Secret Of St. Francis

By Ron Kruger

No, we’re not talking about the saint from Assisi, but the river that flows through the rocky and rugged mountains of Missouri’s southeastern Ozarks, and the secret is the great smallmouth population hiding where few men venture to cast.

It’s a secret because for most of the St. Francis’ flow, it roars and rumbles and tumbles in ways that would tip over and bust up canoes, even with an experienced paddler in command. It’s not your typical Ozark float stream.

It does contain many of the long, quiet pools float fishermen like, and at various access points, you can drag a canoe, car-topper or inflatable down to the river and paddle around the pool. Some of these pools are hundreds of yards long, with enough water to keep you busy for hours, but don’t try to float beyond the pool. In the pools, you’ll catch Kentucky (spotted) bass, largemouth bass and possibly a walleye or two. One such access is Roselle Access 12 miles west of Fredricktown, Mo., on Highway 72.

Of course, such easy accesses are limited and they are fished heavily by local anglers. This is not where St. Francis holds its biggest secrets. To find them, you need to walk in and fish from the bank or wade. A good place for that is at Millstream Gardens, also along Highway 72.

In the swifter water is where you’ll find the smallmouth.

In a lot of places, where the water is restricted and divided by rocks, you can rock-hop and fish the various runs. These "shut-in" areas (a term meaning the flow is constricted by rocks or solid canyon walls) creates some very fast and treacherous flows that kayakers love and canoeists avoid, but if you are careful, you can pick your way around the heavy runs on foot. I haven’t done well in the rally fast water, but connect with good smallmouth in the small side eddies and at the tails of the runs, where the water begins to slow.

If you wade, be advised that the rocks are very slick wherever covered with water, so you’ll need felt soles.

My favorite spots for smallmouth are above and around big boulders jutting up from the stream at the heads or tails of long pools. These are in places where the river is narrowed and picks up some speed, but it is not especially swift or divided by shut-ins. The flow is just the speed smallmouth love, it’s still relatively deep and the boulders provide plenty of hiding places.

I was fishing just such a spot where the river runs along Highway E the other day and caught 30 or more smallmouth in just a couple of hours. Numerous times, I caught fish on three or four consecutive casts, including one that weighed about four pounds. Whenever I reeled my 1/16-ounce Road Runner back without a fish on it, I would cast to a different spot and start connecting repeatedly again.

It was steady action and great fun. Most of what I caught was small, but every one of them were feisty, stream-muscled smallmouth that never give up, leap clear of the water often and still fight with you when you get a thumb in their lips.

The conditions were perfect the other day on the St. Francis River. The water was near normal levels, but the sky was overcast, with the rolling gray clouds of an approaching front. During more than 35 years of river fishing, I’ve noticed these are the best conditions for stream bass.

Smallmouth are fickle, but when the barometer drops with an approaching front, they all seem to loose caution and feed as if there’s no tomorrow. In some respects, that’s true, because rivers like the St. Francis swell quickly with a torrential flow that discolors the water and sends most fish under rocks and ledges to wait it out. So they stuff themselves to wait out a three- or four-day rain and another few days of heavy flow as the river recedes.

So, when the St. Francis is down is the time to go, and just before a wide front hits is the time to get in on some of the best smallmouth fishing anywhere, even during the winter.

Visiting anglers can find lodging and other tourist services at either Fredricktown or Ironton. The attractions of Elephant Rocks State Park, Taum Sauk Mountain State Park (the highest point in Missouri) and the Ft. Davidson Civil War Museum are other points of interest in the area.

I’ve fished most all of the storied smallmouth streams in this state, but I never gave the St. Francis much thought. I don’t remember ever reading about it, either. It’s been something of a secret, until now.