Chief Grey Bear

Finally!! By posting the two following pic's, I got this one of Buzz's bass to post. Here we have a happy little crawdad, happily going about his daily chore in a beautiful Ozark spring creek. This little fella has lost and is now regrowing on of his appendages, possibly due to a savage battle with one just a little bigger.

Now ain't that crazy. It showed no attachments and then you hit "add reply" and viola, one of three appears.

Boy, I don't have a clue about this picture posting. I finally get one to load and when I try to put it in the post, it disappeared. Sorry Buzz, I can't get that one of your big bass to attach. Funny how some will load and others won't and a they were all taken on the same camera, same day, same this, same that. Ahhh the computer age.

Taking a break and enjoying to cool air from the many dripping springs that are along this bluff. Here we have a nice largemouth reeled in by KC himself. KC and Dylan hook up for one of the many doubles of the day. Dylan and a nice brownie. One of his many of the day. I am not sure how well you can see it, but this is a crawdad Dylan found that had her newly hatched young still on her tail and still mostly transparent. I can't stress enough how much fun it was to spend the day with KC and show him some good old SW MO hospitality.

Glad you had a great time KCRR, I know we all did. I don't think we could have asked for a better day. Weather wise anyway. We didn't do to bad in the fish department either. I will get some pic's posted in another post. I am still having trouble posting. Hopefully I will get it figured out.

I went to school with a Craig Fasken. Ring a bell with anyone???

There are many fly rod options that one can choose from. Many more than I ever care to delve into deeply. But one question I do have is, when it comes to "pieces", how many do you prefer? We talk at great length about the length and weight of a rod. We have brand names that we are partial to. I see great conversations about every thing but...how many pieces. Myself, I am a 2-piece man.

The best "secret" I think is knowing where the holes are that will still hold a trout or two that haven't been put in the freezer. Give anyone of us three a call and we can put you on some fish. Like Ollie said, it won't be huge numbers of fish but we can help help you find a few.

Well depending on which way we are heading out, we will either meet at Walmart or Hickory Creek. I have a feeling we will be heading south, so we will want to meet you at Walmarts. Once you leave KC down 71, turn left at your 3rd stop light. Once you get south of Carthage, keep south, don't follow I-44 to stay on 71. Stay on 59 South through Diamond on to Neosho. Don't turn until get through your 3 stop lights, and you will see Walmart. I talked to Buzz last night and looks like we will be floating. We will take 2 canoes. Looks like you and Buzz in his and me and Dylan in mine.

Ahh heck no. Come on down. How about a Sunday trip? A float trip? What time do you want to start? We usually start about 8-9 and finish up about 5. Will that work for you?

I know right were you are speaking of. Were they on the south side of the old Hwy Bridge? I was on the north side last year and actually standing in the field and Dylan was at the water. The owner drove up and was very, very nice. Asked that I don't leave any trash. I told him I wouldn't even leave a foot print behind. He smiled great big, gave a big wave and drove off to house across the bridge. Check this out: http://bengal.missouri.edu/~matthewss/AgEc...watercourse.htm Also for more info on this same subject check out all the links here: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=...mp;aq=f&oq=

Well, if I see someone fishing and shooting with bright butt green camera, don't be surprised if a tall feller in a funny looking cowboy hat comes up to ya and says howdy, chances are it will be me.

That is good info to pass along denjac. I have a couple of sections there that I love to fish. Did they happen to be in vacinity of Felix Wrights house?

Good to hear from ya CDC! You about ready to try and get a group float going again. Looks like the weather is starting to at least be warm if it is gonna rain on us. That is better than snow.

Oh for got to mention the crowds. There were tents set up at many areas along this stretch. I saw very few 10 maybe Kayakers.

denjac - It was kinda funny that way. As soon as I got service back on the cell, I checked with the wife and she said she could here thunder south of the house but no rain. When we hit the big slab headed north from P'ville, it was wet all the way to Goodman and then bone dry. Never did get any rain at home until Saturday night-Sunday morning. And very light at that. I was suprised myself how Sis hung in there. She even wants to go back! Sweet! KC- come on down. What day do you want to fish? Sat or Sun? Float or wade? wader- don't you better than doing these projects at any other time except winter???? Just whenever you guy's are ready, let me and Buzz know. We will do everything we can for you.

Thanks KC. Just a little fishing going on next weekend. Looks to be a good weekend according to the weatherman so far. You coming this way?

