Jack Fishing: An Ozark Challenge (December 1976 issue, River Hills Traveler

Note:  I graduated from college in the spring of 1976, and got a job teaching art that same fall. At the time I was living in Jackson, MO, and I met Bob Todd, Editor and Publisher of the River Hills Traveler, a little periodical on the outdoors in Southeast MO that he'd started a couple years before. He was also based in Jackson at the time. The one thing I'd always "wanted to do when I grew up" was to write and illustrate for outdoor magazines, an ambition instilled in me as a kid reading and looking at the illustrations in my Grandpa's Field and Stream and Outdoor Life magazines. So when I met Bob, I showed him a couple pen and ink drawings I'd done. He was impressed enough to agree to use them. I also asked him about writing and he told me to write something and he'd consider it. Much later, he told me that he would have probably accepted anything I wrote no matter how bad it was just to be able to use the illustrations, but fortunately my writing was okay as well. He used a squirrel pen and ink I'd done, and a couple other small pen and ink drawings, before I submitted my first article, complete with illustrations. So...from the December, 1976, issue of River Hills Traveler, the first illustrated article I ever had published!

Two and a half feet of brown and brass fish materialized out of the green depths of Black River like a ghost under the lure as it neared the boat, keeping the same eight-inch distance behind it right up to the surface, even sticking its nose out of the water as the plug was lifted.  Then it slowly sank back into the depths, leaving me with the memory of a rare glimpse of one of the most mysterious denizens of the Ozark rivers, the toothy-mawed, filmy-eyed, spiny-backed dweller of the depths we hill people call the jack salmon.  To most other folks, it's the walleye.

Many fishermen never see an Ozark walleye, or even think of catching one.  But there are a few hardy souls who regularly pursue this elusive quarry, and for good reason.  They believe that there are world record class walleye in the Ozark streams, especially in some of those in the River Hills area, and they have certainly proven that trophy-sized fish can be taken.

There have been several unsubstantiated reports of walleye being caught (and eaten) that were larger than the present world record of 25 pounds, and Missouri's state mark, at 20 pounds, is not too far from the world record.  Each year walleye are taken by River Hills anglers that top 15 pounds.  Probably many professional guides in the famous walleye country of Minnesota and Wisconsin have never seen a 15 pound walleye.

However, this doesn't mean that there are huge walleye stacked in layers on the bottoms of the Ozark rivers, nor does it mean that anybody could catch them if there were.  The average Ozark walleye will be from one to three pounds, and even average jack salmon are often hard to come by.  It's not unusual for even the most experienced anglers to get skunked.

It is not easy fishing.  In fact, it may be the most difficult fishing there is.  The jack fisherman must endure cold, wet weather, hours of watching rods for bites that never come, and the frustration of missing many of the fish that do bite.  There is usually ice on his rod guides and ice on his numbed hands as he tries to impale a wriggling minnow on a hook.  Not the least of his tribulations are the stares and laughs people give him when they find out he is going fishing on a frigid January weekend.

Jack fishermen, being--as you can see--a bit crazy, are a closed-mouth lot, and some of my friends would skin me alive if I told any of their secrets.  But here are some pointers for anyone wishing to try this frigid sport:

First of all, walleye are found in large, deep rivers and lakes.  In the River Hills area, they are present in Wappapello and there are possibly a few in Clearwater [Note: I was wrong on both counts at the time this was written; Wappapello MIGHT have a few now, since MDC stocked native river walleye in the St. Francis River back in the 1990s.], but the rivers are the hotspots.  Castor River in the Zalma area has a few, and I was told of a 17-pounder taken from there in 1975.  The St. Francis produced the state record, and there are probably some more walleye just as big swimming in it.  [Note:  I was probably wrong about that, too, at the time; it appears that walleye were completely gone from the St. Francis before the restocking.]  But the two top walleye rivers in this area and perhaps in the state are Black River below Clearwater Dam to Poplar Bluff, and lower Current River.  The best spots are the big, deep pools formed by gravel digging, but any area of deep water will harbor walleye.

There are easy ways of fishing for Ozark walleye; unfortunately, they are seldom effective.  Some fish are taken by trolling deep-running lures, or by trolling or drift-fishing a small minnow attached to a Colorado spinner.  Bucktail jigs have taken a few, and I know of one old-timer who used to slay them on the St. Francis with a chicken-feather jig.  Walleye can be taken during the summer months, especially at night.  But the best and most walleye are caught on large live minnows from November through March, especially on dark, overcast days when it is raining or snowing and almost always freezing.

To successfully fish for jack, one must overcome all kinds of obstacles.  The first is finding an accessible place to fish that has a good walleye population.  The second, and often the most difficult, is obtaining bait.  Most jack fishermen prefer "slicks", the large, horny-headed minnows known as stonerollers.  They must be from four to seven inches long.  Have you ever tried to find and trap large minnows in the dead of winter?  It is far from easy.  If the jack aren't biting, you will only need about a half-dozen minnows for a day's fishing, but to be ready for those rare days when they are especially cooperative, you should have at least 75 good minnows, and you must be able to transport them to your fishing hole.  Most fishermen use large coolers equipped with aerators.

The most common tackle is heavy casting outfits with 20 pound line, and some use wire leaders to protect against the wicked teeth of a jack.

Most use heavy 1/0 to 3/0 hooks and sliding sinkers heavy enough to hold the minnow on the bottom.  Usually two or more rods are used, propped on the old reliable forked sticks.  It is possible, but more difficult and uncomfortable, to fish from a well-anchored boat.

The minnow, hooked lightly through the lips, is cast out allowed to rest, with occasional cranks of the reel handle to move it a few inches.  If a jack picks up the minnow it is usually difficult to detect, and it must be detected immediately so that the fish can run on a slack line.  There is absolutely no way to predict when to set the hook.  Sometimes you will hook the fish by immediately snapping your rod tip back, and other times you can let it run for a hundred yards or fifteen minutes and still come up with nothing but a tooth-scarred minnow.  This is just one of the many frustrations of jack fishing.  You may never catch a big jack, or even want to try.  It took me four years to catch the 12 pound 5 ounce fish which is my  biggest so far.  But some of my friends catch bigger ones than that each year.  If you ever catch a big one, it will be an accomplishment to be proud of, for catching a big walleye may be the greatest angling challenge to found in the Ozarks.