The annual solo float

[Al Agnew]

In June, 2005, I did a long overnight solo float on a stream that I hadn't been on in quite a few years.  It's a popular springtime float, but gets too low for most people to enjoy floating it by mid-summer, and that year it was a little too low for the casual floaters even on that week in early June...which is why I did it.  I love "float-dragging" creeks that most people don't want to work that hard.  The fishing is usually great and the solitude is even nicer.

On that first trip, I remembered why I absolutely love this creek.  The scenery is incomparable, the seeming remoteness is as good as it gets in Missouri, and the fishing...

That first trip, I started at daylight, and floated about 15 miles, not stopping to camp until it was nearly dark, and caught 160 smallmouth.  I floated another 10 miles the second day, and caught another 45.  Only two were big enough to photograph, a 17 and a 17.5 incher.  But that's the way it usually is early in the summer on that creek.  The big ones don't seem to want to play until it gets hot and stays hot.

I found that out that same year, when I floated the creek again at the end of August.  On that trip, I put in late in the afternoon and only floated about three miles.  I caught 77 bass in that three miles, 210 smallies the next day (a long one), and 45 on the final half day.  Five were 17-17.5 inches, 2 were over 18 inches, and 1 was a 19 incher.

I didn't float the stream again until 2010, late in August.  Again I put in late in the afternoon, and caught 35 in the first couple of miles, 155 the long middle day, and 125 more the last day.  7 were over 17 inches, another 3 were 18 or so, 2 were 19 inchers, and the biggest was a 21 incher.

After that, I decided that come what may, I'd make the late August float an annual thing.  In 2011, I cut the float shorter, only floating about 7 miles the first day and 10 miles the second.  The fishing was slower, with only 45 the first day and 85 the second, with a 17.5 incher, an 18 incher, a 19 incher, and a 19.5 incher.

In 2012, I went back to my usual schedule of putting in in the afternoon of the first day, catching only 20 that first evening, an even 100 the second day, and 52 the third day, with seven of them 17-17.5 inches, an 18 incher, a 19 incher, and a 20 incher.

In 2013, I caught 50 the first day, 80 the second day, and only 25 the third day, with only three 17 inchers and a 19.5 incher.

I was unable to find my record for last year's float.  I thought I posted it here, but apparently did not as I looked back through the archives.  I remember it was another trip that seemed a little slower, but I do remember catching a 20 incher and several over 17 inches.

Which brings me to this year's trip.  One thing about the wet summer we've had; for the first time, there was enough water to float fairly easily.  The usual August flow on this creek is between 20 and 50 cubic feet per second, but when I put in it was flowing at around 85 cfs, and through the whole trip I floated most riffles cleanly and never had to get out and walk the canoe.  I put in early yesterday, and did about 12 miles, leaving me with 13 miles today.  I was leaving the option open to float three days, but with the stronger water flow, I just kept moving.  I also kept moving because the stronger water flow brought out some other floaters.

There were three people in kayaks getting ready to put in when I arrived at the access, but they were dawdling and it didn't look like they would be fishing.  I loaded the canoe and took off downriver, floating a couple of miles and then catching up to two more guys, seriously fishng with slow bottom bumping stuff.  It's always a question of etiquette when you find yourself catching up to other anglers.  Should you pass them, or stop and let them get further ahead?  Maybe it's a rationalization, but I do fish faster than most other floaters, and these guys looked like I could wait all day for them to get enough of a lead to keep themselves ahead of me, so I passed them, paddling about a half mile without fishing to give them "virgin" water for a while.  The fishing had been slow before I caught up to them, but it didn't immediately get much better.  I passed an out of the way access, with a guy wading and fishing just below, and that was where the fishing began to pick up.

My favorite walk the dog topwaters had not been producing at all up to that point, and the fish I'd caught had mostly come on my twin spin.  But now my smaller homemade topwater began to interest the fish.  I continued to fish the twin spin in the stronger current, switching to the topwater in the slower pools.  It was inconsistent fishing, but plenty of action at times.  

I stopped for lunch, and when I finished eating I had a hunch.  I tied on a Superfluke, and the fish really liked it for a good part of the afternoon.  But as the shadows began to lengthen, I began fishing a Sammy 100 with some success.  

