Aaron J Scott

Hey guys. I've been reading some articles and watching some videos about patterns tied with acetate floss and hardened with acetone. It was unfamiliar to me before, so I've never been aware of stores carrying acetate floss. Anyone know where I can find some around here? I know Danville makes it--I'd just like to know where I can find it locally.

Nudity. Nudity and swearing.

Last time I was up there, which I think was the Monday of Labor Day weekend, I noticed signs for a big river party at (I think) NRO with "Lynyrd Skynyrd music," which I thought was kind of funny. Well, glad to know that the stream team got out and did some work. Sometime, I'd still like to get a boat on the water and do a little fishing, a little trash pickup, and maybe a little bug sampling at a few different spots in the river. Of course, it would help to get a bit un-busy.

Hello fellow Ozarkers. Just wanted to let you guys know that the new web project I've been working on is now online. First Fish Itch deal: 60% off Shark Tooth Line Cutters four-pack ($8) If you haven't seen the Shark Tooth, it's a really cool piece of fishing gadgetry. I have them on all of my spools of tippet and line, and that was before we even started Fish Itch. This deal includes all four sizes, so you'll get a chance to figure out what sizes work best for the spools you most often use. A little bit about Fish Itch: A couple friends and I started it as a way to give anglers great deals on tackle and other fishing-related products--and also as a fundraising method for conservation and stewardship. Included in every purchase is a 20% donation of net profits to Recycled Fish. For this deal, that amounts 80 cents per purchase--which doesn't sound like much, but it'll add up really quickly if we sell a lot. If you're interested, you better jump on it. The deal is limited to 100 units, and we've sold quite a few already. Looks like we have 64 left at this very moment. Whether it sells out or not, we'll have a new deal online next Monday. Thanks, guys!

Is he a vegetarian? I'm sure vegetarians are a real pain in the butt to travel with.

Yes, kudos on the trash pickup. Thanks for setting a good example!

Ha, hopefully their bullets are a little smaller! Which reminds me, I need to find something in blaze orange for fall/winter fishing excursions.

You know, I've been thinking, now that the cool weather has chased off the summer crowds, that it'd be fun to organize (loosely or not) a river cleanup to make up for the damage caused over the last several months. Would anyone be down for that?

Do they do this early fall generation to start drawing down the lake for winter? Seems like they generate quite a bit during September and October, even if it's a few units. I can handle wading in half a unit, I'd just like to be a bit more familiar with the new lay-of-the-land before traipsing around at dark. Speaking of drawdown, I was glad to see that Table Rock FINALLY got down to power pool level a few days ago.

I had never caught a brown on the Niangua until the cicada hatch this year, and I caught three within about fifteen minutes. I would love to spend some good time on the river and throw some big streamers to specifically target browns and see what sort of monsters are in there.

Man, I haven't fished Taney in months--before the flooding--and it's been a long while since I've been night fishing. I've been jonesing for a trip down there for a while, but I want to hit it during the day because I haven't seen what the new channels are like since the flooding (other than Phil's updates).

I was reading through the minutes from the recent Conservation Commission meeting and noticed a line about approving a 25-acre land purchase for an addition to Wire Road CA. Anyone have an idea where the land is? Will it open up more public access to the creek? In case you didn't hear about it already, they also approved the ban of felt-soled boots "in trout parks and other specific trout water," effective March 1, 2012.

Haha sweet dude! I always wonder about the guys I see on the river. Yeah, I was the other lanky hillbilly getting over-excited about the cicada bite and getting my leader caught up in the brush. Good to have finally "met" you. The one that I had just released was probably the nicest of the day, probably 15" or 16", aside from the chunky sucker I hooked into while nymphing.

I got up to Barclay about 8:00 this morning and was surprised how different things look at the bend. Much of the gravel bar is gone. Fortunately, there's still fish in there. I nymphed for a while, landed a few, then noticed a cicada sputtering by. They weren't really loud down there on the river, but they're there. I landed one at Barclay on a cicada pattern, but pretty soon the boats started rolling in. I hopped in the car and ran up to the 64 access. Nymphed up through the middle section, landing a few, then switched over to a cicada pattern once I got to the slower water. In certain spots, the fish were mowing it down--really keyed in on it. They were a lot noisier around the river there. I was using a really simple pattern that I had tied last week--basically, a big foam beetle with an orange deerhair wing--but I bet anything remotely resembling a cicada would've worked, so long as you have that nice "kerplop" on the cast. Landed a couple browns on it, too, which were the first browns I'd caught on the Niangua. I landed probably a dozen fish on the cicada in a pretty short time, and had just as many misses. There are few things more fun than hopper fishing, which is more or less what it's like fishing cicadas.

Check out the Tree House Cabins at River of Life Farm. If you're on a tight budget, they still have some options. Great river, great fishing, and a beautiful setting.

