Gavin

I'd take a legit 5lb smallmouth over either...but I'd take a 5lb rainbow over a 5lb brown. I've caught quite a few browns that would have weighed at least 5lbs but not that many rainbows. They dont seem to get as big plus they jump. Cheeers.

Kelly to Blair...approx 6.5 miles Kelly to Sunburst....approx 7 miles Kelly to Patrick..approx 9 miles. I average around 1.25 miles per hour if I'm floating & fishing. Cheers.

I think Al is drawing the distinction between navigable, non-navigable float streams, and private waters..Navigability really doesnt have much to do with it because most of our float streams have a well documented history of public use and lots of public accesses points..Access at road crossings above the first "official" public access point is the issue, and its not well defined..Best to ask permission or avoid areas that say keep out.. For example...There is a long section (at least 10 river miles) of the Osage Fork that flows through a piece of property called the Empire Ranch. I've floated skinnier water on many occasions, but all the bridge access points in the Empire stretch make it VERY clear that you are not welcome.I'm pretty sure that you would get arrested if you went fishing there, and I'm not sure that you would win in court...Joe Schmo fisherman v. Well Connected Wealthy Local Landowner....Not worth the bother. Cheers.

Kelly to Patrick can be done in a day, but it you want a shorter float, float Kelly to Blair or float Blair to James Bridge. Blair to James bridge doesnt get pounded as much, and there is usually less moss in the water. Not many trout between James Bridge and Dawt Mill, but I've caught a few bass down that way. If your looking for a place to camp and a shuttle, I'd recommend Sunburst Ranch. If you want a nice cabin, stay at River of Life Farm. Cheers.

It depends..access at bridge crossings really depends on the mood of the local landowner and police department. Most landowners tolerate some public use from bridge crossings some dont..Your always safe if you enter from a public boat ramp, and your usually pretty good if there are signs of public use, if there dont appear to be any signs of public use, its probably best to ask permission. It doesnt hurt to carry a stream team bags and fill it with trash while your floating or wading from a low water bridge..If folks see you picking up trash, they are less likely to run you off. Cheers.

Its not night fishing if your not floating, LOL.

Dunno...I'd almost bet that you could set up a check point exiting a church fish fry and find a similar number of minor drug violations. It makes a good headline, but drugs are everywhere.

Makes perfect sense to me...Dont block navigation channel, and dont get upset if someone has to use it while your fishing it....... The same rule applies to wading anglers on float streams...I'll float behind them quietly if I can, but sometimes you have to go down the channel were they are fishing. It just happens.. Cheers.

Yep, MDC has a lot of money on hand..Interest earned on cash reserves doesnt have anything to do with amount of your permit fees though. MDC has a big budget and they need a lot of cash in the bank to make payroll and pay bills. Their annual budget is around $160M a year, so I'd imagine that they would have at least $20-50M in the bank at all times. And FWIW,,,Hunting and Fishing permits only provide $28M of their $160M budget...Their cash cow is the 1/8cent sales tax that provides them with 100M per year. If their primary support was from permit and user fees, we'd be paying a lot more. Cheers.

If your looking to float it, I'd rent a canoe. Baptist Camp to Parker is your shortest float (5.5 miles) but youll have to do your own shuttle. Jadwin Canoe will rent and shuttle you between Baptist and Cedargrove, or Akers Ferry Canoe rental can shuttle you for a float between Cedargrove and Akers. Both are nice 7 mile day floats (or overnight with lots of fishing) but the Baptist to Cedargrove area usually fishes better. If your in good shape you can always hike between Baptist and Parker at low water, bring a water purifier and some food cuz it will take awhile. Cheers.

My favs have always been White with silver blade, brown with gold blade, black with gold blade, black with silver blade, and fire tiger with painted chart blade for stained water. Cheers.

Havent fished the Roubi it in a long time. How's it fishing these days? Used to do pretty well for smallies down near the G. Nade.

I've had mixed opinions on Lefty endorsed products...Frankly, he's almost as bad as Roland Martin.. Take a look at the product specs on the SA website. The "Lefty" line it appears to be a fairly standard WF line without the super slick AST coating found on the more expensive Mastery Series lines. I'd probably go with SA's GPX line or a Rio Grand. Cheers.

Were you can operate also depends on who controls the waterway. If you plan to operate on federal lands, you need to check with the appropriate federal agency. I'm not sure what the Forest Service requires, but guides who operate in the National Parks need to register as concessionaires with the park service, report their number of trips, and pay a percentage of revenues in addition to insurance and other requirements. Cheers.

Pond catfish love hot dogs..but you can fly cast with them..Slim Jims work great. Cheers.

