ColdWaterFshr

I agree with most of the others. A buddy of mine and I once attempted to fish the spring branch (illegally) and it proved very difficult. We made it down about a third of a mile before giving up, exhausted. The speed of the water, the boulders everywhere, and the steepness of the banks, thick cover left little room to cast -even with short spinning rods. Its just not terrain or water for the general public. All that watercress and ferns would surely take a beating. I wouldn't mind a lottery type deal to get permission to fish it or kayak it, but it would I would keep the number so low (20 per year?) that it would have little impact.

I wasn't trying to start a fight or complain. During the course of an otherwise boring work day, I poke around on this website probably too much and I'll admit it can be fun to stir the pot a little, even on a subject like this where I have no horse in the race. Just showing a different viewpoint, I hope no offense was taken about anything I stated. I enjoyed the discussion. Cheers!

Interesting indeed. Interesting in terms of the grandeur of the rationalizations in your post I must say. The docks you shot footage on certainly didn't appear to be in any state of desrepair, or in jeopardy of losing permits. For the most part, they appeared well-maintained, if not downright modern, with boats elevated on lifts and what not. Cleaning fish, you were, right there on the spic and span, clean boardwalk that granny may have swept off earlier in the afternoon. If she had been there 2 hrs ago or 20 years ago, so what? Winter or summer. So? This doesn't have a to do with how many bajillion docks there are on Lake of the Oz, how many are half-sunk, or Ameren UE, or even why baitfish like algae that grow on horizontal mooring cables. Go up on those same docks and fish the same way during the summer and see how well you're received, and theres your answer. Regardless of what signs you got posted, or failed to post, I can't imagine either you or Phil would want strangers on your docks fishing anytime they danged pleased. It isn't law as much as it is courtesy and respect for others property.

Interesting info from the legal eagle. Thanks for sharing that Bill. Still, even if a dock is NOT posted, I think most of us city folks (non-locals) would feel very uncomfortable tying up to someone's dock and geting out, walking around and amongst their various lake toys, and fishing right there. If you wouldn't have the nerve to do it during the summer, why should you have the nerve to do it in the winter? -- just because you know no one's home? Or is it because you know that you'd be asked to leave more often than not during the summer (when people are there)? It may not be trespassing, and it may be the norm among good ole boys during the winter months on certain parts of LOZ, but I dont think I would ever feel completely at ease fishing that way unless I had permission. But I gotta say, it has a certain edginess to it that is appealing. Especially cleaning the fish on the dock.

I was gonna say the same thing . . . . The back patio of my house doesn't have a no trespassing sign, but that doesn't mean the general public is welcome, and I sure wouldn't want strangers cleaning fish on it. No harm done, but still. Unless Bill personally knows the owners of those docks, I would say it was definitely trespassing and you got lucky. Nice fish though!

You should try to get ahold of Dave Whitlock. His "Near Nuff Sculpin would be a good one to add.

Just another reason that jetboats are the devil. Glad you are all okay. As you said, it could have been a lot worse. A friend of mine witnessed the aftermath of a jetboat accident on the Big R this past summer. As he was putting his canoe in at Hwy 21 near WSP, so was a guy in a jetboat who was headed upstream. Later in the day as he returned to the put-in, there was an air-evac helicopter in the parking lot. The same guy he had seen in the jetboat had run up on something, got thrown from the boat and shattered his leg.

I've been a big fan of Hans chicken (#4) for at least 20 years now. Everytime I go to Springpatch I have to order it, but I get it medium. Is Kim's Korean BBQ still around. They used to be in old downtown, and then moved to south Campbell. Had some outstanding bulgogi and veggie pancakes.

NOOO! Thats not what we need more of. We need LESS Tito. less. Tito like sunburn. Getting one is no problem, next day, Tito make you suffer.

Sorry to ruffle feathers guys. I'm sure you're decent fellers and not hoosiers or idiots. Its just that I've seen these places left trashed before. Established campfire pits doesn't make it right. I don't think it is legal to camp anywhere at Tan Vat, but as you say, people do it all the time. There aren't any trash cans at either location, so what do people do? They make a bonfire and attempt to burn their trash and usually don't succeed. Or they just chuck it in the woods. As for Cedargrove and ATV's, the last time I was there, I saw an ATV rally, several of them racing around the campground area going WAY too fast. To improve the ambience of their little event even further, they had an impressive car stereo blaring at peak volume, presumably so they could hear it OVER the noise of their ATVs. I wanted to join them, but I was afraid my mullet haircut wouldn't be good enough.

