Al Agnew

Yep, there are already enough laws to take care of the problem, all you need is enforcement of them. But this isn't a matter of freedoms being taken away, because there ARE already laws against the public drunkenness, drugs, underage drinking, nudity, and public obscenity. You shouldn't have any more freedom to break these laws on a river than you do on a city street, because the river is no different. And, what exactly do you think gives the party idiots the EXCLUSIVE right to enjoy A NATIONAL PARK on weekends? Not everybody can take their families during the week. And just maybe a lot of people WANT to take their families on what is arguably the crown jewel of Missouri Ozark streams, instead of a slower, murkier river (the only kind that DON'T have a huge canoe rental business and accompanying party hooligans). Another freedom taken away? BS!

There are some streams where alcohol is totally banned from any watercraft. For one, the Withlacoochee in Florida. The ban was protested when it was first instituted, but with decent enforcement and time, it now works pretty well. It's right that enforcement is the key. Supposedly, the Park Service is really going to concentrate on enforcing their new rules. However, it will probably come down to manpower or lack of it. Thing is, if we really want to take back our rivers, it's going to take enforcement of laws against public drunkenness and other bad behaviors, enforcement on a strong and continuing basis. With time and diligence, I think you can curtail this stuff on all the popular rivers, but I don't know that our politicians have the will and our law enforcement people have the time and manpower to make the concentrated, long term effort it will take.

Finally, warm weather! You just had to figure the fish would start getting a little active, and I had planned all week to go fishing yesterday. I won't even name the river...suffice it to say it's an Ozark stream, not too far from home. I put the boat in about 9 AM and ran just a quarter mile upstream before starting to fish. Water clarity was about 4 feet visibility, level normal, temp gauge on the depth finder said 45 degrees. I started out with a jerkbait and a tube, alternating the two as I slowly fished up through a long, deep pool. I caught a 14 incher on the tube. Then I decided to toss a crankbait for a bit. I had hand-painted and modified some Wiggle Warts, and wanted to try one. About the third cast I got a good strike and set the hooks in what felt like a heavy fish. It actually came up and jumped, unusual for big cold water smallmouths. I measured it when I got it in...19 inches. Hey, the day was already a success! I picked up a couple smaller fish through the rest of that pool, and then put the trolling motor on high and went up through the rather deep, slow riffle at the head of it, into the next pool. This one is a proven big fish hole, where I'd caught big ones before. At one spot there is a big, slow eddy, just off faster current, with an almost invisible log lying in it, well off the bank. It's a spot that isn't obvious, and thus seldom fished. I dropped the tube next to the log, and immediately had a pick-up. Set the hook, and felt both the fish and the log. I gave it slack for a second and then put the pressure on...yes, the fish was free of the log. This one was a bit smaller than the last big one, but not by much...18.5 inches. I fished several pools on upstream, catching fish rather consistently. Then I came to another proven big fish pool. Fished all the good spots, catching only smaller fish. But at the tail of the pool, where a rocky bank began to shallow, I hooked another big one on the Wiggle Wart. This one was 17.5 inches. A bit later on, I came to a spot that had produced a bunch of fish back in November. It was not a typical wintertime spot...pretty fast, deep current along a rocky bank. When the fish hit, it was after the Wiggle Wart had come off the rocks, through the fast current, and into slower current on the inside of the curving run, over a sand flat about 6 feet deep. This one was the biggest yet, and the first 20 inch plus smallie I'd caught in over a year. Another cast to the same spot, and another big fish. This one was 17 inches. By now it was getting late, so I went back down to where I'd caught the second big one, and there I caught one more good fish, 16.5 inches. Five smallmouths from 17 to 20 1/4 inches in one day! I haven't caught that many big ones in a single day in a long time. Here's the first one...19 inches The second one...18.5 The third one...17.5 The biggest one...20 plus

Definitely looks like a largemouth in the top photo...second photo didn't load for me. Don't be fooled by the tooth patch on the tongue--at least 15% of largemouths have a tooth patch on their tongue.