I stopped on a low but level gravel bar about 6:30 PM, set up the tent, and ate my supper of cold smoked pork chops, potato chips, and raw carrots, with a desert of caramel apples, washed down with tea and then a beer.  The other thing different about this trip was the weather.  Usually it's hot every time I do this float, but the temperature was pleasant all day and by the time the sun went down it was deliciously cool.  I actually needed the sleeping bag during the night.

I'd caught 87 bass, but only one worth photographing, an 18 incher that came on the twin spin.

As usual, I was up at daybreak in the gradually thinning fog, and quickly ate a bite of breakfast (more candied apples and tea), struck the tent, loaded the canoe, and started down the river.  As usual, the fishing was good until the sun got higher.  The twin spin and Sammy were hot for a while, but soon the topwater fishing slowed and the twin spin was almost the whole ball game.  The bigger pools seemed almost dead, and most of the fish were coming from shallow, fairly fast water.  The habitat deteriorates as you go downstream on this creek, and the water gets clearer and clearer, from a visibility of about 6 feet at the start to what seems to be almost unlimited visibility in the lower half of the float, where you can see the bottom clearly in 10 feet and more.  In the lower portion, there a long stretches of water less than three feet deep with little cover, but in those stretches, anyplace a smallmouth can possibly hide--in little pieces of brush, single rocks, slight brushy overhangs--there will be a couple there.  

I came into one of those shallow stretches.  In this one I could see nowhere a decent fish could hide, but there were a few half buried flattish rocks in about 2 feet of shaded water, and I'm a firm believer in giving every possible spot a shot, so I was already thinking about a long cast to the shady bank when I noticed a single water willow stalk wave as if something was moving around it, so I made my cast about five feet away from it, using my logic that you don't want to land a lure on top of a possible fish.  I'd cranked the twin spin about two feet when the water boiled.  The fish was a LOT bigger than what I expected, a fat 19.5 incher.

Later on, I caught an 18 incher in a very similar spot with no cover whatsoever, also on the twin spin.

I finished the trip about 5 PM, having added 92 fish to the total from yesterday.  But those two 18 inchers and the 19.5 incher were the only notable fish, and other than those the biggest I caught was only about 15 inches.

[Guest]

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[Al Agnew]

The totals of fish caught compared to past years are interesting to me.  For some reason I had trouble getting this post to scroll down on my IPad, so I'm trying to continue it here.  Late August, early September trips:

2006--335 bass total, 7 from 17 to 19 inches

2010--315 total, 13 from 17-21 inches

2011--shortened trip, 130 total, 4 from 17.5 to 19.5 inches

2012--180 total, 10 from 17 to 20 inches

2013--155 total, 4 from 17 to 19.5 inches

2014--I found my post about the trip for last year, but I didn't post the numbers.  I did post  that I caught 6 17 inchers and a 19.5 incher.

2015--179 total, 3 from 18-19.5 inches

Those first few years, you caught smallies everywhere, big pools, shallow runs, short pools.  But in recent years the big pools have produced very little.  Is it fishing pressure?  Do people pound the big pools and ignore the spots that look marginal?  Or something else...

As I said, the spot where I caught the biggest fish today was a nothing spot, almost not worth fishing.  But the next pool downstream IS a nice one, deep water and big rocks.  Interestingly, when I floated down into it, there were two otters watching me.  Could it be that the otters ran that fish out of that pool and up into the marginal at best water upstream?  There have been otters on this stream ever since I started fishing it, but could they have that sort of effect?

[drew03cmc]

Sounds like a great time to be on the river enjoying the bounties of nature!

[Mitch f]

So is that Twin spin a good clear water bait?

[Guest]

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[Al Agnew]

Yep, the twin spin is as much a go-to bait for me in super clear water as the walk the dog topwater, and more so than buzzbaits.

Some other observations...I had 6/20 Power Pro on the reel I was using to fish the Superflukes.  No leader.  Didn't seem to matter to the fish.

Interesting that other than the three fish over 18 inches, everything else was under 15 inches.  Nearly all of them were under 14 inches.  That's a big change from past years, when I'd caught excellent numbers of 15-17 inchers.  Lots in the 15 and 16 inch class.  Is that year class (or classes) mostly missing?

[Gavin]

Good for you! Always nice to get out on your own for an overnight trip.

[rFisherk]

How in the world do you keep such an accurate count?

[Mitch f]

How in the world do you keep such an accurate count?

He takes his computer with him in the canoe, it's right between his ears! ?