WestCentralFisher

Got out a little more today. Maybe a tiny bit slower in bright sun with no wind to obscure the water, but still a real good day.

I know familiarity with a water leads to seeing and understanding problems a visitor like me wouldn't even notice. But on the surface level, it's a really impressive place. I have already started sketching out a plan for a trip back, which would involve camping and canoe rentals. Hopefully May or early June....this is more of a couple getaway with some fishing mixed in, but this place commands much more attention than I can give it this weekend. I had been very discouraged by absolutely banging my head against the wall to zero avail at Taneycomo on Thursday. Now, there is a body of water that seems to dislike me. I know it's an excellent fishery, but I am at odds with it. Whenever I go, it's always me and the other poor soul at the public access getting blanked or maybe catching one and then the tricked out guide boat coming in saying they caught 152 fish all over 28 inches. And you want to think they're lying, but the limits of fish they're throwing in the cooler strongly indicate at least an element of truth. I might be exaggerating a little, but you get the idea, and it's enough to drive a fellow crazy. It's just not a place real suited for a blue collar bank fisherman, I am starting to figure. So when I started down here yesterday, I was resigned to a trip to a pretty place with few if any fish caught, and then I immediately started hauling them in. Well, I was hooking them like crazy. More than the normal share got off, but even then it was what I would have to call a banner morning of trout fishing.

Everyone else on the river seemed to be wondering where the walleye and/or big browns were, while I was actively having to restrain myself from saying "HOLY CRAP THERE ARE SO MANY RAINBOWS HERE" the whole time. For someone that doesn't get to fish water like this too often, the scale of the fishing down on these tailwaters is just on a different level.

Fished the tailwater this morning, and....holy crap. This place is awesome! Nothing particularly large but it's so beautiful here and the fishing is pretty easy. I am thoroughly impressed.

The White River below the cabin we're staying in, right as it begins to transform into Table Rock Lake. Somehow, this photo still does not do justice to the majesty of this view. Heaven on earth.

The past couple weeks fishing for me has see-sawed from amazing to terrible. On Saturday, I fished a really good little smallmouth stream in very warm weather, saw lots of fish immediately, and figured I was in business. Not so much! Most were steadfastly ignoring everything. I went through my tackle box twice over and never figured it out. I did catch 5 or 6 <12 inch smallies out of sheer grit but I never figured out anything remotely resembling a pattern. I just found the few fish that would bite on anything. Then yesterday, on a lightning quick after work outing in cooler weather and seemingly worse conditions on a way less productive (usually) creek it was easy fishing. I stopped after catching a half dozen in perhaps 15 minutes. This is my personal limit I've set for catch and release on this creek since I have always thought the population can't be large, and any amount of catch and release mortality could be damaging, but on this day I probably could have almost named my number.

Even in a place like the Ozarks where you can fish quite successfully even in the depths of winter, for most of us there is still a certain seasonality to fishing. For me, from about early November to mid-March, fishing is a once every few weeks type deal. There will be stocker rainbows on the Niangua here, wild ones on spring creek there, and a few smallmouth bass scattered in too, with any luck. But fishing is best described as more of an occasional drip than a steady flow. In late March or early April most years, that changes. Instead of an occasional trip, fishing becomes a part of the weekly routine. And the bigger trips begin to come into focus. Last year, there was Lake Taneycomo in June, then a four day jaunt along the drainages of the Big Piney, Little Piney, and upper Current. Many trout and smallmouth bass were caught, and memories were made. The year before, it was a big float on the Eleven Point and a long Current River camp trip, along with nearly constant fishing on creeks near home. This year, we saved a fair bit back, and the plans are looking decidedly more grand in scale than looked possible a couple years back. Later this week, we plan to ease into things with a four day trip to the Arkansas Ozarks. Plans include a healthy dose of the Beaver tailwater, a day trip to the Buffalo, and perhaps more. There is unusually posh (for us, anyway) lodging involved overlooking the river, and the whole thing seems pleasantly unlike the sort of down-home trip I'd usually plan. You can credit the lady friend for that, who planned this trip for me as a belated birthday present. I am legitimately unsure she could have done a better job. Following that, I plan to get back to my blue collar nature and try to replicate a really fun mid-week floating, fishing, and camping trip I took on the Niangua last year. That will be a solo mission, of which there needs to be at least one per year. This is all to work up to what we hope to be the crescendo, in the form of Alaska. We saved for over two years for this trip, and the whole thing has gotten out of hand, in the best sort of way. The plans include a salmon boat on Prince William Sound, dolly varden on feeder streams, grayling fishing in the shadow of the largest mountain in North America, and, because since some things never change no matter where you go, a couple days on a small lake supposedly full of stocker rainbows. The last one is a sentimental choice of a family member who used to live there, but I'm not above willfully forgetting their origin and pretending they're real Alaska native rainbows. It looks a lot like 8 days of hell-for-leather fishing and general outdoor shenanigans, and the 17 hours of daylight probably won't do anything much to slow me down. After we return, it will surely be hard to avoid a feeling of anti-climax, especially in the late summer heat. But it won't take more than one or two trips to renew my love affair with Ozark streams, if past trips to Montana and Colorado provide any context. I find these big trips show you the wider view of what's out there, but unless you have a very different mindset than me, don't make the creek near home any less charming.

