Smallmouth Bass caught on the Big River. (13 and 3/4 inches long.)

Finally on June 23, I was finally able to feed my addiction, I spent the night on Big River near Leadwood, Mo.  They were calling for rain both days however I only got sprinkled on a couple of times.  To top things off the night sky was sporting an almost full moon.

My adventure started around 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon.  I put the yak in the water and headed up river.  I fished as I went along, looking for places to set my limb lines and a place to set up camp.  I had opted not to take a tent and was looking for a place sheltered from the west in case a storm blew up.  I finally found a perfect gravel bar that had a 10 foot bank sheltering me from the west winds so I continued up river so that I could let the current bring me back down the river.  That would make it easier to fish that stretch of the river.

As I fished my way back to the camp site it started out a little disheartening.  Fish didn’t seem interested in anything I had to offer.  Then I caught a rock bass and even though it wasn’t very big it was a start.  I ended up catching several panfish and 8 smallmouth bass under 8 inches.  Then I hooked something of size and the fight was on.  When using an ultralight with 4 pound test line you can’t rush things.  I had no idea what it was then it came straight up out of the water and did a tail walk.  It was a largemouth bass.  We went back and forth for around 10 minutes and then it did its fifth tail walk, gave me a big grin and spit the lure out of his mouth and I am pretty sure he was laughing at me as he hit the water and disappeared.  Damn the luck.

I made it back to the camp site, unloaded the yak and got a fire going.  Now f you have never started a fire with wet wood you probably have no idea how frustrating that can be.  With no fish, Vienna Sausages were on the menu.  I had 7 limb lines out so I rigged up a line to fish tight line from the bank, baited with nightcrawlers. I ran my lines at 11 p.m. and all the bait was gone and no fish.

I ran the lines again and still no fish so I went back to camp.  Around 15 minutes after I got in camp I heard a growl come from up on the bank.  Now there are many different kinds of growls.  There is the I don’t like you growl, stay away growl and the I am going to scare this old man.  This growl wasn’t any of those.  It was more a kick arse and take names kind of growl.  I slipped over and got my 45 out of the water tight box and stood real still.  After around 5 minutes, but it seemed like 5 hours, it moved on.  I let out a sigh of relief and went back to fishing.

Around 3 a.m. I heard something making a racket in the direction of one of my limb lines so I shove off and head in that direction.  I shine the limb that my line is tied too and the limb is shaking up and down and going in all directions.  I ease up and grab the line and start pulling it in and on the either is a huge snapping turtle.  It decides it wants to come aboard my yak and the fight is on.  Only problem was I didn’t have room for a 30 pound snapper.  I finally got him loose and headed back to camp.

As the darkness started retreating and the light started to flood the morning sky I heated up some water to pour into my MRE and made some coffee.  Around 5:30 a.m. I began breaking camp and loaded the yak and headed back up the river for some fishing action.  At 9:30 I heard the awfullest racket coming  from downstream around a bend in the river.  Finally I see several cows making their way up the river crossing the river and heading up the hill on the other side.

That was pretty much my weekend in a nutshell and what an enjoyable night it was.  I needed to recharge my spirit and the adventure in nature was what I needed.  I can’t wait to see what the next river adventure brings.

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did my river adventure.  Stay safe and spread the love.