An Ozark Imposter

[WestCentralFisher]

The stream is crystal clear and cool, with the only color a blue-green in the deep pools. There is a cave along the bank and a couple little seep springs, gravel bottom everywhere. I can wade across it without getting my knees wet in the riffles, but the pools would see me up to my neck if not more. I could probably put a kayak on it if I really wanted to, but it's pretty clearly a wading stream. It's on the northern edge of the Ozarks, but pretty unambiguously within them.

In short, it looks like an a combination of every little Ozark smallmouth stream I grew up fishing. Until the first cast, that is. 

The first strike comes almost immediately, but it's just an overaggressive bluegill. The second comes in a deep pool by a fallen sycamore, this one much harder. But it doesn't flash green/bronze like a smallmouth bass, or even the slightly lighter green of a largemouth. It flashes silver, because it's a channel catfish. 

Because this creek isn't what it appears. It's a stream with the fish population of a slow prairie stream, in the body of a classic Ozark stream. 

By my count, I caught and released 14 fish this morning, truthfully without trying all that hard. I tallied 8 channel catfish, 4 freshwater drum, 1 bluegill, and 1 longear sunfish. This is a typical day here. All in a stream that could easily pass for the Little Piney or the Little Niangua or a tributary of the upper Meramec. Not one black bass among them, let alone a smallmouth. I believe in two years of fishing this stream, I could count the number of bass I've caught on two hands, despite the fact that I spend at least some time targeting them each trip. Only the longear sunfish (of which there are many, admittedly) appear to belong.

I still like it. I get all the experience of wading and fishing Ozark creek, and likely because of the weird species mix, almost no one else bothers with it. But it's just such a strange mismatch of appearance and reality. I don't think I'll ever walk down to the creek for the first time in the morning and not think this will be the time I find the hidden population of smallmouth bass that should be there. But in reality, it's just fine as it is. 

[Flysmallie]

There is a stream close by that is really in the Ozarks. And I get the same kind of results. Should be full of smallmouth, or any bass, but it isn't. It does have some of those agressive catfish though. 

 

 

 

[WestCentralFisher]

2 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

There is a stream close by that is really in the Ozarks. And I get the same kind of results. Should be full of smallmouth, or any bass, but it isn't. It does have some of those agressive catfish though. 

 

 

 

It's pretty strange.

It's not like I can't drive 15 miles and one watershed over and be in some of the best smallmouth water in the state anyway, but I just find it interesting. I've found good pockets of stream smallmouth fishing in places people would absolutely never expect (think like the entirely wrong region of the state), so I guess finding a seemingly perfect smallmouth stream in a place they should be with none of them is the flipside of that. 

[tjm]

What kind of crayfish are in that stream?

[WestCentralFisher]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

What kind of crayfish are in that stream?

That I do not know. 

[tjm]

The key factor may be in temperature, if much of the stream gets to or stays above low 70sF SMB wouldn't be comfortable there and catfish like it up to mid 80s, I think. I don't always carry a thermometer anymore but back when I did I learned that 3-4 degrees could determine if a stretch held fish or not.

[Al Agnew]

One question might be, does this creek connect to waters that do hold smallmouth?  In other words, can a smallmouth easily get from this stream to one that holds smallmouth?  If not, that could be the answer.  Other possibilities are that perhaps at some point in its history, something happened to the creek that killed all bass in it, and they simply have never recolonized it.  Or there is something about the water chemistry that is inimical to bass.

There is a creek close to where I grew up in the old lead mining district of southeast MO.  When I was a kid, I spent thousands of hours playing in this creek, fishing it, seining it for bait, etc.  Never once did I ever see a bass in it.  But 40 years later, after the lead mine tailings that continually eroded into it were stabilized, it became a pretty decent bass stream with a good population of both smallmouth and spotted bass.

[fishinwrench]

Have you covered a sizable portion of said creek ? 

2 streams that I know of in the northern portion of the state have truly good bass fishing....but the good stretches are the ONLY place where you're likely to catch a bass (LM & SM).  It has to do with the orientation (N-S-E-W) and the bottom composition. 

[tjm]

35 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

It has to do with the orientation (N-S-E-W)

that intrigues me, makes me wonder if sun exposure is a factor (e-w sections should be warmer) and I wonder if the fish stay in those exact sections throughout the year? 

[WestCentralFisher]

9 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

One question might be, does this creek connect to waters that do hold smallmouth?  In other words, can a smallmouth easily get from this stream to one that holds smallmouth?  If not, that could be the answer.  Other possibilities are that perhaps at some point in its history, something happened to the creek that killed all bass in it, and they simply have never recolonized it.  Or there is something about the water chemistry that is inimical to bass.

There is a creek close to where I grew up in the old lead mining district of southeast MO.  When I was a kid, I spent thousands of hours playing in this creek, fishing it, seining it for bait, etc.  Never once did I ever see a bass in it.  But 40 years later, after the lead mine tailings that continually eroded into it were stabilized, it became a pretty decent bass stream with a good population of both smallmouth and spotted bass.

I have caught a couple tiny smallmouth in a tributary creek to this one, but I wouldn't say based on that they necessarily have easy access to the stream I'm talking about. Between the section of tributary creek I fished and the confluence, there are multiple low water crossings that would stop any fish migration in most (but not all) water conditions. More importantly the last couple miles of that feeder creek is extremely wide and shallow with zero shade and basically no habitat, so I doubt a lot of fish move through there regularly.

I have it on pretty good authority (older locals who used to fish it) that it used to hold smallmouth. Perhaps most importantly, it terminates in a large reservoir. While this exact section of stream would only be directly flooded by the lake in pretty major-league flooding events, I'm told it has happened before, and also while I don't claim to be an expert in such things, I know that suddenly having a lake at the mouth of a stream can have some pretty significant effects even on the section upstream that can take decades to fully manifest.  In addition to the usual land use changes in any Ozark watershed. 

To address another reply, sadly there is only one public access to the stream, so the accessible section is where you can wade or paddle a kayak from there. I've ventured as much as I can within that constraint, but barring something unexpected I'll probably never be able to check out other reaches of the stream.