Several years ago, my brother John and I hiked the Bell mountain trail, about 12 miles of it, rugged Ozark territory with some of the best views of any trail in Missouri. On our way home, we stopped at a conservation area and checked out the upper Big River access.
For some reason, I couldn’t remember us stopping there, and questioned my brothers sanity, which is something I often do with all three of my brothers. I denied the existence of this Big River access point despite John telling me that he had fished there several times. Good for fishing when all the other streams are too high to fish.
So finally, after spending the entire morning and early afternoon removing and installing a dishwasher for my parents (they are another story), we decided to drive the many miles from Belleville, Illinois to south of Potosi, Missoui to this Mystery Stream.
Okay, now I can say that it does exist. And John’s characterzations of it were entirely accurate. Lots of sunfish and bluegill on a flyrod, one or two smallmouth, and a rock bass or red goggle eye, depending on your venacular. The stream rushed along nicely in several places, narrowed and widened alot, some steep gravel embankments. Overall, not too bad for squeezing in some flyfishing. Not the best, but better than nothing.
And now that I can attest to the exsistance of this stream, I can sheepishly admit, that this time, I was the crazy brother.
