Jacks Fork river is roughly 180 miles south of St. Louis. It begins near Mountainview, MO and empties into the Current River 45 miles downstream not far from the town of Eminence.
I, Al Harper, joined a group of smallmouth bass anglers for two days of floating and fishing on 5/16/25. Conditions on the river were good; enough flow to preclude strenuous hauling of watercraft over shallow spots yet not so fast that one had to struggle to give flys a chance to work.
On our first day’s float, fellow FATC brothers Will Black and his son Drew worked streamers with good results from Drew’s Flycraft. I fished solo that first day letting my boat drift along while I hit slack water near banks and around logs, and under huge rock cliffs and other natural obstructions with poppers.
The bronzebacks responded well to the flys we offered with aggressive strikes. I tossed yellow and green poppers but color seemed less important than the action imparted.
That first float corresponded with a historic tornado that lashed St. Louis. While the day on Jacks Fork began with mild weather, changes were in store. Distant thunder eventually grew closer. Jacks Fork is in fairly remote territory with limited access. Very few folks were seen along the riverbanks or fishing from gravel bars.
The weather turned more ominous around noon and I finally eased my raft under a 75’ rock wall overhang as the skies darkened. Light rain began and in a few minutes hail the size of pea gravel was interspersed with it. After a few minutes, the hail got bigger the rain heavier and the downpour reached a crescendo with hail about the size of ping pong balls mixed in.
The hail produced big splashes in the river. The individual pellets popped back up to the surface after plunging down.
The onslaught was brief and as often happens on a Missouri river float, the sun reappeared and things soon returned to normal. But we had one more shower a couple of miles downriver. No hail this time but lightening caused us to beach our boats and take refuge in the entrance of a large cave. Despite the inclement weather, I ended up netting 14 bass.
Drifting downstream through massive canyons accented by brilliant Ozark hardwoods makes one contemplate the millennia it took to carve the path through mountains of hard rock.
The next day, I floated and fished the next 9.5 miles of the river with Drew and thanks to the hard rain we endured the day before, we had extreme water clarity that allowed us, from our unique raised vantage point, to watch fish interacting with our flys.
We worked streamers around underwater boulders and logs. We saw follows, refusals and takes play out and landed bass and panfish frequently enough to keep the day interesting.
The smallmouth fought hard in the current regardless of their size. A smallie approaching 20” is considered a real lunker. Besides the bass and panfish, we hauled in a couple of goggle eye as well but it was the natural beauty of this Ozark river that left a lasting impression on me.