Just for fun, what is your personal best fish of various species? Best fish from the Ozarks? Feel free to tell as much or as little as you wish about it. Here are some of mine: Largemouth bass--23.5 inches, 9 pounds (from a local MO lake) However, my longest largemouth, and biggest Ozark stream largemouth, was a 25 incher (didn't weigh it before releasing, guesstimate 8 pounds) Smallmouth bass--two 5 pounders from Ozark streams, one was 21.5 inches, the other just under 22 inches. One came from the Meramec, the other from Big River. I've probably caught a few in other parts of the country that weighed pretty close to that, but didn't weigh them Spotted bass--a very fat 19 incher that weighed just under 5 pounds, from lower Black River. Walleye--a 31 inch, 12.5 pounder, from lower Black River. Rainbow trout--nothing real big, other than some 30 inch plus steelhead in Idaho, biggest from MO was 22 inches from the Meramec. Brown trout--25 incher from Current River Longest fish I ever caught was probably the 54 inch longnose gar I caught on an ultralight spinning rod.

If it's a 50 HP jet, (50/35) he can run it anywhere from Round Spring downstream, but not above Round Spring. The Current from Round Spring to Big Spring has a 40 HP limit, with jet motors measured at the pump and not the power head. Below Big Spring it's unlimited HP, which I think is stupid, but whatever.

There really isn't as much difference in Ozark streams as far as good fishing as you might think. If you're going on a weekend, you want to be on a river that doesn't have many canoe rentals. You also want to be on a river that isn't big enough for heavy jetboat traffic. Maybe something like certain sections of the Big Piney, or the upper Gasconade. If going during the week, you can do Black River, Current, North Fork (above Twin Bridges if you want smallmouths), Bryant Creek...I wouldn't consider any of these rivers to be so much better or worse that it would be the best or worst choice.

Like the others said, the Niangua is not a river for props. And there is not much jetboat use in that area, either. Right now, the river is up some, but normal level at this time of year is about 150 cfs below Bennett Spring, and MUCH less than that above the spring. I've found that if a river's normal flow is less than about 250-300 cfs, it can be pretty skinny water even for jetboats. If you know a river well, you can run it at less than 250 cfs in a well set up jetboat, but you're taking a chance of sucking lots of gravel and tearing up your motor.

Hmmm...could those women in waders actually be...transflyvestites? Or vestbians? My wife, who is ordinarily a typical woman, largely incomprehensible to me as a male, suddenly turns into a serious flyfisherperson when you get her near a trout river...could she be suffering from muddler personality disorder?

Phil, you probably are wondering whether I would ever get anything to you...I just remembered that I was supposed to write an intro on several streams a month ago. But I hope to be able to contribute some stuff here in the near future.

Couple of 16s, two 17s, and a 19 incher. Bummer was, the two biggest ones had fresh gig marks...big holes right behind the head. I'm surprised they were still alive. Just once, I'd like to have somebody catch these pinheads that can't leave the gamefish alone.

Fishing for smallmouths My buddy and I caught about 45 bass today.

I'm assuming you mean the lures like Rogues and Pointers...yep, they do work at times. So do a number of other lures, including the soft plastic "jerkbaits" like Superflukes, as my dad proved to me back in November. Hair jigs and tubes have been my most consistent winter lures in the past, however.

Finding the fish seems to be the toughest thing to do in the winter, but I suspect it's also a fact that finding fish that are active enough to bite is the real limiting factor. In the summer, most days there are plenty of active fish. In the winter, you might be fishing in the right place, have a whole bunch of fish that can see your lure, but few if any of them feel like biting. As for the location of the fish, my theory is that smallmouths instinctively know they are slower and more vulnerable to predators in the winter, so they tend to stay in places where they can't be seen. That doesn't necessarily mean the deepest holes in the river, it means water that is either deep enough that you can't see the bottom, or places where they can hide under rocks or logs. The other factor is current. They tend to stay out of fast current, but they seldom are in completely slack water. Current River the other day was up a bit and had strong current in most places. It was also clear enough to see the bottom in 8 feet or so of water. The places where I found fish were in eddies along rocky banks where a rocky point or cliff stuck out far enough to make an eddy downstream, out of the main current. The water in those places wasn't slack, but was slower. Those places also weren't deep enough to completely obscure the bottom, but had enough rocks in them to furnish hiding places. I suspect that smallies in the winter are often lying in the deepest parts of deep pools, but those fish are probably not going to be active enough to take a lure. So I think that active smallies in the winter are going to be near those deep sanctuaries, but not in them. Slow is usually best when it comes to lure selection and action. But keep in mind that some of our more spring-fed streams, like Current River, just don't get all that cold except in long stretches of very cold weather. So you don't have to fish at a glacial pace most days. My main winter lures are hair jigs I make myself, small to medium size tubes, jerkbaits, and deep diving crankbaits.

