Back in Missouri

[Al Agnew]

Mary and I drove back to Missouri from our place in Montana last Sunday and Monday.  I really wanted to get quickly into some Ozark river fishing, but this week has been hectic, with trips to St. Louis, picking and canning 80 pounds of tomatoes, and getting all the yard work done that had been neglected in the 6 weeks we'd been in Montana.  Mary has a bunch of friends coming to the house for the solar eclipse, and spiffing up the yard was big on her agenda (and mine too, I suppose).  

We always come back to Missouri in August, in large part because I don't want to miss the last of the summer smallmouth fishing.  I always go on my annual three day solo float at this time, and I'd already blocked out lengths of time in the next three weeks when I could possibly go; it now all depends upon a weather forecast that calls for as little chance of thunderstorms as possible for three days straight.  It's one of the big benefits of working for yourself--and being more or less semi-retired at this point--to go whenever the conditions are right, instead of setting a vacation time in stone and then hoping the weather cooperates.  I may go this coming week (after eclipse day).

In preparation for the trip and just to get my stuff in order, I spent a couple hours this evening working on my tackle.  But I was puttering with it outside, next to the pond.  And I opened up my topwater box to see if everything was there, and for some reason noticed a new Whopper Plopper I'd bought a couple months ago.  I've not used the WP much, and have not been as impressed with it as many seem to be, but for some reason I had a yen to fish it.  So I grabbed a rod, stuck on the WP, and walked over to the pond.  Eight casts, eight strikes, five bass landed.  None of them were very big, about 11 to 15 inches, and admittedly the fish in my pond aren't particularly sophisticated, since I'm pretty much the only person fishing it.  But it got me wondering whether the WP would have been working well on the river today.  After I caught the fifth bass, I decided not to wear my bass out, since we have plans next weekend for some of our great-nieces and great-nephews to visit and fish in the pond.  So I quit fishing and went back to puttering.  I find as I get older that I seem to spend more time puttering with tackle than I used to, but so far, not a lot less time actually fishing.  My dad always complained that as his best fishing buddy got older, he'd spend more time talking about fishing than fishing, and when they'd drive down to Wappapello Lake on Sundays, where before they'd get up before daylight, drive like maniacs, and fish hard all day, now his buddy wanted to get started on the drive about 8 AM, stop halfway for a leisurely breakfast, and finally get on the lake about 11 AM.  I'm not there yet,  but I do find it a little more difficult to talk myself into getting up at 3 AM and driving in the pre-dawn darkness to go fishing.

The fishing in Montana, on the Yellowstone, was less than terrific the last six weeks.  When we got there around the 4th of July, the river was still very high, though barely clear enough to fish.  The word was that people were catching a lot of trout.  The first float trip I took, I caught some nice ones, but I wouldn't have called it a LOT.  From there, for me, the fishing just got tough.  It didn't help that the river had changed in front of the house with the high water this year.  It had completely washed away the upper end of our island, about 70 yards of willows and even some decent size cottonwoods, and there was a lot more water going down our little side channel, at least a third of the entire river.  With the river flowing at well over 9000 cfs, that's more than 3000 cfs going down our channel, which meant I could not wade across it and fish around the island.  And the water was deep and fast against our bank, so I couldn't even fish much from the bank.  After a couple weeks it had dropped enough that there were a couple places I could wade and fish along our bank, and I caught a few trout and whitefish a couple of evenings.  But when I'd go on a float in the little Water Master raft, I was lucky to catch more than a couple of trout each time.  I had friends visit, and took them out on the river with similar results.  

By the last couple of weeks we were there, the hoppers had really gotten thick, and the word was that hopper fishing was really taking off.  I did two trips attempting to catch fish on hopper patterns, and couldn't get much to happen.  Either I was using the wrong patterns, or I was fishing the wrong days.  It got so bad that, when Mary several times wanted to float the river in kayaks, I didn't mind a bit that I couldn't fish effectively out of the kayak.  A couple of times, I didn't even bring a rod.  And I found that it was enjoyable in an entirely different way to just paddle the river without fishing.  I never thought I'd say that!

The last week we were there, the river had finally gone down enough that I could wade across our channel at the house, and I spent a pleasant afternoon fishing around the island, or what's left of it.  Even caught a half dozen trout, none of them particularly noteworthy.

But it's nice to be back in Missouri, ready to chase river smallies.

[fishinwrench]

This made me chuckle 😂

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admittedly the fish in my pond aren't particularly sophisticated, since I'm pretty much the only person fishing it.

You should give yourself more credit, Al. 

 

Take a Club Sandwich Hopper Smallie fishing sometime.  Fun stuff!

[Hog Wally]

Welcome back.  The merrie mac calls your name. I have a empty river pro seat for you.