Phil Lilley

AJ Pratt and crew shocked last Wednesday night. Here's what AJ emailed me about their findings. We went out on Wednesday night and collected all the fish we needed (50 females and 150 males). The hatchery staff have the eggs from about half of the females and the remaining females should be ready to give up their eggs within the next day or two. Wednesday and Thursday will be the critical period, since some eggs will always go bad following the fertilization process. So at this time we should not have to go back for any more fish, but will re-evaluate later in the week. It is good thing to get this process completed in one evening. We were lucky that Table Rock was generating, since that always improves our catch. Overall, the population looks good. We saw good numbers of legal size fish as well as a few large fish. The largest was over 29" with an approximate weight of 12+ pounds. As of last Thursday, only a handful of females were flowing eggs, indicating we were in the early stages of the spawn.

March 2009 Newsletter from the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery Conservation Center We wish you all a very happy St. Patrick’s Day Contents [1] Bouquet for Branson – March 21st [2] Hunter Education Class March 30, 31, & April 2nd [3] Vulture Venture – Thank You! [4] New Steps at the Hatchery [5] Ask a Naturalist “When will the mushrooms come up and where do we look for them?” Making Reservations: Because the Hatchery is open 7 days a week, you may call any day from 9am to 5pm. This includes Saturday and Sunday. We ask that reservations be made by phone, not by email. 1. A Bouquet for Branson March 21 (Saturday) 10am – 2pm Using native plants in your landscape is the easiest way to create a beautiful garden that requires little watering or maintenance. The result of using native wildflowers in your garden is an increase in birds, butterflies, and more time to enjoy nature. Come to the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery on Saturday, March 21st to learn more about putting plants in the proper location. There will be a brief presentation at 10:00 am about using native plants in landscaping. After the presentation, Mervin Wallace from the Missouri Wildflower Nursery will have potted plants available to purchase. No reservations are required; however, the FREE presentation starts at 10:00 am. For more information or directions call (417) 334-4865 ext 0. 2. Hunter Education Class being offered 3 Evening Sessions (March 30, 31, & April 2nd) 6:00 – 9:30pm all three nights Hunter Ed logo-orangeMust attend all three sessions to pass the class Class will be held at the Dewey Short Visitor Center Ages 11 and up [Ages 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult] RESERVATIONS REQUIRED Here is your chance to take the Hunter Education Safety class before this spring’s Turkey Season. This class is required for anyone born after January 1967 who wants to purchase a turkey or deer hunting tag. The class will cover a variety of hunting safety aspects including proper handling of firearms, types of ammunition, archery & muzzleloading, identifying your game, hunter ethics, and more. Upon completing the class, which includes a short exam, participants will get a temporary certification card which can be shown when purchasing a turkey tag. For more information or reservations call (417) 334-4865 ext 0. 3. Vulture Venture – THANK YOU! A big THANK YOU to everyone who took part in our 13th Annual Vulture Venture event on February 21st. With 304 people attending this 6 hour event, it was one of our largest Vulture Ventures every. As always, Socrates, from the Wonders of Wildlife Museum was the ‘star’ of the show. The winner of the free print by Betty Grace was a family from Cameron MO. They drove 500 miles round trip to take part in our event. We hope that you get to join us again in February of 2010 for our 14th Annual Event. 4. New Steps Visitors to the Shepherd of the Hills Conservation Center and parked in the bus parking lot had been walking partially on the grass and partially on railroad tie steps created by an Eagle Scout. That situation is now gone. With the help of our MDC Design & Development staff, a new two-tiered set of steps was installed. While the steps are completely open for use, there will be a set of hand rails that will be installed at a later date. As you walk the steps, don’t be surprised to see that a few animals left their mark behind in the cement. Morels 5. Ask a Naturalist “When will the mushrooms be up and where do we look for them?” Christy from Hollister asks, “My dad and I want to go mushroom hunting. When will the mushrooms be up and where do we look for them?” Christy, you and your dad are in luck in that we still have a couple of weeks before prime mushroom hunting. The mushrooms that most people are wanting to find are Morel Mushrooms. They are identified by being a flesh color, having a hollow stalk, and the outside looks like coral or a ‘brain’. They are some of the bet eating around. When will they popping up? Generally, the end of March and the first of April are when the first morels come up out of the ground. The best indicator is when we have had 3 nights above 50 degrees or warmer. The key factor is NOT the air temperature, but the soil temperature. Having warm nights maintains the warmth that was generated by the sun during the day. Where do you find them? There is usually no one good spot. Sadly, most mushroom hunters don’t share their ‘honey hole’. The best advice would be to find a wooded area that has some light leaf litter, is well drained and on a southern exposure. Some people claim that they find mushrooms near elm or ash trees. Those trees are good indicators of potential mushroom habitat. Mushroom Hunting Tips - Never go mushroom hunting alone. - Never eat a mushroom if you don’t know what it is. Get a free brochure from the Hatchery or go in the internet to find photos of morel mushrooms. - During Spring Turkey Season (April 20 – May 10; Youth Season April 4-5) wear something bright orange or neon colored. - Get permission to be on property that is not yours. We allow mushroom hunting at the Hatchery, but some MDC facilities and State Parks do not. Always ask at the office. - Walk in small circles. Sometimes morels are hidden by leaves or plants. Walking in a circle may give you a better chance of finding these elusive mushrooms. - Collect your mushrooms in a mesh bag. This allows the spores (microscopic seeds) to drop to the ground as you walk and re-seed the area for next year. Carrying mushrooms in a plastic bag may cause them to spoil. - Cut off the root portion of the mushroom before cooking. There is nothing wrong with the root, it just has lots of soil on it and it may taste bad. - Cut the morel open to expose the inside and soak in salt water for at least 30 minutes. This will kill any insects that live inside the mushroom. Several books and internet sites have recipes for cooking morel mushrooms. Choose one you like. - If you have never eaten morel mushrooms, eat only a few at a time. While morel mushrooms are one of the safest mushrooms to consume, you do not want to overwhelm your digestive system. The same thing can happen if you eat too many sweets at one time…you get sick. If you have any questions about morels or other mushrooms, please contact the Fish Hatchery. If you have a question that you would like to have a Naturalist answer, send your question to John.Miller@mdc.mo.gov . We would love to answer it for you and share this information with other readers in our ‘Ask A Naturalist’ spot. We hope that you have enjoyed this issue of the Shepherd of the Hills newsletter. Have a great rest of your winter and keep learning about the forest, fish, and wildlife resources around us. Cheers! John Miller Naturalist Program Supervisor Shepherd of the Hills Conservation Center 483 Hatchery Road Branson MO 65616 (417) 334 4865 ext 0 John.Miller@mdc.mo.gov

