laker67

Probably a hatchery born and raised and then released, with thousands of other, Arlee or missouri strain rainbows. But speaking of cutbows, some snake river cutthroats would be a nice addition to our trout waters. Along with some of those monster triploid rainbows. Missouri, right now, has the "midget" of all rainbow trout strains.

First you would have to determine the average rate of flow of the river. Lets say that it would be traveling downstream at a rate of 3 mph. If you were to average 6 mph upstream for an eight hour period, you could make it in 2 days. Honestly, I don't have a freeking clue. Good luck on your adventure.

Holy crap!! How big "are" the smallmouth in your part of the country? I would think that you could tow a Toyota far enough to jump start it with 80 lb test.

It is muddy and the level is 660.67. I don't know what color of water is being pumped out of tonka springs. The river below bagnell is running bank full, which means there is alot of current in the lake.

I think you have found a loophole Randall. Rooster tails are a legal bait when constructed with a single point hook. What makes it legal is when the fly tying materials are "tied" to the hook. Take a legal fly and make it the hook source for the rapala or other crankbait. The single point hook could not be bare, you would have to add some fly materials. It would be worth asking an agent about it.

Well I'm not sure how large trout react in other states, but I can tell you what they like and what they do in Missouri. Some say big flies, some say only at night, and others say hug the bottom. For sheer numbers of large trout," lunkers", throw away the big flies, and forget about the night fishing. Tie some tan or grey sowbugs and scuds and drag the bottom in the daytime. I have caught lunkers on big flies, and I have caught them at night on big and small flies. 90 percent of my lunkers have been caught in the daytime on scuds and sowbugs. I love to fish at night for the solitude and occasionally I catch big fish at night. I normally fish 30 to 40 nights each year unless its a flood year like 08. Total up night fishing and big flies, they account for no more than 100 lunkers in the last 34 years. Day fishing, sowbugs, fished on the bottom, equals big fish in all of Missouri's waters. One other thing, give the softhackles and the cracklebacks to people who are faint of heart and mostly want to catch silver bullets.

Brian, thanks for the clarification on Bryant creek. I have always assumed that it dumped into the river.

And where does Bryant end up?

Good fish Bman! Watch out for the railroad ties.

Well, I will throw a little more contraversy into this topic. I agree with FW, I don't think that any of you out there can honestly say that you are qualified to determine the origin of a fish while on the creek. Seems like that would require DNA samples for the stream that the fish lives in, or the hatchery it came from. Some of the pictures of alledgedly wild trout, that were posted on other topics look exactly like the majority of the fish that come from T-como and other places. You say that accidental stockings are unlikely at nfow. How about Rainbow Springs and Rockbridge. The rainbows from those places are not even the same stain. Your naturally reproducing fish may be coming from those two places. They lose several hundred fish on every high water event. MDC says, that all of missouri's trout go through the routine of production. Laying eggs, dropping sperm and the whole bit. They also say that less than one percent of the attempted reproduction is successful. If you have 1000 fish per mile, how do those 10 fish account for the numbers each year? The tell tale orange tips and the brilllant colors are all part of the missouri stain that they have adopted. If you saw a fish that looked like ours, anywhere else, they would be a cutbow. Alot of you seem to be hung out on this wild fish thing. If they are that precious, why risk their lives by fishing for them? Go catch some huge hatchery fish that will test your equipment to the limit, and most times, send you home talking to yourself. Try out some 8 to 10 pound rainbows from taney and then tell me that they are wimpy fish, and your wild rainbows fight so much harder. Cheers.

My guess would be baby gills or bass.

Last saturday, I was walking around and looking at the fish in the raceways at bennett. I witnessed a smaller trout jump over the concrete divider into a raceway with larger fish. The raceways are divided to hold different age groups. Looking around, I saw a few fish of different sizes mixed in with a certain age group. So it must be pretty common for fish to jump from one raceway to another. I even saw a few small browns in with some rainbows. So here is a "what if" question for you. What if a few rainbows ended up in the raceway for browns, and those browns along with the few rainbows were scooped up and stocked into the NFOW? Come spawn time, you have hatchery fish mingling with the wild.

Seems I recall from early posts that nfwr was a wild trout stream. So much for that now, huh?

Beats anything that I ever saw. You need to send a picture of it to MDC. Glad to hear you had a good trip, despite the loss of the big bass.

