Buzz

I love those two creeks. Thanks for the pictures.

Welcome to the forum WoundedOne. I'll be looking forward to your fishing reports.

Well, the squad anyway. GO JOE!!! LOL

Thanks guys. It's real hard staying in the house right now,even with the bitter cold temps we've been having, but nothing warms you up faster than catching a few fish. LOL The stockings have been a little different this year than the last few. It seems they have decided to stock monthly instead of one big stocking and they seem to be putting the fish in a few different spots, which I will not divulge. Since the water is pretty low in most places they have been putting them in only the deeper faster runs and not so heavily in the places that usually get hit the hardest. Hopefully I can find a few more of those hotspots this weekend. Due to the extreme temps I haven't seen many anglers on the creek either.That's a good thing. I'm sure the next warm up will draw out the bulk of the bank fishermen. I'm just trying to educate them as best I can until then. LOL Laker, too bad you didn't find that crappie bite you were looking for and jumped off that nice sized walleye. There's always another day. Thankfully. Buzz

Got out to Hickory Creek today for a couple of hours. After wading through about 4 holes with no takers I came to a nice long pool with good flow and depth with several fish rising. I made my way into position so not to spook them. I wasn't sure what they were feeding on, so I tried a Renegade, caught 2 nice fish in back to back casts, then nothing, but the fish were still rising. I tried to tie on a small BWO #20, but my hands were to cold to handle the small fly. Instead I tied on a Crackleback and caught a fish on the first cast,then no more takers. I decided to try a midge, so I then tied on a tan Zebra Midge and the fun really began. They were taking it on nearly every cast. After catching about 5 more fish they slowed down a bit so I changed to an olive wooly midge and started catching fish again. When the fishing slowed down once again. I fished a couple of other holes with only 1 taker on a tan wooly midge. I moved back to the original hole and caught a few more there. With time running out, I decide to try below the low water bridge and caught 2 and broke off a really nice fish. Perfect timing, it was time to head to the house for dinner. Total fish landed was 16. Only 2 fish in the 12" range with all of the others ranging from 14" to 16". Besides the afore mentioned flies, I also had luck with a tan bunny bug and a worm pattern in the deeper faster water below the bridge. Only saw 2 other fishermen the whole time I was there. This is the only picture I took and I took it with my cell phone camera.

Ideally, yes that would probably be the best way to conduct a survey. But since floating and fishing around here for 30 years, I have yet to be asked anything other than "Can I see your fishing license?" So I guess I'll just wait out the next 30 years and see if I get the chance to answer a poll? My point is, if they can't put enough agents on the water to enforce the laws they surely can't put enough people out there to get an accurate poll. Pretty much as Al posted in the "ENFORCEMENT" thread.

I took this picture of my granddaughters last month. Man, I wish I'd been able to do this with all of the kids, since at one time or another I have taken each of them to this great store. Heck, I wish my dad had taken one of me by this Joplin landmark.

That is a pretty good article. I wonder why there have been "0" comments made directly to it. I think it would be a good thing for some of us to get on that. Something I've been wondering about also, how many Missourians ( and non-Missourians ) get the monthly MDC publication in the mail????? I know I have for many many years. Wouldn't that be a good way to poll people? Either by internet, via the MDC site, and with a mail in option. To heck with the person to person polls which will only get a fraction of the people state wide. I'm sure it would be a much cheaper and more realistic poll. Just my thoughts on the subject. I hope some good comes of it.

What Chief is saying is that not only do we NOT see a lot of fishermen on the streams that we fish (year around), but that we don't see stringers hanging off of their canoes or their belt loops either. Honestly, outside of the accesses, I can't remember the last time I've ever seen anyone with a stringer of fish. If and when I do, I will ask to see the fish that they have caught, and if it is during the off season I WILL tell them of the laws and suggest they release the fish alive. Maybe the fishermen in this area are just ahead of the rest of the state in the catch and release mentality. I hope so. Granted, we are not on these waters every day so I have no doubt that illegal fish are taken. All I'm saying is that, I haven't witnessed it. And like I said before, I will deal with it when the time comes. I have all of the phone numbers in my cell phone to do it too. We as individuals have the power to stop some of these things. We just have to be willing to do so. As I'm sure most of us are already.

