Outside Bend

There's a few good trout streams on the Wyoming side of the Black Hills you may want to check out as well. From what I know it seems like mostly a small fish game, but plenty of action. That's not a bad thing Good luck!

....yeah. If it's a stream or reach spots haven't invaded, or a stream where spots and smallies co-evolved, or a stream where there's enough habitat to prevent both species from competing with one another, of course you wouldn't expect smallies to be an issue. I don't know where he was fishing, so I couldn't say. It's math. If someone caught 600 fish their first trip, then 450 fish under the same circumstances the second trip, then 300 fish under the same circumstances, would you still assume the population is healthy? Just as a single baseball game doesn't prove or disprove a player's prowess, a single fishing report doesn't provide enough information to figure out how a fishery is faring. It's only a snapshot of what's going on.

I can't speak for Al, but to my knowledge he kept (keeps?) an angling log for MDC researchers/biologists. Keeping accurate counts is extremely important when collecting those data. If counting fish is a relict of that data collection (a habit), or even if it isn't...that's alright. It's really a non-issue. Get over it.

Good luck with your recovery, hope you can get out on the water soon!

Some of today's work. I despise rainy days off.

It's legal here.

I didn't realize the difference between bragging and dispensing useful information was simply inserting a stream name. Silly me, I figured you could brag just as easily saying "I caught a 20 inch smallie fishing yesterday," as you could saying "I caught a 20 inch smallie fishing Deer Creek yesterday." If the concern is braggarts, should we omit numbers, poundage, and lengths of fish caught too? Shortening all future reports to "went out," would avoid these sorts of issues in the future. Although that may upset folks who didn't get to go. And out is a preposition. Anyone who fishes regularly ought to know things change quickly- information from one person on one day may not be all that helpful the next. Similarly, you can have a dozen folks fishing the same stream with different techniques, and all be successful. There's not always a single answer. Sometimes you can be more successful if you pay no attention to the reports- on some well-known western trout streams I've had banner days fishing an elk hair caddis or beetle when every other angler, and every other fishing report, says to use a #6 Chernobyl Ant. Point is, I personally don't put much stock into fishing reports. They're reports, not tutorials, and the only thing that matters is that the author is satisfied with them. If they want to divulge location information, or stream flow data, or what wildlife they saw, or what the stomach contents of the fish they caught were- go for it. But leaving any or all of that out is alright, too. Like Eric, I enjoy the story reports more than the nuts-and-bolts, "went out at 5:30 and fished gitzits among chunk rock in 18 feet of water for three hours, caught four smallies 14-17 inches before moving and vertical jigging in 80 feet of water and catching two spots, 15" each," type stuff. That doesn't mean I'm going to start a thread lamenting how people write down their experiences, and wishing more folks were better at writing prose, though. I think the whole "just because you write about it online doesn't mean it'll get more pressure," argument defies logic. If you value big stream smallmouth, and someone posts a report where they were catching big stream smallmouth, you're going to be curious. If you weren't, this topic would not exist. The folks who are so up-in-arms about the lack of sharing information perfectly illustrate why I don't do it: if you're more inclined to sit at a desk and whine about how the other kids won't play fair and divulge their secrets, as opposed to using the resources at your disposal (Gazeteer, Google Earth, county/plat/USGS Maps, MDC biologists), then yeah, I don't want to share my information with you. It's taken a fair amount of time and effort for me to cultivate that information, to learn that stream/fishery, and I simply don't give it away freely, much less to strangers. The knife cuts both ways- withholding information may seem selfish or vain to you, but expecting everyone to provide you hard earned knowledge to make your life easier smacks of arrogance and entitlement to me. Where else in life do you expect to be rewarded fully while putting in practically no effort? Personally, I think an excellent angler doesn't need to be constantly spoon-fed information- the wheres and hows in particular. A good angler ought to know enough about the biology and habits of his quarry, as well as the place he is fishing, to be at least moderately successful regardless of what information he has beforehand.

Madame X's, although I need to crank out some nymphs this morning.

Personally, I just don't feel I owe it to anyone to divulge where I'm fishing. No biggie, and nothing mean-spirited is meant by it. Just a different personal philosophy.

There's a ton of reputable online and mail-order catalogs- Cabela's, Feather-Craft, Kaufmann's Streamborn, Angler's Workshop, Dan Bailey's all come to mind; a Google search will certainly pull up a ton more. The one big downside to mail-order/online shops is that you don't necessarily know what you're getting. Many materials (wire, beads, chenille, etc) are pretty uniform between places, while others- especially deer/elk hair and hackle- are pretty variable, and it's just sort of luck of the draw. You'll be hoping whatever comes in the mail will suit your needs. At a shop, you can inspect materials before you buy them, making sure they're what you need. You make look a little odd rummaging through racks of deer hair, but at least you know exactly what you're getting. Good luck!

