Interesting fish pics...

[Al Agnew]

I grew up on Big River is southeast MO. I've been fishing the upper river for more than 45 years, and have spent a lot of time studying its evironmental problems. It is by far the most impaired Ozark stream in MO, due to lead mining, overdevelopment, tiff mining, and poor land use practices in the watershed. Even with all those problems, it was once a terrific smallmouth stream, but now spotted bass are providing the latest and worst assault on smallmouth populations.

Yesterday, I did my first float this year on the section of river that is arguably the worst in its whole 130 plus miles. It's a ten mile float, in the section that has received (by the end of the float) the erosion from all 6 major mine complexes. It suffers as well from clearing of the trees along the river, from digging topsoil from the bottom fields, from housing developments, and from the treated sewage of a population of well over 30,000 people, along with the runoff from the streets, lawns, and parking lots of that urban complex.

Why do I float this stretch? Well, for all its ills, it is still an interesting piece of river, with some high bluffs and some surprisingly pretty reaches. And although the fishing is nothing compared to some of the better Ozark streams, I grew up fishing it and I know its secrets--most of them. And besides, it's close to home.

The river was extremely low, somewhat murky from algal bloom, lots of algal mats on the bottom and floating on the surface in some places. The fishing...well, I keep track of the numbers of bass I catch on this river partly to see how much the spotted bass are taking over. They first showed up on this upstream stretch about 5 years ago. Yesterday I caught 42 spotted bass, 35 smallmouths, and 8 largemouths. So the spots are more numerous than ever.

The mine tailings fill in the pools, so the river is very shallow in this stretch, with only one pool in the whole 10 miles where there is fairly extensive deep water. Other than that pool, there is probably NO place on this stretch that is more than 5 feet deep, and most of the pools are 2-3 feet at the deepest. The tailings do something even worse...the fine gravel to sand-sized tailings cover the cobble and chunk rock bottoms and fill in the spaces between the coarse gravel you find on other Ozark streams, and as a result, the habitat for the bottom organisms that form the base of the food chain is horrible. There just isn't as much for a fish to eat in this stretch. But the spotted bass are fat and healthy, so they are apparently outcompeting the smallies for food. Here are the two biggest smallmouths I caught yesterday, both around 18 inches:

Note that both are fairly skinny fish, and the one has a very big head and tail compared to its body.

One of the smallies I caught was obviously an old or sick fish:

And it isn't extremely unusual to catch smallmouths here with a deformity that gives them a crooked backbone. Here are two from yesterday, one heavily deformed, the other slightly deformed:

Here's a typical small spotted bass:

Spotted bass also hybidize with smallmouths on this river. Here's an interesting spotted bass, without a dark horizontal band down its side. It's probably a hybrid with some smallmouth genes:

One interesting thing about smallie coloration on this part of the river...the tailings are, when clean, a light grayish color, so the bottom is lighter and grayer than the typical Ozark stream. Smallmouths can and do change color to match their surroundings. On the light, smooth stream bottoms common on this stretch, the smallies are often light grayish with no darker markings. Here are some good examples:

Here's a big largemouth from yesterday. Largemouths aren't common in this stretch, but you find the occasional good fish. Note the big head and "shoulders", but thinner belly:

Here's an interesting hybrid sunfish...I believe it's a green sunfish/redear sunfish hybrid. Green sunnies are common on Big River, redears are fairly rare:

And here's something else interesting and disquieting. I've always caught fish on this stretch that have black tails. Mainly green sunfish, but also goggle-eye and once in a while a smallmouth. I read somewhere that the black tails are a sign of heavy metal contamination. Here's a typical green sunfish:

And here's an excellent example from yesterday of a black-tailed green sunfish:

I think I'm fishing a Superfund site!

[Project Healing Waters]

Yeah. But you caught 85 bass in one day! Just don't let small children swim there and don't eat the fish. LOL

[Thom]

Very interesting post although scary. I wonder how many other streams are on their way to the same fate.

Great pictures and comments.

[WebFreeman]

Al, you need to get together w/ some grad students and get some research going. My best friend did similar research on the Pearson (?) Creek flowing into the James above Spfd, the James and then into TRL. They were able to take sediment samples and do some extensive research. The mining above Spfd is small and old fashioned, so it hasn't had near the impact of these large scale mines, but I would think something like that would be the first step in fixing the problem.

[Kayser]

Your "hybrid sunfish" is not a hybrid, just a fairly uncommon type. It's called a warmouth, and I've caught them up to 12 inches before from creeks, farm ponds (dammed creeks), and a few from Lake of the Ozarks. Absolute blast to catch, but I like to release them because of how uncommon they are.

