Jump n Fish

Well, pretty bummed out, but wasn't able to make the trip. Weather was nasty on the only day we had available for the float, so maybe next time.

Yikes, I just checked the gauge at I-44 and its only 93cfs and dropping. Looks like it will be about 50-60 by the day I want to float. Not sure this is gonna happen, unless it picks up some flow between I-44 and hwy 133.

Thanks for the info. I see the access point now on the map, just wasn't sure if that was a private or public road. Do you have a recommendation between those two floats? I would assume the 133 to 7 would be less dragging since there's a small creek that enters at 133. But I think we'd rather work harder if it meant better fishing.

I'm going to be in the area visiting family this week and I'd like to give the Gasconade a shot. Looking at going from I-44 to 133 or 133 to 7. If anybody has insight as to whether there's enough water to float either of these stretches right now that would be helpful. We'll be in lightweight canoes, so a little dragging here and there is no problem. Also is there public access at 133? I can see the access at I-44 and hwy 7 clearly, but can't tell if hwy 133 is doable. If you have any recommendations for this out of towner to make the most out his day, I'd be very grateful for some pm's. I promise I release all my smallies and I hate litterbugs. Thanks.

I asked this question to a fellow fisheries biologist regarding Nebraska, but figured I'd copy and paste his response since its got some good general info in it, much of whats already been said on here.

I wrote a very long and courteous letter and sent it to a few of the developers responsible for the clear-cutting showing them that there were some violations regarding buffer zones and such and what the result of their actions had been, but never got a response from any of them. I don't know about Arkansas, but the attitude here is that its nobody's business what we do with our own land. Many of the landowners here treat the rivers as their own personal landfill to keep from having to haul stuff to the dump. Sad, but thats just the mentality down here. I don't know what is actually law and what are just guidelines and who to even contact about it. I wrote a letter to the Mississippi Fish and Game as well and never got a response from that either. I've reported many "dumping" violations to the MDWFP as well anytime I come across one, and have never got a response or seen the trash ever cleaned up either. Everybody wants that riverfront piece of property and this was a beautiful river, still is to some extent but its only a fraction of its former self. I wish I had the before and after pictures of what this river once was to what it is now. Some of the extreme upper stretches are still in good shape, but its barely floatable up there and development just keeps on continuing that direction. I watched as miles of shoreline in about a 5 year period of time were clear cut and developed. Much of the stream had already been developed and was more or less a matter of time. We had a very very wet spring with some high flows for a very long time that was the catalyst though. When 50 feet of shore line disappears and washes into the river in some bends, thats never a good thing. Theres a few places where corners of homes have washed out and are starting to crumble, and then landowners to salvage their property dump tons of concrete and garbage in place to try and preven any further erosion. Too little too late though, and its still silting in worse with every flood. It really is stomach churning if I had a way to show you what the river once was to what it is now. It was my favorite fishing hole and was loaded with some really good spotted bass fishing. I don't even waste my time fishing it anymore. We don't have the rocky substrate that yall do in the mountains, so your erosion problems are going to be on a more delayed schedule. Here with mostly dirt and clay substrate with a layer of gravel in there, when a river goes downhill, it goes fast. Doesn't take much to smother that gravel with sand and mud.

I hear ya. I have no doubt that there is some competition for food especially in the summer. So naturally a stream with less predators and more prey fish will produce thicker predators generally speaking. But I do believe a healthy stream where the fish population is in a natural balance and the population is at its full potential, you will see the fish lean out in the summer and fatten back up in the colder months. I don't think I've ever caught a really skinny fish in the winter months on most rivers I've fished. Although some less healthy fish might take those characteristics, I think as a whole they should be pretty thick in the colder months. If you're catching fish in a stream in November where the majority are skinny, then there is probably something really wrong, more along the lines of disease, or bad erosion causing a sudden lack of food source from silt covering up food sources by choking out vegetation and shellfish. I have seen this happen on what used to be one of my favorite rivers here in Mississippi. A clear flowing good gravel bottom loaded with healthy fish got silted in badly with sand from clearcutting river banks and development of shore. There are literally homes washing into the river because of this and massive amounts of sand. The water is always cloudy now and the I watched the course over a few years where the fish's health and numbers plummeted.

