Planning A Spring Float Trip

[creek wader]

We're thinking about doing a canoe/smallie trip on the Big Piney, next spring/summer. It's one river I haven't been on yet. I searched some of the outfitters sites. But, would like any imput on your favorite sections to go for smallies. Your imput is usually better than any of the outfitters reports. Any info would be appreciated. .. Thanks ... Wader

[Gavin]

If the water is up, you might be able to float out of Boiling Springs, but most of the time I float the section between Slabtown and Ross Bridge..its floatable year round...Slabtown to Ross is a two day trip with good scenery. 6x to Ross is a good day trip, but the fishing is usually better between Slabtown & 6x. Rich's Last Resort just below Ross Bridge is the outfitter that I'd recommend for that section. The float I'd really like to do is through Ft. Wood, but I havent gotten around to it yet. Cheers.

[Al Agnew]

Gavin, the float through the fort is a bit disappointing in places...very good water between Ross and the beginning of the fort water, but quite a bit of shallow, poor habitat in places within the fort. Still, it is well worth a trip.

I don't think you can go far wrong ANYWHERE on the Piney. There are short stretches here and there that are pretty poor habitat, but any float you do on it can be good fishing. The Slabtown to Ross stretch is the most scenic, however--lots of big bluffs and gorgeous water. The only really poor trip I ever had on the Piney was a few years ago when I floated down to Boiling Spring and never caught a single smallmouth. I don't know what was up with that. A couple years earlier I'd done the same float and caught a LOT of fish.

In the spring you can usually float anywhere from Dogs Bluff down. The upper river is really pretty. The stretch from Mason Bridge to Slabtown is nice and doesn't get too much pressure, since as far as I know, no canoe renters regularly service that section. And even the lower river below the fort is nice, if a bit civilized in places.

[creek wader]

Thanks guys. After reading your posts and some older ones. It looks like Rich's Last Resort, is the outfitter to use and a overnight float from Slabtown to Ross, would fit the bill. Thanks again. .. Wader

[brownieman]

Al, you mentioned the smallie shortage. This is what the local opinion was and my father felt the same.

I grew up in Cabool and the Piney was where I pretty much learned fishing.

My father and I have continued fishing the piney over the years. He has always gone to Simmons Ford, always been his favorite until recent years. In years past it was nothing to catch allot of smallies,few nice ones but always a bunch of 10, 12 inchers.

The last couple of times he fished it he caught very few, 6,8 fish where it used to be 30 or 40...back then generally lost count. During super low water the local farmers ponds were being worked on also they said...most blamed the otters. The river is small on the upper strech and most thought it was the otters working it over hard. I don't know for a fact about the ponds but I did experience catching very few fish where I used to have great trips...no such thing as a bad trip I'm just talking numbers of fish.

Anymore my father and I float from 6 crossings to Riches, one of the few floats I know of where the spot is shorter than the float. I don't catch near the number or quality of fish on that strech as in the past and it is the so called trophy area.

Almost every time I have floated the piney I see guys just keeping whatever they want...this is probably part of the problem, I'm sure their are several fish stuck intentional or not due to the water clarity of the Piney...several factors I reckon.

The Piney has always been an excellent smallie river but I have watched the numbers take a real decline over the years. I just hope the smallies have the staying power because they don't get much help these days...they have always been my favorite fish to catch.

JMO, but I feel that if smallies generated the revenue that trout did they would get much more attention but I don't see that happening...they are kinda on their own, best of luck to em, they sure are a neat fish...just hope there will be some around for my grandson, besides on a video game, lol.

bm

[creek wader]

Wow, seems like the Piney has gone the way of most of the other smallie streams. I really hope that I'm not too dissapointed on my trip.

[Al Agnew]

I don't know whether the otters decimated the smallie population on the upper Piney or not. I do know that the stretch between Mineral Spring and Boiling Spring was absolutely full of crawdads that were walking around out in the open during the day, which would seem to imply that they didn't have many predators. I saw the same thing a few years ago on the upper Roubidoux...very few smallies and massive numbers of unafraid crawdads. It's a mystery to me, since otters also really eat a lot of crawdads. Either they moved on after wiping out the smallmouth population, or it was something else affecting the smallmouths. I haven't been back to that stretch of the Piney since, so I don't know how it is now.

It really does seem that there are a lot more meat fishermen on the Piney, upper Gasconade, and Osage Fork than on the other Ozark streams. (And on Roubidoux...that time I was on it, I talked to a couple of guys who said, "Yeah, we used to take our limits of smallmouth out of this creek every week during the summer, but we can't seem to catch many fish anymore." Duh!

[Sharps4590]

I have a friend/customer who lives on the Meramac between the Rt. 8 bridge and ......what is it, Indian Ford or Scotts Ford?....anyway, he says the number of 10 inch smallies coming out of that river, on that stretch, is appalling. I live near Rolla and I can tell you for a fact that for a lot of folks, if it's big enough to stink a skillet they kill it. I fish both Pineys some and during the summer I see folks fishing with baits that aren't legal where they're fishing. I always call MDC too and give license numbers if they are to be had. In my opinion the smallies could handle the otter pressure but they can't handle the otters and the killers.

I agree with brownieman, sure wish MDC paid as much attention to smallies as they do trout.

Vic

[brianbarker]

Gavin, the float through the fort is a bit disappointing in places...very good water between Ross and the beginning of the fort water, but quite a bit of shallow, poor habitat in places within the fort. Still, it is well worth a trip.

I don't think you can go far wrong ANYWHERE on the Piney. There are short stretches here and there that are pretty poor habitat, but any float you do on it can be good fishing. The Slabtown to Ross stretch is the most scenic, however--lots of big bluffs and gorgeous water. The only really poor trip I ever had on the Piney was a few years ago when I floated down to Boiling Spring and never caught a single smallmouth. I don't know what was up with that. A couple years earlier I'd done the same float and caught a LOT of fish.

In the spring you can usually float anywhere from Dogs Bluff down. The upper river is really pretty. The stretch from Mason Bridge to Slabtown is nice and doesn't get too much pressure, since as far as I know, no canoe renters regularly service that section. And even the lower river below the fort is nice, if a bit civilized in places.

Agreed! No bad floats but the rare bad day... usually there are always fish to catch somewhere on the piney. I have 3 smallies on my wall over 4 pounds, all from Piney. One my dad caught at Slabtown about 15 years ago, I caught one just before you get to Slabtown 3 years ago and caught a 5.4 along the bluffs below Mason Bridge (old) so there are still some big smallies in Piney, always have been. You just have to know how to find them and get em' in the boat. Good Fishin!

[watermen]

Don't know what great fishing is ,but if you go early in april or may before the bass opener 20-30 fish days with some to 19 or 20 are common with lots of 12-16 inch fish from spring creek down. After the spawn funk and the hordes decend fishing gets worse and I never go much past may myself. Fishing is still pretty good,but not as I remember it 30 years ago. Then nothun is you never saw the traffic on the river you do now. Any nice day in the summer looks like 4th of july wknd did then. Otters ,fishermen , the river changing,( before the charcolers and logging both pineys had considerably more water and deeper holes for the fish. They're both quality trips just try a nice 75 degrre day in late april and see if there's more fish to be had. Should be and you won't see many fishermen. gd