Buzz

Killer fish Duane. How about a pic of this white Megadon?

I'm not too surprised. I haven't been to Hickory for a couple of weeks and it was a little tough then. I'll try it this weekend for a few hours. I just bought a new 3 Wt and I need to try it out.

I hope everyone is alright. I'm really getting tired of these dang tornadoes.

Yep I've read it all. Like I said, I believe that over complicating the regs is why we don't have any new regs. This is all just my opinion, but I think in order to get anything moving through MDC it will have to be something a little more simple. 4 fish over 14" is a good start IMO , at least in our neighborhood. I've never caught a smallmouth over 17.5 inches out of our local waters but I would like to see more in the 14 to 15 inch range. By raising the length even 2",I believe, would go along way to improve the numbers of fish in that size bracket. Which in turn should increase the number of fish in the 15 to 17 inch range. This "idea" would not be the end all to the issues we all have, but any positive change, even an incremental change could be the start to more comprehensive regs. A simple reduction in creel limits would go a long way. I understand the distiction between the Eastern side of the state and SWMO and obviously we couldn't ask for a length limit like what they could. The genetics of the Neosho won't allow for much more lenght than what we normally find. Even unpopular opinions are just that "opinions".

I honestly believe that everyone wants something positive to happen with the regs. I personally don't have much use for slot limits. But on the other hand, they can be just complicated enough to discourage harvest of any kind. Catch and Release? Yep? Why in the world would any person want to even try to fillet a 12" bass, especially a smallmouth? Hell after you cut out all of the worms you wouldn't have more than a few nuggets to fry. Any serious fisherman would only be after the bigger fish anyway. And I don't buy the BS about having to fish for food. If a guy wants to eat some fish he can catch some for a fish fry, but to say that there are a lot of people who have to keep fish just to survive is hard to believe. Tradition is another thing. Sure there are those who always catch and keep a limit of fish each time they go. But as most of us know, most people grow out of that and tend to keep a couple of fish every now and then. As far as regs go, I would submit a simple plan of 4 black bass over 14" ( except for the current SMA's and steams where Spots are an issue ) and no creel from November 1 to Memorial Day weekend. I don't know if this would work statewide, but I do believe the MDC would be more apt to adopt a simple plan than a complicated plan with a bunch of different regs for different streams and regions.

Great pictures of the creek on your blog. Capps can be a little tight with it's offerings at times. Your discription of White Ribbon Streams on your blog desribes Capps to a "T", unfortunately. I don't spend as much time there as I used to. I have located a few spots that aren't very accessable to the bucketeers that usually hold fish, but with the way it is stocked anymore they can still be tough. Ollie did catch a nice brown a while back.

I think I am going to try to buy a 3 wt rod this year. Of course I'll have to get a new reel for it too. I'm still researching.

Living in Neosho you'll have plenty of close trout water to learn trout fishing. Although C&R is just about over, you can still catch quite a few fish. I try to hit Hickory a couple times a month, usually on Sundays. I'll be flingin' flies. I'll keep an eye out for you. Welcome to the forum. Edit: Don't forget Academy for a decent fly rod.

Wow what a trip. Thanks for the pics.

I looked for you all Sunday, but didn't see anyone. It was a little later though. I would have liked to stop in for a little while and helped out. You had agreat turnout and a lot of good work was done. Congrats.

I now have to tie some more up too. I also need to talk you ought of a couple of your special flies. I'm sure you do. And probably found out about it the same way I did. I would never give up info about these places on any open forum. We are lucky to have a few of these secret (or at least mostly secret) spots in our area. As far as otters goes, I actually thought the same thing yesterday. I did see a few fish, but the ones I saw were ultra spooky and I caught nothing from the fast runs, which is usually where I find them most often.

Thanks everyone. It was such a good day I had to post. Everyone who fishes these small streams appreciates the odds that these fish have to beat to survive. The two unnamed streams I will only fish about every two years. I like to hit Crane a couple of times each year if possible.

