laker67

I say shoot every one of the dang things. Use them for bear bait and then shoot the bears. I am perfectly happy with them becoming extinct in missouri. I will do my part to make them a dying breed.

I know that most of you are "big bait" fishermen, so my opinion will not have much impact on what you use. My experience today re-affirms my position on small flies for big browns. Myself and several other oaf members have caught several large browns,over ten pounds, on 14 and 16 sowbugs and nymphs. Most, if not all, are caught in the daylight hours. I hooked one today on a 16 tan sowbug that would go 11 or 12 pounds. He was a great fighting fish, two full body jumps, a trip through the moss, and then a run across the creek. When browns are laid up in slick water, a small fly is the way to go. Most times a "long fly" will put them on guard and scare them out of the feeding lane. This is a productive way to approach wary fish.

My vote would be for one of Murdoc's{Mark} custom built RDP. Murdoc is a fine craftsman and a flyrodder as well. He understands what you need in a flyfishing tool.

During the BB playoffs.

I thought wild trout spawned in late april. Probably to dang cold, or frozen water, for him to fish through that timeframe. I think I've seen walton's name on the lunker board at bssp.

I see your point on the "sky is blue" issue. I was merely trying to point out that missouri is capable of producing large fish. I guess a record is all in the eye of the beholder. And not trying to be agrumentive in response to your question. On one of the mdc websites, they addressed this very issue. They stocked the german for a few years, then finally settled on the sheepcreek strain because it had a much better survival rate, once they were released. Google, brown trout in missouri. It appears that ark,mo,utah, and even argentina will be taking a back seat to michigan's new strain of brown trout. Two 41 pounders in as many years, and they were only six years old. Rip's fish was 17 years old. No management there, just turn them loose and they grow big.

This is not a fair comparison when you consider that arkansas has several more miles of "big river" to harbor and grow browns. Also their strain of brown trout lives 5 years longer than the missouri strain. Our fish grow to 29 pounds in 13 years, give them another 5, and you would see them on the leader board as well. And to set the record straighter, missouri does not have an "all tackle" world record such as arkansas, but it does possess a "fly rod" world record, and arkansas does not.

I'm not sure. Early to mid 80's, I would guess. Maybe Wayne or Bman can recall.

Welcome Dusty. Several old timers on here that remember both places well. How about the old Pierce Campground above Larry's?

Hi Fw. Hey I keep forgetting to mention that "you" get the credit for renaming the hatchery hole to the "Johnson County Hole". Most of the nicknames have been around since I first fished at bssp back in the 60's. How many can remember the "whirlpool hole" ? The 86 flood waters pretty much wiped it out, along with the angled wing dams in the middle of zone one. When they started dredging the creek, most, if not all, of the holes changed dramatically. Along with the dredging came the over abundance of moss in the deeper holes. The scud population went down, and the sowbugs flourished.

A daily parking permit was required in years past. 2 3 4 bucks, I can't recall, but it was part of fishing their park in the winter time.

Kdan and I ventured out this morning to attempt to catch our traditional new years crappie. We succeeded, and following tradition, we each released our first keeper of the new year for good luck. We ended up with a few to go into the livewell for a near future crappie dinner.

Thx Aaron.

Glad you got out. It's always good to fish home waters. RFPS???

would that be in a can or a mason jar ?

That's exactly what I was thinking at the moment the hook buried up to the bend.

I converted to all barbless after having to rip a barbed #12 out of the palm of my hand for the second time in as many years. Both times occurred at night, and both times I had to use hemostats to rip out hook and flesh.

You're right. I haven't heard it called the apron in years.

Hi FW. I thought that zebras could only live in clean water that was not infested with ecoli or whatever. The next drum I catch, I will rip it open and see. Normally I throw them on the swim dock for the resident bald eagle. If I find that drum are actually eating the zebras, I will not kill another. I caught a drum back in the 80's that now I often wish I had weighed. It was below bagnell, on the old townhouse side. I roughly measured the fish by holding it to my side. With tail touching the ground, it came to my belt line, that's 40 inches. Mike and I estimated the fish at 30 pounds. I caught this fish on a live crawdad while we were fishing for catfish.FW is exactly right. Anything that is truly detrimental to the lake, is a "hush hush" don't let the public find out. Most will lie through their teeth to avoid telling the media.

Nice fish Bruce. What do you think happened to the big boy that you saw earlier in the season? I am glad that you and Matt had a great day fishing. Hope to see you guys on the creek.

I will start at the spring and work my way down to the whistle bridge. Spring hole, guage tower, #1 wing dam, pipe hole, rock dam, blue hole, #2 wing dam, #3 wing dam, sycamore shoal, sycamore hole, dam hole, bridge hole, bridge shoal, big blue pipe hole formerly high bank hole, king fisher flat, rock hole, state record rock, bluff hole, hatchery outlet, Johnson county hole, and whistle bridge. SIO3 gets credit for renaming the high bank hole. I will let someone else map out zone 3.

I was fishing the niangua and they bit good all week with the exception of christmas day. From what I hear, they are doing good about anywhere on the main lake and all of the feeder creeks. Good luck to you.

You faired better than I yesterday. I only had six in about 2 hours at owens point. I noticed you are from camdenton, me too.

To follow up on the christmas traditions, I was fortunate enough to catch my christmas crappie today. Its a good thing that I didn't need a limit for our fish fry. Crappie are dressed and ready for the fryer, and in about one hour, 11 of us will set down to the finest christmas dinner going. A merry and safe christmas to all.

One of our family traditions on both thanksgiving and christmas, is to have a fish fry at some point. We always prefer the crappie to be fresh vs frozen. Matter of fact, I am about to go to the dock and clean the crappie in the live well. Kdan and I managed to catch 56 total over the course of three days. Another tradition, is to try to catch a crappie on christmas day and news year day. The first keeper of the new year is released for good luck. Merry Christmas to all of the wonderful anglers on this website, and a special thanks to Phil for providing us with countless hours of entertainment.