Ok, that sounds pretty awesome

Planning to head up to Alaska in early August for the first time. Needless to say, we are very excited! The bulk of the fishing we plan to do is small water and very much DIY. One of the family members going with us spent much of his life in that area and knows a bunch of good spots for grayling along the Denali Highway. Given I've never caught one, and it's a real bucket list deal for me, this is exciting enough to want to go by itself. And other than the surroundings, it seems like the type of fishing I understand well enough. That said, we're also going to be spending 5 days right on Prince William Sound. It seems like we're too early to hit the silvers from shore (there may be opportunities for other salmon species, though), but we do have a little extra saved back and are considering hiring a charter boat to go out trolling for silvers. This sort of fishing is really almost completely foreign to me as a lifelong small river/creek/pond fisherman, so, at the risk of asking a dumb question, is this sort of fishing...fun? Compared to the total amount we're shelling out, the cost is not prohibitive, and the outfit we're considering comes highly recommended by people our family knows personally, but I only want to spend the money if it will meaningfully add to the experience.

Good stuff!

Took advantage of the recent rain and stained water conditions to catch a couple (and I do mean exactly that) wild rainbows. The stream I wanted to fish was a bit too high for my liking, but this one was at a perfect level for tossing little Panther Martins. Or it seemed so. I caught two and lost a couple (including a pretty good one) almost immediately, then the bite shut off like someone had turned off the faucet. Can't complain. Beautiful day in a beautiful place when the world is starting to green up. If you say the pictured fish is bait-fish size, you may be on to something. As I was reeling it in, a much larger trout, pretty close to the high end for this creek, you have to think, followed it a ways in. I don't know if it really would have eaten it if I hadn't concluded the fight quickly to avoid that, but it did seem to be at least be slightly considering the possibility. On that note, the picture is poor and doesn't do the colors any justice at all. The fish was not cooperating and I hate keeping them out of the water more than just a couple seconds, so that rushed attempt is what you get.

Everything is so early this year, and I'm quite a bit further north. Some timely rain+stretches of 70/80 temps in quick succession will do that. Bluegill fishing is heating up on the small local lakes. I always consider it officially spring when I can catch a dozen Bluegill pretty easily, rather than just a few here and there. This is a highly scientific meteorological method, I've decided. My grandpa always said it was spring when the jon-quills bloom and the bass started biting, so I guess I have a similar approach.

Once, I was on a fishing trip in West Virginia, and found myself driving through a particularly rough looking little town, which in WV is really saying something. There was a sign saying "Slow Kids Playing" and directly in front of it, there were 5 very somber looking children very, very slowly crossing the street, following a woman who really could not have been any less then 100 years old. None of them looked up, even though we were the only car anywhere around, and they were all dressed like the year was approximately 1870. I'm sure they were just minding their own business, but we made a note not to return to that town just in case. It was also quite close to an extremely narrow one lane bridge with no signals or apparent safety features over the New River that could not have been less than a half mile long. It was a strange trip to a strange place. The area was strikingly beautiful, but everything just felt out of sync. It probably didn't help that the rivers were all blown out and we didn't catch any fish.