Dylan, Sis and I took a trip to Big Sugar Saturday. There was to be a 50-50 chance of rain but I thought what the heck, I really didn't think it would happen. According to the weather man, the majority was to be in Arkansas. I guess we were just a little to close to Arkansas. Now I know storms can't follow state lines, or weathermen's directions, but they could have layed off just a little. We put in at Cooper's ford and began our migration down stream. We started passing through what appeared to me to be some outstanding water for bronwies. But nothing. Nothing for me anyway. Dylan started picking some longears and a brownie here and there. So I started changing plugs at a more brisk pace than usual. I strung up all my usual favorites without any luck. At one point, Dylan keeps trying to hand me his rod so I can reel one in and see what a fish on the other end feels like. I used to do this to him when he was smaller, so I guess this was some pay back. About two hours into the float we run into our first storm. It wasn't too bad. We waited it out under some cover to stay dry. While there we decide to eat our sandwichs and enjoy the view until it passes. Sun comes out and we head off. Sis is now tagging along behind us on her "doughnut" tied to the back of the canoe by rope. It created a lot of extra drag for me but, what the heck, she will always remember it and how fun it was. After about another hour, storm #2 hits. It was a little rougher than #1 and we had a hard time staying dry. In fact, we didn't. At this point I am still fishless and Dylan is giving the the old man a lesson and loving every minute of it. I should have brought my spinning rod. I did notice that there were a lot of bass on the nest. There were nest every where. The ones Dylan was catching were all in the 8-12 inch range. And I think that is why. We finally get just below the low water bridge and storm #3 hits. And this one is not messing around. Just before it hit though, I did catch my one and only fish of the day. A nice looking Goggle eye. Just a few cast after that a really nice brownie looking to be in the 15-16 inch range followed my plug back to the canoe and took a swipe, missing all together. I made about 5 more cast to try him again and the bottom fell out of the bucket. It started raining so hard you could hardly see across the creek. And at this point, the creek is not very wide. We hid out under a tree hanging over the water to no avail. We were soaked to the bone. Thank goodness it was a warm rain and a warm day. After about 5 minutes of this Sis says, "Let's go for it!" I agreed. I was done. The day was a wash. Like a trooper, Dylan paddled his butt off for the next mile or so. It rained so hard we had to stop to drain the water. It was about 6" deep in the canoe. Even though, we still had a great time and will hit it again in a few weeks after the bass get off the nest. I didn't get many pic's this day but here is what I did get.

Well, it wasn't much of a fix but, it was the best we could do. Buzz called me Sunday morning to see if I wanted to wet a line. Yeah, what a question. That is like asking a junkie if they need another......well I guess I am a junkie...a fishing junkie. Saturday was a blow out (I will post about it in the "Other Ozark Waters" forum) that I was needing a bump. When I showed up, Buzz was in the midst of a pleasant conversation with one of our local MDC agents. I pulled up and joined in. Very nice man. We all talked for another 15 minutes or so and parted ways. I was glad, and told him so, to see him out so early on a Sunday morning. We hike on down to where we are going to fish and get started. We didn't really like the looks of the water. It was a little higher than expected and just a little dingy. It was pretty hard to get a bite this day. But as always, Buzz finds a way to entice them for a little action. I don't know of anyone that fights it as hard as he does to get a fish. He is the most determined person I know. Me on the other hand, I'll work at it and if I get one great. If I don't well dang it, there will always be tomorrow. I guess I always look at it as I have caught about a million and one fish and if I get skunked today, no big deal. But Buzz, he ain't about to be bested by a beast with a brain the size of a pea at best. I think that is why I like fishing with him. Finally I end up with a couple myself and saved my reputation.

I would think you could make that rule Phil. The same as I think you can make the rule of catch and release for your clients. If they don't want to abide by those two rules, then they don't need to hire your services.

Gotta go with Buzz on this one swellcat. I also grew up calling them brownies. Long before I even heard of a brown trout. Other than trout fisherman, nobody I know of calles them "smallies". All the old timers that I grew up around on the river would give you a funny look if you called it a smallie and tried to "correct" them. Try saying you caught a bunch of gog's, eye's, gill's or bill's, and you'll get that same squinty look. They'll know right quick you ain't from these parts. They just ain't up to speed on all these new hip terms. But then again, they ain't much on being hip either. But to each there own.

Thanks for the kind words siusaluki. If at anytime you can get down this way, let us know.

Sort of a moot point if there is a "lead ban".

Dylan, Buzz and I went on a bridge hopping tour Sunday. We didn't do as much hopping as we thought we would as we only hit two spots. But it was enough. If you can ever get enough of fishing a clear, pristine Ozark stream on a beautiful day. But then again, any day in the Ozarks is a beautiful day. The great fishing is just the bonus. In all total we walked about mile total and picked up about 30 fish. All Brownies. Not even a Longear today. Dylan did manage to hook into one male Redspot Chub early in the day. The water was still a little high, a little fast and very clear. The fish were chasing big time. All of my fish and Dylan's came on crawdad cranks. Dylan used the small, deep version and I used the larger deep diver. I was using for the first time, a Shakespeare 5'2" Howald Wonderod. I just love them old rods. I put a Lew Childer BB-XLM spooled with 10 lb. I had more fun chucking that thing yesterday. Reading Al's post about the "secret crankbait" makes want to dig out my old Water Scouts. I haven't used one of those in many, many years. It sure did bring back memories though. Thanks for that thought Al. Anyway, here are a few pics of the day: (Update: I have been trying to post pics of this day since Monday evening. This is the only pic I can get to post for some reason. Buzz has the othes and maybe he will be kind enough to post a couple of them for all of you to enjoy.)

Didn't see where you asked a question???