Osage Fork

[Hays]

I've never floated the Osage Fork of the Gasconade. Anyone willing to share their views on the best sections of the river, favorite float, etc. I've heard that there can be log jams. Any experience with that?

[Mitch f]

Hays, fished it last year during high water with my jet boat. I only fished the last few miles. Caught a couple of decent largemouth. The majority of the fish that day for me can from the Gascy between Gasconade hills (back up river) and Hazelgreen. The fork had a couple of good spots in the last one or two if memory serves. I don't recall the log jams.........I know, not much to go on.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Osage Fork is a gem - just wish it was closer. I like the upper end and around Hwy B.

[Wayne SW/MO]

It's probably one of the least used waters that are floatable. The only log jams I've encountered were on the lower end and they were actually downed trees that had to be portaged. It's slower than the other rivers around it and is probably described as a big year around creek. Don't go if you're squeamish about the bottom of your canoe.

It's worth doing, anything from Orla down.

[Greasy B]

It's been 20 years or so but I recall a log jam so big it swallowed the whole river. I'm sure by now that one is gone but I wouldn't go around any blind corners with out being super cautious.

[Al Agnew]

For some reason I've never had better than mediocre fishing on the Osage Fork. I've probably fished it five or so times in the last 30 years, so that isn't a big sample size. It's good looking fishing water, though. It can be narrow and have split channels, so log jams are always possible, but I've never encountered any bad ones.

[RSBreth]

I've fished it a lot over the years and my experience mirrors Al's - not a lot of size although to look at it you'd think there's some bigger ones in there in all the timber. I have caught a lot of numbers though - it's not like there are no fish there.

[Gavin]

Floated it with Coldwater years ago....Great trip but poor fishing, IMO...wrong day I guess...river was up, and muddy.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I fished it quite a bit at one time, but as others have said no size. I did catch my biggest on it, 18", one Nov. but about 14 was the largest before that. It has a larger percentage of frog water than mos, IMO, and goggle eyes to go with it.

[Hays]

Actually, it was the goggle-eye I was most interested in. My cousin, who passed away a few years ago, and who was my constant fishing buddy when we were kids, wanted to take me to a great google-eye hole he knew about on the Osage Fork. Sadly, we never made the trip.