Smithville Wildlife Refuge & Free Boat Ramp

[STL Crappie Nightmare]

Does anyone know if you can legally launch a boat from the free boat ramp on the north end of the lake and fish now that the Wildlife Refuge is going on?

[Dave P.]

Yep it is free. I believe they dredged it out earlier this year.

[got crappie]

If your going to launch from there be sure to back straight out to the channel. I would not try to turn around in close to shore.They did cut a small channel out a ways from shore.

[vic n]

The waterfowl refuge doesn't really go very far to the North, so you can fish from that free ramp almost all the way back down to the South. There are big orange balls stretched across the lake to mark those boundaries.

Sure was a lousy outline for the lake, to cut off nearly half the lake for the sake of about 100 acres of refuge. They surely could give us a boating lane on the West side to get around it.

[STL Crappie Nightmare]

If your going to launch from there be sure to back straight out to the channel. I would not try to turn around in close to shore.They did cut a small channel out a ways from shore.

You're not just whistling Dixie! I made that mistake this summer I dropped in and tried to turn around right at the ramp and spit mud until I was in line whit the ramp again.

[STL Crappie Nightmare]

The waterfowl refuge doesn't really go very far to the North, so you can fish from that free ramp almost all the way back down to the South. There are big orange balls stretched across the lake to mark those boundaries.

Sure was a lousy outline for the lake, to cut off nearly half the lake for the sake of about 100 acres of refuge. They surely could give us a boating lane on the West side to get around it.

You would think so, its a long way down from the free ramp to fish anything above that little refuge area.

[STL Crappie Nightmare]

Does anyone know if you can make it up river from that ramp without getting stuck? I have a GPS map of the lake and it looks like the channel is deep enough but every time I look north off the bridge all I see is mud

[vic n]

Does anyone know if you can make it up river from that ramp without getting stuck? I have a GPS map of the lake and it looks like the channel is deep enough but every time I look north off the bridge all I see is mud

I don't think I would try it unless I had a jet drive

[billd2626]

Does anyone know if you can make it up river from that ramp without getting stuck? I have a GPS map of the lake and it looks like the channel is deep enough but every time I look north off the bridge all I see is mud

I've seen boats coming from around that northern bend, but a buddy and I took his bass boat up that way last weekend and turned around when we got to 1 1/2 feet of water (that was about 300 yards north of the bridge). I'm pretty sure we were in the channel, but not positive.

[Double D]

Nightmare, jus stay home and wach it on tv..