Several eagles. One crashed into the river about 100 yards away and came up with a fish of some kind. No ospreys. A couple of deer. You're right. I've grown to love winter on the rivers. I had the river completely to myself this trip. Only bad thing about winter is the shortness of the days. This day wasn't nearly long enough!

Current below Powdermill, sunny, little or no wind, fairly warm. Water temp 50 degrees. I thought it would be a good day for fishing. It was. It was gorgeous. It just wasn't a real good day for catching. I caught 7 smallmouths, including a 15 incher, a 16 incher, and a 16.5 incher. Most were caught on tubes, the biggest on a jerkbait. 5 largemouths in a spring-fed backwater. 5 chain pickerel. On the other hand...I guess that ain't all that bad for December. Somebody else had caught several pickerel and cleaned them on the gravel bar at the access. Some of them couldn't have been much bigger around than a broom handle. They musta been hungry for fish! I'm still learning this winter fishing thing.

Well, Phil, I think my home waters is the only sizable float stream in MO that's not listed...Big River. I grew up within a mile of it and have been fishing it every year for close to 50 years now. Most years I get in at least one float trip to every section of the river from the headwaters to Browns Ford, a distance of something like 75 miles. Sadly, the river is absolutely nothing like the smallmouth stream it used to be. The spotted bass have now substantially taken over much of the river, and with a general scarcity of smallmouths the big ones are few and far between. The Meramec used to be my "second" home water, but I don't fish it as much as I once did because it too has declined significantly. I guess these days I still fish Big River and the Meramec more than any other streams, but only because they are still close to home. Trout? Upper Current or Meramec. Lakes? I only fish for reservoir bass about once a year, always on Pomme de Terre because that's where the one tournament I fish (with my dad) is held.

Hey, looks like Mizzou finally has a coach that's a winner! We were in the middle of the ice storm while the game was on. The power went out with a minute left in the first half, came back on during halftime, and went off again with a minute left in the game. So I didn't miss much. This may be the most fun year in quite a while for watching Mizzou basketball.

We had the worst ice storm in 30 years here. Wife and I spent a not-very-restful night lying in bed listening to trees falling in the woods next to the house. It was a little worrisome, since there are some big trees that could have fallen on the house. One fell about 50 feet from our bedroom, but fell away from the house. The power kept going on and off, finally going off for real in the middle of the night. We are fortunate in that it came back on in mid-morning, since a lot of the area around us is still without power. Wife had to get into town today so I had to get out with the tractor and push downed cedar trees out of our 1/3 mile driveway. On the other hand, sitting in the hot tub on our deck tonight was gorgeous, with the bright moonlight shining in the ice-covered trees. And split pea soup, made with the ham bone left over from Thanksgiving, was delicious.

The good outfitters care about the resource. The biggest reason that the Huzzah is always reasonably clean, given that it gets the amount of pressure from idiots that it does, is that the people at Huzzah Valley, who rent the vast majority of craft on the creek, REALLY care about the creek and do a LOT of clean-up work on weekdays. They also really attempt to impress upon their clients that it's important, and expected, that they clean up after themselves.

