big Ozark river smallmouths

[Gavin]

Excellent info Al...In regard to spots on the BB. I havent caught a spot or a hybrid above Wenkel Ford yet but I've caught several spots and some hybrids above Noser Mill. Made a few trips to the stretch between 185 and Rieker last year and the ratio was about 60/40 spots to smallmouth. Its almost all spotted bass below Guth's Mill.

[Al Agnew]

Gavin, I don't fish the BB as much as the other streams in the Meramec Basin, but the one trip I did in the last couple of years above Tea Access, I caught one spotted bass, so I knew they were up there. If any stream is perfect spotted bass habitat from the upper end to the lower end, it's the Bourbeuse. I'm kinda surprised that they haven't exploded on the upper river yet. The mill dams do form barriers, but spotted bass eventually breach them all. Cold water is a better barrier. The upper Niangua probably wouldn't be bad spotted bass habitat, but the cold stretch of river below Bennett Spring keeps them from getting up above it.

Some of the spotted bass that are found in the upper Meramec probably got there from releases after tournaments. For a while, at least one bass club would have tournaments that covered the whole river, but the guys would trailer their boats to Garrisons and weigh their fish in there, then release them there. Some spotted bass were released after the weigh-ins.

I'm probably least familiar with the situation on the Gasconade, and would be interested in hearing about anybody catching spotted bass on the streams of the Gasconade system. I haven't fished the Gasconade below Waynesville in a long time. I have caught a couple of spotted bass above Waynesville, but they certainly aren't common there. I have yet to catch one in the Big Piney or Osage Fork, but I caught several on the lower end of the Little Piney a few years ago.

Back in the big Mississippi flood of 1993, the river was so high that Saline Creek and Establishment Creek were backed up for many miles. The lower ends of these creeks are all spotted bass water, but the backwater from the Mississippi reached all the way into sections that are almost entirely smallmouth water. The spotted bass moved upstream with the rising water, and congregated where the backwater stopped. You could find huge schools of them right around where you first encountered moving water. When the water went back down, some of those spots remained. But the habitat just didn't favor them, and they eventually disappeared.

Like I said before, the two most limiting factors are cold water and high gradient. The South Fork of Saline Creek is one of the best examples of this. The upper South Fork is mostly fast-moving, clear water over a bedrock bottom, with lots of ledges. Then, the creek emerges from whatever the geology is that gave it those characteristics, and changes abruptly to slower water, a bit murkier, with a gravel bottom. Right there, within a quarter of a mile, the spotted bass appear in large numbers and the smallie population drops to where they are very uncommon. I've never caught a spotted bass above that point, and I've seldom caught a smallmouth below it.

The thing that nobody can figure out for sure is just HOW the spotted bass wipe out the smallmouths on these streams. They hybridize with smallmouths and the hybrids are fertile, so it pollutes the smallie gene pool. They apparently out-reproduce the smallies. But, the odd thing is that, as spotted bass move into a stream stretch, the smallies IMMEDIATELY seem to disappear. It's almost like, for every spotted bass that appears in a stream stretch, there is immediately one less smallmouth. It isn't like there are the same number of smallmouths that there was the year before. Suddenly you have more spotted bass and fewer smallies. It's weird.

[Mark]

CC,

Very insightful and interesting reading. And what is sad it that our streams that we have work the hardest to protect, we still allow to be polluted by such things as horse trail rides, livestock in the water upstream, and agricultural runoff.

[Crippled Caddis]

Mark wrote:

<--what is sad it that our streams that we have work the hardest to protect, we still allow to be polluted by such things as horse trail rides, livestock in the water upstream, and agricultural runoff.>

The mark of intelligence is the ability to learn from experience. We, as a people and a nation, are failing the test.

And the beat goes on, and on, and on------------

CC

[hank franklin]

Al,

We've caught spotted bass on the Bourbeuse from Hog Trough Road down to Wenkel Ford. Smallmouth are dominant in this stretch but spotted are what you might call "frequent." After reading this thread, I plan to take much closer notes in the future. Also am planning to float Wenkel to Peters Ford this spring, which is a stretch I've never been on, and I'll report on that.

I do recall some spotteds above Highway 8 bridge on the Meramec in 2005 though unfortunately can't confirm that from my notes.

