Big River 10/5/13

[moguy1973]

Today myself and Bassmaster#1 floated the Big River on a stretch that isn't a heavily floated part, the very lower part. We put in around 7am at Byrnes Mill Park and floated to the Twin Rivers bridge just above the confluence to the Meramec. We had a time constraint because of the wives and we had to do the ~8 miles and be off the water by 3pm. We were also watching the skies closely because of the impending rain and wanted to try to get off the water before it got to us. The latter didn't happen, it got us pretty good, twice. Fishing was interesting to say the least in this stretch of river. The water was a green stained color for most of the way, but that seemed to really play into the topwater bite. Most of the fish were of the green variety, mostly spots. He had one small smallmouth out of the 10 or so fish he caught. I ended up with 4 spots, biggest two were 14" and 15", and one baby largemouth, all on WTD topwater. You can really tell these fish in this stretch aren't pressured as much as other streches/rivers. They were really persistent on the topwter bite, coming back 2, 3, even 4 times after missing the bait. It's just that the bites were few and far between. The highlights of the day were a 15" walleye that he caught on a tube, a 17" spot that weighed almost 3lb, and another rather large bass that his one of his topwater baits, that we saw but never got in because it wrapped itself around a branch in the water and got off before we could get him untangled.

We missed a lot of water as we got closer to the bridge because it was raining pretty hard and we just wanted to get off the water. We probably paddled the last 2 miles or so, and that was all paddling as there isn't much current until you get down towards the bridge, and that current is in about a foot of water for a long stretch. Would we fish this stretch again? Maybe if we had more time, but the smallies were really pretty much non-existent, or at least we didn't find many. It's a long slow river over those ~8 miles. I didn't get any pictures of fish but he did, and I'm sure he'll post them up. I just got a few shots of the river, and one rather unsual landmark that has been there for a LONG time. The thing I did like about this float is that it's only about a 20 minute drive to the put in from the house, and my wife agreed to shuttle us back to my car after we got to the bridge so it worked out nicely.

[BassMaster#1]

I would say today was one of those wish I had that moment back days. I felt like I really got to only fish 3 miles of the 8 mile float, but with the storm and time constraints I have no complaints. The water felt pretty dingy to me, sort of like the meramec around eureka. Like moguy said we only ended up with 10 fish and a few missed fish. Four were got on tubes and 1 on a square bill, with the one walleye that was pushing 17" and on spot weighing 3.87LB. I did hook up with a nice fish on top water that would have pushed 4+, but go tangled up and on brush and came off. This is where I wish I had my, what if moment, but you win some and you lose some. The fishing wasn't bad for the little bit we fished, but for smallmouth I felt they were far and few between on this stretch. I'm sure I will try it again next summer, but think I will pretty much be hanging up the fishing pole for the bow. I’m glad I finally got to float the big river though. Moguy was up river when I took these to picks, so I did the best I could while holding a phone and tape measure out and hoping the fish wouldn't flop around.

[BassMaster#1]

[shawncat]

sounds like a good day.

[SmallyWally]

It is fun discovering additional fishing area options, though the rain was not needed! Cool about the walleye.

[moguy1973]

It is fun discovering additional fishing area options, though the rain was not needed! Cool about the walleye.

Yeah, walleye in the Big River, who knew. I didn't know they were in there, but I guess the Meramec has them so why not the Big.

[Gavin]

Thanks for the report...I've contemplated that float several times, but never committed to it. Glad you had a good time.

[Al Agnew]

The mill dams used to form barriers that kept most of the walleye from moving far up Big River. Now that some of them are breached, the walleye may be spreading up the river. Used to have pretty good walleye fishing below the first couple of mill dams during their spring spawning run. Growing up on upper Big River, I never saw a walleye anywhere above Browns Ford, but a few years ago there was at least one school of them that spent the summer in a deep pool about 4 miles below St. Francois State Park. The biologists shocked them there a couple of times, and I caught one on my shallow crankbait that was about 24 inches.

As for smallmouth down there, nobody I know catches many. In fact, about the only places where any are caught (or shocked up by the biologists, for that matter) are in the fast water below the mill dams, and occasionally a few in that stretch of shallow, bedrock bottom water just above where you guys took out. About 20 years ago, when they were already very scarce, my brother in law and I floated that stretch, and he caught the biggest smallmouth he's ever caught, well over 4 pounds, in the deep pool just above that bedrock stretch. It was the only smallmouth we caught all day, while we caught probably 100 spotted bass.

[moguy1973]

Yeah, it was actually too bad it was raining so much when we were heading down that last few miles. It looked like good smallmouth-ish water, if that stretch had and water that looked like it could hold smallmouth. Bassmaster#1 said his buddy caught a nice sized smallmouth just above Twin Rivers bridge before.

[BassMaster#1]

Its actually, Mark who owns Adventure Outdoors. He said it was he's biggest smallmouth he ever caught, a little over 5lbs. I think that's been some years ago.