Riverwhy

Thanks for the report. It is sometimes hard to get good information on Lake Norfork. I'm trying to plan my early spring trip and I was a bit worried that the water was too cold yet.

In 1977 my brother and I put in a canoe at a low water bridge on a small ozark stream and began a week long float to the where the river joins another stream and forms a large large. I was wading the second hole down from the bridge and was standing in water a little over waist deep. I was fishing with a mitchell 408 on a light weight 5.5 foot rod. I had 4 pound monofilament on the reel and I was casting a small tube jig that was red with a white tail. I was casting towards the bluff in a very deep hole with large boulders. I was allowing the jig to fall to the bottom and then I would gently lift the rod tip and allow the current to move the jig along the bottom. I set the hook on a large fish and had the greatest fight of my life. (This is true even 35 years later). After a very long fight I was able to land the smallmouth. My only measuring device was 22 inches long and the smallmouth was a bit longer laying flat. We continued our week long float the next day and caught simply unreal numbers of fish. In the entire week we saw one small boy alone on the the river setting up in a tree trying to hide from view and two hound dogs a couple of days later that licked our skillets clean one evening. We saw no other signs of civilization until we hit the lake. I have caught thousands of fish since that trip including numerous northern pike over 40 inches long. Nothing compares to that smallmouth. I believe they are the greatest sportfish in our state.

Crappie nibbles are effective. I wish I could say that they are useless like all those spray on scents are but nibbles are the real deal.

The guy was a den leader for cub scouts and they spend most of their time on crafts and field trips and are only beginning to experience the outdoors. My guess he had never experienced any training as a Boy Scout and did not understand the meaning of Be Prepared. We met with our Boy Scouts last evening and reviewed hypothermia and what precautions you needed to take on a hike to prevent this type of tragedy. The distance of the hike was also pretty long for an 8 year old. I have taken kids that long a numerous hikes and would never have considered a 12 mile hike on a remote trail without additional adult support and plenty of preparation.

Jerry, It's great to hear that they will not draw the lake down significantly below normal pool. The crappie fishing has been very good the last few weeks and there are few good alternatives to where you can consistently catch crappie exceeding a pound around my neck of the woods.

I sadly wish this was a joke. They have already started releasing water out of Lake Carlyle. "I appreciate your interest in Clarence Cannon Dam and Mark Twain Lake. Mark Twain Lake has been asked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division, located in Vicksburg, MS, to provide impacts that would occur if Mark Twain Lake were lowered to support navigation on the Mississippi River. As of today this office has provided the requested impacts but no release has been scheduled by the division office. Your comments have been sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, Water Control Branch. You will be updated via email should new information become available." Sincerely, Courtney Wilson Assistant Operations Manager Clarence Cannon Dam and Mark Twain Lake (573) 735-4097

I copied this from a local Mark Twain Lake Blog. It looks possible that the Lake could be severley lowered in an effort to raise Mississippi water levels for an additional 8 days of barge traffic. I'm not sure taking water out of an impoundment and flushing it down the river is a logical use of water resources during a drought cycle. "The lower Mississippi River (south of St. Louis) is nearing a level where barge traffic will no longer be able to haul goods up and down the river. If it gets to that point it will have a serious impact on the economy of the nation and in particular on the Midwest. Part of the Corp’s mandate is to keep the river open to that barge traffic. As the Missouri River system lakes have been tied up in a court case at the Supreme Court level the water they hold is not available for now to help the situation. That leaves the lakes in the upper Mississippi River system as the only source of water to try to maintain a navigable level below St Louis. Mark Twain Lake is tentatively in the Que with 4 other lakes to be one of the major suppliers for the needed water. IF the drought continues and IF the decision is made to tap MTL water there is a possibility for the lake level to drop to the 590 level, which is approximately 6 feet lower than the lake has ever been."

I was at the lake December 2nd and found the fishing pretty slow. We were able to catch a few white bass in the shallow flats but we only caught four small largemouth. We were in the Gravois arm and tried docks, points, flats and chunk rock banks. We had most of our limited success on crankbaits against chunk rock banks.

Are you smelling Witch Hazel?

