Mineral Fork

[stlfisher]

Fished the Mineral Fork downstream from the hwy 47 bridge yesterday. Fishing was tough which surprised me a bit. Lot's of Gar sipping flies...almost trout like. The reason for the tough fishing soon became apparent as I ran into two teenagers with 5 smallmouth each on stringers. I politely told them of the regulations, but it was apparent they put a hurting on the fish in that strech. I did manage two really nice smallmouth in the 17 inch ranged, but that was about it. Overall a dissapointing day and the poachers kinda ruined if for me from the get go. I am sure they are not the only ones putting a hurting on that stretch of water.

[Greasy B]

Thieves !

[Smalliebigs]

darn stl that's hard to read without being bummed out. I think it's funny when I get crap on this forum about all of the straight up poaching I see on our streams but, the more you put yourself out on our rivers and streams the more poaching you will see. Those two kids could destroy a big section of that creek for years real easy.....I have been witnessing it first hand now on several creeks in the past 10 years.

I am not polite as you were.....the MDC is too hamstrung to do anything effectively enough to curtail what is going on with our resources. I know a guy who fishes a creek I fish and this creek has gone down hill recently bigtime. When I saw him at one of the accesses he had several Goggles on a stringer which didn't get me to pissed but, then he proceeded to tell me he had been kicked out of the creek 4 times that week and he was just getting back at the landowners????? He said he would keep coming back and that there was nothing they could do about it. With that sort of mentality out there we are doomed and young kids going out poaching smallies out of season well, we wonder why these rivers and streams aren't fishing like they used to.

The Mineral Fork goes thru ebbs and flows with it's fishing being good when not many local wiggers get in there and clean it out. then it will go thru a rough patch where the fishing sucks because the hoosiers feel the need to go brag to some other hoosier they just caught a 16 inch smallie on a minnow. It's a shame because that creek was fishing real good not to long ago......oh well such is life with river fishing in Missouri......let's face as much as fishing is one my of biggest passions in life, it is a niche sport that attracts people who are very naïve. It seems to attract people who feel it is a blood sport and want to show their prize off like they just graduated High School. I just know now I am very abrasive to say the least when I come across things like you witnessed stl, I am not nice in the least and will always call authorities right on the spot and wait by vehicles if possible to report those as well......screw these pieces of crap.

[thewhitesnoop]

Smalliebigs you are "The Man". I agree with pretty much everything you say on here and you seem to know what you are doing. Keep up the good work!

Mineral Fork gets way to much pressure. Fishing has been on the decline there for the last 10 years. Every year it seems to get worse. I can't think of many places where the fishing is actually improving. As human population increases.....fish population decreases. That's the general rule.

[stlfisher]

Took trip number #2 to the mineral fork at hwy 47. As I pulled up I saw a conservation agent's truck parked along the bridge. The agent was writing tickets to 3 poachers. After he finished with them he walked over checked out my license, made some small talk, and mentioned he had been catching people all day. I thanked him for coming out and mentioned the people I saw last week. Good news the river is being watched, but bad news is the poachers are taking a bunch of fish. I did find out later in the day this agent was in fact hiding in the trees and catching people. That is the good news. The bad news is as I wading near the campground upstream of 47 I saw fish caracasses on the stream bed. Many of those were also dead smallies.

Seriously ruined my day. What the heck is wrong with people! I mentioned something to the 20 or so campers, called the agent, and then left before I got my butt kicked.

I caught a few smallies, mostly on foam popper's and tested out a few new streamers that looked great in the water. Probably would have caught a few fish on them if the fish weren't already dead.

The river is in excellent shape and some nice changes since last year. There are still fish there, but plenty of poachers too.

[Haris122]

Out of curiosity, how do you guys fish a body of water that seems so shallow, clear and narrow. I quickly checked out Kingston Access on a trip to a state park recently, and I think I'd have some incredibly difficult time catching anything if that's the normal features of much of Mineral Fork, or even other creeks, like Blue Springs, or La Barque. I usually have my best luck with crankbaits and inline spinners, but for the life of me can't see either of those working there. Too shallow for cranks, as well as most of them seem too big for anything that might be there, and very little distance to get anything following inline spinners to take them there, much less continue chasing it once it sees you with the clear shallow water and all. I mean I'd be fine with anything even providing a fight even Bluegill sized there, but it seems like there's very little of even the size of a normal bluegill there. I don't think this creek style fishing is all that interesting to me as mid-size river or lake fishing, but it'd be nice to manage to get a sucker or some decent goggle eye, sunfish, or small bass from streams like that if that's all that's convenient to fish on at the moment.