BERRYVILLE — A stellar day of fishing action on the Kings River last Thursday defied conventional wisdom about the influence of river conditions on smallmouth bass action. For example, cloudy conditions with the water running a little high and slightly off-colored are considered ideal for getting the larger and warier bronzebacks to bite. Conversely, bright sun with low and crystal-clear water generally means tough fishing. And the Kings River was low and clear last week, after several weeks of unusually dry spring weather. It was so low, in fact, that my stream fishing plans were focused on wading somewhere else.
However, Tony Harlan, who recently left a job at Buffalo Outdoor Center in Ponca to assume the role of resident fishing guide with Kings River Outfitters at Trigger Gap, suggested otherwise. "The river [flow] has been virtually stable for nearly two weeks now, and this is the warmest weather we’ve had all spring. If the smallmouths are going to start doing something, they should be doing it now," Harlan said May 11, when temperatures climbed into the mid-80s. "Doing something" referred to the bass beginning to forage actively after the recent cool spells and get ready for the spawning season. "The water temperature is finally up to 63 or 64 degrees in the river, and 65 to 70 degrees is the spawning range," Harlan said.
He also suggested the river’s premier stretch of smallmouth water — from Baines Crossing to the U.S. 62 bridge near Berryville — was doable in a canoe. The 7-mile run features some of the best habitat on the river, which is why it was picked to be managed for trophy smallmouths, including the addition of an 18-inch minimum-length limit. "We may have to drag the canoe in a few places, but I’ll take care of that; all you have to do is fish," Harlan said.
That sealed it.
The weather and water conditions may not have been auspicious for good fishing at midmorning Thursday, but the river was beautiful to behold. Under bright sun, the water reflected blue sky and leafy trees in many shades of green. Intermixed among the greenery were locust trees heavy with their clusters of white blooms.
Although the water was low, it dazzled the eye with its sparkling clarity as it danced over clean gravel shining in golden colors.
I aimed my spinning tackle with a full-size tube jig in a green pumpkin color. My very first cast produced a 10-inch smallmouth from shallow rocks.
Smaller fish, of course, are usually the norm in low, clear water.
That first catch would turn out to be the first and foremost lesson of the day, but it was discounted initially. "It looks like some smallmouths might still be out foraging in the shallows this late in the morning," Harlan said.
We figured the sun climbing over the river would soon send the fish into the deeper pools and eddies and the shaded hideouts under boulders and logs.
We would give such locations a thorough going-over during the first two hours of fishing, but would have little luck. We would also look for spawning beds in the backwashes, but would see none. The first hour on the river yielded eight aggressive and scrappy smallmouths up to 12 inches, nearly all coming from shallow water where medium current was flowing over and around chunk rocks. In the second hour, the size of the fish began to improve. In one so-called "run" of chunk rock between a gravel
1 bar and a boulder bank, I caught a 13/2-inch brownie, lost a 14-inch largemouth and recovered with a fat, 14-inch smallmouth. The clincher for the pattern was seven smallmouths up to 14 inches caught from a short pool about 30 yards wide and 60 yards long where the water was about 2 feet deep and swirling over chunk rock and small boulders.
After we’d covered about three miles of river in three hours, it had become obvious that the configuration of the river bed had been altered substantially by repeat rises and persistent high flows during spring, summer and fall of last year.
Gravel beds, for example, had been relocated on a large scale. At one particular bend of the river, an exposed bed spread 100 yards wide and 200 yards long and was cut with several small, shallow channels of water only a few inches deep. (It was in such locations that we had to drag the canoe a few times.)
Among other alterations, what had once been relatively long and wide pools of flat, shallow bottom had been transformed into a series of two or three short and slightly deeper pools with little riffles in between.
These small pools generally held smallmouths, but the best change of all was the greater wealth of the chunkrock runs, which experience has proved to be the favored terrain of larger smallmouths in the spring. "At normal water levels, this is all going to be textbook smallmouth habitat," Harlan said.
As our catch rate of smallmouths climbed past 20 fish at the approach of noon, the action suddenly turned off as if a switch had been thrown. Figuring the smallmouths had gone into a transition period of relocating to deeper hideouts, we took the time for a leisurely shore lunch.
After setting up a table and chairs, Harlan laid out a deluxe spread ranging from appetizers of smoked oysters to sandwiches with all the fixings.
He talked about how he had developed a love of stream fishing on the Illinois River in Oklahoma while attending college in Tulsa. He later became acquainted with the Elk River in Missouri and then became enthralled with the Kings River. "During the spring and summer of 1997, I was on the Kings River more than 90 times; Ernie [Kilman] finally stopped charging me for canoe rental," he recalled.
Later, while working for canoeing outfitter Mike Mills in Ponca, Harlan got to know the Buffalo National River and other streams in the region. He said his intention at Kings River Outfitters is to offer a wide variety of floating and wading trips, including the entire length of the Kings, as well as smaller streams like War Eagle Creek and Osage Creek.
Back on the river and mindful of the slow action before lunch, we went back to probing deeper spots, especially the holes and eddies below the stronger riffles.
It was at the end of one of those riffles that we had a minor problem with an overhanging tree, necessitating a slight delay to rearrange our gear in the canoe.
That was when Harlan made the catch of the day, diving into 6 feet of water to find and recover my new digital camera from where its strap had snagged a tree root on the bottom. (Hey, when you continually put camera gear at risk during several decades of river running, stuff happens, usually when you least expect it.)
Unfortunately, just when the picture-taking was over for the day, the action was about to get better and better and the quality of the smallmouths bigger and bigger.
And it didn’t happen where we thought it would.
After probing deeper and shadier water with few hits, we zinged some casts into the full sunshine over a shallow chunk-rock run where we found hungry bass back on the prowl.
We were at 30 smallmouths to 15 inches when a quality 16-incher upped the ante.
It’s amazing to see these smallmouths in shallow water and out in the sun in the afternoon, Harlan said, speculating that the hungry fish were making up for lost foraging time after all the cool spring temperatures.
Pretty soon, nearly every smallmouth attacking the tube was measuring 12-15 inches. Then we caught a second 16-incher, and then a third one.
Every one of them was out there in the sunshine in water a foot to 2 feet deep around chunk rock and boulders. In some spots it was hard to see where a fish could find a place to hide, but somehow they managed. It became common to see the fish on the hook being chased by one or more smallmouths, a few of them looking like black torpedoes as they shot out of rock crevices.
Luckily, the alteration of the river channel had endowed the lower end of the float with a wealth of chunk-rock runs. "For numbers and quality of smallmouths, this is a really good day," Harlan said when the catch-and-release numbers passed 40 fish.
Eventually, the action would total more than 50 smallmouths, including more than 20 measuring 12-15 inches and five of 16 inches by actual measurement.
Just as they had done before noon, the smallmouths shut down during the final mile of the float, but by then Harlan was calling the day "one of the best" he had ever had on the Kings River.
The only thing that could have been better was hooking a 20-inch trophy fish — and taking its picture.
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