Thanks!

Strangely, when I'm hunting, the deer tend to experience a firearm as a very loud but completely harmless object, except to the brush on either side of them.

Great, thank you sir!

Yeah, I live pretty much right where the Ozarks meet the flatlands, and in the latter, the effects of channelization are so dramatic. So many streams have what I refer to as the Grand Canyon of the Prairie. You'll be in the middle of flat country and the rivers will have insanely high mud banks on both sides. I used to think it was kind of cool until I learned the reasoning (headcutting erosion is absolutely fascinating in its mechanics, BTW, even if it's decidedly not a positive). When you combine those habitat issues with major issues with invasive carp, you have big, big problems indeed. While they're not my cup of tea, out of proximity and curiosity I do sometimes fish these types of rivers. Understanding the extreme challenges they face has given me appreciation for the occasional channel cat or freshwater drum I catch, and a lot more context on why so often it seems like dead water.

I agree completely, but it caused me to think about if there are any exceptions to this, i.e. any rivers that are functionally the same ecosystem from their source to their mouth. I think the only one I can come up with locally of significant size or length that comes close is the Bourbeuse. While it grows larger (very slowly, with no huge springs or overly large tributaries) I have fished nearly the entire length of it, and I would not say it ever fundamentally changes from one habitat type to another. Along its entire length, it's a a stream with some Ozark characteristics and some flatland stream characteristics. It has some more characteristics of the former further upstream and more of the latter further downstream, but by and large it simply grows, not changes. Now, if you are strictly discussing the dynamics of the bass population, there are obvious differences, relating to spotted bass particularly. But I don't think there is any habitat related reason they couldn't thrive nearly to the headwaters, unfortunately. I haven't fished the upper reaches that when I last regularly visited them had excellent smallmouth fishing in 10-15 years, and truthfully I am nervous to. I wouldn't be surprised the spots have made it up there en masse by now.

The term "lake" with the Great Lakes imo is almost deceiving, especially if comparing them to any other natural lakes or impoundments in North America. They are for all intents snd purposes freshwater inland seas. I am fortunate enough to have two different good friends with large boats on two very different pieces of Lake Michigan, one on Big Bay de Noc in the UP, the other in the northern lower peninsula. And it's crazy how different it is! Up in the UP, it's working shallow dropoffs and weed-lines for smallies, a type of fishing that is actually pretty recognizable and understandable to me except the smallies feel a little bit too big for a Missouri kid. It just feels vaguely wrong and sinful somehow. But at least we're fishing based on actually reading the water, and most importantly without any electronics doo-dads. Any fish I catch with the aid of an electronic doo-dad feels like it has a major asterisk, if only because I don't understand how they work, and it always vaguely feels to me like I caught fish with some form of magical assistance. I'll note, this is a purely personal stance, and I have no opinion on how or whether anyone else fishes with electronic doo-dads. Just not my cup of tea. The other friend, it's trolling for salmon in impossibly deep water, and lots of electronic doo-dads are involved and I assume without them we'd be lost. I do not 100% consider whatever this is to be fishing in the same sense as what I do back home, but whatever it is still a hell of a lot of fun, and whenever he invites me I get pretty excited about it.

Those ponds definitely fill a small but very specific niche in the fishing year. Usually about two trips to them in February or early March. Sort of an annual rite of passage. I did one of these trips so far. It was back in the cold snap, and there was very limited open water. I finally caught one 10 inch 'bow. I wasn't really prepared to keep fish, as it was an impromptu trip after work, so I let it go. The resident crazy guy at the park was pretty mad at me for that, as he said his dog wanted a trout to eat. Notably, there was not an actual dog in evidence. Figured that was a decent stopping point.

Thanks Devan. Super helpful.

