How I Spent My Sunday.....

[Staci Matheis]

How I Spent My Sunday.....



Sunday, March 17th, 2005.



It was the day before turkey season opening day. I hadn't turkey hunted in maybe 10 or 12 years. I went back to a section of Ozark forest that had always proven productive for me in the past. This is a stretch of National Forest just a few miles downstream from the headwaters of the Current River at Montauk Park. The plan was to drive in Sunday morning, fish (My kinda "going to church"!), scout the ridge top for turkey, camp and hunt on Monday.....



I had paved roads for the first 140 miles out of St. Louis. Then I turned off on a small, seldom traveled fire road. I had learned of this access to the river some 25 years ago at an Ozark Flyfishers meeting. They had distributed maps of the Trophy Trout section of the Current River with the fire roads marked. This one was marked with a skull and cross bones; I knew it was my kinda place!



It's roughly a 4 mile drive in that takes about 20 minutes. The first couple of miles are along the ridgetop. I didn't have to go far before I knew I was there at the right time of Spring!

From the ridge top, I dropped (literally) down the side of the hill, through a stand of cedar trees, through a small glade and came out on a gravel bar at Summer Bluff on the Current River, roughly 6 miles downstream from the headwaters.

Looking upstream.....

And downstream.....

I was back to my roots! Wade fishing these small streams is something I've done since I was in my 20's! Here I am, at age 55, and I still get every bit as much enjoyment as I did when I caught my first trout! There is nothing like the thrill of fighting a 10" brown trout on an ultralight and 2# line in a swift flowing stream!



The fishing was fantastic this day! I must have caught 30 or 40 brown and rainbow trout in the 8" to 12" category! I didn't catch any of the 20" hunks that this stream is so well known for - but who cares!

OK..... I had been fishing for about 4 hours and I was beginning to feel my first sunburn of the year..... Time to head back to the ridgetop and scout for turkey.....



First, I had to travers the glade.....

Then through the cedars.....

Then the base of the hill..... About this time, my Jeep was asking "Why are you doing this to me? I'm a City Girl !"

The last 200 yards are so difficult that I couldn't get out to take pictures. It is about twice as steep as the base of the hill with washouts twice as deep and the only section where I drop into 4-wheel-low. Even at that, I had to roll back down and make several runs up as I lost traction, would high center or just picked the wrong route.....



Scouting the ridgetop, I found all sorts of turkey sign! They were thick up here! It was time to set up camp.....



I pulled over to a small clearing and opened the rear of my Jeep to pull out my tent..... All of a sudden, taking a turkey wasn't so important to me..... I was tired. I had gotten what I had really come for - complete relaxation! It was time to go home! I closed the Jeep and headed out!



I have to share with you this picture..... Take a look at the knot on this tree! I

 

[Greg J.]

Looks like a great weekend!

 

[Larry Harp]

PRETTY COOL!!



I just have one question....who did you make run behind the Jeep to take the pictures?



Harpo

 

[Staci Matheis]

The Tigger!

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

Thanks for sharing that wonderful story! I don't hunt but would love to join you on that stream.



Bill

 

[Staci Matheis]

Grab a flight, Bill! It's there everyweekend! And I've got a place for you to stay - if you don't mind sharing the couch with The Tigger!

 

[Carlos Hathcock III]

Looks like fun ME!

 

[fatrap]

Staci

Nice story and photos. My childhood buddy and shotgun shooting guru, inhearited 320 acres of woods with no buildings six miles from the current river. He hunts, rides his motorcycle and hangs out there all the time. He has a canoe and floats the current whenever he can. He also has bear on his property.

Fatrap

 

[Mike L.]

Hey Staci, Nicely Done!....but so far from NJ.

 

[TrepMan]

Staci - AMAZING pictures!! Glad you got some numbers of trout, and YES I know those fish fight great in river on light line, though i've only gone down to 4lb on the Hooch.



Nice to see folks with 4WD get use off road, and glad if you felt tired you got home safely!



Trep

 

[Staci Matheis]

They disappointed me, Michael..... They wouldn't take my wooly buggers..... But they sure did like the brown and white rooster tails!



4# is about the heaviest I ever use!







Mike G, where on the Current River? It's ~100 miles long!

 

[Marvin S]

That looks like a great place to spend a weekend. Did you bring a camp stove and some cooking oil, fry them babies up. It don't get any better!

I had just bought an Explorer 4X4 for the same purpose. Also to get the boat up some the slick ramps that I use.



marvin

 

[Staci Matheis]

Only a couple of problems there, Marvin.....



1) Trout have to be 15" to keep them in this section of the river. (It's also "artificials only"; soft plastics are specifically prohibited.)



2) I don't cook! :lol:



If you've got a 4-door Explorer, I don't know if it could make it..... There are two turns where I can barely get around with my wheel all the way over in the lock position. One in particular is where the base of the hill transitions to that last 200 yard stretch. There is no place to make the turn in two swings. You wrap around a tree (with LOTS of scratches) and try to avoid deep, red clay and rock washouts at the same time..... Next time I go back - maybe this weekend - I'll stop on the way down - if I can do it without sliding into a washout - and take a picture. If you've got something like a Wrangler with 31x10.50x15's, it's not quite so difficult; that's what I had on a Pathfinder I had back in the late 80's. The clearance on my Cherokee with the 235/75R15's barely cuts it if I am very careful.....