You definately need a fishing break. Cold water therapy is good for the soul. Good luck and give us a report.

Drive across the glaize bridge on a holiday weekend. It will be impossible to count the number of boats before you travel across the bridge. Looking both directions, from the bridge, you are only talking about being able to see .5 to .75 mile of lake. There will be at least 200 boats at any given time during mid day and afternoon. Like FW said, fish are still being caught. Be cautious if you fish LOZ on a holiday weekend, and good luck.

Send a PM to Seth. He fishes there quite often, and might have been recently. Good luck tues.

Thank you for the clarification. Hint taken.

Well now I am confused, which is perfectly normal for me. Is Meramec Caverns located at Meramec State Park? If so, then in 1973, I saw several anglers below the caverns in waders with fly rods. They were standing side by side in a riffle, and gave every appearance that they were trout fishermen. When you said "no trout "at the state park, it made me recall this incident. Anyone know?

The fish are really holding in the current with this high water. Just like you found them on the Current and below the dam at bennett. Sounds like you had a great time on the current. One of my all time favorite sight fishing streams. I had good results in the HB hole on thursday and friday. I was sight fishing a tan scud, and caught some good quality fish on thursday. Not so much on friday, but good numbers. The book fish I caught on thursday, I'm sure was a holdover from kid's fishing day. It had a pretty rough look to it. Like Bman said, it's great to get out in good weather and be able to avoid the weekend crowds. Thanks for the report.

You are right about bennett being packed this weekend. I fished again this afternoon, and the crowds were already rolling in by 7:00. It was crowded this afternoon, so I suspect some came early. The bridge shoal is located above the high bank hole, kingfisher flat is the flat water between HBH and the rock hole. Johnson county hole, formerly the hatchery hole, was dubbed by fishinwrench. If you remember the movie, "johnson county wars", that best describes the activity that goes on in that area. The water was down some today, a few inches I would guess. The water is still cloudy, and good for shallow water sight fishing. I caught the numbers again today, but didn 't get the quality of fish as I did yesterday. I only had 2 that would top the 2 pound mark, but no book fish. I suspect that any place you might go this weekend will be crowded. But good luck if you decide to brave it. I think I will hold out for another week day.

A phone call, early Tuesday morning, changed my whole work schedule for the week. Lucky for me it allowed me to spend 2 more afternoons at bssp this week. The fish are so aggressive right now, there really should be a law against having that much fun. I fished 4 hours each, the past 2 days. I snipped the same grey sowbug yesterday and caught a lot of fish. Today, the water was just clear enough to do some sight fishing. The hot fly today was a tan scud, and the fishing was great. I started sight fishing on the bridge shoal and worked my way down to Johnson County. I caught at least 6 fish that would make 2 pounds. In addittion I had 2 browns, one right at 2 and the other at 2.5. I also had on male rainbow that went 3.5 pounds. Sight fishing the tan scud was the ticket. The last hour of the day, I snipped the same tan scud just below the Johnson County hole, and had bites on almost every drift. In the 3 afternoons this week, I have caught well over 100 fish. If I have the opportunity, I am going tommorrow afternoon as well. For anyone fishing the weekend, the water conditions will be just right for some great fishing. Water clarity today is cloudy, and just right for catching some fish off guard. You can sight fish any water that is 2 feet or less. The bridge shoal, hight bank hole, and Kingfisher flats are prime for sight fishing right now. More rain in the forecast, so I'm hoping bennett will stay in this shape for another week or so. Bman and Fw, you need to get over there. Good luck to all.

I don't see any reason that a bigger shot would not work. The important thing is to maintain contact with the bottom. The biggest shot I carry is a #4. At taney I just start lining them up until I get the right combo. Let me know how you do on the leech. But I already know the outcome if you tie a black/yellow or a black/olive. But that is not a suggestion by any means. I don't fish the parks much anymore, so things may have changed over the years. Good luck FW.

You're welcome, as well as CC. It's a very enjoyable, change of pace, fishing style. I hope it hooks you up with a big fish someday.

Thanks for the invite. I would like to fish with you and FW at some point. My work schedule should take me back to the Lebanon area in about 2 weeks. Until then I'm out on the road in Cameron and Marshall. Good luck the next 2 days.