Fishing the Big river

Last weekend I stayed at a property located on the Big River in St. Francois county. The Big River flows 145 miles through Iron, Washington, St. Francois, and Jefferson counties before it empties into the Meramec River. The variety of habitat on the Big River allows it to hold many different species of game fish including Spotted, Largemouth, and Smallmouth Bass, as well as Channel and Flathead Catfish. There are several deep and rocky holes as well as fast-moving riffles and shallower rocky runs. Because of the abundance of deep stretches, the Big River is best fished from a kayak or another type of small boat.

​We got to the property at around 5 in the afternoon, and I didn’t get down to the water until 6, so I decided to leave the kayak in the truck and try for some smallmouth in a shallow area that I could wade in. I brought two spinning rods down to the water. The ultralight was rigged up with a small white marabou jig, and the medium spinning setup was rigged up with a popper. I started out throwing the jig, and soon I had caught 2 smallmouth bass, each around ten inches. Then I walked upstream to an eddy right in front of a root wad and casted the popper right up against the bank. I had a hit immediately and reeled in a nice 13-inch smallmouth. By then it was time to go up to the house and eat dinner.

​The next day I got up right at sunrise to go fishing. My goal for the day was to catch a Flathead Catfish. I had never caught one before, but I knew they were in the Big River and the deep bluff hole was perfect habitat for them. I rigged up two medium heavy catfishing rods with a live bait rig composed of a large three-way swivel tied to the main line; 65 pound braided line. Next I tied a short fifty-pound fluorocarbon leader to the swivel, and a 4/0 circle hook to the fluorocarbon. Lastly I tied a longer twenty-pound monofilament leader to the last remaining eyelet, and attached a one-ounce pyramid sinker to the end of the leader.

I planned to bass fish on the way to the bluff hole. Before I got into the kayak, I caught another smallmouth out of the same eddy on a marabou jig. As I began to paddle down to the bluffs, I stopped to fish a root wad with the jig. I felt a hard thump and brought in the first largemouth of the trip, a nice 14 incher. I caught a small spotted bass out of the next rootwad.  Catching all three black bass species at one place is pretty cool, and the Big River offers a great opportunity to do it.  Once I got down to the bluffs, I put on a crawdad pattern wiggle-wart crankbait so I could fish deeper. The bluffs were less productive than usual, but I still caught two 14-15 inch smallmouth by the section with the rockier bottom.

Now that I had gotten down to the bluffs, I began to switch gears from bass to catfish. My first objective was to catch bait. Flathead Catfish are unique in that they usually only eat live bait, whereas Channel and Blue catfish prefer dead bait. I tied on a 1/64-ounce plastic jig under a bobber, and casted into a backwater area. I quickly caught about 10 small Longear Sunfish. I put them into a five-gallon bucket with some water, and I went back to the sandbar I would be catfishing from. I took a sunfish and rigged the circle hook through the back so it would stay alive longer.  I knew that during the day Flatheads like to hide under rocks or submerged trees, so I casted to a spot with several very large submerged rocks. I knew the action wouldn’t be hot during the day, so I prepared myself to wait for a long time.

About an hour and a half in, one of the rod tips began to go down. I waited for the fish to fully engulf the sunfish, then I reeled in the slack and set the hook. I could tell something was wrong because even though I could feel the fish shaking on the end of the line, I couldn’t move it.  The fish had dragged my rig under a rock and got the weight stuck. Luckily, I had prepared my rig so that the weight would snap off before the main line would, so I pulled really hard and the weight released. It worked like this because the leader attached to the weight was only twenty pound, while he main line was sixty-five pound and the hook leader was fifty pound, so the weight leader broke first. Once the weight released, I was able to reel in my first ever Flathead Catfish. It was a nice fish, around four pounds, but Flatheads can get much larger. I unhooked it, took some pictures, and released it back into the Big River.

​I had one more bite, but I missed it, so I decided to go back up to the house and get some lunch. The action was only going to get slower as the day wore on anyways. After taking a quick nap I went down to the river again. I decided to try a small white swimbait. On one of my first casts I hooked up with my biggest smallmouth of the trip, a long skinny fish around 17 inches. I proceeded to catch three more smallmouth over 12 inches on back to back to back casts. It was clear that they were biting well.

My family had come down to play in the water, so I rigged up a pole for Daniel with a jig and a bobber. He casted the spinning rod all by himself. I thought he would be catching little sunfish, but he had a hard hit and began fighting a nice largemouth bass. He brought it in all by himself and even held it after I unhooked it. We walked up to a rootwad and Daniel proceeded to catch a fish nearly every cast. Most of the fish were longear sunfish, but he managed to catch a few more bass including his first ever smallmouth bass. He is close to being able to fish by himself, except for the occasional tangle and the fact he doesn’t unhook the fish yet, but for an eight-year-old that’s pretty good.

​I had an idea when I was sitting on the sandbar waiting for a flathead to bite. I wanted to set up limb lines overnight for catfish. A limbline is simply a line you tie to a tree and leave for a fish to hit. You can leave them unattended for up to 24 hours, as long as you leave your full name and address on the line. You are allowed to set up to 33 of them, but I was only planning on five or six. I caught more bait and floated back down to the bluffs. In reading about this technique, I learned you wanted to select a limb that was still green, as it would bend but not break like a dead one might.

Once I found an optimal limb hanging over a spot that looked promising, I tied heavy braided line to a section of the limb where the branch splits so that the line would not slide down. I allowed for about two feet of the line to be in the water, then I tied a 4/0 circle hook to the line and attached a live sunfish. You want the bait to be near the surface of the water so it makes a commotion, attracting the fish. Lastly, I wrote my name and address on a piece of tape and attached it in the middle of the line so that it would be easy to see.

I repeated this process again, and as I was attaching the third line I heard a huge splash behind me. My first line had already gotten a bite. The limb was dipping into the water and the fish was splashing around like crazy. I paddled over as fast as I could and grabbed the line. Attached to the other side was a nice channel catfish, bigger than the flathead I caught earlier. I pulled him up, unhooked him, and rebaited the hook. It was going better than I could have hoped. I had no more bites while I was setting the lines, and after I finished the fifth one, I paddled back to the house with plans to check the lines early next morning.

​The next morning, I woke up anxious to see how I did. I got in the kayak and paddled down to the bluffs. Before I even got to my first line, I could see that I had done well. I could see three limbs bobbing and getting pulled around. The first one had a hefty channel cat, about the size of the one I had caught the night before. The next line surprised me. It had a very large softshell turtle on it. I wasn’t expecting that. The next line had the biggest cat of the day, I would say around seven pounds. The second to last line had another solid channel cat on it, and the last line had nothing but a bare hook. Something had outsmarted me.

I headed back to the cabin thinking about all of the other places besides the Big River where I could try this new technique, because it was simple but very rewarding. This trip was some of the most fun I have had fishing all year, and I came out of it with another species caught and a new technique learned. I am excited to try this again soon and see what’s awaiting me on the other end of the line.​

​For a map of the Big River, check out this link:

https://www.missouricanoe.org/river-maps/big.html