Reminder...riversmallies Ozark Rodeo

[ColdWaterFshr]

Well . . . .any other reports of this event? Wanted to make it but just covered up with too many kids ball games.

darn, I'm needing a fishing fix, bad.

[Mitch f]

Greasy B and I got there Friday after fishing the Big Piney. After we arrived, we met the guys from the River Smallies forum. Al said the fishing had been horrible for them. I think the rapid decline didn't help. The next day, Al, Greasy, and I fished out of my jet on the gasconade. The River Smallie guys went home Saturday morning so Greasy and I only got to meet them for one campfire. Al left Sunday morning and Greasy and I fished the Gasconade for about 4-5 hours and went home. We caught a few good fish up to 18" but overall the fishing was slow for everyone

[ColdWaterFshr]

Greasy B and I got there Friday after fishing the Big Piney. After we arrived, we met the guys from the River Smallies forum. Al said the fishing had been horrible for them. I think the rapid decline didn't help. The next day, Al, Greasy, and I fished out of my jet on the gasconade. The River Smallie guys went home Saturday morning so Greasy and I only got to meet them for one campfire. Al left Sunday morning and Greasy and I fished the Gasconade for about 4-5 hours and went home. We caught a few good fish up to 18" but overall the fishing was slow for everyone

Liar. C'mon. This much fishing prowess . . . we're talking about Greasy, Al, and you Mitch . . .not a bunch of amateurs or posers mind you, but bona fide heavy hitters . . . all of you convening in one campground every evening for 4 or 5 nights and days and this is the report you leave us with??

[Mitch f]

Liar. C'mon. This much fishing prowess . . . we're talking about Greasy, Al, and you Mitch . . .not a bunch of amateurs or posers mind you, but bona fide heavy hitters . . . all of you convening in one campground every evening for 4 or 5 nights and days and this is the report you leave us with??

Sorry, I was on a hurry

[Al Agnew]

Had to leave for Montana the next day, so didn't have a whole lot of time to report. Here ya go:

I left the house at 5 AM Tuesday morning with gear loaded and solo canoe strapped to the top of the Highlander. Not that I was planning on getting to the river all that early, it was because in an effort to keep in shape, I play basketball with a group of guys from 6-7 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and where I play was a half hour along the 2.5 hour trip to the campground. After playing, I started for the river, but had to stop several times along the way where I had cell phone reception, since Mary was in Montana trying to supervise the remodel of our place out there, and was having all kinds of problems.

So I got the campground about 10:30 AM. As far as I knew, nobody else was going to be there until Dirty Ed and Bushy were scheduled to show up that evening, so I had the campground guy shuttle me up on the Big Piney for an 8 mile float back to the campground. The Piney looked good, up a little and nice water clarity, but fishing was slow. I believe I caught around 20-25 bass, biggest being a 17 inch largemouth. I got to the campground around 6 PM, just as Dirty Ed and Bushy arrived.

As DE said, it was hot. Sleeping in a tent Tuesday night was almost uncomfortable. We got up Wednesday morning still trying to decide where to float, and settled on a ten mile float from Schlict Springs access to Highway 17. This is an interesting stretch because a little ways above Schlicht Springs a significant portion of the flow of the Gasconade's flow sinks underground, to emerge at a group of springs most of the way through this float. With the water high, you don't notice this much, but the river above that group of springs seems obviously smaller even in high water.

And the problem with the fishing the whole week was that the river was high and off-color but dropping steadily. That pushed the fish off the banks and made them difficult to locate, let alone catch.

And it was hot.

Seemed like we'd go long periods with no fish, then catch a couple, then back to the drought. It doesn't help, either with floating that long a distance or with catching lots of fish, that the Gasconade is noted for its many long, dead pools--frog water. I caught a couple of 17 inchers on my homemade crankbait along with about 30 other fish, and I think one or two more in the same class were caught.

