Wayne SW/MO

Wait till you see my creation, you'll be stealing money from the wifes cookie jar.

Reintroduced. They were here before man silted up the streams, degraded the water quality, and overfished areas and the smallies did fine. I fished a great smallmouth river for years that had a good population of otters and the fishing didn't suffer. That river had one thing that the rivers here don't have, it was remote from man.

Mosportman, while your concept might be honorable it would never work in the world I know.

Cozy? Is that a Gayhawker thing?

That would be it. If I ever get caught up on Clousers and such I'm going to tackle them. They're looking good Bass Commander.

If I was going to look for them I would start in Bull Creek.

They have called them white cat as long as I can remember. I know they aren't true whites, but they have always been so light they looked like them. I think with the exception of the stairs the east side is also a good place for us oldtimers and they catch a lot of crappie and white bass, when its time, over there. That old channel has always produced a lot of crappie at times.

The winters are getting warmer and the smallies no longer have ice to keep them off of the rivers. Every river I know of has become more shallow due to gravel and has fewer deep holes. The bottom line is that smallies are more vulnerable and there is no reason to allow harvest in the winter. Traditionally Missourians don't expect to eat fresh caught fish in the winter. MDC needs to address the subtle changes occuring on the Ozark rivers due to the climate change and its effect on the fauna.

You might also check out Larry's. They woud probably throw in some start up lessons. Rogers probably would also, but you know.

Look up the Texas Ringworm.

The season is closed isn't it? Not that it ever mattered around there.

The key might be "tourism". Maybe he's just "fishing".

Good luck. Live minnows seem to do best for the long haul.

I agree that you might thin the tail. You can do a lot of change up on buggers. Add rubber legs, use up some of the webby saddle hackle, make a light bottom and dark top, beads and coneheads. They can be fun to tie because the pattern has become a non standard. Never throw away a fly that will hold up to fishing cause the fish ain't that smart and often not that particular, especialy the majority of trout in Missouri.

I'm with Phil, probably fishing BS if he was filling out. Taney is full of other species, but like the trout and yellow perch in BS, it might be a long haul targeting some of them. The key is the upper end, if there are a a lot of walleye there should be quite a few caught in the early spring in the upper reach.

Prices can vary, especialy on line. The downside is that often it will be on just a few items and how much you spend. There are places online that offer $5 shipping down to none if you puchase enough, and that figure can also vary also. In my experience the places above are all very competative, but when you add in sales tax you might be able to save if you're looking for something in particular and intend to buy enough to make ordering worthwhile. For example Bass Pro gets over $8 for 25 Gami B10S hooks, online they run under $6 and if you buy a 100 I know a place that runs under $5.

If you want do some color use ostrich in place of peacock.

I second that on the smallmouth? None of the salmonoids are native and even the ancient coldester fish was a char. Stripers, musky, and none of the carps are native either.

Most likely you would have it all to yourself, especially Mon thru Thurs. on thr River Run side.

While I agree it can be a little tougher to set the hook in a bass there are a lot of factors beyond rod weight that come into play. Long rodders have the advantage of a single hook that is unencumbered by a ball of plastic or the small throat of a treble. Another factor that goes beyond rod rating is the butt section of the rod, if it's soft for it rating then you'll obviously need more rod. I think the two most important factors are having enough rod to throw what you fish with and then worry about the lifting stregth.

I toured that area Tue. and was surprised that no one was fishing Empire and one boat and no bank fishermen at the dam.

You never know in Missouri. The fact there is little regulation allows part time semi guides to pop up. I don't know why anyone would hire a guide who wasn't a professional, I.E. making most of his income guiding.

Mine would be the EHC, Griffins, Renegade, yellow hopper, Adams, H & L variant, and some kind of spinner. If you want to forget the exact patterns tie some dries consisting of a tail, dubbed body and hackle in black, ginger, grey and olive in 14's and 16's. Use these to match the hatch and you can drop the Adams. The H & L is handy when you have troulble seeing your offering and the others are obvious.

And crappie, white bass, hybrids, all kinds of cats.

I believe they still make them. They're just hard to find I suppose. I can't remember how long I've had the ones I have now?