Please don't camp at Tan Vat offseason or not, or Baptist or Parker. I believe it is posted, and if you camp there, well, you're a hoosier. Sleeping in your car is one thing, but throwing down a tent and building a fire in the middle of what amounts to a parking lot/access, I'm sorry, thats lame.

We floated it yesterday from 47 down to the Big and then paddled upstream to Wash SP. Fishing wasn't all that good, And the float turned out to be a lot of work. Recent floods have really changed some things around. There were at least 4 massive deadfalls we had to portage around. Above 47 I would imagine there would be even more deadfalls which would make a long day trip even longer. As it was, we were paddling the last mile and half up to WSP in the dark, which wasn't much fun.

Easily the coldest day of my life.

You can camp anywhere along the river, its all National Scenic Riverway. The day-use areas at Baptist and Tan Vat, there probably is a requirement that you be x # of feet outside those boundaries for camping, but its probably not more than couple hundred feet or so. Cedargrove wouldn't be a very good place to camp. Attracts too many partiers and idiots on ATVs. I would park at Baptist and hop on the trail going downstream. The only problem is the trail crosses the river in a couple places, so just wet-wade it being careful not to trip w/ your back-packs on. Its pretty shallow wading at those crossings so it shouldn't be a problem. Theres a nice gravel bar at Ashley Creek about a mile and half down from Baptist, but on a weekend, chances are good that someone beats you to it, AND to get there you're going to walk through more than one spiderweb, and at times you'll feel like you're bushwacking through the jungle and if you're not familiar with where the trail is, you could easily lose it. Not the best way to impress a date! Really, its just not the best time of year for hiking in Missouri in my opinion. Save that for mid-late October and into winter. Also - this is the blue-ribbon section, so no bait or plastics. Enjoy!

Any relation to Scott Spezio? He had something that looked very similar hanging off the bottom of his mouth as well.

Took the family down to Bransun last week for a little R & R. Ran up a huge hotel bill. Drank copious amounts of poolside beverages, suffered miserably at the SD City (Marvel cave was actually pretty cool), borrowed my uncle's boat on TR and nearly sunk it, greased up with 50 spf everyday, a little touch and go with heatsroke a few times, gawked at some silicone at the Chateau, yada yada. But perhaps the highlight of the trip for me was an evening of fishing with Leonard Keeney of Taneycomo Nights. The evening didnt' start out well. My buddy JW drove down from Springfield to join us, but forgot to bring any waders. So he had to run up to WalMart on the strip and buy some hippers. While he wrestled with those demons, Leonard and I strung up our 7 wts and dropped in at outlet #1 stripping cracklebacks at about 8 p.m. HUGE fish were porpoising everywhere but I was far too excited to be effective against them. Managed to pull one out before it really got dark and foggy. My roll-cast would rate a B- in the daylight, but darkness, fog, and a 4-inch long PMS fly soon had me in the D minus range. It took a while, but I found my groove. Caught a couple nice browns, the biggest about 16. JW caught one closer to 19 inches. The hits on the PMS were always when you least expected. And fishing in the dark is a whole new ballgame because you are relying totally on feel. Leonard was great. He would calmly wade back and forth between me and JW all night giving instruction, tying on different flies. When either one of us would go a while without catching a fish, he would retrain us on the proper techniques by giving a quick demonstation, right in the spot we were standing and either catch a fish or have a good take. So it wasn't that they weren't biting. The glow-in-the-dark rig that Leonard tied on for us was too cool. We didn't fish with it the whole night, but it did well in outlet #2. Thankfully, not much casting was required there. As I was bumbling around in the darkness, I accidentally stepped on Leonards rod and broke it. He was very gracious about it, took all the blame on himself and was even kind enough to let me bum a few swishers. All in all, a great time. Finished at about 2 a.m. JW and I each ended up with 3 or 4 quality fish each and a couple more small ones. Not a huge numbers night, but the feeling that a big fish could happen at any moment was a feeling that was with us the whole night. Saw a fisherman wade past us at one point during the evening with what looked like a 4-5 lb walleye. One of my last casts of the night was WAY out into the strong current of 4 generators with a reticulated PMS. Had a vicious strike that about broke my arm. Thought I had Shamu on, but when I got the fish closer, it was a 12 inch bow. We got a good laugh out of that one. Went down again on Sunday during the heat of the day while the wife and kids went shopping and pulled out a couple more. Mainly experimented with a bunch of different flies without much success. Leonard knows his stuff. I'd love to go down there in the late fall w/ lower water conditions and try that again.