Seriously? There's an area posted on TR- no outboard motors?? Or am I missing something.

That's really a great idea. I've seen and caught some big rainbows right in Hollister on Turkey Creek in years past during the winter. I'm sure they're up in every creek that runs into Taney. Short Creek would be a good creek if you could find access- and it's right up Brett's street. I think Lonkm was talking about Bee Creek on Bull Shoals.

OK- were you on Taneycomo or Bull Shoals? They each have a Bee Creek.

They didn't have any authority to tell you to move it. They don't own the lot, the Landing does. What, a cop is going to write you a ticket? Tow your rig? I doubt it. Someone ought to send FLW an email and let them know their trash is being displayed on a forum- word's getting out. Very poor. Bad for business.

Bee Creek? You mean the open, lake area just inside the creek? The creek itself isn't big enough for a boat. I'm not surprised. Probably lots of trout up in any of the feeder creeks right now. I've know there's lots of rainbows up in Turkey- always is this time of year. I've heard Coon Creek is fishing fairly good- has all winter. And Bull Creek- I catch rainbows up in Bull as far as Walnut Shade in May. It's a great trout stream really... What would be a great float trip right now is floating from Highway 160 to F and fish for rainbows exclusively. I bet there's hatches of all kinds in Bull Creek. You'd be surprised. I think it would be a wonderful idea for a person to sell wading fly trips in any of our area feeder streams on Taney in the winter.

I LOL big time! Thanks for the reports guys. Should be a good week on the Rock this week.