Metz, Live crawfish work best. Particularly if you can find those pink softshell variety. If all else fails just use a nightcrawler. Ok, I am joking. Most of the fine folks on this site are avid artificial bait users and expect strict catch, picture and release practices. It is preferred that you use a flyrod and tie your own flys. If you stoop to the spinning reel make sure your line is not too light or you may stress the fish when reeling them in. Oh, and be sure and fish only when the water temperature is cool enough to not stress the poor critters. Lastly, never let anyone know where you are fishing because it might alert fish poachers as to the location of the critters and they will go extinct. All in good humor.

The lower end of Bryant Creek has always held a few Hellbenders. I have caught several on live bait but I would never intentionally harm these creatures. The picture of the one in clear water is priceless.

I have never seen one there and I hear of no reports of wild hogs.

My favorite method with the countdown is to wade as close to the center of the shoal that I can get and then make a long cast as far down into the center of the pool as I can get. With six pound test line and a long rigid pole I can normally get a very long cast. I wait a count of two after it hits the water and then I retrieve the lure slowly.

I had a friend drive in from northern Illinios Monday afternoon and wanted to experience a little Missouri trout fishing. Now, I'm mostly a smallmouth bass guy but I set up a little trip to several different trout streams. We started out Monday afternoon at Westover Farms and engaged their local guide Tom to show us the ropes. The setting at Westover was just terrific. The spring is split into two sections with one being a traditional Missouri stream through a wooded setting and the remainder through a prairie type setting meandering through a meadow with numerouse short runs and fast chutes of water. We mostly fished the lower end of the stream where the two streams rejoin to form a larger and deeper water system. We strictly fly fished with a large hopper or similiar bugs as our top indicator and pheasant tails, hares ears, and midges as our droppers. We had steady action all afternoon and evening with my highlight being a double with a rainbow on both of my flies at once. That evening we stayed at the Lake House and grilled steaks and enjoyed the fireplace. The accomodations at this place are simply terrific. The next morning repeated our performance with another double coming my way. We then loaded up and drove to meet a couple of locals from Licking that took us to the Current River. We took a couple of vehicles and dropped one off a couple of miles down stream and then went upstream to put in. My buddy took a fly rod but I broke down and took my spinning reel. As soon as I hit the river the action was on. I started off with a countdown rapala and took a nice brown trout from the first pool right below the shoal. I continued to wade downstream about a hundred yards and landed a nice rainbow a little over 19 inches. Meanwhile, my buddy landed another rainbow on his fly rod while fishing a small dry fly just past the fast water. We continued to wade and fish the rest of the afternoon. The best action for me was definitly in the swift water at the head of the pools. The extremely low and clear water conditions made it pretty tough to catch fish anywhere except in the deepest pools below the riffles. Fly fishing was slow for my friend but countdown rapalas and rebel crawdads yielded fairly well. That evening we drove to Rockbridge Trout Farm and spent the night. The next morning we fly fished the little stream and as always even an amatuer like myself found it pretty easy to catch nice two pound rainbows on an assortment of dry flies. There was definitely an insect hatch going on when the sun warmed up the air and they looked like small mayflies. I'm not sure of their proper description but the trout didn't mind. Small dry flies with a decent presentation and the fight was on. We packed up about noon and my friend headed back to Illinois. I then headed for the upper end of Lake Norfork and met up with my brother-in-law. We slid a canoe in and worked a small section of the lake with a variety of crankbaits, in line spinners and swimmin minnows. The water was gin clear and we could see the bass hanging right off the rocks in about 6 to 8 feet of water. The bite was very slow until around 5:30 in the evening. I think the evening shadows gave us a break and at one point I caught three bass on four casts. They were nothing to brag about but were between 15 and 16 inches. I caught a few more later in the evening and then around dusk my brother-in-law caught a nice crappie jigging over a submerged tree. It was a nice sampling of our great fishing options in southern Missouri.

I spent about an hour on the upper end of Lake Norfork last weekend. I caught 5 walleye on a silver in line spinner. I was pulling the spinner as slow as I could and still keep the blades spinning. The largest was a little over 22 inches and the smallest was 15.5 inches.

I have crappie fished the last two weekends at Mark Twain. The bite is very good in the upper end of the lake. Minnows or chartruese jigs are very effective fished about 12 feet down in 20 to 30 feet of water. Surprisingly, there is a pretty good bite in the shallow water in 4 to 6 feet near standing tinmber off mud flats. You will have to sort through a ton of small fish but a limit of 11 to 12 inch fish is fairly easy if you stay at it most of the day. The shad balls at Mark Twain are thick this summer. It seemed to me that the more shad we saw the better the fishing.