Its very wadeable this time of year, in fact I'd leave the waders at home and wet-wade it. Tan Vat to Cedargrove is a LONG way though, and no way you could go there and back in a day and spend any real time fishing, even ONE-way is a stretch. There is a horsetrail that follows the river down, but it meanders from side to side, can be hard to follow as it does, and be prepared for jungle-like conditions.

Been there, and lived that for 5 years. KC might have a few small cricks nearby with a lonely orphaned smallmouth hanging his hat there, but I sure don't remember any decent homesteads less than 2 hrs away.

Pretty far, however, there are several spots where you will have no choice but to get up in the brush to get around a deep spot.

Fished Mayfield Springs access to 1st FS access below AD bridge (upstream from Gravens). Fishing was only okay. Mostly largemouth, but a few smallmouth. Nothing over 15 inches.

Rosati exit to south on Hwy KK which goes over the train tracks. Seems like you go 2-3 miles and turn right on Besmer Rd (gravel). Got to watch for it, it comes up quick. Go on Besmer Rd. a short distance (maybe less than a mile?) and take what I believe is the 1st left. Go about another mile and you come to the first parking lot is Cardiac, and the 2nd lot is Suicide. Been skunked there several times over the years, so don't feel bad. You gotta work a little to get them to cooperate sometimes. Heavy nymphs fished deep. Hopper dropper works good. Read a report about stones doing well recently. I think upstream of Cardiac is the better water. Actually, the better water is just down from the park to where Dry Fork enters. Good luck.

Fellows Lake

Used to fish it all the time at night off the bridge with lights for crappie. 25 years ago though. Yeah, I'm sure there are catfish in there. Lot of bank spots to access from trails on both sides of the bridge.

I have no problem with people owning guns. Zero, really. However, this country is full of a lot of crazy people. And its also full of a lot of too-easy-to-get GUNS. Bad combination. The Framers could have never envisioned our population as chock-full of illiterate lunatics such as we have now. I went on a day float a couple weeks ago on a certain river in Franklin county and at times I was afraid for my life. I've never heard so many gunshots going off and at close range. Semi-auto, fully auto, LARGE-caliber stuff, literally for miles down the river, so it wasn't just an isolated yay-hoo or two. I swore that it must've been KKK militia training day in Franklin county. At some point, and it ain't going to happen overnight, but we gotta start somewhere and get a handle on all the loose and widely available guns. If you gotta take your car in and register and tag it every year, or every other year, why not the same with guns? I hate to add more bureaucracy to our government, and they would surely make a mess of it, but it really should be JUST AS BIG OF A PAIN IN THE ARSE to own a gun as it is to own a car. If having one is that important to you, you won't mind jumping through the hoops. Then, if you get caught with a gun you don't have properly licensed . . . you lose it forever, simple as that. To buy odd-caliber ammo for your AK's and AR's, you gotta slap your license down on the counter to buy them. It would take many years, but we gotta start somewhere. Eventually, eventually, the illegal supply of street guns would tighten up. When the NRA crowd has problems with this type of stuff --- they lose all credibility with me. Too many kids and innocent people getting shot up for no good reason. Lets face it, we're all just a bunch of monkeys with money and guns!

You could do it, but it wouldn't be a relaxing way to fish. The lake gets a lot of 200hp boat traffic and you'll simply be grabbing the gunwales every 2 minutes just to steady yourself with all the wakes being thrown. Gavins right -- get a rental jon-boat and at least give yourself a fighting chance.