Warmouth pic & info

Rob

[Al Agnew]

Your "hybrid sunfish" is not a hybrid, just a fairly uncommon type. It's called a warmouth, and I've caught them up to 12 inches before from creeks, farm ponds (dammed creeks), and a few from Lake of the Ozarks. Absolute blast to catch, but I like to release them because of how uncommon they are.

Warmouth pic & info

Rob

Nope, not a warmouth, though I don't blame you for thinking so, because it is superficially similar. I've caught quite a few warmouth, but none on Big River. There are several characteristics of the above sunfish that are not diagnostic of warmouth. First, warmouth have a patch of teeth on their tongue. This fish didn't (I checked). Second, warmouth have dark bars on a lighter background radiating back from their eyes. This fish obviously doesn't. Third, warmouth have fairly bright red eyes. This fish doesn't. Fourth, warmouth do not have light orange edges to any of their fins, like the anal fin on this fish. Green sunfish do.

I'm sure this fish has green sunfish genes, but I'm not sure about the other species in the cross. I'm guessing redear--redear were exceedingly uncommon in Big River until they were stocked in Council Bluff reservoir on the upper end. Since then they show up in the river once in a while. But actually, the colors look closer to pumkinseed coloration, and pumpkinseeds have only been reported at once place in the whole river system, and that was on the upper Meramec. The only other species it could possibly be is orangespotted sunfish or longear. Coloration doesn't look much like orangespotted, which are rare in Big River, and I don't know whether longear ever hybridize with other sunfish. Guess it's a mystery fish.

[Al Agnew]

Al, you need to get together w/ some grad students and get some research going. My best friend did similar research on the Pearson (?) Creek flowing into the James above Spfd, the James and then into TRL. They were able to take sediment samples and do some extensive research. The mining above Spfd is small and old fashioned, so it hasn't had near the impact of these large scale mines, but I would think something like that would be the first step in fixing the problem.

The tailings problem in Big River has been studied extensively. The problem is one of scale. There are about 20 miles of river that are very badly affected by the tailings, and below there the tailings are present and causing heavy metal contamination--but not so much habitat impairment--all the way to the Meramec, a distance of close to 100 miles. "Fixing" the problem can only be done by removing the tailings from the river channel--the mines have been Superfund sites for a long time and are pretty well stabilized by now, so the amount of tailings getting into the river is MUCH less than what it once was, but the tailings that are already in the river will be there for a LONG time. MDC has some ideas on habitat improvement, but getting the tailings out would entail dredging the entire channel for 20 miles. And that wouldn't fix the river's other ills.

I don't expect to see really significant improvement in the river in my lifetime, although if we would just get out of this lingering drought and get a series of really rip-roaring floods, it would help move some tailings. The smaller floods we've been having occasionally move the tailings just enough to continue filling in pools and smoothing out the river channel, but a big flood (the last one was in 1994!) shoves tailings and gravel all the way out into the bottom fields and scours out pools. The river was in better shape 10 years ago than it is now. And since the amount of tailings ENTERING the river with heavy rains is MUCH less than what it was 10-15 years ago, some big floods would really do some good.

[Quillback]

Great pics, good story. Hopefully no one eats any of the fish they catch in that stream.

Which poses a question: If you eat the fish do you get a "black tail"?

[Bill Butts]

Hello Al~

That was an amazing Mini-Documentary on Big Creek!!

It's interesting how our "home waters" really stay in our heart even though they often are subjected to horrendous abuse in a variety of ways.

Thank you for taking the time to document with text and camera some of the evidence of the affects this stream has endured.

After reading many of your detailed posts, I'm sure many of the members and readers understand the passion you have certainly for fishing, but equally for the long-term health of the rivers and streams of the Ozarks.

Now a question. What have your observations been in recent years, on Big Creek, as to the forage available to fish in that section of river? Larger Smallies obviously feed more on crayfish and minnows, but as you mentioned the aquatic invertabrates habitat is impacted by the tailings and they are key ingredients to the health of the fishery in any stream. Do you still witness insect hatches?

Thanks for your contributions that help to make this Forum the informative and positive resource it is.

Bill Butts

[jdmidwest]

Could be a meth induced retardation in that county!

The smallies look malnourished, I have seen in in places where forage has disappeared. It could be stress related to the high temps lately also, they may have quit eating. The one fish looks like a redear to me, they could have been released by a local that fishes Council Bluffs which is loaded with them.

Contact Mike the fisheries biologist at Cape Girardeau with this article for his imput. I have worked with him in the past on your fishery and he has a strong attachment to it. I have worried about Big River and the cattle pollution.