Left the Iowa City hotel around 8:00 a.m. and arrived at Wakonda State Park in northeast Missouri at about 9:30am. I spoke with a park ranger, who suggested a spot to try, though he warned that fishing there hadn’t been very good in recent years. He thought the park might have been overfished during the COVID period when visitation increased dramatically.

I fished for several hours and caught nothing but a sunburn—no bites at all. Eventually I gave up and started driving toward my next stop in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Not wanting to be completely shut out for the day, I kept my eyes open for any promising water along the way.

I noticed I’d be crossing the Salt River (still in northeastern Missouri) and saw that there was public fishing access called Indian Camp just a couple of miles east of the road. The river was moderately fast-flowing and brownish, but not opaque. I wasn’t sure fish would even be able to see my lure, but I decided to try a Mepps spinner anyway.

I fished from the boat ramp and nearly slipped on the muddy surface, though I managed to keep my footing—at the cost of getting my freshly washed sneakers filthy again. The current pulled my lure downstream quickly, and I worried it wasn’t sinking enough to be effective. Still, I kept casting.

After about twenty casts, I finally got a solid bite. The fish fought fairly hard and turned out to be a Smallmouth Bass, probably in the 1–2 lb range.

While I was fishing, another man arrived hoping to fish for catfish. He seemed concerned that our lines would interfere with each other, so he held off. I told him I needed to get back on the road and that he could have the spot. I still had about three hours to drive to my destination—a Holiday Inn Express in Mt. Vernon—so that ended the fishing for the day. But at least I’d landed one fish to officially start the trip.