Only one taker? I had quite a few people wanting to advertise on the forum. Our numbers: So far this month- 15,000 unique visitors 2,491 average visits per user per day 20,122 average page hits per day

Don't tell Bill but I like OSU better than KU. OU is at the bottom on my list, although some of my very good friends bleed OU red. Why is OU a #2 seed and MU and KU are #3 seeds in the tournament? I guess late loses. My wife went to KU. My dad sent to TX. I like them all. Just like to get my digs in for Babler.

Keep any rainbow below 12 inches up to 4 trout. You can keep them over 20 inches but... it's better to keep the small ones. I think you know the lure restrictions.

Just wait till the big tourney... that's the one that counts!

Very little I'd think... not in the big picture. But this puts a "fishy" spin on "pork". I guess "pork" is a matter of opinion, huh? If it's spent on something you're for and love, it's not "pork", it's filet mignon!

You know, I thought of minimum flow and money for it when thinking of the "pork" as it's called by the media. I wondered if those who fish and are proponents of minimum flow would call money from the stimulus pile "pork" if appropriated by the feds. I also thought... with what's going on in our country- in the world I guess- all of us cutting back- shouldn't some of these projects be put off a year- two- three years- wait till you can afford to do it? Who knows... I'm glad they got it. I'm sure it will help the fishing on the White.

Ranting again I see. Wish I could have seen it in person... You missed a very good game at CofO tonight... OK Weslyan and Eastern Oregon. OKW by one. C of O are in the semi's - both men and women.

I made Trav a moderator for the lower lake last spring. I have no other comment on the subject.

I have regions set up for that. I had a travel forum but it got little traffic I deleted it. I'm NOT moving the forum. Never was. No reason to. To speed up loading the only thing someone could do is move it to a faster server, upgrade the software on the server and/or increase the service/bandwidth. Moving from one domain to another doesn't do anything for speed.

Thank you for pointing out my flaws... I'm have bungled this from the beginning. I apologize.

Let me clear up some things that have been said by those who are REALLY confused and mislead by Trav here. I am NOT going to sell ozarkanglers.com. I am NOT going to change ozarkanglers.com. I am NOT going to add new waters UNLESS members make a case such as the recently added Bourbeuse River. It has NEVER been my intention to grow this forum bigger... I think it is as big as it should be, probably too big. That's why I have combined and deleted a few forums here in the last couple of weeks. I AM the same person who built and has maintained this site since 1997. I haven't had a major character change and have not lost my mental capacities... I am not thinking about doing something as stupid as was suggested some 3 pages ago. Now... Can we get back to some constructive suggestions. All I want to hear is what waters outside the Ozarks, outside the waters named on OAF, would be of interest to you guys that could be added to a new forum? AR, MO, KS, OK, IA, IL maybe west TN

I really should let this go on for another 24 hours and see what happens... Wow... Trav- you were silent for, what, 6 months and now the world will end if this forum is moved, or changed? Talk about over reacting... but I guess that's Trav. As for making my mind up and doing whatever I want... you got that about right. Thanks for all the USEFUL comments. I did leave something out in my last post. The forum I'm moving over to the new url is a forum I bought and used for the hunters site- it's not being used and needs updating. Instead of adding more and more waters to this forum, I decided to just start another site altogether and add those waters to it. So if you don't have any objections... I'm going to bed. And Trav- I'd never sell this forum to the "anthill"... are you crazy??

Thanks for the comments. Keep them coming. I'm so involved in NAIA basketball this week I hardly have time to check email and read the forum. I've secured a new url site and have it setup for a new forum. I'll move the forum over and update it, build in new waters and have it up in a week or so. I've had some good suggestions for persons who would help with fishing reports on rivers and lakes... those contacts are vital in bringing on good people to give info on these places. Unfortunately, you'll have to register on the new forum. I can't move over memberships. Thanks- keep comments coming.

Has to be a glitch.

MDC Interactive Map Page

What did you find that they'd hit? Most of the anglers I saw the other day that were doing the best were throwing rooster tails.

Yea with the wind a 1/32nd oz would be extremely hard to keep track of. We have to go heavier- as much as an 1/8th oz. Wind is tough. No doubt about that.