Bill Anderson

Things like this make my blood boil. I have never told this story, but I guess it's safe to now. About 40 years ago, I was flyfishing below Narrows Dam on the Little Missouri in Arkansas when I saw a guy about 40 years old or so catching a keeping trout after trout. He must have had 50 in a burlap sack he was dragging behind him. I asked him if he knew what the laws were, and he told me to mind my own business. Well, I got the vigilante urge, and left the river. I had seen him at his car earlier, so I knew which one was his. Out of his sight, I let the air out of two of his tires and then found a phone and called the game and fish folks who said they would dispatch a warden. I then drove to another spot and observed the warden ticketing this idiot on the river and releasing all his fish. You could tell the clown was furious. Well, I saw him stomp back to his car and then realizing he had two flats, he proceeded to pound on the car with anger. Needless to say, I quietly left and made a beeline away from there. I never saw that idiot again, thankfully. But after 40 years, I guess I'm safe in telling this story. I was in my early 20s then, and maybe I have mellowed a bit since, but I will still call the game warden in a heartbeat if I see some clown abusing the rules. With a cell phone, you don't have to hunt for a payphone. Justice is sweet.

I tell them I live 45 miles from Branson and would rather sleep in my own bed. That usually shuts them up.

Thanks guys. I have a much better perspective of the area, now.

I like fishing below Beaver, but am still new to these waters, so please excuse the question. Where exactly is Parker Bottoms? I have been fishing the 2nd and last (3rd) accesses below the dam. Am I close?

Roaring River is my ace-in-the-hole. I'm only 27 miles north of it, a 35 minute drive from my house, so I do get down there pretty often. The only thing I don't like about it are the crowded conditions you often find there. I make several trips there during the winter catch and release season, too. I won't go there this time of the year on weekends, but week days are not too bad. Sometimes, I will just drive down to visit Tim Homesley at Tims's Fly shop and kill some time and spend a few bucks. I am also only about 30 miles from Crane Creek, and 15 minutes from Capps Creek, and Hickory Creek at Neosho is only 30 miles or so. Taneycomo is a bit over an hour from here, so that is always an option, but again, you're at the mercy of the water levels. I really prefer fishing there or below Beaver, but as they say, any port in a storm. But the big White River has always been by first love. I started my love affair with Norfork and Bull Shoals in the early 1960s, and have spent countless hours over the decades fishing there. So, while I live in a good area for flyfishing, you just have to play the high water game.

I sure hope this rain event doesn't lead up to another high water year like last year. I don't own a boat and my fishing on the tailwaters depends on no-generation. I guess all we can do is sit by and watch and keep our fingers crossed. I only live 47 miles from Beaver Dam, and really like being able to go fishing on short notice, but high water leaves me bank-bound.

I just hope this isn't the beginning of another heavy rain and high water season like last year, where it was almost summer before the lake levels got down far enough for long periods of no-generation. As a no-boat, wading fisherman, I'm pretty much at the mercy of the generation skeds.

Picking on the poor, harmless little wildlife....you guys ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Same way here at Roaring River. I just will NOT stand elbow to elbow, tangling lines with every idiot in the country, trying to catch a fish. I like The trout parks, but fish them on weekdays only, and primarily during the winter catch-and-release season. Yesterday, I fished the White River in Arkansas below Beaver Dam, and the closest fisherman to me were a couple of guys 1/2 mile or more upstream. That's the way I like it. The only thing that got in the way were my big feet and a fly eating tree behind me.

I've been using a pair of Simms Headwaters boots with the latest Vibram soles for the past two years. I also have both carbide AND aluminum studs on the bottom and I have had absolutely NO problems in wading anywhere with them. They really excel in ice, snow and mud, compared to plain felts. I have slipped many times on those types of surfaces in felts over the years, but the metal bites into every thing. You just can't wear them in a fly shop or a boat. But, other than that, I'm pretty happy with them. I have not found any surface where they didn't equal or exceed felts in grip. I can't speak for the Vibrams by themselves, because I added studds to them before I first used them.

I've gotten the same reaction from people watching me releasing trout. They are even more shocked when I tell them I haven't intentionally killed a trout in over 25 years. The baitbucket brigade just can't understand that. I have tried to explain the preciousness of cold water resources, but they can't seem to get that through their "kill everything that swims, walks, flies, slithers or crawls" redneck mentality. I guess that makes me an elitist "snob" in their eyes. These days, I don't worry about it....like I give a you-know-what about what they think anymore. You also get some strange stares releasing trout at Roaring River from the stringer-dragger crowd, too.

I spent a few hours at the lowest public access below the dam on park property Wednesday morning and caught and relesed 5 rainbows, and broke off a couple more because of my lousy tippet to hook knots. None were over about 13 to14 inches but they were hard fighters and very healthy fish. I took them on a #12 olive green cone head wooly bugger fished with short strips. The bugger has become my go-to fly on the White River over the years, and I catch something on it almost every time I fish it on the White. The water was 51 degrees, clear, and there was no generation at the time. Fishing conditions were just beautiful, but the wind picked up quite a bit around 10:30 a.m., and casting was a bit more difficult after that. I love fishing during the week because you almost have the entire river to yourself. It's only an hour's drive from my home here in Monett, Mo., and the White has been my favorite river for the past 40+ years. I had six family kayakers pass me, and they were the only people within chatting distance for the entire morning. That spot on the river is a deep, narrow channel, with a steep gradient on the access side and a long gravel beach on the opposite side of the river. My bum knee gave me quite a bit of trouble climbing up and down the bank to the car, and next trip I think I will use the next access above that has a bit easier accessibility to the water. It also has a restroom facility, a welcome oasis for us older geezers. I can't add any info about any other species that trout, because I have never caught anything but rainbows up near the dam.

