tjm

Recreation would be in the top three of water uses, along with making power and making sewage. If the bass business aspect is called recreation and by combining it with other boating and fishing, including wake boats recreation might be the most important use of that body of water. Certainly you would have all the people there, in one room, who could address any issues you have. (if there are enough interested parties and if the wheel squeaks loud enough) A reasonable perspective on stocking though is, if you are talking about a native fish capable of natural reproduction, any need for stocking has to be addressed as over-harvesting/poor-management and the first order of solution would be to reduce limits or close the season on that species. Stocking on a put and take basis is management for species that are non-native or that can not reproduce under current conditions and should never be used to off set over harvest. If for example, bass numbers in Table Rock are a concern, the first order would be to eliminate all bass tournaments and reduce the limits of take, if there is still concern the season on bass should be closed until they recover naturally. Perhaps just eliminating the live well aspect of the tournaments would boost recruitment, transported and remotely released fish can't be at their best when reproduction time rolls around. Stocking is admission of failed management.

Just meeting the public input requirement for some action they already decided on. Still could be a place where thousands of anti wake protestors could gather to express their concerns- never let an opportunity pass. Ask about prohibiting bass haulage too.

You might want to look at a long-range forecast, March can be high waters and flash floods if I remember right from past years.

I see it this way- "this lake is designated a 'No Gasoline Lake': therefore no gasoline engines are allowed" The rule is self explanatory and needs no expansion. Sometimes the reason is found in regulations by a third or fourth party that exerts some control over the water in question. Many MDC administrated or managed sites actually belong to some other agency or entity. USACE can claim control of almost any water they want too because the outflow will eventually end up in water they own. Harbor Freight has 12V winches that will drag a dead car on to a trailer for less than two bills. Question: why not mount an ATV winch on the bow and run it from the trolling battery?

I'm a lucky guy, people come from all over the world to fish in the Ozarks and I get to live here. My fishing bucket list is to go fishing tomorrow. Whenever that might be.

This.

Use a nail for a mandrel and the motor as a lathe. Janns has small corks that would suit me better for size- 5/16"-1/2" iirc. Hobby stores always have small corks too. I don't think I could cast a wine cork.

That's how I identified it, although there is at least one stream in this basin said to have hornyheads in the MDC inventory and I have caught some that somehow looked different. I took the picture because it is the largest that I have ever seen, so, was unsure of ID.

Run and gun. Long casts. Boats. My methods are some what different than other's, I wade very slowly, stand and look a lot, and may fish the same 200' piece of water for a 2-3 hour period and rarely cast over 35'. A 50' cast would either cross a dozen seams and a gravel bar or be on the opposite bank, and doing those for an hour would leave me exhausted with my shoulder wrecked. Some runs just get a rod length of line. The longest stretch I have covered (actually fishing) in a whole day is about a 1/2 mile down and back or up and back up. When moving around a lot (covering a couple miles) I can discover a lot more fish lies and and take bigger numbers of fish but have yet to catch larger bass with any consistency. Most of my large smallmouth have come near the surface after bouncing the fly down the bottom on a swing, all the really large ones were within 15' of me when they hit. I take as many bass on the down stream pass as I do on the up, but all my best fish have come in one hour of the day, so much so that I rarely fish midday anymore. A Gartside Gurgler pulled under on a swing and striped like streamer might take a medium size smb in the afternoon, bubbles and racket. A big deer hair and rabbit "snake" meant for the surface might take a 3#er if sunk with a heavy shot in fast water at dusk. A marabou crappie jig will some times take more bass than any thing else I have. A bass might take on the 20th cast after letting all the others float away. It might strike at the same fly three times before catching it on three consecutive casts. Or not, really I don't think there are any rules. The only thing that I regard as a rule is the fly usually needs to be in an area of less than a foot diameter. (another reason I stand close and cast short) Different methods work, just as different lures work. The young guys that fish my home creek do it at night with spin and casting gear and wet wade 2-5 miles at almost a run in gangs of 2,3-7 guys and they have shown me some pictures of very nice 3#ers. I have fished the same hole they just left and taken a 3#+ on fly with the first few casts. Bass are adaptable and even when spooked will soon be back at work. Cows, deer, kayaks, ATVs, tractors, swimmers, picnickers, jet aeroplanes all disturb the these fish several times a day, yet they must eat and they do. You will find what works for you be it light fly gear or medium (7-8wt) or live bait; whatever. Do what you did over there, smb are just fish. Bryant Creek surely has smb over 14", I have never been there but it has more water gauged than creeks I have fished. Last flow on Bryant 186cfs, last on Indian Creek 106cfs. Last on Big Sugar Creek 33cfs.

Caught this in the Elk drainage a couple months ago. hand span-guessed at 10"+

I was just looking at the inventory of that water shed and MDC designates 177 miles of it as "losing", so not all of the water will resurface in those stretches. The gravel absorbing, cooling filtering and releasing water is the reason we have clear cool streams. Some of the really cool flows will also be underwater springs fed by sink holes.

