Gavin

My wife and I stayed there a couple weeks ago..looked like it was at a normal level.

Best depends on what you want to do.. Tailwater Trout..The White and Norfork Tailwaters near Mountain Home, Arkansas. Big numbers, and big fish are always possible. Hire a guide. Wade Fishing for Trout OYO-Current River below Montauk State Park and the wild trout creeks. Mill, Blue Spring, Spring, and Crane. Float Fishing for Trout OYO-Eleven Point River near Alton, MO, North Fork of the White River near Dora, MO Scenic Floats..The Buffalo River in Arkansas, The Upper Jack's Fork in MO..the smallmouth fishing can be good too. Lake Fishing-I havent a clue.

I'd definetly be in favor of more restrictive limits...I dont think that 1 fish < 18" statewide limit has much of a chance with the Regulations Committee though. Arkansas has a statewide limit of 4 smallmouths..I think that might be an easy sell...maybe add a statewide slot limit to protect the bigger fish instead of the abundant numbers of 10-12" fish? My wife and I caught a bunch last weekend. Probably a hundred or more between the two of us on an overnight float in one of the SMA's this weekend. Best guess is that only a dozen of those fish would top the 15" minimum on that stretch of river..It was great fishing, but the average size was still around 10-12". I think I could live with some harvest of the 10-12" fish, while protecting those in the 12"-18" class. Maybe a 3-4 fish limit, 10" minimum, 12-18" protected slot, 1 fish over 18". Cheers.

Zatarains Liquid Crab & Shrimp Boil will give you the heat you want..

The way I see it. Killing a fish in a legal manner is not an immoral act. Its a choice that is made based upon your own chosen set of principles. The principles that guide your choices to release or kill a fish may be different than mine and thats is OK by me. Its not a moral choice, so do whatever you think is right. Cheers.

Nice catch!

Ed Walicki up in Michigan does a fantastic job. http://www.edwalicki.com/ His "Au Sable Razorback" is on display at Hargrove's Fly Shop in St. Louis if you want to check it out. He's done several plastic and wood carved replicas for friends and his work is top notch. Cheers.

You can follow the fisherman's foot trail down from Baptist close to Ashley Creek, but the trail starts to peter out as you get closer to Ashley..Ashley is only about a mile and half from Baptist, but most folks dont walk down that far. Minor bush wacking is usually required. The main horse trail is an easy way to get around between Ashley and Parker. I use it a lot when I camp down there..You can find the horse trail across the river from the access at Parker, or river left looking downstream a couple hundred yards below Ashley. Look around in the woods behind the gravel bar just below the second bluff downstream from Ashley, really deep hole on the upstream side of that gravel bar. The powerline cut is about a mile below Ashley..its easy to spot...and its pretty close to the half way point between Baptist & Parker..The trail crosses the river three or four times between the powerlines and Parker and I've never had trouble crossing at normal water levels. It's usually pretty easy to spot a crossing from the river..look for eroded spots on the bank, hoof prints, and horse feces...Cheers.

Pat, take your reel over to Tom Hargrove..He might be able to help you out..I had a serious mishap with my Hardy Bougle earlier this year.. Slipped on a muddy slope,fell and landed right on it..Bent the frame, and the spool. I thought it was toast and the current price of a replacement is more than twice what I paid for it. Tom shipped it off to a repair shop that he knows and got it fixed for $75. Replacing a reel foot should cost a lot less, he might even have something that fits on hand. Good Luck.

Toss em the groceries...trico fishing can be fun, but most of your catch will be dinks..Mohairs, eggs, worms, streamers, and big terrestrials with rubber legs seem to attract the bigger fish...by bigger I mean those over 15" or so...fish in the 18"+ category are always possible, but flies arent the best way to catch them (They usually fall for big minnow baits when the water is up). The water between the park and Baptist usually holds the highest numbers of fish because of all the nutrients that flow out of the park. It also holds the highest concentration of fisherman. Ginger Mohairs really work well up there, perhaps they look like fish guts. Carry some Brown, and Olive Mohairs too. If you are on foot, go up or down from Tan Vat, or down from Baptist to Ashley Creek..Water between Baptist and Cedar Grove contains fewer fish, but its not as crowded. You can access on foot at Parker Hollow or you can rent a canoe from Jadwin and float from Baptist to Cedar. Great Scenery on that stretch. Canoes dont seem to bother them much down there. I've had many great days of fishing with canoes on the water, get on early and fish till they come, take hike or a nap till they are gone, then float on down about 15-20 minutes behind the mob. Cheers.

Live wells seem like outdated technology. Gotta be a better way.

I usually go with a 7wt for smallies, it works well with heavy nymph rigs for trout to. What kind of fly rods do you own now? If you have a 5wt, get a 7wt, if you have a 4wt, get a 6wt. If you dont own any, get a 6wt...works well for just about everthing. Cheers.

http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/Documents/18087.pdf Heres a map..Take the Rosati exit #203...then west on the south outer road to KK, make a left. The Meramec is a fickle river, fishes great some days, lousy on others. Its also different in that it has a fine gravel bottom, and it shifts around a lot during high water events..Fine gravel makes for small bugs, midges, scuds, a few small stoneflies. Minnows, crayfish, and terrestials also work well.. My usual strategy is to nymph the riffles, and fish streamers and terrestrials everywhere else. You can usually find a few fish midging in the runs around dusk. Good luck.

