But we didn't boat a nice smallie like yours, nice job!

[Gavin]

Congrats on your catch! It sounds like you did well. Smallies over 15" are always seem to be in short supply on pressured waters with a 6 over 12" limit...Heck I've been out three or four times in the last 6 weeks, and I havent caught anything over 14".

[curtisce]

I'm not complaining about the numbers it just seemed that the fish were all the same size. we would pull in what we thought was a big one and it might measure 14" The 20" is my biggest river smallie ever. I spotted her in a deep whole swimming ahead of us. She swam down under a sunkened tree trunk. I laid a worm over the far side of the trunk and she grabbed hold. Luckily she didn't tie me up. I tried to upload the pic but it didn't seem to work I'll try again.I just bought a 17ft paddle jon boat. We had it loaded for 3 days. 2 of the guys were in kayaks so we carried all the camping gear, food and beverage. Had a 57# trolling motor so we breezed right over those flat shallow sections.

[Smalliebigs]

I'm glad to see that beautiful beast is recovering from it's gig attempt by another brillant Missouri resident who doesn't give a dung about our rivers and fish.That is a great fish for that section of the Current.... kudos to you!!!

[ColdWaterFshr]

Is that a gig mark?

Nice fish!!