trouty mouth

I can't believe I missed that one. Haha Wikipedia says that Bagnell dam was finished in 1931. I bet 1941 was prime fishing time.

Any idea about when this was issued? I didn't see a date stamp. What's the history with the creation of The Lake of the Ozarks and the experimental period? It would have been wild times making sure your bluegill pinched past the 5" mark.

Mic, obviously you know what you're doing (I just read your other posts about going for a swim). I think you should go check out cardiac and report back

"The last day of the season, if the park gets picked clean and isn't stocked" Catch and release does work. I'm talking about the last day of the season here. As in, if the last day of the catch and keep season there are no fish left in the stream, then the C&R season will have no fish unless there is a stocking. If you're familiar with the park, especially in recent years, there isn't a lot of hold over fish from day to day -- especially if the park gets a big crowd. Contrast this with Montauk where there are a lot of hold over fish in the stream and C&R without a stocking would still be pretty fun.

Meramec Springs 100% has had C&R stocking. 2020 was the last year I fished it and they stocked it like 3 days in. The first day was depressing. Meramec Springs is more put & take than the other parks; it's too short and the fish don't have as many good hiding spots. The last day of the season, if the park gets picked clean and isn't stocked, C&R will be about 50 old men smoking cigars and fighting over the same hole to catch some goggle eye.

It's that time of the year. Last week we got a stocking of trout around the city/county. I hit up Jefferson Lake on Sunday and had a pretty good time. Jefferson Lake got stocked with 3500 trout. They were biting on what you'd expect, jigs, jigs under floats, inline spinners and small spoons. I think I pulled in about 20 or so fish in 2 or 3 hours all standing in the same spot. No pictures -- the fish were too lively and didn't want to pose (they looked like stocker rainbows complete with missing fins and scraped up noses) There was a pretty good crowd around the whole lake. I did see quite a few lawn chairs set up, but nobody was sitting on a cooler so I'm thinking there's still about 3500 in there for now. . . I hope that the trout parks winter fishing will get a healthy stocking too. I'm planning on hitting that next weekend.

I would love for Missouri to get on board with that.

I wish we could get our state on board with stream access easements like they do in the Driftless/Wisconsin. If we had some sort of incentive or benefit to offer these landowners in return for stream access for public fishing I think that would help everyone out. 99.9% of the people wanting to get on these little streams aren't wanting to take fish -- most just pack out some beer cans and trash. Somebody get MDC on the phone and tell them what's up.

I like when MDC stocks browns. They seem a little more smart than the rainbows when it comes to running away from people. I think maybe the white ribbon streams would do good with browns over rainbows to keep holdover fish longer. In 2020 or 2021 MDC put browns in the city lakes/ponds and those fish hung around for a while. They seemed to roam the edges of the lakes and not hang out in the middle just munching on powerbait.

https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/berkley-lightning-spinning-rod-17bkyulghtnngrd5frod/17bkyulghtnngrd5frod I think it was this specific model. I realize it may not be the same family of rods that have been made before and that it isn't 100% "berkley lightning rod" because I remember having an older 1pc model back in the day. Anyway, these new spinning rods they're making aren't very good.

I found it at Dick's in south STL.

I recommend you to avoid Berkley Lightning rods. I grabbed one as a cheapo replacement for another rod. $35 seemed like a good deal. It was a 6'6" and rated for 8 to 12lb line. Tip was very flimsy in the top 1/4 and then the mid and butt section were harder than rebar. Guess where it broke? Right where the rod started to get stiff. About 8 inches above the ferrule. I was running 6lb Trilene mono (regular label) and got myself hooked on a bush while I was downstream in a kayak. My drag was pulling out while I was giving it a tug and the rod just snapped. I did repair the rod and fished it for about another year before it broke again crappie fishing & pulling up a branch out of a lake. Same reel and same 6lb mono. I wish I would have spent my cheap monies on an ugly stick.

- Newbie introduction - Calls Smalliebigs a troll Haha. Good one, "bud".

369?

Maybe we can get the pike to start eating all of these invasive carp.

Thank you for all the replies. I agree with the people thinking it's a pickerel. I'm pretty good with my fish identification and I swear that this thing was a pike. It's head shape/proportions didn't match up to what I've seen as far as pickerel go and the coloration/pattern was pike like. I just really want to believe it was a misplaced pike. How cool would it be to hook up to a monster Mississippi pike?

I found this guy dead right on the path to the creek at Flamm City Public Access. Any help with identifying this fish would be appreciated. Pickerel? Pike? I didn't feel up to wiping off its sides to get a better look at the coloration/pattern. There sure were a whole dead fish around. Mostly silver carp, but this fish was sad to see dead. I caught a few spotted bass and a white bass on a crappie jig around the boat ramp.

I've been trying at Minnie for them the last few evenings. Nothing but spotted bass for me.

Awesome trip

I think the live basket he was mentioning was an actual fish trap.