A lodge were you fly out every day costs big bucks, A camp with boats on a good river costs less. You can also do it on your own. Fly to Anchorage, rent a car, drive down to the Kenai P. Good dolly & rainbow fishing in the Cooper Landing area, salmon too. You will need a guide to float the Kenai, but you can wade the Russian, Quartz Creek and some of the streams over by Soldatna. Halibut Charters are Available in Soldatna, Homer, & Seward. If you can hire a guide & pilot for a couple day trips across Cook Inlet, do it... A couple years ago we flew out of Soldatna and fished the Kustatan and Big River Lakes. Hoped to make it to the Chuit, but we couldnt land due to fog. The Fishing on the other side of Cook Inlet was incredible, saw bears, and wolves. Been to AK several times times and the fishing and scenery on the Kenai P. is just as good as anyplace else in AK..just more people. Good luck.

Awesome! Good for you!

I'd look at the Guage at Steelville...Its usually OK to wade around Cardiac if the flow is below 400cfs at Steelville, but I'd check to see if the water is rising or falling at that level..Right know its 338 and rising, with rain in the forecast..Should be great fishing today, might be too high to wade by Sunday..Get there early or be there late. The local canoe outfitters will be busy this weekend. Good luck.

Trav, you might want to poke around here a bit... http://mdc.mo.gov/fish/fishid/ Ozark Minnows have a hint of a lateral line, but its usually more prominent on Shiner Minnows (Bleeding, Cardinals, of Dusky Stripes). The Dusky Stripe is the one found in the White River Drainage...look under the minnow category. The long slender one might be a silverside or some kind of topminnow The one that looks like a catfish, might be a sculpin. Just a WAG, w/o better pictures. Cheers.

Wife and I spent the evening at Rockbridge last week..The Motel units run around $100 a night. They are clean, but nothing spectacular....fishing is $15 bucks a head, catch & keep only and you pay extra for what you catch. It can get pricey if you get greedy. The average sized fish looked like they were 15-17" with a few large fish in the 24-25" range. Drinks prices at bar were fair and their restaurant is probably one of the best in the area. Make a reservation...Dinner entrees are nothing fancy but they were well prepared, most ran $20-25. Pretty decent wine list and the prices werent too bad.. You could order a $500 bottle of wine if you wanted too, but there were plenty of decent selections in the $25-40 a bottle range. Nice place, nice people, well worth a visit.

I'd recommend Sunburst Ranch..Really nice folks...Stopped by the NFoW last Friday. The river is in really good shape, but the lake levels are really high. The dam at Dawt Mill was under 3ft of water last Friday. If your looking for a short float..Sunburst to Patrick Bridge is about 2 miles. but its in the blue ribbon manangement area...Sunburst to Dawt is around 6 miles and your daughter can fish bait between Patrick and Dawt Mill. No telling what you might catch in the lower end with the lake up so high. Good luck.

Ought to look like yours Al..I saw your anchor bracket years ago and made something similar. I dont use it much on creeks but its great on bigger water. Wouldnt be without it on the 11pt or Meramac, but I think you fish a lot faster than I do though. Joe thats a J-9 in Black & Gold, great bait straight out of the package, its also great if you bend the lip down like Don House suggested (Search Wiggle Diggle on this Forum).

Joe you got it...the drag chain hangs off the back, slows me down and keeps the bow pointed downstream. I control my drift speed by lengthening or shortening the amount of rope I have out and I control my line of drift by back paddling. Move the stern into your desired drift lane, then let the bow swing around..Its a good way to fish faster moving lures like cranks and buzzbaits, or brainlessly drift a fly under an indicator till something eats it...Its not good for slow presentations though..A bow anchor works a lot better for that..Eddy out, drop the bow anchor, and cast back upstream..The pic is from June of last year, just about 100 yard above Love's cabin on the Meramec. Cheers.

Heres a picture that shows mine..its a homemade wooden bracket mounted off the stern of my boat..I have an an anchor lift and lock on the bracket, so I can drop it from my canoe seat... Anchor is a piece of chain wrapped with duct tape. Works pretty well for slowing my drift and anchoring in slow water, but I'm probably going to rig another one up for the bow. An old window sash weight would work just as well. Cheers.

9' Heddons came in 4 ferrule connfigurations..#2 #2 1/2, # 2 3/4, and #3 the bigger the number the heavier the rod. 2's are usually 5 wts, 2 1/2 are usually 6wts, 2 3/4 are usually 7-8wts, etc.. The GBG is in reference to the recommend line for the rod..Here's a link to a table that converts the old line rating system to new. Not perfect but a place to start with an old rod. http://www.keone.com/aftma-to-silk-fly-line-chart.html Your rod looks like its in great shape...even w/o the tube..It should do pretty well on eBay. Good luck

If its in very good condition with the original bag and tube its probably worth around $250, maybe a bit more or less. Unfortunately, 9' 8wt bamboo rods arent in great demand these days....It would be worth a lot more if it was built shorter and lighter. Its not uncommon to see 8' 2 ferrule Heddons go in the $4-500 range. Sounds like a great rod to toss bass bugs...Cheers.

Depends on where you want to run it..some sections of the Current have horsepower restrictions. See below. http://www.nps.gov/ozar/planyourvisit/horsepower.htm