Ozarks Creek Fishin’

Young kids and fishing - the foundation for a lifetime of memories.

Some of my most exciting outdoor adventures were as a very young boy, Zebco 303 rod and reel in hand, being set free on Hyer Branch creek at Lake Spring, Missouri. Chiggers, ticks, and snakes were but a moment’s pause before advancing head on into the great fishing unknown. I imagined this unexplored creek surely held world record small-mouth bass and pan fish the size of a 16” cast iron skillet. For bait there were two jars – one filled with worms dug from the old garden spot and the other filled with grasshoppers caught in the hayfield. Six pound test line and a red and white bobber was just the ticket for great fishing action. An old perforated galvanized minnow bucket with a hinged round lid on top served as a live well. Man, I thought I was outfitted better than Marlin Perkins on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom during a fishing trip to the Amazon!

As I got older and had access to my own transportation, many other local creeks familiar to me held that same allure for fishing adventure. Spring Creek, Hutchins Creek, Ashley Creek and many more, it seemed that every valley held another potential hidden fishing bonanza. Smallmouth bass became the quarry of choice. Everyone to whom you talked told stories of the elusive 4 pound monster that hid in this pool and that pool. Each fisherman told how they had seen it or ‘had it on’ for a moment before the line snapped. Each story held a ‘treasure map’ of how to get there and every opportunity found my friends and me following the patchwork directions to the pool that held the big one that got away. Such was the life of a wanderlust-filled adolescent fishing fanatic of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

It’s amazing the things you learn about your buddies while fishing. About the age of 17, I was fishing for the first time with my friend Scott Duncan. Scott and I were fishing Dry Fork Creek in rural Dent County at the old iron bridge. We had been fishing for a while and had not yet caught any fish when Scott hooked a good one. After an exciting fight Scott finally landed a very respectable 3 to 3.5 pound smallmouth. I commented on how nice the fish was and Scott threw a little of the typical competitive fisherman trash talk my way. I didn’t think a thing about it and kept on fishing while hoping my luck would be so good as well. After what seemed like several minutes I noticed that I hadn’t heard Scott stringer the fish or cast his rod back in the water. I was also getting a strange feeling that something was watching me. Being the One-Eyed Hillbilly that I am, I turned my head toward my blind side and…WOW! There was his bass dangling there beside my head! I turned to investigate and Scott was holding his rod from behind me and allowing his fish to hang right beside my face. “I don’t touch those nasty things!” he told me. He was waiting patiently for me to take his fish off the hook! Now if that doesn’t beat all - a guy that catches a fish, trash talks you, and then expects you to take his fish off the hook!

Today I still love to walk the hundreds of creeks in rural Southern Missouri searching for trophy smallmouth bass. I have evolved my equipment and bait compared to years ago. I now use a spin cast reel with 6 pound test line, a medium-heavy rod, and a small jig-and-frog rig for bait (not sure it catches any more or bigger fish than the Zebco 303 with worms but it sure looks good!). This is effective for everything from large sunfish and goggle-eye to smallmouth and largemouth.

Smallmouth season in Missouri starts on Saturday, May 22 and extends through February 28, 2011. If you are looking to rekindle a little of the youthful fishing wanderlust of your younger days try heading up an old long-forgotten creek in Southern Missouri. More importantly, take a young child with you who hasn’t got to experience those same fishing adventures that you and I have experienced. As the old saying goes, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” That is true for both physical and mental nourishment. And who knows, you might stumble onto a hole that holds a hawg! So says the One-Eyed Hillbilly. Good luck, be safe, and get a big one.