Is the sign for the bail bondsman still up outside of NRO? That always cracks me up. One of my favorite things about the Niangua is picking up some litter and finding beer cans from breweries that aren't operational anymore. It sucks, but I think it's kinda funny. Stupid stuff has been happening here for a long time.

Couldn't tell you why, but you might try something like this: F-C Furled Streamer Leader I'm sure you can find those micro-swivels on their own somewhere.

We fished at Blair and Kelly on Sunday and didn't hear much in the way of cicadas down on the river. I had hoped they'd be out and had come prepared with a simple foam-beetle-style pattern but never broke 'em out. Granted, we were only at two spots on the river, but from other reports I'd heard, it doesn't sound like they've gotten too thick right on the river.

The Recycled Fish 24 Hour Fish-A-Thon is just a few months away, and we're working on signing up teams to participate this year. If you'll recall, Team Longboat--Kyle Kosovich, Brian Wise and myself--competed last year and won the top prize--a "trip of a lifetime" to Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota, where we'll be hurling hunks of fur and feathers at angry musky because we raised around $1600 for the group. There are a ton of other great prizes from the sponsors of the event--I received a new custom-built fly rod for raising $300 in a single day and Kyle got a nice art print for catching the top rainbow. Here's how it works--it's a fundraising effort for Recycled Fish with 2- or 3-person teams. These teams compete on their home lakes and streams, so it's a national tournament--actually, international, since there are a few provinces in Canada represented now. Everyone starts fishing at 5:00 p.m. sharp and continues until 5:00 p.m. the next day. Teams not only compete by raising money, but also by catching fish. It's a C&R, photo-based tournament. Each team receives a special tape measure and a PIN number. Every fish you catch is photo'd on the tape, safely released, and then recorded on an entry sheet. The information and photos for each fish are sent to the organization and then plugged into the AMI Fish Calculator, which is weighted for species based on the where it was caught. Last year, our team was the only one in Missouri, but we raised a bunch of money for Recycled Fish and got a bunch of great exposure for the event and the organization. This year, I want the Ozarks to do even better. I'd love to see several teams in the area. It's a great challenge and it all supports a great cause. Read more about it at the Recycled Fish site: Details for the Recycled Fish 24 Hour Fish-A-Thon If you care about our fisheries and resources and want to help make a difference by educating others on how to take better care of them, this event is a great way to support that mission. BTW, you don't have to fly fish on a river like we did last year--in fact, we were the only team throwing flies on a river. Most of the teams will be fishing lakes and ponds on conventional tackle so long as they are practicing SAFE angling techniques--not dumping bait, carefully handling and releasing fish, etc.

I was driving back from Arkansas last weekend and around where 65 crosses the Little Red River, near Leslie, the cicadas were deafening. My car has gotten fairly noisy, plus the road noise, plus some fiddle music cranked up, and the ciadas were drowning all that out. That got me thinking about a cicada pattern, and I plan on working something up this weekend. I saw a pattern online that had an alternating orange and black thread underbody, and I thought that was a nice touch. I have some orange deer hair that I think I'll use for the wings.

Hey guys, I heard that there are a number of downed trees blocking the driveway to Kerr Access from the tornado that blew through north of Galena on Sunday. I was also told that there is a lot of debris like metal siding and insulation in the area. Be careful next time you're out that way, and maybe pick up some stuff to help clean up the access.

I apologize for being a little late to the game, but wanted to throw this in: For last year's 24 Hour Fish-A-Thon, we received special tape measures and a PIN that we'd use to measure and photograph fish. The length, species and location were plugged into the AMI Fish Calculator. That ensured the competition was C&R but also honest. Granted, with a tournament on just one stream, you wouldn't have to worry about the location variable, but otherwise it'd make for a decent setup. Kyle made a little mini-Longboat bump box to make measuring easy on both us and the fish. We just set it in the water streamside so we could keep the fish more or less in the water.

Howdy guys. I wanted to let everyone know about a new website I'm helping launch. It's called Fish Itch. Now, you might be thinking, "What's a Fish Itch?" or "How do fish even itch?" or likely "Man, I do have an itch to fish." Here's the rub: each week, we're going to offer a deep discount on a fishing product--it could be lures, line, flies, weight, storage, other tackle, and even stuff like art and clothing--all fishing-related. There's a limited amount of stuff to get, and there's a limited time to get it, so you gotta act fast. And you know what, that's not even the really cool part. A chunk of every single purchase, right off the top, goes to conservation and stewardship. And not just a small fraction, or 1% (though we all know every little bit helps)--I'm talking 20% of the purchase. So you save some scratch, but you also help raise some cash to help protect our waters and fish. We're just a few days away from launching the full site and the first deal, but you can make sure you get in on the action early by heading over to the site and signing up for an email notification. We'll send you an email and let you know when the first deal drops. I've basically summed it up, but you can learn more here:

I got out on the lower section today and saw (yeah, unfortunately, only SAW them) some nice-sized fish, so that might look a little more hopeful than the upper section. Just about all the streams around here need another few good rains.