Fishing On the "Big Piney River"

As I am sitting here today wishing I could go fishing,and I guess I could, Old memories of River fishing on the "Big Piney" river, keep coming back to mind. Some of my readers have an idea of what I am talking about, while others might not.

As I was born ,November 1954, and spent a lot of time fishing, swimming, and camping on this old river,and will from time to time, no doubt, share some of these memories with all of you that are reading my articles and/or will read them.

I am going to share just a few of my vivid memories with you today , as I am in a writing mood and that can make for good reading for you all,I hope.

In 1964 my family moved down in the Texas county region of Missouri,near Ft.Lost in the woods, as some of you might have heard it called, but for those of you with no knowledge of it, you might know it as Ft Leonard Wood Military base Off of Interstate 44 Near St Roberts , Missouri. The Big Piney River is a very popular river for canoeing, and fishing. The river is notorious for outdoor activities such as canoeing , camping ,backpacking and fishing .It has beautiful scenery such as bluffs, caves,wildflower, and an abundance of wildlife.

When I was a young boy the river had an abundance of fish, such as goggle eye, smallmouth bass,largemouth bass, catfish,and about every kind of perch there is.

My dad,brother,grandpa,and several other relatives spent a lot of time fishing on this river and the memories I have, are never ending,most of which are pleasant and some even funny!

For example back in the 60's my dad and I used to go wade fishing quite often in the evening an hour or two before dark, and sometimes wouldn't get home till 9 or 10, well after dark . We used to work in the hay fields all day and then grab the poles and head for the "Big Piney" and wade down to this place where a big spring ran into the river and during the summer the fish would come up to the hole of water where the spring ran into the river. We would practically stand in one spot and limit out on "goggle eye" or"rock bass"or maybe even "red eyes " to some of you readers. A simply amazing fish, very aggressive and fun to catch on light tackle.

Anyways, one night my dad and I, were wading and catching alot of goggle eyes and a few smallmouth bass. It was getting dark and my dad was using a U-20 flat fish lure. Now for those of you who dont know U-20's had 4 treble hooks and if a fish touched it they were caught as a general rule. On with the story! Dad hung a big old smallmouth bass and in the current was having quite a battle with the darned old thing. Up the river, down the river, and such and then it came right towards him. Now picture this, Dad probably don't like me telling this but he was wearing an old, like antique bermuda shorts, the wildest looking shorts, but probably in style once upon a time. HA! Don't know when that would be however. Anyways, the fish in desperation to get that lure out of his mouth ran right between my dads legs and snagged that old flat fish in his leg and buried the treble hooks past the barbs and then got off. OUCH! and then OUCH!again!

Needlessly to say, that put an end to the outing, even tho we had our limits of goggle eye and some smallies to boot, to the house we went! I am fuzzy on the details at the house, but dad went to the doctor to get the hooks removed, no telling what the doctor thought. But anyways the doctor removed the lure from dads leg and a local newspaper posted this article in the paper that said "Local man gets caught by fish! Or fish catches local man! I am not for sure,for accuracy on the details,but I think you get the picture!

Now I am sure this wasn't funny at the time,(to my dad of course) and I never told him that I tried not to laugh (but did) to this day When I think about this story I still laugh, probably harder now than then, cause I can outrun him now, I think.

If in fact any of you liked this story and found it interesting and maybe even enjoyed it let me know and I will write more stories on my adventures on the "Big Piney River" in the future.

So until next time, as My favorite saying goes " A bad day fishing IS better than a great day at work!" In the meantime, and till next time, Enjoy the "Great Outdoors!