Overly Underrated....

"Most of the world is covered by water. A fisherman's job is simple: Pick out the best parts."
-Charles Waterman

I know what you're thinking.  “Isn’t this called the Ozark’s Smallmouth Alliance? Why am I reading an article about some muddy river up in northern Missouri?” Well, you’re mostly right but there are a few reasons I want to talk to you about the Lower Salt River basin and what an unbelievably underrated Smallmouth fishery it is. The first reason is that they say write what you know and I grew up standing below the Re-regulation dam fishing for hours or stalking through Salt River’s tributary creeks all summer chasing Smallies. It’s my home waters, it’s where I learned to fish, and eventually where I taught myself to fly fish. If there is one river on this planet which I am qualified to talk about with any sort of expertise it’s this one. The second (and more important reason) is that people need to know that this fishery exists and how phenomenal the fishing, and the scenery, can be. If no one is fishing it, no one is protecting it.  With that said, let’s dive in shall we?

The first 15 miles of the Lower Salt River are technically Mark Twain Lake and since this website isn’t dedicated to Crappie fishing and I’m not here to talk about running a bass boat at full plane we are going to skip right over it. The next 9.5 miles are a storage pool formed between Clarence Cannon Dam and the re-regulation dam and are used for wetland purposes so….actually we are going to skip this also. Such an informative article so far! The re-regulation dam at Bluff View Recreation area is where we are going to start to slow down and look around. This is where the Salt River begins to look like a river we typically associate with Smallmouth Bass; as long as the Corp of Engineers isn’t blasting water through the dams like soccer moms through the doors of a Best Buy on Black Friday. You can fish directly below the dam at Bluff View but as long as generation is low I have had much more success in the bottle necked riffle below the main pool.The typical rules of fishing a tailwater apply here and you will want to focus your efforts on finding breaks in the current and seams where baitfish will converge. A small bonus to fishing at Bluff View is that many times bass fishing you will come across some truly impressive Wipers, Gar, and the occasional Paddlefish. Be prepared to backup if the whistle sounds as the water level will rise rapidly.

The ReRegulation Dam at Bluff View

Shore fishermen are going to be limited to 3 good accesses at Bluff View, Indian Camp and the Route V bridge.  Public access on Salt River is few and far between so floating is a difficult prospect unless one enjoys long floats and can plan ahead around the generation schedule. Two floats that can produce double digit numbers of Smallmouth are floating from the boat ramp at the Indian Camp access on Route O to the bridge at Route V or starting at Route V and floating to Bailey Bridge. Both of these floats (provided the discharge at the dams is appropriate) showcase the beauty and classic Ozark river stucture few people expect to find in northeastern Missouri. Riffles and quick runs tucked into bluffs and clay or rock banks give way to deep holes and provide cover for the local Smallmouth. At one point and irrigation pipe crosses the span of the river just under water providing a perfect place for bass to lie in wait to ambush unsuspecting swimbaits and streamers. There are stretches of long slow runs surrounded by farmland but the Largemouth Bass holding in the submerged timber reward those that don’t paddle or motor through these stretches. One afternoon in June a few years back my father and I brought upwards of 30 fish to hand without ever tying on a different lure in between the Route V bridge and Bailey Bridge.

Seams off of the main current can produce good fish in high flow situations.

The last Missouri Department of Conservation population survey of Salt River 80 species of fish were sampled. I could write another thousand words about the amazing variety of species, from almost every region of Missouri, that swim in this river but for our purposes let’s focus on the forage species I believe are most utilized by bass and the patterns and flies I have had the most success with. The most common minnows are Bluntnose Minnows and Red Shiners followed by Creek Chubs and Johnny Darters. There are 5 species of Crayfish but the most prevalent are Golden and Northern Crayfish. We can assume these are the prey most commonly eaten by the Smallmouth in the river and lures imitating these will give us the most success. For Fly Fishermen I would recommend either a 5 or 7 weight fly rod and a leader between 6-12 pounds. My personal favorite flies for Salt River are Wiggle Minnows, Deer Hair Poppers, and Dahlberg Divers for Topwater flies. You won’t catch me on the river without Zuddlers, Sparkle Minnows, or articulated Gonga’s as far as streamers go. Classic flies like Wooly Buggers and Clousers are classic for a reason and have their place in a Salt River box. Wooly Buggers in particular have great value in being able to split the difference between a minnow, crayfish and leech depending on color and retrieve.  For spin fishermen, a Medium action rod with 8 pound test line will work just fine. All the classic smaller river lures will work but my box always holds ⅛ and 3/16 oz Rapala Floating Minnows, Crappie Spins, Rooster Tails, and when all else fails and the trip is on the line you can't beat the classic Beetle Spin or Roadrunner with a curly tail jig body.

So this is it. This is my river. I’m telling you all about it. I’m potentially blowing up my own spot. You may think I’m crazy but I need you all to know about it. If enough people start fishing this river some of you may see the potential that I see in it. With the proper management and if MDC believes that people want to use this river I can see a day when we have public accesses littering the river and we work with landowners to prevent the soil erosion and slow the depositing of silt. People could talk about this river in the same breath that they use to talk about the classic rivers in this state. The fish are there. If you’re new to Smallmouth fishing in Missouri don’t come to Salt River, go to the Huzzah or the Meramec. They should be your introduction. But if you have been doing this for a while and you want a new challenge Salt River should be on your radar.

Salt River Smallies contain all the tenaciousness and beauty of their Ozark cousins.

I’ll be back soon with some general thoughts on small stream fly fishing and maybe some more rivers in northern MO you should check out. Stay tuned..
-Max Turner, July 27th 2017

I know it's not a Smallie but c'mon. That's a really nice bass.