Little Dry Fork 7/31/2004

Well this is my first trip report. Where: secret creek near Rolla, MO. Species: Lots of great Smallmouth Not quite sure of the name of the creek I fished. Met up with Seth, an old high school buddy. He had the low down on a great small smallmouth creek. I recently got my canoe outfitted with a motor mount and anchor mount, so I had to try it out. Earlier in the week the Ozarks got a fair amount of rain. Consequently all of the bigger streams looked like the river in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Seth had previously told me about this great smallmouth stream and I had to check it out. I called him up Friday night to go fishing and he agreeded, so away our venture began. After a little fighting with my new canoe rack we were off. Mopar does not make good canoe racks. The access was a familiar low water bridge, a popular party spot in high school. Low water one, low water two and pink bridge(actually painted pink). I guess we weren't very creative with names, but everyone new what we were talking about when planning parties. Anyways we pull up to Low Water 2 and start unloading all of our gear. I should also mention that it is better to load your boat while it is close to shore. We opted for the hard way and loaded the canoe with everything but the kitchen sink and attempted to carry it down to the water. We did eventually get the boat in the water. I've spent a great deal off time outfitting the boat. It's got a trolling motor and anchor system on it so we were set for adventure. Once we were both in the canoe we headed upstream through some rather swampy and un-smallmouth like water. I was starting to have doubts about this great smallmouth stream. We rounded the first bend and only then did I see what we were actually going to fish. Imeadiately after the bend was a smaller feeder creek. The water was fairly clear and slightly colder than what we had come through. This was smallmouth water. I had brought my fly rod, but becuase the creek was up a bit and a little off color I opted for spinning gear. We fished 7 inch powerworms Texas rigged. This little stream was picture perfect. Cold and clear with great structure. The smallmouth hit like they had never been fished for. We fished up stream with good success. The big fish award definitely goes to Seth. The last pool that we fished he landed a nice 16 inch smallmouth. That fish put up a great fight and when it exploded out of the water Seth let out a shirek like a little girl. He didn't see me but I was busting a gut behind him at the sound of that scream. All in all the short trip was a great success. Did I mention we only fished from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. A good day fishing is only icing on the cake and when you can spend it with a good friend, well that makes it all the better. Little trips like this are really what it is all about. Tightlines CanoeFlyGuy