Something Wrong with Black River?

[rFisherk]

I suspect the major problem is a lack of cleansing floods, because it isn't a local problem confined to one arm. All three arms are having problems with brown and green algae growth. I doubt, too, if the problem is from mining interests, because all three arms are affected.

All three arms flow through very rural and unregulated areas. It is very mountainous and rocky. Only trees and a few marihuana patches grow. There is no agriculture. Very few places are cleared for pastures, and most of these won't even grow enough grasses to support cattle.

I have long suspected the source of the summer bloom was from the various faulty and nonexistent septic systems of the rural poor scattered all along these upper arms. Many of them are so poor they only get by with government assistance, so they can't afford to upgrade their systems, and there has been no pressure for them to do so, because this area has very little tourism value (beyond Johnson's Shut-ins), unlike the river below Lesterville.

The Black River system is one of the most infertile and clear rivers in the state, because it is all rock and gravel. There's almost no aquatic vegetation, so any nutrients simply cling to the rocks and are not absorbed. Normally, spring and early summer floods have flushed the river of this minor, widespread pollution, but the past three years have contained few of these floods, and the number and amount of the sources may have increased.

This long-standing problem has in the past only been evident in slow sections of the river during the warmer water and low flow of late summer, and has been mostly restricted to the upper arms, but it is like August in the arms now, and I suspect the main river below Lesterville will have problems this year as well, which could greatly effect the floating and partying tourism.

The migration of smallmouth to Clearwater Lake during the winter is a separate issue, but it does compound the problems the Black River faces from our perspective. Jerry, and all his friends who fish tournaments there during the winter practice catch-and-release, but there are many others who do not. I'm convinced every bass in the river and all three arms migrate to the lake during the winter and are concentrated along the upper lake for easy pickings. This used to be a local secret, but the word has gotten out and the pressure on these vulnerable concentrations has increased, which means there are far fewer smallmouth left to run back up and repopulate the Black River system.

I have been lobbying the biologist to have much stronger restrictions put on smallmouth bass in Clearwater Lake for a couple of years now, but was told to wait until the migration study is done. Results should have been revealed by now.

These two thing, I believe, add up to some serious problems with the Black River system.

[Al Agnew]

I think somebody above suggested that the algae might be an invasive...perhaps they meant didymo? I don't think it's didymo. Although the color looks similar, I've seen didymo and it doesn't look like it. It does seem to only show up in very clear and otherwise infertile waters, but it seems to me it's more of a small stream thing where there's not enough water movement in low water periods to keep it washed out.

If you think it's bad, you should see upper Big River below the mine waste area and all the treated sewage from the old Lead Belt area by mid-summer. Some of the nastiest algae you'll ever see. It's a gray-green color, grows all over the bottom in mats, then comes loose and floats. The gray green color is only on the upper surface...when it floats free, it's black underneath. It get's so thick that it seems like 50% of the water surface is covered with the floating mats, and anything that stops them makes them pile up in huge masses against it. I've talked to the biologists about it, and they think it's a reaction between the mine waste and the excessive nutrients from treated sewage. I tend to avoid that section (Desloge to below Bonne Terre) in late summer unless there's some high water. I don't know how anybody could stand to swim at St. Francois State Park in that gunk, because that's about where it's the worst.

[Smalliebigs]

I had a conversation with a friend who lives in Black and he told me there was a mine collapse on the West Fork and it was affecting the flow of water and becoming a loosing stream up there. HE also said there was wash off flowing g from under ground back in right above Sutton Bluff...jesus

That explains the nasty algae...I'm a little concerned about getting in that water here the last week of June

[joeD]

So, if so many smallies are missing from this stream, where did they go? If the stream environment is so bad, where are all the reports of dead fish? You would think someone would see something given the water clarity.

Or, maybe, just maybe, the reason there are fewer fish is because there ARE fewer fish. Due to humans taking them out.

Taking fish out of an Ozark stream doesn't make other fish grow bigger. It just means there is one less fish in the water. If enough people take fish out of a finite and fragile ecosystem, legal or not, you will just have less fish in the water.

We are afraid to protect our fisheries because we are afraid to offend a small subset of our population, We know better. Yet, are paralyzed by political correctness.

[Smalliebigs]

So, if so many smallies are missing from this stream, where did they go? If the stream environment is so bad, where are all the reports of dead fish? You would think someone would see something given the water clarity.

Or, maybe, just maybe, the reason there are fewer fish is because there ARE fewer fish. Due to humans taking them out.

Taking fish out of an Ozark stream doesn't make other fish grow bigger. It just means there is one less fish in the water. If enough people take fish out of a finite and fragile ecosystem, legal or not, you will just have less fish in the water.

We are afraid to protect our fisheries because we are afraid to offend a small subset of our population, We know better. Yet, are paralyzed by political correctness.

true,true,true,true........Missouri is backwards assed when it comes to regulating fish stocks on rivers, Smallmouth bass don't have antlers there for they don't mean shiot to the MDC.

[Al Agnew]

We've hashed this out before, but I don't think it's that they aren't important to MDC, it's a whole lot of factors. MDC, regardless of what many of their detractors say about them, don't like to appear to be ignoring any of their constituents. And the enforcement arm has a whole lot to say about regulations. Nothing an agent hates more than to have a large number of hunters or anglers ticked off at them, and they have to live in the counties where the streams are...and where a significant number of local anglers are catch and keep people who would either ignore or at least scream about more restrictive regulations. The enforcement people also hate complicated regulations...it took a lot of convincing for them to even accept the smallmouth special management areas, and they usually have to sign off on any regulation changes.

