Big River 5-8-14 Brown's Ford To Merrill Horse

[moguy1973]

Today I had the day off and didn't have a shuttle so I thought I would drive down to the Big River and put in at Brown's Ford and see how far I could paddle upstream and then back down to the access. I put in around 7:15 and headed upstream thinking I would only make it to the first swiftly moving riffle and then turn around. Made it to that one in about 30 minutes and it around it and kept paddling up. Well, when it was said and done I ended up turning around at the Merrill Horse Access boat ramp. That ends up being 5 miles up river and 5 miles back down. I'm going to be a little sore tomorrow I think. I did have to walk through some of the faster riffles, dragging my kayak behind me, but I paddled probably 90% of the upriver half.

The surface temperature was 70 when I started and 72 when I finished and the water was stained with about 2' visiblity but the water got better color to it the closer to Merrill Horse I got. Fishing was so so. I didn't fish much on the way up stream because I wanted to get as far up as I could in the shortest time. On the way back I only ended up with 5 fish. A couple small green ones, a goggle eye, and a baby smallie. The trip was made well worth it with this fish though.

18" long, 3lbs on the nose. My personal best river smallie. I caught it in an area where there was a high dirt bank across from where I was floating with a large pile of logs in the water. I was casting a green pumpkin Rage Craw rage rigged along all the logs when I didn't notice there was a smaller log in front of me which I hit and got high centered on. No biggie though since I wanted to fish this stretch a bit more and I didn't have to struggle with paddling into position while I was stuck on the log. I was just about to get off the log after the cast I had out and I was reeling my craw back in and about 10' in front of my kayak, BAM! I didn't know what I had as earlier I had seen a lot of larger gar surfacing in that stretch. Thought it might have been one of those or a good sized carp by the color of it but I couldn't see it fully at first because it was ahead of the front of my kayak and I couldn't clearly see it. Then it made a run out into the swifter water near the logjam and I saw it was a really big smallmouth. I saw it was hooked rather well right in the top of the mouth so I knew I didn't have to rush it to get it in. Totally made it worth going fishing today and the gorgeous weather made it that much better. My legs were shaking for the next half mile as, like I said, it was the biggest smallie I've ever caught.

I'm not sure if I'd float that section again though. It really didn't have much fishable water other than logs and laydowns. Not many boulders along the bluffs like you'd find on the Meramec or other Ozark streams, and where there were the few boulders there were there wasn't much flow around them to hold any fish. I think I'd do the Mammoth to Merrill stretch when I do the Big next time.

[SmallyWally]

Great job moguy. Nice looking smallie.

[Gavin]

Good for you!

[Haris122]

Sweet man. What a fish. You're inspiring me to try to kayak my way upriver too, once I finally get me an anchor and the rod holder installed. I've been really dragging my rear on getting it set up. How important of a tool do you think the fish finder/sonar, you got in the top picture, is? And how much do those go for?

[cnr]

Nice fish, congrats. 5 miles upstream? You earned that fish!!!!

[Mitch f]

Nice fish! Great report!!

[moguy1973]

Sweet man. What a fish. You're inspiring me to try to kayak my way upriver too, once I finally get me an anchor and the rod holder installed. I've been really dragging my rear on getting it set up. How important of a tool do you think the fish finder/sonar, you got in the top picture, is? And how much do those go for?

The fishfinder I have is a Lowrance down imaging unit (Elite 4x DSI) and it works great for knowing how deep the water is and the surface temp. It also gives a really detailed picture of what the bottom looks like. I have yet to see a fish on it (at least I don't think I've seen one) but I haven't really had it on many lakes since I've put that on there. Lowrance now has one that incorporates both 2D and down imaging sonar on the same screen for the same price as what I paid for mine (I think I paid $169 on sale, but they are normally $199). Is it necessary to have on a kayak, nope. But is a nice tool to have for the reasons I listed above.

You said you want to get your anchor set up on yours. While they might be good for lakes, it's not a good idea on moving water, just a heads up. I really don't even use my rod holders either. I usually just lay them down in front of me. The rod is in the holder in the picture only because it made it easier to get the fish off the hook.

[Al Agnew]

On that stretch of Big River, logs along high mud banks mean big fish IF there is any appreciable current. Back in the old days before spotted bass and jetboats when I fished it all the time, I caught way more big fish along logs than along the rocky banks. The last big one I caught in that section, late fall last year (or was it the year before) came off a big log on the opposite side of a rocky pool.

[moguy1973]

On that stretch of Big River, logs along high mud banks mean big fish IF there is any appreciable current. Back in the old days before spotted bass and jetboats when I fished it all the time, I caught way more big fish along logs than along the rocky banks. The last big one I caught in that section, late fall last year (or was it the year before) came off a big log on the opposite side of a rocky pool.

That's where this one was. Along a bend with some pretty good current and a big stack of logs between a mud bank and a big gravel bar.

[Haris122]

You said you want to get your anchor set up on yours. While they might be good for lakes, it's not a good idea on moving water, just a heads up. I really don't even use my rod holders either. I usually just lay them down in front of me. The rod is in the holder in the picture only because it made it easier to get the fish off the hook.

I might need the rod holder since my kayak is the regular sit in type. Might be too much of a pita to try to pull the rod out from the bottom every time I'm ready to fish. Though it certainly would be hard to lose when I got it in there.

As far as the anchor, so what's the basic method to river fishing out of a kayak then? I imagined something like paddling up to a slow backwater portion of the river or something, lowering the anchor and casting around to where you can get to, then pull up the anchor and rinse and repeat someplace else with reasonably calm water. Otherwise I don't see how I'd even have the time to pick up the rod, while paddling just to stay in place.