I've been fishing in Simms Headwaters Vibram soled boots for a couple of years now and I like them. I got smart and added the Simms carbide AND the aluminum studs to them and have had NO slippage problems on any kind of bottom, They really excel on muddy or icy riverbanks that used to stand me on my head in felts. So now I just put them on and get on with my fishing. I'll bet they will have a much, much longer life span than my felts ever did, too. I'm happy.

I would suspect they are getting the lake level down in anticipation of spring rains.

I've spent a lot of time paddling and fishingand camping out of both, and for stream fishing, I prefer a canoe. It sits up higher, is more comfortable and can carry more gear. The older I get, the more I appreciate the versatility of a good canoe. A kayak can be more stable, with a lower center of gravity, easy to handle in the wind, but for me and for just spending a nice day on the stream, the canoe wins. While I was living in Sarasota, Florida, the kayak was a better all around boat, mainly because of the wind factor on open water. But my "yacht" of choice has always been a good canoe.

At 65, I no longer have to buy a fishing or hunting license. But the requirement for a trout permit varies, depending on where you fish. Some parts of Taneycomo require one whether or not you keep or release fish. So my attitude is that I will always buy a trout permit, regardless of where I might be fishing in the state That will keep me on the sunny side of the law. It's cheap insurance, in my opinion and it is a way to give a little back for all the state does to preserve trout fishing in Missouri.

............When my wife and I got married, I told her to never come between me and my hobbies, expecially fly fishing. Well, I can say that she never has, and we're still married 42 years later. The only rough time was back in the 1980s when I bought my first Leonard bamboo, but she laughed more than got mad because I tried to sneak it into the house and got caught red handed.

The way I read the article, downstream water has nothing to do with the Montanan case. It has to do with ownership of the land the dams are sitting on and whether Montana can ask for rent on that land. This streambed ownership case could have wide reaching effects on streambed ownership all over the country. The U.S; Supreme Court has been asked to decide what IS and what is NOT a navigable stream, hence the reference back to the Lewis and Clark expedition and its records on rivers of that day. It should be interesting to see what happens.

I have friends, especially some older ones, who just can't understand the concept of catch and release fishing. They can not understand why anyone would catch fish, only to release them unharmed instead of eating them. I try to explain to them that I feel the cold water resource is a very limited one and that conserving trout is my way of helping to maintain it. But they, for the life of them, just don't get it and think I'm some kind of whacko-newcomer to fishing. When I tell them I have been flyfishing since the early 1960s, and flyfishing for trout since the late 1960s, they are even more surprised at my statements. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat bluegill and other sunfishes, including crappie that I catch, but I haven't purposely killed a trout since the 1980s.Yes, I will eat farm raised trout at a restaurant, and I don't rule out keeping a few trout for eating again, somewhere down the road, but for now, I get all the satisfaction I need from catching and releasing them.People enjoy birdwatching, and spend large amounts of money on binoculars and telescopes and camera lenses, and drive hundreds of miles in pursuit of their hobby. I guess I get the same enjoyment from flyfishing and also spend larges amounts of money on tackle and travel to pursue my passion. The thing we have in common with the birdwatchers: we don't kill and eat what we see/catch, but the satisfaction is much the same.

I said to heck with my old felts and all this silly controversy and bought a brand new pair of Simms boots with the Vibram rubber soles already on them and then installed carbide studs. I'm not going to worry about "treating felt" with glue or other such nonsense, I'm moving on and getting on with more important matters, like going fishing. The studded Vibrams grip better than any felt sole I have had in the past 40 years, so I'm happy.

The United States Supreme Court is going to rule in a Montana case whether or not the state owns the land beneath 10 dams. The state of Montana contends that IT owns the land that the privately owned dams are sitting on and it is owed millions of dollars in back rent. This case could define what is and is not a navigable waterway and could have bearing all over the country including streams here in the Ozarks.The case will even use testimony from records found in the diaries of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806. This case should be worth following, because it could decide once and for all who has the right to control streams which up to now have been considered private property.

My mistake on the world record walleye....I did some research and confirmed that I was indeed wrong. The 18 lb., 11 ounce Greers Ferry monster is the OFFICIAL world record walleye. It seems a lot has changed for the better in official record keeping over the years. But one story I always loved, was the tale that the late Junior Samples of the old TV show Hee-Haw may have caught a new world record largemoouth bass, but the idiot ATE it before it could be weighed. If true,that would have fit his true character.

The first pic is a rod wrapper made either by Herters or Thompson. I have the Thompson version, but both were basically made the same. The others are new to me.

Walleye are one of the very best eating fish...delicious. The North Country is famous for them, but the world record came out of Percy Priest Lake near Nashville, Tn. It weighed 25 pounds.That's a monster, a wall-zilla.

Snakes are just part of the natural enviornment, and if they are absent, then something is seriously wrong with the health of that enviornment. I'm not particulaly afraid of them,I just give them the respect and caution they deserve, and I ALWAYS carry my old Orvis Ash wading staff with me. It makes a good tool for knudging them on their way or flipping them off the trail. In a pinch it is a superb anti-snake weapon too, and I've used it several times over the last 25 or more years.