snagged in outlet 3

We need some rain everywhere I think and maybe the corp would run more water and cool things off a bit. I quit fishing my favorite bass ponds because they are half empty around here (St. Charles). We just haven't recovered from the drought yet. We need a good wet fall. Snagged.

I think there is a difference between naturally dieing fish, flesh and all, and trout being cleaned and the guts thrown in the river. Bennett is still a great place. My 80 year old dad can flyfish from the bank between the dam and bridge with my 7 year old daughter. If it wasn't for the easy access neither would probably fish. My dad can't put on waders anymore so most places he took us too when we were young are out of the question. Believe me he would love to fish Rim Shoals again. Winter season is our best family trip every year. Not too crowded and no guts left. Snagged.

I agree TC. I've been fishing there forever and I can't stand the guts. How about the so called "lunkers" caught every week on pink jigs or red and white jigs. One guy cleans his catch while his buddy hangs a red and white jig in front of all the trout eating the guts. Gut shuffling? Is that a new phraze? Snagged.

Right on 2sheds. I had a whole diatribe typed up yesterday about possesion limits but I deleted it. Enforcement? There was a guy caught at Taney a few years back with something like 200 trout in his freezer. It made the paper. Apparently he was observed making multiple trips from the river with limits on the same day. The authorities followed the guy home a couple days in row and finally got a search warrant. Now for that screen name. I really enjoyed your report on the 11 Point. Great work. 2sheds as in antlers? Snagged.

Hi John. I read the article and this guy makes me sick. I just don't understand how the great state of Arkansas has allowed this continue. Sigh!!!!!! The Gov's office has totally ignored this problem. Just remember this when he runs for President. Snagged.

Hey Troutchaser. Ho-Hum is down river from Bennett. From Lebanon go past the first park entrance and right before you go across the Niangua there is a road on the right, take it around 8-10 long miles to Ho-Hum. On the way there is a fork in the road stay left. Occasionally you will see the Niangua on your left down in the valley. When you get to Ho-Hum they have a can to put your $3 parking fee in and go on down to the river. When the leaves are turning it's awesome down there. Browns are stocked down there and that is what we catch, along with a smallmouth sometimes. Don't bother in the summer unless you really like to party. It turns into Mardi Gras with bead throwing and drunken fights. Snagged.

No problem Don. My mistake also. Lucky that Ginefishin is here to figure things out for us. Snagged.

Man Gone I'm jealous. I Like to fish in a little town called Basalt CO. The Frying Pan and the Roaring Fork Rivers come together right in town. We stay at a Bed and Breakfast in town and at any time I could walk out the door with my flyrod and hit several different places to fish within a couple blocks. You have a great setup being so close to the places I like to fish. For me it's almost 3 hours just to get to Bennett. Not only the drive time (I can deal with that) but now the cost of gas is the killer. Anyway we'll hook up this fall. Snagged.

Sounds like you got it covered. Man I wish I was going. Snagged.

Gonefishin I'd be up for that. I do most of my fishing in the fall and winter. I'm always looking for new fishing buddies. Where do you live? I live in St. Louis and these gas prices are killing my trips. I used to take more trips and drive around, sleep in the truck and fish. At $2.89 a gallon my last trip through Bennett and on to Taney cost about $120.00 just for the gas. Let me know when you plan to go and I'll do the same. Snagged.

Ohhh! Thanks Gone. I totally misunderstood. I'm sorry. I caught the browns, and for that matter all my fish, on dries in the middle of a scrorching hot day. When everyone left the stream in the heat of the afternoon the fish settled down and bit well. I caught the browns at the bottom of the spillway and down below the main bridge. Cracklebacks, renegades and hoppers. As soon as anybody would slosh around where I was fishing they would get put off the bite. I would have loved to have stayed around into the evening as I'm sure it would have been great. I dry fly fish almost exclusively at Bennett and the other parks as the fish are trained to look up for pellets. Before the stockings in the park I believe most browns were below the whistles because the water has been so low they couldn't get up the water fall there. Also, in last couple years in the fall the hatchery has left the pipe open on the hatchery runoff to let browns come into a couple raceways to spawn. I don't know if they do it on purpose or not but the pipe has been open and the browns head up there to spawn. The past 3 or 4 years the area just above the pipe but outside the raceway gates was filled with big spawning browns. If they closed the pipe they would be spawn raped in the little creek that comes out of the hatchery discharge pipe like they do at Taney in the fall at the outlets. I prefer Ho-Hum to the other acceses on the Niangua. Ho-Hum is a must see Missouri location in the fall, absolutely beautiful. But not in the summer the place is filled with drunks. Winter time at Ho-Hum is hit or miss. If the water cools too much the browns will move toward the park and then I like the bridge access below the Park. Last year during deer season I caught a bunch of browns at Barclay access. Snagged.

McManus are you calling me a bigmouth? I don't understand why. BTW I caught the browns in the park. They are concentrated in Bennett Springs. Snagged.

I'm going to the Big Muddy when the weather cools to try an catch some big heads on a fly. I love carp fishing, they fight like the devil. I'm in for the fish fry. Anybody wanting to car pool from the St. Louis area let me know. Can we do it when the weather cools a bit so camping isn't too bad? Snagged.

