October 2004 - Castor River Bass, Civil War Swamp Fox, and Big Piney float trip

IN THE October ISSUE OF RIVER HILLS TRAVELER

Wild hogs made the news in October. Officials at Lake Wappapello discovered that virtually all their wildlife food plots had been devoured in parts of the lake area. There is no closed season or limit on wild hogs in Missouri, and the Corps of Engineers was putting the word out that they'd not only welcome hunters, but assist them any way they could.

There was a story of a bow hunt "behind the house" that netted no meat, but lots of opportunities. And there was a story about how a deer stand can become a tradition itself, along with the trees in its vicinity.

Jim Featherston's history series begins a series about Jeff Thompson, the Confederate commander who became known as the Swamp Fox for his exploits in southern Missouri.

There's a story about a float trip on Castor River where it transitions into a lowland stream. It is repeated below. And one of Big Piney River down to Ross Bridge Access.

There is a photo feature on the murals being painted on Cape Girardeau's floodwall. The art changes the ugly concrete from a purpose of utility to one of beauty. Cape's history is depicted in scenes along the wall.

Looking for a good day hike? LaBarque Hills Preserve may serve the purpose. Eric Franzen has a story and pictures from there.

Traveler seldom assigns stories - writers do what appeals to them. Sometimes idea cover the same topic. In October, Russ Doughty writes about the art of "seeing" when the set the hook on trout, without necessarily actually seeing the fish. And Howard Helgenberg covers the science side of the same subject - polarized glasses.

There's the last in a series by Chris Kennedy on pond and lake management. This one covered diseases and parasites.

News included the latest on Clearwater Lake's problem. Dye tracing to find where the lake is losing water failed to yield any clues. There were also recipes, coming events, sunrise/moonrise tables, seasons, waterfowl season details, and more.

where the photo below came from - floaters on Current River between Pulltite and Round Spring. There was also a fun trip on Black River with grandkids, repeated below, as well as float trips where the main goal was fishing. St. Francis River,

Castor River Bass make talk difficult

By Bob Todd
“What did you talk about?” Pat asked, soon after I returned from a fishing trip on Castor River.
“I don’t know,” I said.
Really. Gary Stilts and I floated from near Gipsy to Sweetgum Access and it went about like this.
“What do your kids . . .” Splash. A bass boiled up around his topwater chugger.
“Who do you think will win the ele . . .” Pop. A bass intercepted my buzz bait.
“What kind of vine is that? I don’t think it is kudzu, but. . .” A wake came from six feet away when my jig and grub hit the water, followed by a slashing strike.
We tried to talk about all sorts of things, but the bass kept interfering.
About 100 times, I’d say. Plus a number of missed strikes. It was a good day. Excellent, in fact.
Weather was perfect except for some gusts of wind, and even then, they mostly passed over us in the tree tops.
Bollinger County has put in a new bridge at Gipsy and as often happens, a traditional access to the river has been lost. But Gary grew up on Castor River near here and was able to wrangle a key to a gate that got us to the river in the vicinity of the bridge.
As a boy, he used to trap along the seven mile stretch we were to float. And has fished it many times. Knows it well. Or did.
A Dexter auto dealer purchased about a mile of river front and clear cut to the river’s edge. That’s caused more changes than Gary can remember happening in the year’s he’s known this stretch of river.
There’s a big log that’s been in the river long as Gary can remember. He used to walk along it, catching goggle-eye from the depths beside it. No goggle-eye this morning. The depths are filled in.
But the bass were cooperating this morning. I’d caught a bass even before we dragged the canoe into the river. They just wouldn’t let that jig and grub pass without attacking it.
Castor has a whole lot of woody cover this far down. It was as if my jig and grub grabbed on to every bit of wood it could find - out of fear of the bass, no doubt. Anyway, I had to switch back and forth to a buzz bait, which is virtually snag free. And it did about as well anyway.
Gary was in the back of the canoe and fished a chugger most successfully. A spinner bait didn’t produce as well for him.
Early on, it looked like I was going to have all the action. I caught and released 10 bass or so before Gary caught a bass. But his first went in the fish cooler.
He added a second keeper before I had a bass obviously over 12 inches to add to the cooler.
As the day wore on and we tried to talk, a total of nine bass eventually entered the cooler. Seven were spotted bass, including the biggest, a 14 incher Gary caught. Two were largemouths. We caught a few smallmouth, but they were very small.
This reach of Castor is really below the Ozarks. The stream is transitioning to a lowland stream and has some features of each, but is mostly lowland. Cypress line the bank in places. I’d floated it a few times in the past and knew it to be mostly inhabited by spotted bass.