That's initially what I thought as well, but from what I've read this isn't a county judge, he's a circuit judge, and was appointed to the position.

Good luck with it JD- that's one thing I've always been meaning to do, but haven't. If a 20% price markup is what it takes to get away from Tyson style CAFOs, keep small farmers in independent business (not simply underpaid, undervalued babysitters for a large conglomerate's stock), and reform the average American's generally poor eating habits... I'm game.

Most 7 weights ought to allow you to throw larger poppers and streamers, no problem. An 8 weight, though, will better enable you to horse largemouth out from cover- weedbeds, docks, bruspiles, etc.

My favorite line in the whole article. I've spent a fair amount of time in Ripley Co, and would bet you can count the "people of ordinary intelligence," on one hand. It's no secret that county has serious poaching/dog running issues, and its no secret game violations aren't enforced by judges and prosecutors in that county. My guess is if the case moves out of that region, it'll never stand a chance. Has to be frustrating for the local agents and other enforcement folks, though.

Like Gavin said, the biggest reason I tie flies is because I enjoy it, not because it saves me much (or any) money. I get to tinker with patterns and materials, and develop things the fish may have not yet seen. And I take pride in it, in tying for myself and others, and teaching what I can when I can. 200-300 bucks would be a good initial investment. You don't have to have the premo equipment to start out with, as has been mentioned, there's a number of decent vises in the under $100 category. Buy decent hooks, though- I've had numerous issues with bad hook batches from one manufacturer, and it always sucks to break off a big fish due to brittle hooks.

And you'd probably get sick of eating trout before you ate enough hatchery fish for the antifungal and antibiotic medications to really effect you. Now if they were flouridating the fish, I'd be concerned.

MDC does use antibiotics on trout. MDC uses antibiotics on all their stocked fish. It's not so much related to trout's fitness as it is their cramped growing conditions, as others have alluded to, similar to the way other livestock is grown. In the concentrations they are used, there's little danger to humans. Now if you were to eat all the contents of that gray box, you'd probably have a bad day. But there's really no other way to efficiently produce the volume of trout MDC needs annually to satisfy anglers.

It's an excellent example of the effect of landscape use on a watershed. Meramec's watershed is far more developed in terms of agriculture, with lots of issues regarding livestock access to the stream, streambank erosion, and loss of streamside cover (riparian corridor), especially in the headwaters. That leads to the deeper channel incision, flashier flows, warmer water temperatures, and higher turbidity. Truth is, if folks in the watershed were interested/incentivised into taking care of their land, you'd probably see better fishing in the Meramec (and every other watershed in the state impacted by poor land use), for trout, bass, and other species. The Current watershed is pretty well protected- lots of land in public ownership and the bulk of the riparian corridor basically intact. As a result flows tend to be more moderate, water stays colder longer, and you have less erosion and other streambank stability issues.

Carte blanche? I'd keep the walkway- concrete is ugly, but not as ugly to me as heavily eroded streambanks. Cut back on the lawn mowing and redirect those funds to litter pickup and other maintenance. Winterize the toilets so they can remain open during the winter. Enhance non-fishing interpretive stuff- seems like an excellent place for bluegrass/country festivals, or an Ozark/Meramec Valley interpretive center. Kid's only section, perhaps. Sixteen and younger, or similar. Roving naturalist/ombudsman types- informative folks that can explain everything from knot tying and fly casting to karst geology and hydrology, stream entomology, stream ethics, and proper fish release techniques. Limit the number of daily rods allowed on the stream, maybe do a lottery system like the state waterfowl areas.

The artificial rock dikes, like the handicap-accessible one they installed in the C&R stillwater at Montauk, if that helps.

I've caught what looked to be wild fish in both the Current and Meramec, and I've seen redds and associated spawning activity in both streams. My guess is there's some natural recruitment, but probably not enough to maintain those fisheries.

I wonder what Nelly thinks?

Skunk ape.

I don't think vehicle encounters would be a huge issue- even out west, hitting an elk is a fairly rare occurrence (aside from places like Yellowstone, where elk are plentiful and tourists are brainless). I am wondering about the potential damage the animals can do, particularly during their fall rut. I'm not sure if MDC or anyone would be liable to damage done by elk.

True, but I generally think the same thing when I hear Toby Keith at a stoplight