Well it turns out that any info I provide regarding trout cannot be trusted.

I'll do some double checking on that. I may be mistaken, its been a long time since I read about that, but for some reason that stuck out in my memory.

Brookies are definitely native to the US as I know from my studies that its one of the few native fish that inhabited the streams in my homestate of Nebraska. Pretty sure cutts were native too to the rockies. Brookies aren't technically a trout though, they are actually in the char family.

Good info, thanks.

I've heard a lot of mixed info on this and figured this was the best place to ask this question. Somebody told me that all self supporting trout streams in the ozarks were introduced with trout at one time, and yet I've read articles that only certain species were stocked (rainbows), and that other species were actually native to a few places. Any experts on this? Maybe I'm confusing just the state of Arkansas with the Ozarks in general being that they weren't native to Arkansas, but some places in Missouri they were native?

One thing I'd like to comment on the original post, is that the fish in almost any flow unless the water is spring fed cold, are going to lean out this time of year. It does not mean an overabundance of fish. Rivers will not "overpopulate" like some impounded water can. Rivers are fisheries that without harvest are able to remain in perfect balance of predator/prey due to a lot of factors. This is assuming of course that an invasive/exotic species has never been introduced, to disrupt the natural state of the stream. Rivers were perfect in their creation and do not needs man intervention to maintain themselves, of course we can most certainly screw up the balance via overharvest, runoff, erosion, mining, etc. Its beautiful how perfectly nature works and maintains itself when left in the same state in which God created it. Forgive me if I sound cheezy, but hopefully yall get my point. When water temps increase especially during brutal summers like these, the fishes metabolism is at its peak. They are simply burning more calories then they can consume to maintain their body weight. Without a change in seasons these fisheries would be doomed. Come fall and winter these fish will naturally fatten back up, when they don't have to exhaust so much energy to catch a meal. Summertime is not easy on these fish especially larger specimens and fishing this time of year one should take extra caution to fight the fish quickly and return it to the water as quickly as possible to avoid heat stress mortality. This is a bigger issue than one might think and is often delayed after the fish has swam off to give the illusion that all is well. I still fish all summer, but make sure the camera's ready for a quick pic and back in the water asap.

I bought a Katadyn three stage purifier for like $60. Fill up the bottle and drink for 240 times or something before you have to change the filter, and it has a counter on it every time the lid is unscrewed. I don't use it as my primary watersource, but its a backup in case I run out of water on a trip. The way they advertise this thing is that I can dip it in the truck stop toilet after Large Marge left a doody in there and its safe to drink. Bad thing about these purifiers is they are slow to get water out. You couldn't keep a whole troop hydrated with one of them in hot weather. However they make bigger ones that are meant to be used as a clean water source for a base camp. I'd really look into getting one of those. Heres one you can pump at 1 qt per minute that you can use to fill their canteens. http://www.cabelas.c...80;cat104324580 You could probably make this one work as well to do the same thing. http://www.cabelas.c...80;cat104324580 I would make sure to have a backup plan though and bring some emergency tablets along. There's nothing more threatening than running out of drinking water on long trip when its hot out.

I saw a handful of other trout hitting bugs on the surface that appeared to be mayflies. Didn't see any brutes, but I did tie on a mayfly for awhile and got less interest in it than I did the wooly bugger, so I switched back. Its really tough to float and flyfish when you have to control the boat as well. Its a miracle in and of itself that this gear fisher made it to the takeout with the original leader I had tied on without adding tippet. If I took the time to get out and wadefish a few areas more thoroughly I probably could've done better as well, but I got late start that morning because I spent hours trying to find my lost credit card that I eventually had to cancel. So I had to keep moving to make it to the takeout at a reasonable time which I did just before some nasty storms moved in. Really wish I could give it another shot, but its gonna be a long time before that happens.