chub minnow

Ah yes. Forbes Magazine- THE definitive source for climatalogical research. I debunked this article in five minutes. Yes there was more ice than last year in one place, on one day. Sea level is rising, just ask the folks in New Jersey. Where do you think that water is coming from? I don't get financial recommendations from NOAA and I don't plan on trusting Forbes when it comes to science!

Yes your grand kids will be happy to know the country is debt free as they roast in the 130 degree Missouri summers of the future. They will thank us all for looking after the important stuff - you know, $$$$. Who needs to worry about drought and killer tornadoes when the federal budget is balanced? Talk about red herrings! There is TONS of evidence available as to the causes of climate change. If you say there isn't, then you haven't seriously researched the topic I wish everyone could be as intelligent, reasoned as insightful as Mr. Agnew. Our prospects would be a lot brighter. These are facts people. CO2 levels are rising, ice caps are melting, and weather is getting more severe. Humans do contribute to this through the burning and extraction of fossil fuels. The fracking of natural gas releases more CO2 than burning it. Are the climatologists always right? No. Are they part of some vast conspiracy to ruin your Mercian way of life? No. I know some of these people and they are intelligent, thoughtful people working hard to understand this phenomenon and how we can slow or stop it. They love their SUVs too, but they are smart enough to recognize a scientific truth when they see it. Burying your head in the sand and ignoring it just because it's not part of your political party's belief system is short sighted in my opinion. Of course ignoring climate change and man's impact on it are clearly short sighted in my opinion as well. The economy and budget will work itself out. I'm less optimistic about man kinds willingness to take care of our home.

I agree the bait caster can save your arm when you are chunking hardware all day. It has not been my experience that it provides more accuracy or distance. I grew up on a spin caster and a I can drop a fluke in a 5 gallon bucket at over 100'. It would take me twenty tries to do that with a bait caster. I don't understand the comments about accuracy and not being able to control a spincast. I always overpower my cast, the feather the line with my left (non-casting) hand to slow the line and make it land where I want. Just saying if you are used to fly rods and spincasters you are not going to pick up a baitcaster and be able to use efficiently the first day. If I am casting to schooling fish chasing shad I ALWAYS pick up my spin caster with 6# fire line on it, because I know I can get it there and I won't mess it up. If I pick up the bc in this quick reaction situation I usually end up with a backlash! To me the big baitcaster rods also take a lot of the fun out of catching. If I was fishing professionally and needed to horse as many fish as possible into the boat, then I'd probably be running with 3-4 baitcasters. But if I'm fishing for enjoyment I'll take my 5wt and St. Croix spincasters and not ever spend a minute worrying about servicing and untangling the equipment

Yes the hog waste getting into the river is a potential disaster, but what everyone tends to overlook when one of these operations goes in is the water usage. How much water do you think a hog consumes in a day? How about 5000 hogs? Then there is the cleanup and sewage lagoons. This will have a significant impact on the water table as well. It could likely have an impact on neighbors wells and affect the flow ultimately reaching the river. Even if there is never a problem with the waste (unlikely, IMO) there will be a negative impact in both water and air quality.

Had pretty good luck Sunday, caught about 8, mainly on a size 14 olive wooly bugger. Fishing really picked up with the wind and further away from the dam area. Good hatch coming off and fish were also keying in on midges.

There's a couple different place to get tackle in Shell Knob. Jug 'n Plug, in the plaza, has most everything you'll need and the grocery store - Country Fresh, I think (we still call it Rima's) has a good selection of Bass Pro and War Eagle baits.

Hard to tell from the photo, but looks like something in the sage family.

You'll definitely run into some shallow riffles (2"-4"). Could probably do it w/o the motor, but if I were you I'd borrow a canoe.

I was wrong earlier, there are tons of fish between Cyclone and Big Rock. It is NOT easily floatable though. I would not recommend trying to do this section unless you really enjoy boat dragging / portaging. I was in it for the exercise so it was ok, but I was ready to be done after the 6th and final portage. All of the fly rod fish came on a #6 black sex dungeon. I caught a bunch in deeper pools with the spinner on a small craw bug. The water rise really had them out and eating. Saw lots of snakes too - fortunately they were moving slow.

You can probably float from Pineville on down. The canoe hatch is over, you'll have the river to yourself.

Definitely not floatable. Barely wadeable. The creek literally disappears at almost every drop. It did come up a little with the rain (from 0.5 cfs to 9 cfs!). I was down there and wade fished around the conservation area and Owl's Nest and there are a few skinny smallies in the pools, but they've had so many cast nets thrown at them this summer that I doubt you'll get a bite. I'm almost positive that all of the fish of any size have been liberated by those less conservation minded citizens (and non-citizens) among us. I think the resident eagles and herons have taken the rest. There are a few nice LM in there, but I'm not telling where . Love your Avatar by the way! Go Hogs!!

See ya there crawbug. Can't wait to meet the baby craw! Have you bought him a pole yet?