But Gary said the smallmouth and largemouth are increasing in this section. He was disappointed we didn’t catch more of these species. We didn’t get to talk about why.
In all, I’d say I caught 50-60 bass and Gary caught about 40. He had the biggest, and though we both lost a couple bigger fish, I think he lost the biggest, too.
FRESH FISH
I’d floated Castor with Gary once before. We floated from Highway 34 to near Gipsy that time.
A highlight of that trip was floating up on a fawn in the river, with two hungry coyotes on the bank, about to make a meal of it. The doe was high up the bank, stamping her feet. Quite a sight. We couldn’t let nature take its course. We ran the coyotes off, giving the fawn at least a brief reprieve.
After that trip, we’d taken our fish - mostly goggle-eye - to his parents house. The elder Stilts’ like their fish FRESH. Beulah began frying fish as the goggle-eye were cleaned.
Its been years, but it was the same this time. You could smell fish frying before Gary was done cleaning all nine bass.
Eugene, his dad, is 78 and grew up here. He told how, as a young teenager, he used to take off fishing up the river, then up Bear Creek to Lowndes. He’d stay there a couple days with his grandparents, then fish his way back home. This was in the days before telephones and his parents just assumed he’d be fine.
Something familiar there - when Gary was a boy, Eugene said he used to take him to Lowndes and he’d fish his way down Bear Creek and Castor River to get home.
And Gary told me a few years ago about dropping his boys off at Clarks Creek on Highway 34 so they could fish their way down to the St. Francis River, where he and their mother, Becky, would be waiting with a picnic.
A tradition there?
Then food was on the table. Bass fillets. Some of the season’s last tomatoes. Something Beulah called “vegetable salad” that fit with fresh fish like cole slaw. An apple cobbler was in the oven. Gosh it was good!
Conversation interrupted again.
RIVER CHANGES
Among the changes I observed, the bridge was most obvious. Once, you could float from Highway 34 to Gipsy in a day, then on down to Sweetgum in a day. I don’t think you could float the whole way in a day - certainly not if you do any fishing. Now, you need private access somewhere in the Gipsy area to float either stretch.
And the clear cut. There used to be some deep, dark holes along here with trees arching over the river. Not only did the clear-cut on one side open that up to light, but trees on the other bank seem to have fallen in excessive numbers, as if the deep shade was holding them up. Actually, they probably HAVE been more exposed to wind.
The deep holes have filled considerably from what I remember. A bank wash-out seems to have been deposited in the channel at one location. It reminded me of some sections of Big River where lead mine waste has washed in and clogged the river.
Walleye once inhabited this stretch and I caught a few. Rarely. But a few in those deep dark places. They may still be there, but on this day, I don’t think a walleye threatened our lures.
We might have discussed it more if the bass had allowed.

The Past - October, 1980
The October 1980 issue of Traveler reflected the heat and drouth of the summer just past. While humans suffered from heat, wildlife were facing a bleak winter because of the heat.
Acorns were short supply in the woods, and many food plots had simply died before yielding anything. Ag crops were short, too, meaning less waste grain for wildlife.
Turkeys and quail, specifically, also had low production for the year, mainly because of drouth.
Despite the heat and drouth, however, Al Agnew found there were enough seeps and springs in Apple Creek to make it mostly floatable if a person poled his canoe. A story by Al detailed how he made his way to the Old Appleton mill by poling his canoe from near I-55. And how he caught some really nice bass along the way.
The heat and drouth spawns some unusual events and humor. A white ibis showed up at Duck Creek Conservation Area, only the second to ever be documented there. For real.
And there was a report that robins were using hot pads to pull worms out of the ground. Probably not real.
The history column was about salt, how essential it is for human beings, and how rare it is in the environment once one gets away from the sea coast.
Salt springs in our area made it a magnet for pre-historic Indians. It made their civilization possible. Without salt added, a human needs to eat about four pounds of meat a day to get enough salt to be healthy. Only nomadic hunters can produce enough meat for that kind of diet.
A story and photo spread told of how St. Joe State Park was being developed, using the desert-like mine tailings for off-road vehicle recreation. Another picture story captured the reenactment of the Battle of Pilot Knob, something that has become and event every three years.
A hot issue at the time was the matter of hunting in state parks. Missouri was just into its conservation land acquisition program and many people thought of hunting as a form of outdoor recreation that was suitable for state parks. Indeed, special hunts had been held for a number of years on state parks including Sam A. Baker and Meramec State Parks.
Furthermore, some park lands had been purchased in earlier years with hunting and fishing license money. In 1980, those parks were owned jointly by MDC and State Parks. The issue was resolved, basically, by MDC giving up its title to the park lands. Today, special park hunts are usually aimed at controlling deer numbers, not providing recreation.
A slot limit on bass on Lake Wappapello was being proposed. Biologist Dennis Norman said a 12-15 inch slot might help, though it seemed questionable that anglers would keep enough small bass to help thin the population.
A slot was also being proposed for Tywappity Lake near Chaffee.
Some advertisers in that issue that are no more: Leukel’s Landing at Van Buren, Dunrovin Recreation Co. at Doniphan, Pick’n & Grin’n Campground at Eminence.
Also Silver Mines Lake Resort near Fredericktown, Walnut Cove Resort on Lake Wappapello, 5H Ranch Animal Park near Cape Girardeau, Rebel Cave near Silva, Sky Acres Resort at Clearwater, Whippoorwill Canoe Floats at Lesterville.

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