Big River

[Kyle]

Didn't really know where to post this, but wanted to know if anyone had any information on fishing the Big River.

From what I have read there is good smallmouth fishing and since it is the closest stream to home figured it might be worth a shot.

Any help would be appreciated

Kyle

[duckydoty]

I used to fish the Big river just north of Caledonia at Bootleg Access. Great for wade and fish with some real nice holes down stream from the bridge.

Every now and then a 17" was possable. Dont know much about the rest of the river

duckydoty

[shawncat]

Need more info,boat/wading,spin/fly,upper/lower?It's all good.

[Kyle]

Probably floating and both fly and spincast, but mostly fly. Since we would likely be floating we are looking more towards the upper so we don't have to deal with many jet boats. Also, is it a real slow river like the Meremac?

[shawncat]

I've had some of my best smallie day's fishing the Big in August.Mostly Merril Horse access to Browns Ford access or BF to Morse Mill access.Not to many canoe livery's in the area.Rebel craws/orange belly,soft craws,roostertails and rapala floaters.Hoppers and poppers for top water fly action.I have a friend thats been doing pretty good putting in at Blackwell and float/wade downriver.Smaller water, a lot of dragging.There's alot of dams on the mid to lower river so you don't see the jets as much.....but they may be there.It's a slow river best floated with a troller or small gas.Good luck.

[shawncat]

Kyle look up some of Al Agnews post.There's alot of smallie info and some on the Big River.

[Al Agnew]

Kyle, the river is wadeable from around Bootleg Access (Hwy. 21 south of Potosi) on down. It's marginally floatable from Irondale down, doesn't get big enough for easy summertime floating until you get below St. Francois State Park. Smallmouth fishing is fair to good above St. Francois Park, but spotted bass are in the process of taking over the river up to the Leadwood MDC access. It's a shallow stream for the most part, so surface and shallow running lures and flies are always a good choice in the summer.

Jet boats normally run the river from about Mammoth Access on down, and during low summer water levels, it isn't easy to run jets even that far down.

Big River is a mere shadow of what it once was for smallmouth fishing. The spotted bass and fishing pressure have pretty well messed up much of the river. It once was the second or third best stream in the state for Master Angler Award size smallies, but the best big fish sections were between St. Francois Park and Browns Ford, and now the spotted bass outnumber smallmouths in those stretches. Less than half the number of smallmouths there used to be means less than half (or less) the number of bigger fish, as well. It's still possible to catch those 19-21 inch smallies on Big River, but it ain't near as likely as it used to be.

[BrianK]

As Shawncat mentioned, lots of good info from previous threads.

Check the 'General Bass Fishing Discussion' threads. Some good Big River / Big smallies info there.

I wonder if anyone has mentioned possibly giving Big River it's own category.....(i'd have to look again but don't think it's there)

Phil, any thoughts??

B