Chief Grey Bear

June is good

Let's set a date! I'm in! I have experience in this area!

Type Osage Fork Bass click on Public Post. Go to the pooper. Yer gonna be a while.

Not really. Type in certain key words in FB search and you'll find posts from now til Tuesday. To think otherwise is extremely foolish.

Caught in an Ozark stream today! This post has been promoted to an article

I think it depends on what source you choose to believe as to the accuracy of distribution for the Shadow. Case and point. At this point, I am of the belief that there is a pocket of Shadow's that inhibit the same waters as the Neosho. As you and I have discussed, the Northern appears to occupy mainly north flowing streams. Identification for the Northern is mostly a brown or bronze color with the dark scale spots in a horizontal pattern. I have not caught one, that I can remember, in the west flowing streams. The Shadow identification appears to mostly be a lighter, more greenish hue, depending on its current mood, with a camo like dark blotching that runs in a vertical pattern. It also has dark scale marks in a horizontal pattern. We've already discussed the Ozark and it's distribution.

Ya know the internet has been a boon and a curse. Im glad for it for places like this. Its also the devil. I think it's starting to take a toll, even though the science doesn't support me, on the flowing fisheries. I would like to see the MDC be more proactive on stream fishing but I don't see it coming just yet.

You're right it doesn't come from the internet. By the time we C&R it, it's seen a thousand and one casts. It just happen to like your presentation.

One point of interest. Forums such as this are fast becoming less and less important in the media world. We here are too old and stubborn to change and we've made many great friends and foes here. And we like to keep up and communicate here. We will never leave. BUT we are the dinosaurs of the Internet age. There is far more honey hole info passing in other more popular forms of media. Spend some time searching different Facebook pages and you will find a wealth of fishing information. Everybody is a fishing hero on Facebook. They have almost taken a picture of every stream mile in the state of Missouri and posted it for the world to see. Somebody earlier this year said that to catch a large smallmouth in the Mac River, it didn't matter how good you were, you had to know those fish. Well I hate to tell you but there are a lot of people that know those fish then. And it is not just Facebook either. Snapchat and Instagram are just as bad. You couple these three together plus the new trend of kayaking and it is just brutal out there on the streams. Nothing safe, nothing sacred!

I don't buy the bucket migration theory. I know it's been tossed around here a lot. What purpose would it serve? There are very abundant populations in every stream. Who would spend all the time and energy it would take. I don't how deep of a study there has been on the Rock Bass species. I'm positive there has been some studies. You'll have to have some pretty concrete evidence for me. I know the same has been said about the Neosho but current DNA research is showing that not to be anywhere near the case.

If anybody besides me or my close friends is fishing a stream, it is being abused. That is the new mentality. But if you buy the lures I am hocking, you will catch more and bigger fish!

There are only about 4 listed here that I haven't caught. I have never caught a Flier, I know those are over towards the bootheel area. Those last two or three he's posted I haven't caught either. Don't believe they are from anywhere near my area.

Well you both made me dig deep into my pictorial archives. And I see validity in your arguments. The one in my pic looks very similar to what Harry posted. And would have bet the opposite! But I still have never seen one that dark. Yet. You count all you want Al. That's too much work for me. LOL!! I have thought about it at different times, but always ended up deciding to leave it to the professionals. Now I do believe the Ozark is the smaller of the three. The Shadow's I've caught far exceed any Ozark without question in size. In fact there is one creek in the area that produces so many lager Shadows, an MDC biologist has contemplated doing a study to see if they may be a genetical difference or they just eat a whole lot better.

Ozark bass should be more "freckled" and not so lined up. And should be lighter in color due to the clarity of the watershed they inhabit. That particular specimen appears to come from stagnant, brackish back water hence the darker green hue. The Ozark bass is only known to occupy waters of the White River system in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. That would be the reason they look different than the Shadow which do populate Shoal and Elk drainages.

I have to question that Ozark Bass.

Yes!!!! Now I'm not the only one! And who knew it'd be you! This is how it plays out all over the state. There is no mass migration! The only thing left is to get you to drop the Senko and Slider. Those are ancient junk! It's the HD, Ned, or nothing!

I used to think you paid pretty good attention Joe. We all know the Mac has been gigged out.

I love those simple potatoes. Roasted, salt, pepper. Freaking delicious!

I'll jump on the turkey bandwagon. Fried one today with a butter jalapeño injection.

Boy that seems like a lot of work. And boy that looks good!!

Should of took it. You'd be eating good.

The same as any wager. The loser pays in bbq.

Care to put a little BBQ wager on the Hog-Tiger game today?

Yes! Now we are making progress!