Take a walk on fishing’s wild side
In step upstream and down
Big fish sometimes cruise in water so shallow it barely covers their backs.
That’s the case on the Kings River, especially on its isolated upstream reaches where the storied fishing and floating stream can be narrow enough to hop across and so shallow it barely wets the Converses.
Yet it’s in this shallow water where Pat Bodishbaugh of Fayetteville often cranks in some hefty smallmouth bass. Summer and fall are his favorite seasons to wade-fish the Kings River upstream of Kingston in Madison County.
“It’s amazing the size of the fish that are in that small water,” Bodishbaugh mused, casting a Mepps spinner into a Kings River pool in mid-August. These fish-holding lagoons may be smaller than a parking space and barely knee deep. They look fishless.
That is, until Bodishbaugh’s lure hits the water and a smallmouth grabs it. There’s a sudden flash of fish flesh, a deep bend in his fishing rod and the fight is on.
When conditions are right, 30-fish days are common far upstream on the Kings. Bodishbaugh catches and releases a mix of sunfish and smallmouth bass. Some days, nature throws a monkey wrench into his fishing plan.
Rain the day before that August trip clouded the water and put the smallmouths in lockjaw mode.
“You can see, too, where the water came up several inches and now it’s back down. That might also have something to do with it,” he said.
Small sunfish saved the day. They were the only stream denizens eager to bite his Mepps spinners.
Bright sun and heat were culprits on an earlier Kings River wade excursion in mid-July. For a change of scene, Bodishbaugh and his fishing buddy headed for the lower miles of the stream at the J.D. Fletcher access where U.S. 62 crosses the river in Carroll County.
Here Osage Creek flows into the Kings River. Plan A was to wade across the Kings to reach the Osage, but the water was deep. The pair would have to swim to the Osage, not walk. Plan B was to explore upstream on the Kings, wading and fishing along the way.
The Ozarks had been sweltering in heat, so a 7 a.m. start at the access was in order. Once again, sunfish were the star of this fishing day. Longear sunfish, also called “punkinseeds” were a joy to catch and admire on ultralight tackle. They’re the size of a child’s palm but beautiful to see in their multicolored tropical-fish hues of blues, oranges and yellows.
The river may have been deep at the access, but the anglers found only shallow water while working their way a mile upstream. Sun beat down and drove the temperature into the 90s in short order. Humidity was high, but catch rates low on this downstream Kings River stretch.
Bodishbaugh’s fishing heart belongs to that smallish water far upstream where he usually fishes. He has permission to cross a sliver of private property to reach the river, or gets access at a bridge along a remote Madison County gravel road.
Now that summer is flirting with fall, conditions are better. For Bodishbaugh, those 30-fish wade-fishing days are back.