For many, September is a preferred time to float and fish Missouri’s excellent rivers and creeks. The high heat and humidity has mostly abated and party floaters are pretty much absent. Many outfitters are grateful to pick up a little late season cash by providing shuttles. Subtle changes in the hues of sunlight and the first hints of fall color add unique visual appeal to familiar riverscapes as well.
I, Al Harper, joined fellow FATC member Denny Garner in hiring guide Augy Knickmeyer for a six-mile float on the Meramec just below Steelville, MO the first week of September. We hopped in Augy’s sleek new Clackacraft drift boat 50 miles below where the river begins. At that point about 140 winding, scenic river miles lay ahead before it emptied into the mighty Mississippi.
While primarily in pursuit of smallmouth bass, we were at the start of the long MDC Goggle-eye Management Area. Augy serves as president of the approximately 600-member Missouri Smallmouth Alliance but he guides for smallmouth, trout, and musky and sometimes pursues other species like drum, invasive Asian snakehead, and other varieties of bass, some of which are invasive as well.
As we began, we hoped smallmouth would be motivated to chase down articulated streamers retrieved upstream with animated action. But after limited response to that technique we converted to a weedless fly fitted with a tungsten head and Augy broke out longer Euro nymphing rods with sighted tippets. Bouncing this fly, which suggested a crawfish or a fat worm, off a rocky bottom or around structure like submerged logs and boulders began to yield results. Strikes were surprisingly subtle for what is usually an aggressive fish like the smallmouth. And we would also occasionally pick up Goggle-eye which had delicate bites as well.
This technique was familiar to Denny, who had enjoyed a “deep-dive” course in Euro nymphing at an Altar event in Michigan a few months ago. He had catches right away. After overcoming casting (or more accurately a lack of casting) challenge, I began to pick up fish that way too.
Later in the morning, I tried a popper which worked well for me in rivers and in lakes earlier this year. But curiously, helpless bugs drifting down the river generated little interest by smallmouth on this day. Later in the afternoon I worked streamers again and from my perch at the front of the drift boat, I enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing smallmouth charge out from their places of concealment and smash the fast moving fly.
We not only benefited from Augy’s excellent guiding skills all day, but we gained a lot of angling knowledge he was generous in sharing while riding down a great Missouri River in high style.
