Outside Bend

That does sound pretty ridiculous- are anglers allowed to harvest the eggs for caviar outside of the state cleaning stations in OK? I'm fairly certain anglers can't keep the eggs of paddlefish harvested in MO. Then again, commercial interests and government mismanagement have successfully put every sturgeon species on the planet in jeopardy of extinction. As demand for caviar increases, it doesn't surprise me the states would try to benefit from their paddlefish hatchery operations as much as possible.

All the lies and lains and laids have always been my downfall

I usually tie the feathers in by the tip, or cut the feather fibers from the shaft and spin them in a dubbing loop. I don't have any particular patterns, I typically use them as a soft hackle feather, and have had success with olive, orange, and cream bodies.

Yep- I've used them on caddis emergers and the like. They look pretty cool in the water, trap a lot of little air-bubbles that may or may not imitate the gases in an ascending caddis pupae. I'm not sure they bring more fish to the net, but they do look nice.

Precisely. The potential shutdown isn't the fault Park Service, it's the fault of our legislators. If you're upset you won't be able to access the river this weekend, you should be contacting our elected representitives who created the situation, not the folks who had no say in it. Without getting too political, the bulk of our federal (and state) resource agency employees (Park Service, Forest Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, USGS etc), Put a lot of time and sweat equity, for little pay and public support, to provide the best possible experience for the greatest number of users while maintaining the integrity of the areas they manage. Trust me, most of these folks would rather be working than not- but nonessential employees are prohibited from doing so while the government is shut down. If you're going to be mad about this, at least be mad at the right people.

It seems like a non-issue to me.

I'm not sure it'd be consistent, but they were stocked in part to eat some of the larger gizzard shad present in our reservoirs. If you can find them, I'd probably try and rig up some of the bigger (8 inch and bigger) shad, and try that.

The Gamikatsu B10S is a great hook and it's finish is a little more durable than your standard bronzed hook. They only make them down to size 6 though. The Mustad 3366 is another great, strong hook with a bronze finish, it's cheap, and they make them down to a size 10. You could also look into some of the extra-short, strong egg/glo ball hooks. Or venture into tube flies if you're feeling brave

The big thing about stainless is they don't corrode in freshwater- if they become embedded in fish (or other critter's) flesh, they become a permanent fixture.

For you, or the fish? It's simple, and there's really no reason to beat this dead horse. Catch and release only works if the fish survives the catch & release, and there are ways of handling (or not handling) the fish which maximize their likelihood of survival.

The Bonneville cutts the article is talking about don't get as big as the snake river finespotted- they tend to top out around 17 inches. From a sportfish perspective their only real redeeming quality is that they can survive conditions most other trout can't- warm water temperatures, low DO, high turbidity. And being cutthroat, they're generally fairly easy to catch. They're often stocked out west in marginal trout waters which have been impacted by irrigation returns, which warm and muddy the water. In my limited experience working with them they're fairly neat critters- more of a blue/green/silver color with a few big, black spots. But they don't get as big as the cutts currently stocked in Arkansas, and I imagine a lot of them will get whacked by browns before they start showing up in angler's catch. I'll have to remember to tie up some blue/gray over white Clousers, about two inches long, for my next trip down there

Maramec is probably the closest, about an hour and a half south. Little Piney Creek is about two hours south. The upper Current is 2 to 2.5 hours south. If you're not wedded to trout fishing, there's a pretty good state park about 15 minutes north of town where you can fish strip pits for bass, bluegill, and other panfish.

I dunno- to me it seems like a band-aid solution. Stocking a different cutthroat subspecies does nothing to fix the underlying dissolved oxygen issues in the tailwater, and if that situation isn't addressed, low DO will continue to stress fish regardless of whether they spawn in November or May.

That'd be a busy couple days at the campground

We've had some close calls with rusty crayfish in the state, a species which has seriously impaired sport fisheries in Wisconsin and other states. It'll also be interesting (couldn't think of a better word) to see how terrestrial invasives such as gypsy moths, emerald ash borers, walnut cankar, etc have on Ozark forests, and what effects those changes have on our stream ecosystems.

Sorry about that guys, I forgot about the two big packages. Troutfiend's and Gavin's are in the mail, they should be arriving in the next couple days.

It's sort of big-tent, but I've always felt land use changes and the associated problems are probably the biggest threat to Ozark smallmouth fisheries. Livestock access to streams, gravel mining, and manipulation of the riparian corridor are probably the most visible ones. Dysfunctional septic systems, hormones and other chemicals which remain even after wastewater treatment, reducing or eliminating protections on intermittent and headwater streams, springs, seeps, and feeder creeks, increased use of our underground aquifers (effecting stream base flow), and other effects of having more people living and working in the Ozarks I see as pretty important issues, and personally feel they'll have more long-term impact on the health of our fisheries than the management of the fish themselves.

I think one of the early reports ( maybe the one that was shot around Eminence in the mid 90's) was female, but I could be wrong.

That's a bummer, I went down the weekend after the opener and had Baptist all to myself Saturday, and only 2 or 3 other anglers that Sunday. With all that added pressure, about 20% of the river's browns are 18 inches or better. The fish are still there.

...The Current comes out of one of the state's most popular parks. MDC has placed trophy fishing regulations on the water. MDC regularly makes public the status of the stream and its fishing through the fishing prospects. It's been written up innumerable times by MDC and other authors, from books to magazines to online sites. The cat's out of the bag, the Current's no secret, and the "fish porn" isn't anything which hasn't been done before. It really shouldn't surprise anyone that peak times are going to draw peak crowds. Give folks a pleasant weekend with good weather and yes, the accesses along the Current are going to be packed- and you really can't fault anyone for that. But pick a weekday, a trip when the water may be a little up or off-color, or when it's cold, rainy, or blustery, and you'll often have the place all to yourself.

Despite every advertising campaign to the contrary, having X or Y piece of gear doesn't make you a successful angler. I guess I just don't see the distinction between someone posting photos of the quality fish they caught on the Current and someone writing a report about the quality fish they caught on Taneycomo.

Eh. As Gavin said, the bulk of anglers simply don't have the skill set or the patience to do much damage to the larger browns on the Current (I include myself in that group, although I'm working on it ) It's really no different than anyone posting up big fish photos from the North Fork, or Table Rock, or Beaver, or Crane, or anywhere else. It shows there's big fish in the system, but it doesn't mean your average Joe is gonna catch one.

Fishing pressure probably makes a difference, and fish are probably getting more selective as pressure increases, but the fishing can still be downright silly from time to time, the fish population on the Current is probably as good as it's ever been, I see good numbers of big browns when I'm down there, and the last few trips down I've caught more streambred rainbows than I have in years past- all good things. That's what I like about the Current- it's not a trout park, and you can't expect to be rewarded without putting in a fair bit of effort.

Foam ants and spiders take tons of bluegill, as do wooly buggers and soft hackles fished under the surface. If you want to get reasonably fancy you could do some damselfly or dragonfly nymphs, but as JD said, a hare's ear or rubber-legged fox squirrel nymph would work just as well.

Hook: Scud or Emerger hook, size 12-20 (I tied the ones in the swap on a #16) Thread: Chartreuse 8/0 Bead: Black or brown Underbody: Chartreuse thread, overwrapped with pearl or chartreuse Krystal Flash. Body: Midge sized vinyl rib, olive (can also be tied in Chartreuse and orange) Legs: CDC barbules & picked-out dubbing Thorax: Mix of synthetic peacock dubbing (ice dubbing works well), and dark natural fur.