There was a story about a float trip on Big Piney River from Route J to Lay Z Day's Campground. That story is repeated below.

There was also a story about trotlining on Meramec River, and a commentary praising Mingo National Wildlife Refuge for proposing to open the driving tour route for more of the year and opening some other roads - increasing access to public areas is not the way most agencies have acted in the past few decades. Mingo's manager Kathleen Burchett also proposes to stock alligator gar, a fish once native to the area but absent since the 1970's. A stuffed model is in the visitor center.

We're in the third of a series on Sam Hildebrand's Confession, by Jim and Donna Featherston. Sam was a Civil War bushwacker from southeast Missouri who carried out most of his raids in southeast Missouri. In this episode, we learn that Sam sometimes uses green hickory bark for hanging prisoners.

There's a story about how Johnson's Shut-Ins was in the early days, by Don Rathert. There's also a story about Don, who has been writing for Traveler for many years.

Jason Brooks writes about things deer hunters can or should be doing now to get reeady for archery season opening in mid-September. There's also a story about a slight change in wording of the deer season regulations that can have a big impact on landowner privileges in 19 southeast Missouri counties.

There's a story about fishing from kayaks on the Meramec River and a story about a new hiking/biking trail along Black River downstream form Clearwater Dam. The trail is a plus, but unfortunately it cuts off access for bank fishermen and river watches, especially disabled, where it cuts old roads.

There's a story about an overnight float trip on the upper St. Francis River, and a story about just hanging out and doing nothing on a big river sand bar.

Miss Missouri Outdoors is on the cover. She's Jamie Staten, who is a communications major at Maryville.

The last in a series about the period when Shawnee and Delaware called this part of Missouri home is in this issue. There's a story about a type of rock found here and no-where else. It is iron-hard and has been shaped into shut-ins by streams.

This issue also contains recipes, sunrise/moonrise tables. tidbits from 24 years ago, news items and the travel calendar. The issue also includes various Ozark Travel maps.

Floating Big Piney River

By Bob Todd
“They were really hitting in May. I don’t know about now.” The last words of Glen Clark before my daughter and I shoved off to float back to his place, Lay Z Days Canoe and Camping on Big Piney River.
For me, this float would complete my exploration of Big Piney, except for two short stretches I can finish off in a couple spare hours sometime.
For daughter Kim, it was the first time to be on an Ozark river this year, and within 50 yards of our Route J put-in, she answered Glen’s question.
“Whoo”, she exclaimed as the big smallmouth grabbed the jig and grub and began to protest coming to the canoe. She’d tossed the bait to a deep pocket just upstream of a riffle. We were going to go down the riffle, and although I had control of the canoe, her instincts told her she needed to help. But I assured her to just hang on to the fish.
“What was he doing there?”, she asked as she finally wore the fish down and grasped it.
“If there is decent cover,” I explained, “they are just as likely to be above a riffle as below.”
The nice smalley was not a fluke. Nice fish hit all morning long. A lot of them were above riffles or in pockets in riffles. Sometimes it was indeed dicey to decide whether to hang on to the fish or to devote both hands to the paddle.
There was another canoe and fisherman at the landing where we put in. He was wading and fishing as we got there. At least four rods were laid out with different lures, plus the one he was fishing with, and I assumed his fishing partner was out of sight.
But when Kim and I stopped for a break on a small island, the other canoe came by. Just a single fisherman. We exchanged lies. I said I hoped we’d left some for him. He said he caught a few small ones, holding his hands about 30 inches apart. He had a German accent, we thought.
With active grandkids, visits with my daughter are usually pretty spotty. So at least once a year, we try to do a float, just the two of us, so we can talk out a subject without interruption. Floating and fishing is a great way to do that.
Usually. This time around, however, those pesky smallmouth kept interrupting. As I write this today, I remember a number of topics we started, but never finished because a darned smallmouth slammed a bait. And a couple trees and flowers we noticed but could not identify. And a mystery we may never solve.
Big Piney, in this stretch, moves right along with some nice rocky drops that have nice waves. Fun things to paddle through. And nice holes of water that move right along.
Then, suddenly, you find yourself on a stretch where the river is very wide and shallow and the current is rather lazy. Somewhere below the surface of the earth, we’ve crossed something - a fault perhaps - that changes the grade of the river. It is as if you are on a slope and then come to a flat step.
Another possible explanation. Big Piney may be losing water to underground channels in the “flat” stretch and the river picks up speed again where the water resurfaces. But we’ll probably never find out.
This section of the river goes on for about a mile before the river narrows and picks up speed again - as if we’d gone off the end of the step.
This stretch was the least productive for smallmouth, but there were some scattered through here too. Mostly, smallmouth were 10-12 inches, but several were larger. I measured one at a shade over 15 inches.
Length limit on Piney is 15 inches. I saw one that I believe was much larger. Caught only one largemouth bass and no spotted bass. A few nice goggle-eye took our bass lures.
We passed the other fisherman. He’d tied his canoe to a limb and was wade fishing below a riffle - a good thing to do when you float and fish alone. And some swimmers near Lay Z Days. We had done a little swimming too. The river was mostly just ours on a Thursday. We hadn’t put in until about 10, and came off the river about 5:30.
Glen wasn’t at his camp when we took out, so I had to wait to phone him about how the smallmouth were hitting. They were doing very well, on that June day, at least.

Two dozen years ago, July, 1982

Two dozen years ago, the Breakfast Optimist Club in Jackson was holding an any-fish tournament on St. Francis River above Lake Wappapello. Different points were awarded for different species.
Traveler covered the event, fishing with Roy Halbert. Despite a minnow trap, chicken livers and tackle boxes full of lures, the Traveler team didn’t even place. The contest was won by a fisherman with a stringer of big drum.
(It was said the fishing was so bad one year the tournament was won with a box of frozen breaded whiting.)
Operation Game Thief was being started, promising to pay rewards for reports of wildlife violations that result in conviction. The program still is in operation today.
Red Bluff Campground on Huzzah Creek was featured.
Elmer Tiemann wrote about the hard life Ozarkers have, having to subsist on fresh channel catfish, corn bread with butter or sorghum, fried apples, corn on the cob, garden tomatoes, blackberry cobbler. Its hard to gain weight and look healthy like the city cousins, he observed.
There was a picture story on the Karkaghne Scenic Drive, maintained at that time by the U.S. Forest Service north of Centerville.
A pair of eagles was nesting for the second year in Mingo National Wildlife Refuge and manager Jerry Clawson was hopeful they’d be successful and produce the first Missouri-born eagles in recent history. At the same time, Traveler reported a pair of $1,000 fines handed down to a couple Perry County men for killing an eagle.
Secretary of the Interior James Watt declared water quality considerations were “optional” regarding dam building, ditch digging and wetland draining. The value of a project to be counted would be its economic development potential. If there were any environmental benefits, they could be added. But negative environmental impacts could not be counted against a project.
A sign on those times - hearings were held in Washington on Paddy Creek and Irish Wilderness proposed designations. Most of the Missouri delegation was in favor, but Cong. Wendell Bailey and the Reagan Administration were opposed because of possible lead deposits in the area.
Emma Comfort Dunn had a story on the natural beauty found here by the early French explorers.
Rose Alexander wrote about the time the first airplane flew over her home in the Ozarks and how it scared the children.

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