 

[Steve Rizza]

Very nice...

Living in the S.W. corner of Pa. near the mountains that border W Va.,I have plenty of oppertunity to get away to remote places to fish.

It's a shame that I don't do it any more.Now it's out on the busy lakes,burning up gas,running around cussing at all the other boats zooming by.



A day like you had sunday is better than any blood pressure medicine made.



Any smallies in those creeks?



Steve

 

[Staci Matheis]

Yeah! Lots of smallies! Mostly small ones - maybe 2 1/2# and under. Not in the first few miles because the water is just too cold. (Spring fed.) But from about a mile above where I was on down, the smallmouth fishing just keeps getting better and better!

 

[Marvin S]

Staci... my Explorer is a two door sport with LT225/70R16" on it. Don't know how good it is off road, but I will find out this summer. I hope to take a few trips like yours, at the Land between the Lakes and other places. With only 9 1/2" ground clearance between the front & back wheels because of the step bars , I will bring an electric wench.

I don't know much about trout fishing but plan on learning maybe this summer. My Coleman two burner stove has been to several lake side fish frys. It don't get any better.



marvin

 

[Staci Matheis]

Your tires probably have about the same radius as mine.....

Bring that truck to St. Louis, Marvin! We'll go trout fishin'!

Maybe even canoe the river!

 

[Greg Meyer]

Can you float the river with a small boat?

 

[Staci Matheis]

The MDC Agents sometimes use a 14" john..... But there are many VERY shallow stretches..... What sort of boat did you have in mind? Canoes rent for $35 a day from Jadwin Canoe Rental. 573-729-5229. Ask for Darryl and tell him I sent you!

 

[Dan J.]

Great pics me! (I mean you not me. LOL!):wacko:



It reminds me of the area around Jack's Fork when I was a kid. Time flies when you're having fun!! Keep it up!!!

 

[Staci Matheis]

Jacks Fork is just a few miles further south, Dan! Same great fishing! Why did you go all the way down there from Pontoon Beach? Or were you living in the Ozarks at the time?

 

[Dan J.]

me! - We made our annual summer "pilgrimage" to the Current and the Merrimac to float and get crazy on the river. Good times for sure, but yep, it was a haul. Mind you, back then, we were young, gas was under a $1 a gal., and getting in a car and driving to Kansas City for a Floyd concert was just a thing to do. I wish I had half that energy now! LOL!!

 

[Staci Matheis]

ROFL!! How old are you, Dan? 40-ish? (Guessing by your gas prices! When I was in my 20's, they were about .45 with gas wars that got them down to .25!)



The first time I went to the Current River was the summer of 1967 with my family in my mother's Mercury station wagon..... Back when the 3rd seat was actually 2 seat facing inward...... I was 17 and a junior in high school.



My father was following a family friend. Herb, the friend, was driving like a banshee and my father was white-knuckling it trying to keep him in sight up and down and around on Highway 19.



My sister, Terri, was in the middle of the front seat and my mother rode shotgun.



My best friend, Ralph, was at the left side window in the middle seat hanging his nostrils out to catch the air rushing by. I was on the right side.



In the back seat were my kid brother, Michael on the left and his buddy, Tommy on the right.



Michael never did have much of a stomach..... Never could hold anything down in a boat, airplane, ferris wheel..... Or a car..... So here we are..... Up and down and around..... And Michael gets sick..... Being the experienced barfer that he is, he knows enough to hang his head out the rear window..... Air currents around those old wagons, being what they were, the noxious substance is pulled around the back of the car, up the side, into the left window..... and **smack** into Ralph's face!



Now that was a ride I'll never forget!

Neither will Ralph!



me!

 

[Dan J.]

me! - Not 40 yet! (37 and holding! LOL!) Although they feel like dog years (7 for 1) sometimes...



My first car was a 73 Ford Gran Torino station wagon with a 351 and rear studded snow tires! There wasn't a straight panel on the thing, but it ran to the rivers for fishing like a champ. A canoe hanging out the back and a buddy or two and away we went. To date it's still the best $200 I ever spent on a vehicle. :lol:

 

[Staci Matheis]

I got my first canoe - one of the red Coleman 17' things - in the late 70's. Carried it around on the top of a Ford Granada 4-door. Then I bought one of those little turbo-charged, 4-cylinder Ford Mustangs with the Michelin TRX tires in 1980. Hauling the canoe down to the river on top of that was an experience! Had to carry - or drag - it most of the way! Got it caught in a flash flood once; the water was about 1/3 the way up the door! Car died so I put it in gear and used the starter motor to move it to higher ground. Twice in my life I've been caught in flash floods while canoeing; not a pleasant experience.



Did you float the Meramac Trophy Trout section at all? (Highway 8 to Scott's Ford?)