There is also the outlook among a lot of the "old timers" in positions of power (including, probably, the commissioners) that fish and game are meant to be exploited (which means harvested). Their default position is to have the least restrictive regulations consistent with protecting the overall resource, and when it comes to fish (unlike deer) they are simply not geared toward managing for big fish, but for numbers.

They also do NOT have good baseline data that shows what these streams are capable of producing. Many of the most important studies of Ozark stream bass populations were done when the streams were already seriously degraded and heavily exploited, yet they still use some of those studies as their baseline data for what the bass populations "should" be. Some of us avid anglers, who have not only fished most of the Ozark streams but also similar size streams in other parts of the country, KNOW that the streams can be better fishing for bigger fish than they are now and have been for the last 50 years. You see the potential now and then, when a particular stream section with difficult access or summer water levels so low that most people stay off it just gets better and better for a few years...until the locals "rediscover" it and some of the catch and keepers start pounding it.

In the case of Black River, I think there are two problems other than the environmental ones. One is the exploitation of the bigger smallies in Clearwater in the wintertime. The other is the culture of the upper Black River area. The locals there, including locals in positions of power in the county government and courts, are as bad as it gets when it comes to ignoring game and fish laws and winking when others do. I know because I know some of them. Gigging year-round, fish traps, shooting fish, it all happens in some of the more remote stream stretches. I'd almost be willing to bet that the best smallmouth populations in the upper Black River system are found in the easiest to get to areas that see enough use that a lot of the illegal stuff can't be hidden from outsiders.

[MOsmallies]

In the case of Black River, I think there are two problems other than the environmental ones. One is the exploitation of the bigger smallies in Clearwater in the wintertime. The other is the culture of the upper Black River area. The locals there, including locals in positions of power in the county government and courts, are as bad as it gets when it comes to ignoring game and fish laws and winking when others do. I know because I know some of them. Gigging year-round, fish traps, shooting fish, it all happens in some of the more remote stream stretches. I'd almost be willing to bet that the best smallmouth populations in the upper Black River system are found in the easiest to get to areas that see enough use that a lot of the illegal stuff can't be hidden from outsiders.

Smalliebigs and I have seen the exact same things with the amount of time we spend down there. We've witnessed jeeps just driving back and forth through the river... We've seen a gigging boat put in near secluded trails on a Tuesday in June... We've seen locals spearfishing... We've seen someone guiding an international fella and dragging a stringer full of smallmouth (short fish) from the back of their canoe... We seen a local walking back to his car with a 4lb smallie in a live basket.... We've called on each one of these that was illegal, yet nothing ever really seems to change. The Black has survived this for a long time. Hopefully it won't decline more than it already has. It just makes me appreciate even more the nice fish that we do catch every now and then.

[Smallieguy87]

Smalliebigs and I have seen the exact same things with the amount of time we spend down there. We've witnessed jeeps just driving back and forth through the river... We've seen a gigging boat put in near secluded trails on a Tuesday in June... We've seen locals spearfishing... We've seen someone guiding an international fella and dragging a stringer full of smallmouth (short fish) from the back of their canoe... We seen a local walking back to his car with a 4lb smallie in a live basket.... We've called on each one of these that was illegal, yet nothing ever really seems to change. The Black has survived this for a long time. Hopefully it won't decline more than it already has. It just makes me appreciate even more the nice fish that we do catch every now and then.

I've seen similar things occur on the Fork as well as big river. I was out fishing the big with a buddy of mine and saw a guy gig a big crappie and a really big largemouth bass. I've also seen the hoosiers gig flathead catfish on occasions. I call every time i see something like that. I'm not sure if any of them have been caught but i will say i haven't seen that kind of activity on mineral fork or the parts of the big i've fished in some time though i'm sure it still goes on. It's a shame.

[jdmidwest]

Smalliebigs and I have seen the exact same things with the amount of time we spend down there. We've witnessed jeeps just driving back and forth through the river... We've seen a gigging boat put in near secluded trails on a Tuesday in June... We've seen locals spearfishing... We've seen someone guiding an international fella and dragging a stringer full of smallmouth (short fish) from the back of their canoe... We seen a local walking back to his car with a 4lb smallie in a live basket.... We've called on each one of these that was illegal, yet nothing ever really seems to change. The Black has survived this for a long time. Hopefully it won't decline more than it already has. It just makes me appreciate even more the nice fish that we do catch every now and then.

You actually saw a 4lb smallie removed from the upper Black. That is a pretty big fish for that stream. What exactly illegal was he doing, it certainly was big enough to keep. There is no law that states he has to kill it on the stream. Or was it simply the fact he was a local that made you assume he was breaking the law?

The rest I can see why you reported. But just to get riled because a local kept a big fish in a stream where you can keep one is not breaking a law.

[jdmidwest]

Smallies actually thrive on cooler, nutrient rich waters. The upper Black is almost sterile and crystal clear. Not really optimum habitat.

Some of my best smallmouth come from waters that I could only see 3 to 4 feet in the green water.