River Round

[moguy1973]

That thing is going to work great for you at LOZ in the calmer coves.  Paddling on big water can be quite tiresome and being able to pedal it is great. 

For something close to you too you can put in at Rt. 66 State Park and that prop will get you up past the mouth of the Big River without touching bottom which is a good 3miles up river.  Probably not the best of fishing, but I did get my PB smallie right around there.

[Al Agnew]

Peddle drives and trolling motors are more trouble than they are worth on the smaller streams, those deep enough to paddle but with lots of riffles.  A trolling motor is going to need at least 12-14 inches of water, and even then you may have to be lifting it partially out of the water.  And lifting it without getting out of the kayak would seem to me to be problematical.  Not to mention that it adds considerable weight.

It's not unusual for me to paddle/walk my solo canoes up three to four miles in a couple of hours, hitting the best spots as I go up, and then float back down fishing more thoroughly for four or five more hours.  With a double bladed paddle, I can get up all but the actual fast riffle water.  And if I have to walk the canoe up such water, I can do most of it walking along the edge of gravel bars or weedbeds, with my paddle wedged into the front end of the canoe at an angle, so that the canoe is being pulled along off to my side and out in the water, rather than straight behind me as it would be if I was using a rope.  I've often gone from the Highway 21 access on Big River more than halfway up to Blackwell, and from Blackwell up to the former Cole's Landing.  I've also gone up from Merrill Horse Access about four miles, and from Mammoth Access up to Washington Park.  (I always go upstream first, when I have more energy

[moturkey]

  On 2/10/2017 at 1:22 AM, moguy1973 said:

For something close to you too you can put in at Rt. 66 State Park and that prop will get you up past the mouth of the Big River without touching bottom which is a good 3miles up river.  Probably not the best of fishing, but I did get my PB smallie right around there.

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 I never considered floating at Times Beach, but I presume it's safe??

[moguy1973]

  On 2/10/2017 at 2:52 AM, moturkey said:

 I never considered floating at Times Beach, but I presume it's safe??

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Yep, my first float on the river in my kayak we floated from Allenton access to Rt 66, but it's an easy paddle up the river from Rt66 to past the Big River.  There's a big riffle with pretty swift water under the highway bridges so it would be hard to get back up to the ramp if you go down stream.

[Hog Wally]

I'll check river round out for you today from a kayak point of view. But I'll be in a river pro