Truman Day upper Big River trip. 5/8/18

[moguy1973]

Being a state employee one of the benefits is getting May 8th off every year for Truman Day.  This year I headed up to the upper Big River and put in at Leadwood Access and paddled my kayak up about 3 miles or so and floated back.  Not many fish caught unfortunately. But one I did catch was this beauty 18” smallmouth. Initially had it hooked on a horny toad in which she came off but hem followed it up with a PB&J Ned which didn’t come undone. Caught another smaller small mouth, a couple small spots and largemouth, a couple green sunfish and this cool looking goggle eye. 

Trips like this will wear a guy out though. Needed to drag the kayak across a couple sand bars where the water was too swift. Gonna be sore tomorrow. 

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[moguy1973]

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[Gavin]

That stretch gets pounded. Some weird features too. Think water comes out of old lead mines up their, looks like a spring seep but it turns the bottom orange in a couple spots. Al A could clarify. Glad you had a nice day off. Would not eat anything on that stretch.

[Al Agnew]

The mine water comes in downstream from Leadwood Access for the most part.  In fact, there is a spot no more than a couple hundred yards downstream from the bridge where it boils up out of the river bottom, through the remnant of an old iron pipe.  And a bunch of other places in the five miles or so downstream from there.  I've never gotten a definitive answer why all these bore holes were drilled in the first place...most are either in the river itself or in the bottoms very close to the river.  They once had the iron pipes sticking up a few feet out of the ground and capped, but now the pipes have mostly rusted away.  Back when I was a kid, a couple buddies and I were camped on a gravel bar in that stretch when a couple came down the river in a canoe.  They asked us what those pipes sticking up out of the water were.  We told them, "They're flood control devices.  When the forecast calls for heavy rain, a ranger comes down the river and unscrews the metal cap off the pipes so that the excess water can drain down into the mines."

I think they believed us.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I think they are dewatering pipes for the mine.  I've sold a few out west over the years.