I'm neither pro or anti Subway, but I do wonder how they get the bread to smell so strongly.... might make good bait...........

Actually, I think all Subways are franchises, so most money (except franchise fees) would stay in town. Provided that the owner lives in town......

Ditto - Crazy Dad's and Clousers for deeper water. Maybe a little more brightly colored than what you would use in a smaller, clearer stream.

Horseflies?

Thanks for all the help guys. We'll probably have our shuttle driver drop us at Bertha and do that run. We won't be eating any smallies - haven't in years. Trout and goggleye on the other hand is a different story. Now we just have to pray for rain!

I'm hoping we can launch above Spring Creek, I've really got my heart set on fishing that confluence. I'm assuming that Spring Creek has a significant impact on the flow from there down? Are there enough escaped trout in Spring Creek that I might have a chance to catch one? Looks like it's senior weekend at the resort, I think we'll start at 14 or below and save ourselves that experience. How's the access at Bertha Ford?

Thanks Justin, Ham - that's what I needed to know. We won't mind portaging some, so long as it's not too far. Looks like we might have to do a little scouting when we get there and decide where to start. We might float all the way to the NF if we do that. From all accounts it sounds like the fishing is very similar to Big Sugar or Indian Creek over this way, I think I might go fly rod only and see how I do. I assume crawdad imitations should work pretty well, along with woolies and streamers? The Buffalo at St. Joe is at 35 CFS!! We are taking a 63ish year old man with us and it's a LONG hike out of the lower Buffalo. I'm sure we COULD do it, but if I want to hike the Buffalo, I'll take the Ozark Highlands Trail and leave the canoe behind. It hasn't rained significantly on the Buffalo watershed in months. The crazy thing is, if he wasn't going we would probably be considering it! You keep trying to discourage us from doing the Bryant so much that now I'm sure we have to do it!!

We'll be partying, but will try to avoid the village people. I don't think we'll be doing the Buffalo - its at record lows. Awfully far to drive for four days of constant paddling for the guys from SW MO and NE OK. We'll do that run when the water levels are better and it's actually moving. Does anyone know how the upper sections of Bryant creek compare to something like Indian, Big Sugar, Flat? What about camping? Plenty of gravel bars? Any particular areas not to camp other than with the Village People?

Thanks for the quick response! We are trying to do the entirety (more or less) of a wild creek. The NF or 11 pt. would defiinitely be a last resort. We really try to go for wild, large creeks that generally don't have many or any outfitters on them. We are all going for the "wilderness effect" and a little adversity and uncertainty are always part of that. Our previous trips include upper Indian Creek, Upper Kings River, Flat Creek and extreme upper Sugar Creek. The point being, we will take low water, dragging etc over the "canoe hatch" any day. We want to fish and be left alone for about 4 days; I must be spoiled because I'm gonna say the 11 pt is probably WAY too crowded for us. I usually scout as much of the trip as I can before we go just to make sure it's not completely dry anywhere. Bryant is just too far away for me to do that this time. If it's truly flowing at 775 cfs at Tecumseh, then I'm not too worried. Just wondering about the accuracy of said gauge and how it correlates to levels at the headwaters. Any input on how I should be reading the gauge or any major cataracts would be greatly appreciated - I promise we won't filet any of your smallies!

Hey guys - hoping for a little help here. Unless we get a deluge we are going to have to move our multi-day float trip on Flat Creek to another venue. Bryant has been on our list for awhile, and the levels look great right now. I'm a little concerned because the gauge keeps going up, but it's not raining. Is this just flow from springs that have been recently re-charged or is there something going on with the gauge? Assuming the gauge is right, what is the lowest level you could put in at Vera Cruz (we'll float to 181 or so)? We'll each be going solo in a canoe, so we shouldn't draft too much water. Everyone is good with some dragging, getting out etc. We always float creeks that are marginally navigable, we just don't want to run into a half mile dry section or anything like that (like Flat Creek right now!). Finally, if Bryant is too low in a couple weeks will the North Fork be navigable? Thanks in advance for any help with this, we're taking my buddy's dad and I don't want this to turn into a 30 mile fiasco!

Ultralance, it's not looking good for the June trip on Flat. The North Fork of the White is looking good right now, Bryant Creek as well. MAYBE we'll get some good rain in the next few weeks, otherwise we're gonna be doing one of the spring fed rivers for sure!!

Started out at about 220 cfs on Friday, down to around 200 late Saturday. River came up Sunday morning (way upstream) to what would be a reading of about 220-230 later on down the river at Berryville. You wouldn't want to do the upper section much lower than this unless you were riding solo in a tandem boat with minimal gear.

Caught 13 on the bitsy tube, 1 on sunfish colored wooly beaver tail. both on 1/4 oz jighead. 6lb test fluorocarbon tippet on power pro 8lb. Med light spinning rod. I'm guessing the water was right around 50, but didn't have a thermometer.