Nice. Thanks

I've been reading all of the great posts about catching wild trout recently, thanks mic and Duane, and realized I haven't gone after any for quite some time. Well, today was the day. The morning started off a cold 35 degrees with clouds, misty rain and a light wind. Perfect weather. Two of the streams I will talk about I will not name because they are very small and are not protected. 8:05 AM, I make it to the first stream, get my gear and head upstream. I tied on an olive beadhead scud and started working the fast water riffles. After only a few casts I hooked into a nice little wild bow about 6" long. Good start. I continued upstream fishing the same types of water and continued catching fish. 7 fish in a little over an hour. Fat little wild rainbow. About 9:30 I decided to make the trip over to Crane Creek. I first went to the CA at the dairy farm and walked the trail downstream and fished my way back up. I still had the same BH scud tied on so i just started fishing. It was very slow at this end today. I hooked one nice rainbow about 12" long, but he did a self release. No more takers. I thought that was kinda strange, but I wasn't going to let Crane skunk me. I got back to the truck and headed to the city park and walked the tracks to the railroad trestle. Before entering the creek I changed flies to a beadhead pheasant tail with a red hot spot that I tied up yesterday. Wow, what a difference a fly can make. I immmediately started catching fish. I fished through 2 different holes that were loaded with little fish measuring from 3" to 6 ". They would just attack that fly. A couple of nice deep holes had better fish and I managed a few in the range of about 12". The way they would hit that fly it reminded me of trout park fish, just hammer it and take off. I didn't even fish that whole stretch. I got out about half way up to the ball fields. It was tough leaving when they were biting so good, but I still had 1 more stream to hit before I headed home. 12 fish caught in about 2 1/5 hours This is the prettiest trout from Crane today. I got to the last stream at about 2:00 PM and walked downstream about 1000 yards too far. I never got a bite until I reached the last 1500 feet of the section I had time to fish. Fast shallow water is all there is in this part of the stream. I finally hooked up with a little rainbow of about 5". Whew, this was the stream I was most worried about catching a fish from. Still using the BHPT I worked my way upstream catching a couple here and there. These fish were the most colorful fish of the whole day. Some were very dark and most had a very bright orange belly. Beautiful fish. As I got to the last bit of the stream I could see a couple of small trout jump completely out of the water. I got to where I could make the longest cast possible and hooked up on the first cast. The fish were piled up in there. I caught 11 fish from that one narrow section. 15 trout in 1 hour. At about 3:00PM I decided it was time to head home for dinner and watch the Super Bowl. It was a great day to be out fishing for Missouri's wild trout. Very colorful bows.

Nice fish!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go. I figured you would be over there this morning.

Thanks. I think I'm gonna head over there sometime in the near future.

Great report Ducky. I've been itching to hit Crane for a while now. Did you see any Redds?

I've been thinking about this statement that Al made early on. #1 Prater has been harrassing people from the bank for a couple of years now. #2 How many people has he plolitely told not to set foot on "HIS" land, with a gun toting hillbilly by his side? #3 Does this constitute harrassment under the current laws? #4 What If instead of one massive "Occupy Float" you had several people who were harrassed make complaints or file suit against him? This may be a bigger challenge to set up, but if floaters from the Undercliff rental were polled and it could be proven that this is happening on a consistant basis the prosecuting attorney would see just how big a problem this really is. I'm game to make a float through there again.

That's a good one for sure. I look forward each week to see what you show us next.

I would be interested to see if the P.A. agrees with Praters description of where his land starts and stops. Is it the waters edge or the high water mark?

I wasn't able to make it ,but I saw your pickup as we headed to my wifes dads house. Anything different from the newspaper article?

Looks good to me.

Thanks cnr. That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

Great fish. What color McStick were you using and what kind of tackle do you use?

I'm looking forward to seeing what they accomplish.