About 40 years ago I was fishing the Kelly Shoal on the North Fork of the White and a copperhead bit my father twice on the hand as he was picking up a fish on the bank. He found his way across the river and found a house in the woods and was driven to the hospital. He became very ill and was in serious condition for over a week and not fully recovered for almost a month. He was in excellent health and in his mid 30s. I would still not kill a venomous snake in the woods but I certainly would quickly dispatch one in the yard. I believe a few good intentioned folks posting on this subject fail to understand the serious potential threat of a copperhead bite. I am not afraid of a copperhead but I do respect the real danger they could be to my kids and grandchild.

I have fished Bryant for over 40 years and have regularly caught spotted bass as far up as Bertha. A diverse fishery is one of the special qualities of the Bryant.

I waded the upper end of North Fork on Wednesday morning. Water is very clear and very low. It had been a couple of years since I had been there and the amount of gravel in the river was a little disconcerting. I caught two 15 inch, one 14 inch and one 12 inch smallmouth. I caught several smaller smallmouth but not in the numbers that would be considered normal. Most of the smallies were caught on a tiny baby brush hog in watermelon red. The biggest fish was under a root wad and all the others were in fast water at the head of the hole. The highlight was an 11.25 inch goggle eye caught on a yellow and green hot-n-tot. This fish was in the deepest part of the hole.

You can go to the first two access points above Hebron and effectively wade and fish for goggle eye and smallmouth and use your canoe to help you out in the deep holes. In fact, you can put in at Hebron and go upstream with a little effort and find some pretty good water. If you are after trout you can wade and fish at Blair Bridge but it is fairly difficult. Pretty easy going down but a little tough coming back to the car. You could NOT go upstream in a canoe.

Yes, a few trout do get into the hole right were the spring runs in. It gets hit pretty hard and is best after some high water that helps dump a few fish in the lower end of the spring. My guess is that the water has been so low in the spring that few if any trout will be in the hole right now. Heck, but trying is part of the fun anyway. There is no public access at Bertha. You have try rely on the local landowner to not make a fuss about putting in on the county road rightaway. I've never had trouble there but I do not leave my truck parked there because I do not want to give any landowner any reason to be upset. I just slide my canoe in and then get someone to move my vehicle. Good luck and happy fishing.

I shop regularly at the St. Charles BassPro and they are increasingly annoying. Normally I could just avoid the fish tank and be OK but now they hunt you down in the fishing section. I really haven't had much problem telling them no thanks but I agree it is frustrating to feel like you have to fend them off every time you go in there. The Columbia, Independence and Springfield stores are a much softer sell.

I routinely fish Rebel Craws and probably have six or seven in my box right now. They are effective for a variety of fish in a variety of conditions. Small fish only? Tell that to the Walleye in my freezer caught on the small brown and orange Rebel caught in Lake Norfork this spring. Having confidence in a lure does amazing things to how well they catch fish. Put me down as a yes.

I will be on the Arkansas portion of Lake Norfork this weekend. I can see where striped bass must be 20 inches long to keep. However, I can not find a length limit for hybrid striped bass. Can someone help me out with the correct minimum length limit for hybrid striped bass on Lake Norfork in Arkansas?

This is a very difficult topic and should be looked at from all sides. I think many forum readers concentrate their interest on clear Ozark streams and understand that crawfish are a top food source from many of our favorite fish species. The thought of an introduction of a non native and potentially destructive crawfish species is scary. I have fished with live crawfish literally hundreds of times and almost always catch my own while fishing the clear streams. In fact, I can not imagine an ozark stream fisherman actually wanting to buy crawfish. However, our fishing sport is much wider than clear Ozark streams. In much of northern Missouri the streams are far too dingy to catch your own crawfish and bass fishermen and catfishermen in particular have always relied on local baitshops for crawfish. Please be careful in supporting restrictive fishing regulations that may not inconvienience your particular style of fishing but may impact thousands of other anglers that fish in different waters and perhaps for different species. I support the ban on the sale of non native crawfish in Missouri. I oppose the ban on the sale of native crawfish species.