I stopped at Bennett on the way, to and from Taney a couple of weeks ago. Caught 4 browns Friday on the way down and caught 2 on Sunday on the way back. I like it. One of them on Friday was a 15 inch plus keeper but I let it go anyway. All of them took dry flies. We caught fish almost at will on Friday but they were a little tougher come Sunday. I saw a lot of browns in the water besides the one's I caught. Snagged.

I live in St. Charles and regularly chase carp for sport. Let me tell you, when you live in a metro area with few opportunities for sport fish, carp can cure your need to fight fish. 10 minutes from the house and it's "The St. Charles Happy Hour Carp Tournament". Last tourney was 3 hours long and my buddy beat me 9 carp and one channel cat to 8 carp 2 channel cat. Cat's are for a tie breaker in case both anglers catch the same number of carp. I've never eaten one but the river rats say they are as good as anything in the Mo. River. I have a friend that uses them for catfish bait and his success is unbelievable. 5lb carp caught a 37lb flathead right off the bank of the public access in downtown St. Charles. If anybody wants a guided carp trip on the Mo. River give me a call. (Britt's included) I'll do it for free. How about a trade for a bass fishing trip on Taney. I don't have a boat, but I have been jonesing to go bass fishing again on Taney. One premium guided trip on a Mo. River slough in exchange for bass trip on Taney. Now that gas has gone to $3.29/gallon in some areas those carp better look out! Snagged.

A big juicy dry fly. Snagged

I don't know if it's still there but my kids loved the exotic animal park. We were driving through and the giraffe came to the van for a snack. It was on my wife's side of the van and she was feeding it out of her hand through the open window. When he had eaten all she had I threw a handful of the feed corn between my wife's legs and had a great time watching the giraffe go after it. His head was in the window, down between my wife's legs and my wife had a hold of it's horns while his foot long tongue was trying to get at that corn in between her legs. The kids and I loved it but mom was pretty mad at me. The giraffe seemed to enjoy it too. Snagged.

Flows over 20,000 cfs, boat wouldn't hurt. Snagged

You lucky dog. Enjoy! Snagged.

Got on the water around 6AM Sat. Morning. We fished the stretch below Rebar, The Gauntlet I believe is what they call it. Caught 3 rainbows and a brown before they cranked up the generators. We hung around all day wade fishing the edges and picking off trout here and there. Then they got serious and ran 4 full bore. Went to the room and took a nap then went to dinner. Sunday we walked in above #2 which was shuffler central. Caught 2 quick rainbows then they blew the horn. We hightailed it to Bennett which is on our way home. Report to follow on the Bennett page. Shufflers, empty corn cans and an endless stream of cigarette butts floating by. Gotta love it!!!! Snagged.

I live in St. Charles and don't go to casinos but don't care how many they build. Build a hundred if you like. I haven't seen the crime rate go up or any of the other things detractors talk about when casinos come to town. I frequent Main Street quite a bit and I didn't notice any change after they built the casino here. If they build one please keep it environmentally friendly. I would be interested to see statistics about older folks at casino's. They seem to go to casino's more than anybody else. Stay off the Blanchette bridge around 11AM because the blue hairs are headed to the casino. Are they gambling away money they should be keeping in case their pension fund goes belly up or some other unforeseen catastrophy? I grew up visiting Rockaway Beach as early as 1965 or so. The problem I see at Rockaway is what my children said to me when I took them there. No lake activities like on Tablerock. The lake down around Rockaway isn't really swimmer friendly. They didn't upgrade anything. All the rooms and cabins were old and run down. How about a pool? My kids love the Branson area but Rockaway was too far from shopping, no lake activities, no places to eat out. Snagged

There are several. John Gulley is friend of my family so I recommend him first and I believe he has been guiding on the White longer than anybody. Jimmy is in Alaska right now but he'll be back soon. http://www.flyguide.com/ http://www.flyfisharkansas.com/ http://www.flyfishingarkansas.com/ You can't go wrong with any of these guys. I put them in order of my preference. Good luck and post a report when you get back. Snagged.

Hey Freefall. I understand your concern. You should bring me along and I'll go ahead of you to check everything out and make sure it's safe. After a thorough inspection that may take an hour or so I'll call you in. Snagged.

Phil, wouldn't a surplus drive the price down? Headed your way this weekend, Finally! Any predictions on generation? Snagged.

whew!!!! I thought I would get crucified for my post. I quess what I'm trying to say is not that the govt. should lead but maybe just stop hindering progress. When we impose tariffs so high as to completely keep an alternative out of the market while with the other hand subsidize companies that clearly don't need it our govt. isn't helping matters. E85 here in St. Charles is actually higher by 4 cents a gallon than regular unleaded. How could that be? That's my point Phil. We could have spent the subsidies we gave to big oil on incentives to solve our imported oil dependency. Somehow in this country the little guy pays the bill. "European oil giant BP (BP) said its second-quarter profit climbed to a record $7.27 billion, thanks to rising oil and gasoline prices. Refinery earnings rose by 46 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimates that the world's six largest publicly traded oil companies shared $36 billion in profit from sales during the quarter -- a 23 percent jump." (Yahoo Finance, 7-25-06) Their 23% jump cut my fishing trips in half for the year. I have always wanted to start the "Lobbiest for the Little Guy LLC" That way maybe we could get a voice in Washington. Good debate. Snagged.