I had an uncle who died many years ago whose last name was Neece. He told me that when he was a kid (this back in the 1920s) his family lived on a hillside farm in Bollinger County. One day he was doing some chores while his parents were on one of their very infrequent trips to the nearest town for supplies, when a man from the US Geological Survey came by. The USGS was producing the first topographic map of the area, and this guy was going around asking people what the names of various land features were. There was a mostly dry creek, actually little more than a hollow, that ran alongside the ridge where their farm was located. Nobody in the area had ever named it anything other than "the hollow" or "the branch". But when the USGS guy asked my uncle what the name of it was, he just shrugged and said, "Well, it's on our farm, so it's called Neece Branch." You'll still see Neece Branch on the latest version of that topo map.

The water was cold. The fish were sluggish. The weather was nice. Took the jetboat about 5 miles up the river, hitting all the good winter holes. First fish I caught, on about my 10th cast, was a 16.5 incher. That would be the best one all day. Seven hours of fishing, about a dozen smallmouths and a few largemouths. About 7-8 of them were between 14 and 16.5 inches. Caught them on a variety of lures, everything fished slow. No people. No fishermen, no canoeists, no campers, no swimmers. Eagles, hawks, herons, squirrels, a mink. Bluffs unobscured by foliage. Bare sycamores. I love winter fishing.

Another interesting rationalization for a draft that I heard the other day...don't remember who said it...was that an all volunteer military removes the members of the military from the thoughts or concerns of the general populace. In other words, the military is made up of people who voluntarily went into it, and everybody else and their children really have absolutely nothing to do with it. With a draft, EVERYBODY'S kids (not just the politicians' and "elites'" children) would be subject to it, just about everybody would know and be connected to members of the military...and EVERYBODY would therefore be a lot more concerned with how it was used. As it is at present, the military is for all intents and purposes the tool of the politicians, a tool that the people (other than military families) don't really have a stake in. The draft ain't gonna happen. I'm not saying it SHOULD happen. But there are a few reasons why it might not be a bad idea. And that's not counting the fact that many members of our present military forces are facing their THIRD tour of duty in Iraq.

Polock, therein lies the heart of the problem...money. Screw the river as long as the town businesses are making money and they can convince people the river is still clean enough for other users besides the horseback riders. The wild horse thing is a red herring...there are what, maybe a few dozen wild horses in the whole Current River watershed, compared to a few thousand many weekends on the trails? To suggest that the few wild horses (which really shouldn't be there, either) are causing any kind of problem to compare with the trail riders is kinda ridiculous. And yes, the hordes of canoeists do cause problems with litter, but the studies have shown they ARE NOT the cause of the vastly increased coliform bacteria levels in the river below Eminence. You're right that the tests were done below the campgrounds that cater to horseback riding. That's kinda the point. It's the campgrounds without a good handle on handling horse manure that IS the main problem, but since they are right around Eminence, they affect the whole river downstream. I highly doubt that the Conservation Department is all for horseback riding. The Forest Service and Scenic Riverways people would probably justify building good horseback trails on the idea that, without good trails, the horseback riders would just be finding their own ways and causing more damage and erosion. The problem is, as always, too much of what might otherwise be a good thing. The horseback riding fraternity has discovered that the Jacks Fork and Current River area is a great place for riding, and there are just way too many of them using it. As you say, the businesses in Eminence make more money the more people are using the area. But it's short-sighted and, because too much use is not a good thing for the resource, unless controlled it will result in a decrease in total use of the rivers, and eventually a decrease in the businesses of the area. I suspect that will happen sooner rather than later, given the publicity the issue is getting in the KC and Stl. newspapers. The word is getting out that the Jacks Fork below Eminence is not a clean river to play in. In the end, the choice will boil down to controlling a pollution source, or watching the businesses that DON'T cater strictly to horseback riding decline.

Ham, I like using crankbaits in rivers because they are great baits for fishing fast the way I like to do. You gotta slow down too much to fish a tube all the time. And...although this doesn't have anything to do with the Wiggle Wart...shallow running crankbaits will very quickly get you addicted to fishing cranks for smallmouths. If you're using one that only runs a foot or two deep in the relatively clear water of Ozark streams, you can see the fish hit it, and smallies attack crankbaits about as viciously as you'd ever want. The first time a 20 incher boils on one in the first couple of feet after you start the retrieve, you'll start loving fishing cranks. They aren't always the best choice, but when they are it's pretty intense.