I have to believe that most of the time it's because the season ends on the holiday that most feel kicks off the summer. Because of this you will find a lot more people fishing, mom's and dad's taking thier kids to the creek ( if the weather is good ) to catch some perch or whatever. Will they take some smallmouth? Yes, I'm sure some will. I really don't think that these types of semi-annual fisherpeople will put a dent in the fish population though. From what I've observed, most of these people will fish at the accesses that are already overfished and therefore are not any threat to the real quality fish. Most of these people don't even know that there even is a closed season, so it's better than them fishing during the months of April and May when they could possibly do some harm. Besides it's not like the kick-off at the trout parks. At least not in my experience.

I had the same thoughts. I hit a spot on Shoal Creek yesterday after work and caught two, 1 LM and 1 spot and jumped off two others, out of a long slow deep hole right in the channel. Today I hit a different spot with a little more current. I missed a couple in the current, but soon figured out the majority of the fish were staging up on a narrow flat just off the main channel. I managed 4, all keepers with 1 good kicker LM that would go about 2 lbs. and 1 goggle-eye and jumped off 3 more. All hit soft plastic craws. Looks like we are going to have to wait a while for another warm up.LOL Happy Holidays to all. Buzz

Sounds like a good trip. After I left you guys,I fished around for a while until I figured out what they wanted, Bunny Leeches, and ended up catching 5 rainbows and 1 small brown. Olive and tan colors worked for me. I'm also liking the fact that I can catch at least one brown each time I get to fish Capp's.

Well put Wily.

Thanks Ness and Chief, I figured it was my dated computer. It just doesn't work with a lot of stuff anymore.

It is whatever AOL's browser is, I'm not sure. I'm using the full editor. It could be my computer,I guess, it is old. LOL Right now I'm typing on Internet Explore and still don't have the use of the necessary buttons. Thanks

I still can't get any of the buttons to work when I post. No emoticons,spellcheck,or fonts and colors. Can someone explain how to use multiple quotes? It was pretty easy under the old format. I'm not complaining, I just need a little help with a few things to make my "Forum Experience" a little better. And, I do understand that Phil has his hands full with this right now.

I too was a little disapointed that our extreme southwestern streams were written off in the "White Paper", at first, but that was just vanity I guess. After thinking about it, I have come to the conclusion that it would probably be best for our area that it didn't get any special preferences or added notoriety. The special strain of smallmouth that inhabits our streams, as Drew mentioned, does not get as big as the Tennessee strain, but is no different in it's fighting ability. If a 15 inch brownie is the biggest that I can catch, so be it. I still get a thrill with each of these big fish. I'm not sure if a chapter of the MSA would help us or not, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. The problem with these things, as I see it, is that you are usually preaching to the choir. Meaning that, unless you get out to people who don't usually frequent seminars and the Spring Fishing Expo at Bass Pro you won't reach the people who are ignorant of the situation with the smallmouth, no matter where in the state they are fishing. How do you accomplish this? I don't know, other than working with schools and such, since it has been said more than once that our future and the future of our unique fisheries are no doubt in the hands of the young. JMHO Buzz

OK then. I guess I'll start trying to figure it out. I did notice that the emoticons and other buttons on the post page aren't working yet, but you did say you had more work to do. Carry on.

Phil,is this still a test or is this what the "Forum" is going to look like from now on? What was wrong with the the other look? I gotta say, I'm sort of disapointed, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. What are the advantages to this format over the old? Buzz

Just curious, what are the exact jobs that are being cut?

Now that's funny. I've gotta feeling he's going to be missing a little more than a few teeth when this is all said and done.

Sounds like a good couple of hours. I'm starting to get cabin fever and I think I've just about got all of the honeydo's done. We need to do some fishing this weekend, for sure.

Ditto... Hey Jerod, didn't you get hammered over that statement too? That's exactly why I would have kept the fish. Besides, it more than likely would have died if released and then the thread would have went something like this... "The state record Brown Trout washed up on the banks of Taneycomo today" Buzz

Way to go Dylan. Chief, are you going to post that recipe?

That's very good stuff. I haven't read it all, but I thought the numbers for Taney was interesting.