Regarding Osage Fork, have only taken one trip, Davis Ford to Hull Ford in July 2003. Notes from that trip say "No spotted bass at all." That was a quite successful trip for smallies BTW. Coincidence? Probably not.....

[Al Agnew]

Thanks, Hank...I'm trying to get a handle on the situation on some of those rivers I don't fish much. I'd like to know from anybody whether they have caught spotted bass and how many on the Big Piney, Gasconade, Osage Fork, and Niangua.

[Bill Butts]

Hello Al~

You have a great thread working here, packed with great info.

I hope the Forum participants appreciate the breadth of knowledge and experience you bring to the Forum table.

With respect to the Big Niangua, you mentioned one of the limiting factors for Spotted Bass migration as the cold water from Bennett Spring. While this is certainly a factor affecting the mix of resident fish below the entry of that spring, there is a larger limiting factor.

About 7-8 miles above the mouth of the Niangua is a very old dam that creates little-known Lake Niangua on the lower end of that great river, Tunnel Dam. I do not know the effects of flood-level water to that dam, but I have heard that over the years it has kept species from downriver (primarily LOZ) out. Does anyone know of exceptions?

Some of the readers may be familiar with Tunnel Dam. It is one of the most unusual sites on any river in this region. Why? Well, just above the dam along a 300+ foot bluff a 900' tunnel was created through bedrock back in 1930 connecting the river back to itself several miles downriver. The purpose of this tunnel was for the installation of a small hydroelectric power producing plant, now owned and operated by Sho-Me Power. Specifically why they built it that way I don't know, though there is some great history available about that area by Google searching "tunnel dam".

If you are interested in a great site-seeing trip in that area, the vista from that bluff is breathtaking and easily accessible by road not too far off of Highway 54 west of Camdenton.

Personally, I believe that is a "sleeper" of a river for Temperate Basses, White, Hybrid and Striped Bass, since their migration upriver in the spring is limited to just a few miles of river, and they are known to spend considerable time in the area of the underwater springs in the HaHaTonka area of the Niangua arm in the hot summer and cold winter. Anyone have personal experience up in that river in the spring with those species?

Al, sorry to divert to one of my favorite groups of fish, but wanted to offer some facts about that fascinating river.

Keep up the great discussions about our region's greatest native gamefish!!!

Bill

[drew03cmc]

Well, I am still astounded here, and I will say that I wish I had the problem with having spots and smallies...nope, I have the problem of catching largemouth in our streams and no variety of bass. Consider yourselves lucky!

[Al Agnew]

Bill, I bet you're right about Tunnel Dam stopping the spots. I don't know why I didn't think of it as being a barrier. Could be also that if spotted bass occasionally make it above the dam in floods, the water above is still too cold for them to thrive.

According to Tom Beveridge in the book "Geologic Wonders and Curiousities of Missouri", there is a natural tunnel through the ridge at Tunnel Dam, with a 22 ft. drop from the upper end to the lower end on the other side of the ridge. The original plan was to enlarge this tunnel and use it, raising the water level with the dam so that the flow of the Niangua could be reliably diverting through the tunnel. The site was originally surveyed in 1909 with this in mind. But it was found that the natural tunnel had too many passages branching out from it that could cause water loss, so they ended up building the artificial tunnel 75 feet upstream.

I've never floated or fished the Niangua in that area. The MDC float book says that the river is often almost dry around the bend between the dam and other end of the tunnel. Does anybody here know whether that is true, and how often that stretch of the river would be too low to float?

Drew...I understand what you're saying, but to watch streams that used to produce big smallmouths with regularity become fisheries for mostly dinky spotted bass, and watch the smallies dwindle down to where catching one is uncommon, and watch it happen on the river you grew up on...well, it hurts.

[BrianK]

Below Tunnel Dam is in my near future.Been on my list for a while now. only 30 min for me and i've heard good things from guys around here. Almost went 2 wks ago but went futher upstream on the Niangua with my 4 yo...smallies still sleeping then.

Supposed to be a good mixed bag of tailwater fish there...whites, walleyes, smallies, crappie. Will report when i finally check it out.

Too many streams, not enough warm weather! Looks like the rivers are flooding tonite.

Anyone have any experience on Tavern Creek? I cross it on Hwy 42 E of Iberia all the time and intend to check it out this summer also. Any hostile landowners, areas to stay away from, etc. I would probably wade it.

Brian