Ryan Walker

Ozarks Smallmouth Alliance founder Ryan Walker poses with a big bass before he “freed the fighter.”

The upcoming Memorial Day weekend marks the start of catch-and-keep season for black bass on the streams of southern Missouri, including the Big River, its tributaries, and Jefferson County’s Joachim and Plattin creeks.

For most anglers, largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass are fish that are always caught and released.

The closed season from March 1 through the end of May protects the fish during the spring, allowing them to spawn in the streams where they already face challenges like flooding and fast currents that are not as prevalent in lakes and other impoundments.

Regulations in many areas of the state further protect smallmouth bass with increased length restrictions and a reduced limit of just one fish, compared with the other black bass. Knowing the rules based on each body of water is the responsibility of the angler. Learning the differences about the three bass provides insight on why smallmouth get and deserve special consideration.

“They’re a gift, passed along from one forward-thinking angler to another. Pay it forward. Free the fighter,” is the consistent refrain from Ozarks Smallmouth Alliance founder Ryan Walker.

A full-time guide who focuses his efforts on the flowing waters of southwest Missouri, Walker pours his passion into protecting smallmouth bass on every level. He was spurred to action by a chance encounter with a pair of anglers and a notice that explained the slow growth rates for black bass in streams.

“It’s funny how it got started. I was on a little creek, and I had just seen a sign about how long it takes for a smallmouth to grow to keeper size. A 12-inch smallmouth bass on these waters is 6 or 7 years old,” Walker said. “I came upon a couple that were fishing, and they each had two or three, 14-inch smallmouths on a stringer. I thought, ‘That’s three fish at 8 years old apiece. That’s 24 years of aggregate growth on each stringer. Forty-eight years of growth, that is just gone.’”

In swift-moving streams, that growth does not come easy. It’s not like the big lakes that have schools of baitfish for predators to gorge themselves on. Smallmouth bass are getting by on crawfish they can catch, aquatic bugs, and wayward, wounded little fish that drift into their vicinity.

“Ozarks Smallmouth Alliance is a grassroots organization,” Walker said. “We have dedicated ourselves to what we consider to be the premier gamefish in the Ozarks, which is the smallmouth bass, obviously.”

There are no registration forms or dues to be a part of the alliance. The movement centers on a blog and social media efforts with a few educational events to preserve, protect and promote smallmouth bass and their habitat in the Ozarks of Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

“The more we promote it, means more people are doing it, but without letting people know how special the resource is, you are not going to be able to preserve and protect,” he said. “Protecting means raising awareness and telling people how long it takes for them to get that big, and teaching proper handling techniques for catch and release. This resource deserves to be moved along from generation to generation.”

Preservation recognizes the fragility of the habitat and the native smallmouth’s ability to adapt.

“They live in beautiful places. They are perfectly suited to the rivers they live in. They change colors with the bottom and water clarity,” Walker said. “There needs to be changes to creel limits and length limits. There needs to be more done to protect these fish. They live in one of the most beautiful and wild places on the planet. One of my goals is to keep it that way.”

While the summer season allows anglers to keep some black bass on streams, the members of the group with a passion for smallmouth bass want everyone to consider protecting and preserving a special resource.

To learn more, find on Facebook @Ozarkssmallmouth, and Instagram @Ozarkssmallmouthalliance, or email osasmallmouth@gmail.com.

John Winkelman is Marketing Director for Liguori Publications near Barnhart and Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas to share for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.