Yeah, I am almost given to believe there is a genetic component. 80-90% of stocker trout are immensely susceptible to being caught immediately, but even in a pod of fresh stockers at the parks you'll see a few that completely turn their nose up at Powerbait. By 1 pm probably over half the fish still left in the creek will be more or less unsusceptible, and you need to try other things to catch them or just find the dumbest few left (yes, in my youth I fished with Powerbait. A lot. Scandalous, I know.) There is also no doubt a learned component. I toss little Panther Martin spinners a lot, and they work tremendously well for both wild and stocked trout, except in the places they don't. And those are invariably the super heavily fished streams with primarily holdover trout. They're awesome on the little wild trout spring creeks, or the bigger rivers where fishing pressure is more diffuse (Eleven Point, Niangua, Current River down around Akers Ferry, etc.) But on say, the Blue Ribbon section of the Current? You can occasionally catch one on them, but they're more or less useless at least in the heavily fished stretches. But if you switch to something the trout see much less often like small crankbaits, etc, suddenly you're in business.

Yeah, honestly I almost prefer not to be there right after the truck leaves. Generally, word of mouth seems to spread pretty fast even on more remote creeks (stocking trucks are not exactly inconspicuous) so it's not long until the place is pretty crowded usually. Or, sometimes it really is just too easy. One time I must have arrived at an access just after they stocked a bunch of browns, because hundreds were bunched up in a giant circle by the boat ramp. Half were facing the wrong direction. I caught and released two in perhaps four casts (I remember missing a couple strikes) just to confirm that it was as easy as it looked, and then left the river to go for a hike.

I recently read a Facebook post that got me thinking. It was about how a trout stream in the Ozarks gets "fished out" between stockings. As someone who spends a lot of time trout fishing in White Ribbon (aka stocked, statewide reg) areas, this is a really common sentiment I hear. I'll pass a follow fisherman, ask how it's going, and hear "oh, I think it's all fished out." Rarely do I argue. If someone wants to leave my favorite fishing hole because they think its fishless, well, that's just how it plays out. It's also almost never true. It is definitely accurate that you can generally tell if you've hit the stocking lottery or the inverse pretty quickly. A couple summers back, I was floating the 11 Point, and got nearly blanked in the Blue Ribbon section. I crossed into White Ribbon water at Turner Mill, and started hauling them in like I was at the Bass Pro aquarium. It's not hard to do the math there. Conversely, I had almost the exact inverse happen the time I was there before that. Caught fish until my arms got sore until Turner Mill, then caught less than a dozen over the next two days in the White Ribbon water. Not exactly dead, but so much as hooking a fish was an absolute event. What I can honestly say is that I don't believe I've ever been to a put and take water in the Ozarks (outside of urban ponds) that I came away believing was actually fished out. I have had lots of times when all the good looking, easy to access pools seemed to be empty of trout, but there is almost always a way. Maybe there is a pool with steep banks and so much dead fall that it's almost impossible to fish, but if you slide down precariously on your backside and make the perfect cast, you can just make it work. Sometimes, you find yourself doing what I call reading water in reverse. This means you are less trying to piece together where the trout want to be, and more trying to find the small, but real crossover between where trout can survive, but most fishermen wouldn't bother taking a cast. Maybe 98% of the riffle is way too shallow, but there are two little pockets that are just deep enough. It takes some looking, and some false starts, but it works more often than you think. Now, I could easily ask myself if any of this is worth it. After all, the blue ribbon, wild trout streams exist, and generally provide much more consistent fishing, along with prettier, wilder fish. And that's all true. But I have some sort of personality flaw, where I always think to myself "okay, that's the popular stretch, but what about all that water down there no one has much of anything to say about?" I often find that these so called put and take streams provide a sort of challenge that is generally not available on most Missouri trout streams, where, wild or stocked, you generally know where the fish will be or in roughly what numbers. On these stream stretches, it might be hilariously easy or the most frustrating day of the year that you only pull out of the fire with one 11 inch trout right before sunset. You just never know which it'll be, and that's the fun part.

Was recently surprised with a 4 day, three night trip for my birthday in a cabin very close to the Beaver Lake tailwater in a month or so. While I am very excited, I am also aware of some pretty major league issues with hatcheries/stocking. I plan to give it the old college try regardless, because why not, but I'm just curious what to expect on the continuum of "slightly less fish than usual but mostly fine" to "catching is largely non-existent". With the caveat that am pretty poor at fishing tailwaters anyway, so there is a fair chance I won't ever know the difference.