Its possible...a park ranger friend says they have several sightings a year in the ONSR they have been spotted near St. Louis before, last one I heard of was a bit south of Fredericktown..FWIW, most of the bears that wander through Missouri are young male bears from Arkansas. Looking for love in vain I guess.

The most likely source is from a few cattle operation that dont fence there cattle back from the creek. Wish they would require cattle farms to keep there cows out of the creek but the dont. Thank the Farm Bureau.

That there boat is a cajun pirogue, not a canoe. Looks like a fun project though.

I do cobblers occasionally, but most of the time I do pineapple upside down cake..nothing to it. Mix Yellow cake mix per box, but use the juice from your can of pineapple rings instead of water. Melt a stick of butter on the bottom of your Dutch Oven Add a cup of Brown Sugar and disolve in butter Add Pineapple Rings Add Baking Cherries Cover with cake mix Shovel some coals out of the fire and cover the D.O.. Go light on the coals on the bottom, lots of coals on top. Rotate lid every 10-15 minutes, check it its done around 40-45min.. When done..crack lid and let it cool for 10 min.. Remove lid...Run a metal spatula round the edges, cover top of D.O. with parchment paper or foil..Add lid. Put on welders gloves and flip the cake. Eat Cake with some Bushmills on the rocks, or Bushmills & Coffee before bed.. Check out Byron's Dutch Oven Page for some good recipes. Cheers.

Not a big fan of spotted bass, because they have invaded and displaced the smallmouth bass on some of the streams I fish. I listed the Largemouth bass as non-native because I'm not really sure where they came from..I'm sure they are native to some places, and not to others. Common species like LMB have been stocked all over the place, so who knows where some of them came from? How bought a new category.. Dubious origins but still desirable... LMB, Walleye, Born-Again Pole dancer's, etc..

Try Noblett Lake near Willow Springs or McCormack Lake near the Hwy 19 bridge over the 11pt. Bring a canoe or pontoon boat. Fish a big inline spinner, spinnerbait, or bluegill crank around the weed beds. I'd imagine that they would really hammer live minnows or small sunfish. Makes for a fun side trip if your headed down for float on the NFoW or 11pt. P.S. Bring some long nose pliers.

I volunteered to help with the fish sample on the Current last year I posed the brown trout reproduction question to the biologists. They said there might be some but its not enough to be signifgant. They said the water doesnt get cold enough at the right time of year. And my own observations seem to support that conclusion. In two days of sampling on the Current we handled over 800 brown trout, most in the 10-14" range, maybe 20-25% were 15" or better, around 1 in 20 was 18" or better, the two biggest measured 24.2 and 23.9 , but I think they missed at least one bigger due to the size of their net. Out of the baskets of fish that I helped measure, I dont recall seeing any brown trout smaller than 6", but I saw 3-4 tiny rainbows with parr marks. Other game fish..Maybe ten smalmouth best around 14", 0 pickeral, 2-3 confused largemouth, and a couple sunfish. I measured fish with both Jon & A.J, and they said that the dont get anywhere near those kind of numbers when they sample on the NFoW and 11pt. As for food on the Current, you would be amazed if you watched the shock boat move through a good run. That river is absolutely packed with sculpins and minnows. The electrodes kill a bunch of minnows, but it doesnt seem to affect the sculpins much. The biologists said its because the sculpins have small scales. Big Scaled fish (Red Horse, Hog Mollies, and Minnows) take a beating from the shock boat and float straight to the top..Small scaled fish like trout & sculpin just get stunned, for a couple seconds and hardly ever float.

It just depends on the body of water...For example, my own personal bias leads me to the following conclusions. Non-Native and Undesirable Asian Carp Spotted Bass in most Ozark Streams Didymo Zebra Mussells Non-native and desirable Brown Trout Rainbow Trout Brook Trout Largemouth Bass Striped Bass Sp. Non-native and indifferent species Common Carp Native and Desirable Smallmouth bass Rock Bass Most Sunfish Species (except Green Sunfish) Catfish I'm probably way off base with some of the classifications, but its just my personal opinion. Cheers.

Scrabled Eggs, crawfish tails, and fried taters makes a great gravel bar breakfast. If I did em for dinner, I'd boil em with some Andoulle sausage, corn on the cob, red taters, & pearl onions..Beer pairing would be an ice cold Pilsner.

They dont publish the data on a website anywhere but I saw the 11pt population per mile number in a recent issue of the River Hills Traveler, and I got the Current R. data from Dave Mayers. Give em a call or shoot em an email with your questions. It might take em a couple days to get back with you, but they are pretty good at answering questions.. FWIW, Jon Ackerson is the 11pt biologist, Dave Mayers is the Current River biologist, and A.J. Pratt is the biologist for the NFOW & Bull Shoals.