Big River Mammoth Access

[Brendan D]

First time poster here. My old man and I put in at Mammoth this moring for a little kayak fishing adventure. I must say, i have never kayaked the Big before and I was not expecting such a beutiful body of water, just wish the smallies were hitting. We went about 2 miles upstream from Mammoth then back down and caught a few spots but that was it. Biggest was 14 inches. According to the other kayaker we ran into that was all he was catching as well.

We threw a wide variety of soft plaastics and some rapala crawdads. Saw a few smallies coming up to get some bugs floating around and it made me think I should have been flyfishing.

All in all it was a great trip with my Dad and on suprisingly beutiful river.

We only ran into one kayaker and one motor boat and they both said they had only been catching spots. Is that just the case for the Big now? I have heard from some older fishing friends of mine that the Big is a great smallmouth river.

[Al Agnew]

Yes, sadly the smallmouth fishing on that section is not like it used to be. You will catch some, and there are some big ones, but on any given day the majority of the bass caught will be spots, and on some days that's all you'll catch. You apparently hit one of those days.

[moguy1973]

How difficult is it to paddle up 2 miles of the Big River? I'm guessing there aren't many fast riffles in that section to have to negotiate while paddling up?

[Al Agnew]

Nothing too bad. There are several fast riffles, but they are short and you can easily walk the boat up them if you can't paddle up them. You can get up to the mouth of the Mineral Fork fairly easily, although a couple of the fast riffles are just below the Mineral Fork. Once you get up past the Mineral Fork and the long pool above it, things start getting a little faster, but there is less water flowing through the riffles as well.

[moguy1973]

Sounds good...Might have to try that sometime rather than needing a shuttle partner.

[Brendan D]

There were a few tough spots to get through, made for a nice little workout. We got out and walked the kayaks upstream maybe 3 times. Not too bad. I will be back, kayaked Simpson lake today because its so close to home so I really need a nice stream to cleanse myself.