Inventory of that water shed shows Bigeye chub, Creek chub, Hornyhead chub, Hornyhead chub X Duskystripe shiner https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/watersheds/NorthForkWhiteRiverWatershed260.pdf

Many places the water is there , under the gravel. When wading wet you will notice a cool spot as the water resurfaces. I thought for years that all Ozark streams had this feature, but I guess not. I'd consider the pictured stream normal for late summer.

I would like to catch suckers on a fly, on purpose. I do catch a chub now and then but in all the years I've fly fished I only took one real sucker, in high discolored spring time flows on a black marabou streamer. while trout fishing.

I don't mean to push anything or to lecture ; if that's how it came across. Just stating my perspective. My 8wt rods flex into the butt,and even chub bend the tip, so I feel them struggle. A fish under two pounds should not need resuscitation, most don't even see a net or leave the water. I tend to haul them in at tippet strength. I just can't help feeling that a fight between 260# me and any fish under 10# is lopsided and see no reason to extend it. That's just me, others have other views. Flysmallie, those are nice choices.

Use smaller tippets to increase the challenge. The fly lines are all about 30-40# test so the fish is over powered by design. The ideal of catch and release is to quickly bring the fish to hand so that it can be released unexhausted, which can't be done on ultra light gear. I will suggest an alternative that might help you as a compromise; fly rods by virtue of the materials they are made of can handle a couple line weights up or down from that suggested by the maker, so try a 7wt line on the 5?wt rod and see if that will deliver the size flies you want. I used to have an Orvis 5wt that all it normally saw was 7wt lines. You can do the math but if a rod is designed to carry 33 yards of 5wt line - ~562 grains - on an extreme cast it follows that it can handle the ~210 grains of an 8wt line at 10 yards that is common when fishing. As long as the cast line is less than 10 yards the 5wt rod should handle even a 13 wt line at ~430 gn., that is how the Skagit lines came too be. That 5wt Orvis did see a 9wt bass bug taper a few times a year. You can also cut the taper off a fly line giving the last few feet more weight to turn over bigger flies, and shorten the leaders. Rather than use fishing time learning to cast, I usually just adjust the line weight, heavier for short casts or big flies and lighter for long casts or smaller dries using the same 7 1/2' -8 1/2' rods.

I just use my 7 or 8 wt. with some Pig Boats, crappie jigs, mallard minnows and big wooly buggers. My usual top water is a gurgler or Tap's Bug. I used the 7wt more this year, but the fly determines the line and I ain't good enough to cast big heavy flies with ultra light tackle, so the 7 is about as small as I ever go, even flicking #20s at trout I just adjust the leader. I don't know about anyone else but I find bigger fish at dark. Wrench what name does the bottom right go by? I want to look up the recipe.

DNR cops have authority out side the Park? I thought the title "Park Ranger" was also their job description? I don't know what went down in RRSP Sat. but a Sheriff's car passed me on the way from Cassville and was lit up in the campground when I got down there then 15 minutes or so later the P Ranger showed up and they were both there for quite a while. I wondered why the Ranger took so long to respond, didn't wonder enough to ask.

It's a fact that fish don't buy lures, and it's a fact that anyone making lures to sell understands that.

Divorce is not the smartest thing to do either, but the idea that anyone in jail will ever be able to pay a debt is ludicrous and once you have put the guy or gal in jail you have made their future possibility of gainful employment so slim that after they get out they will be likely always dependents of the government in some form. Any job application that doesn't ask "have you ever been in jail?"? Does your company hire ex-convicts? Jails cost more than just signing the mom and dad all the kiddies up for perpetual welfare would. Jail is just a dead end for society, a pit in which to burn our combined wealth; if an individual is a danger to the public, fry him/her. If not dangerous find a punishment that fits the crime such as cutting off a thief's finger. Five minutes, $25 cost and he will remember forever. A j-walker could be staked out in a busy roundabout during rush hour for a couple days, etc. Poachers could be forced to eat possum for a month. We really need to as a society find an alternative to housing half the population in jail at the expense of the few that actually contribute. Soylent Green. anyone?

That is a stupid law. Reminds me of the Debtors Prison of history, guy won't/can't/didn't yet pay -lock him up to make sure that he can't possibly pay and get the government/taxpayers to support his non-paying lifestyle. Makes no sense at all. Might want to lock the ex-wife up too so that she can't use the money he didn't pay her, what?

I suppose that having just one agent in an area as large as small state and limiting him/her to 40 hrs/5 day weeks that it indicates the commission is really interested in enforcement at night or on week ends. At least one of those five days is likely spent in court, so, poachers only need to worry four days a week?

I'm pretty sure they (MDC Agents) ain't allowed to work over time, the pay stops when the clock runs out and OT for them means own time. 40hrs/wk, so I was recently told. I don't know about the DNR cops, if that's who you mean.

So, because we are so much better, we are being protected from cheese? That seems counter intuitive, they should have the safe areas where we can't just barge in and take all the fish. Back when I used live bait for everything, I always thought the "fly" areas were because those guys were handicaps or somehow unable to compete with other people. 40 years later I just don't get any reason for special "safe rooms" or extra regulations. It's kinda embarrassing to think that MDC considers us as handicapped by the choice of "being better". .

Ya left out better dressed with more accessories. Not many cheese chuckers sporting Orvis and Simms billboards on their clothing.