Englishman John arrived Wednesday evening not long after we made it back to the campground. Thursday morning the three of them looked to me for where to fish, and I racked my brain trying to think of options that would put us in clearer, lower water, but all of them involved significant drive time other than another Big Piney float like I'd done on Tuesday, and not only had I not done well on the Piney, but Cory had fished it on Wednesday without great results. So I finally just gave up and said we'd do the shortest shuttle float, from Riddle Bridge down to Highway 28, just a few miles from the campground. I almost set it up to go from Riddle Bridge to the campground, but that would have meant an extra 3 miles of river, and it was already a long float. I'm glad we didn't do it. The river in that section is bigger, with more long, dead pools, but the river was slightly clearer and the fishing a little better, though not much.

And it was hot.

Terrierman had gotten there Thursday morning, but did a float somewhere else Thursday, with similar luck. Thursday night I got to listen to Dirty Ed and Englishman John play and sing, which as always was a real treat.

Friday we headed upriver in search of a bit smaller, clearer water, floating from the Hwy. 133 bridge to the Hwy. 7 bridge. It was a somewhat shorter float, about 8 miles, but the water conditions were better and there was excellent habitat. However, the fishing didn't improve.

And it was hot.

Englishman John had found out that the old Route 66, of "get your kicks on Route 66" fame paralleled the interstate in that area, and said that Route 66 was famous in England, and seeing a sign for a "Route 66 Diner", he had to go there, so that's here we ate Friday night. It's a rather cool building, but the food and service were...mediocre at best. But John got photos of himself at the place.

Mitch and Greasy had come down Friday morning with Greasy's canoe on top his vehicle, pulling Mitch's jetboat behind. They had floated the Big Piney above where I'd floated it, with about the same luck everybody was having. They got to the campground as we were getting ready to leave for the diner. By the time we got back, they had their camp set up, and although Dirty Ed and the Englishman entertained us again, Mitch and Terrierman were too tired to stay up long and listen. I was too tired, too, but wouldn't miss it. St041986 arrived with his new and very impressive jetboat as the singing was getting started. Still, we were going to turn in reasonably early, but as Greasy, Mitch and I were standing around admiring St's boat by flashlight, a pick-up full of very drunk Pulaski Countians pulled up. They had "crashed the party" at this campground on Memorial Day weekend, when it WAS a big party, and were looking to repeat the experience, but apparently we were the only ones still awake, though the campground was about two thirds full by then. We said we were going to bed, but St talked to the soberest one among the five or six of them for a bit. When he left, the party was over and they left as well.

Saturday morning we said goodbye to Terrierman, DE, Bushy, and EJ, and being worn down a bit from late nights, early mornings, and four days of paddling lots of frog water, I inserted myself into Mitch's jetboat with Greasy. We went back to Schlicht Springs, where we'd seemed to have had the best luck, and drifted downstream, fishing until we came to an impassible stretch of water. The river had dropped considerably, and we were really pushing it trying to run this stretch. Mitch hit rocks in two different riffles. The fishing was again mediocre, again the regular 20 or slightly more fish per person were caught. I caught a 17 incher, and Mitch and Greasy caught similar size fish.

It was just the three of us at the campground Saturday night. We stopped by a bunch of restaurants on the way back to the campground, intending to eat Mexican, but the Mexican restaurant was closed. We ended up eating a a Culvers.

I think most everybody averaged that same 15-25 fish per day throughout. Nobody caught anything over 17.5 inches as far as I know. Everybody seems to catch fish on something different; my best lure was my homemade crankbait. The campground was fine, though the shower leaved a bit to be desired.

And it was hot.

I think I'd like to do this again, but maybe go to a different area of the Ozarks each year instead of always going to the same place. I wish more of you could have come, but you didn't miss a whole lot of good fishing, just good company!

[Guest]

deleted

[Mitch f]

I wish I would've stayed up to listen to the music! I woke up at 3:300 am to fish the Piney and was extremely tired. But I woke up temporarily and heard "Small Medium at Large".

[Seth]

Had you stayed up, you could have watched me drive circles around the campground trying to decide which campsite was for the rodeo. I didn't think to actually check which sites Al had said they would be in before coming down. My final resort was to just start walking up to people in the dark like a creeper and asking if this was Al's campsite. Only took me three times to get the right one.