winstonone

I fished off the bank of Shoal Creek for a few hours on Sunday evening with my 2yr old daughter. I was at the park just up stream of where the Joplin falls are. There was a great little shady spot where a huge tree was growing out of the bank and provided great natural seating and shade right over some deeper water with cover. I caught several small bluegill and such with my daughters Dora fishing pole. I even caught what I believe was a 8" Rock Bass. I'm not good at Identifying fish yet so I let em all go. I was catching on worms, but didn't get anything on spinners or buzzbaits. I was reeling in a little perch and right as I was getting him to the surface a 4 foot snake came out from under the tree started to eat my fish. It gave me the willies at first and freaked my kid out, but it let go after I lifted them both out of the water for a bit(the snake and fish, not my kid ). I even got the fish off and think it survived. The rest of the time we were there, I could pretty much get the snake to come out and attack my bobber just by splashing it on the water a little. The more we could watch it I think I got my daughter to be less scared of snakes, and fish.

Thanks for the help. I bought my license yesterday and they had a paper copy of the regulations with images of all of the fish. After looking at it, I don't think it will be that much of a problem to ID them. I also read in the regulations that grabbing was the same thing as snagging them with a hook on a line. Hand catching was just snatching them out of the water with bare hands. So I think all my questions are answered. I just had to read more.

OK, I am just starting out fishing for the first time since I was a kid. I went on a private pond a while back and had a great time, so now I want to go again. I'm doing research and learning as much as I can before I go out to make sure I am following the rules, but It's pretty overwhelming at times. I would consider myself as someone with average intelligence, college educated, and some common sense, but I feel like there are too many things to just "know" about fishing and regulations to not unintentionally break the rules. I'm reading over the MDC rules and some things are easy to understand such as getting a proper license. Learning where you can and cannot go fishing. How many poles you can have and such. How to measure a fish. Other things start to get a little tougher to grasp such as: Different rules for each area. Basically, I plan to just print out the area regulations before I go to wherever I'm going, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Also, there are some things worded in ways that don't really make sense to me. I only intend on pole and line fishing, but here is an example: you can take a fish by "grabbing" but "hand fishing" is not permitted??? See below: 3 CSR 10-6.410 Fishing Methods PURPOSE: This rule establishes the methods by which fishermen may take fish. (1) Fish may be taken by the use of pole and line, trotline, throwline, limb line, bank line, jug line, gig, bow, crossbow, underwater spearfishing, snagging, snaring, grabbing or atlatl, but only as specifically authorized in 3 CSR 10-6.415 through 3 CSR 10-6.550. No person may attempt to take fish by rock or hand fishing, with or without hook. Live bait, mussels, clams, bullfrogs, green frogs, common snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles may be taken only as specifically authorized in 3 CSR 10-6.605 through 3 CSR 10- 6.620. My biggest problem is going to be fish identification. I can easily see the limits, but I'm sure I will make some mistakes on identifying what the heck I just caught. I found a lot of pictures and fish identification stuff on the MDC website, but I've found a lot of fish that aren't on their ID page. I can only take 2 Black Bass(largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted combined) over 15 inches. I can take a total of 15 White, Striped, Yellow, and Hybrids(but only 4 that are over 18 inches). Well, the Yellow bass is not listed on the bass identification page on the MDC site so I don't know what it looks like. (Striped and White are shown) Is a yellow bass just a bass that is yellow? and what the heck is a hybrid? ...and that's just bass... perch, crappie, trout, ect. I'm learning as much as I can, but mistakes just seem inevitable. So here I am, I feel like I don't have enough knowledge of how to identify fish well enough to not break the rules due to honest mistakes of mistaken identity. Not to mention, getting fined would probably put a damper on my fishing experience. Especially, when I am spending this much time to really try to learn and follow the rules. I appreciate any assistance on this, as I won't have a laptop and internet connection on the river to try to identify them. Nor would the fish have the patience to wait. I plan on fishing on the Elk River in a couple weeks. Here are the area restrictions: ================================================================================ ======================= Lake/Stream Species Location Details Season Dates Length Limit Daily Limit Notes Stream Walleye and Sauger combined all year 15" minimum 4 From Feb 20 through Apr 14 walleye and sauger can be taken and possessed only between one half hour before sunrise to one half hour after sunset in the unimpounded portions of all streams except the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Stream Pickerel - Chain and Grass all year None 6 Stream Goggle-eye (Ozark Bass, Rock Bass and Shadow Bass) and Warmouth combined all year None 15 Stream Crappie all year None 30 Stream Catfish - Flathead all year None 5 Stream Catfish - Channel all year None 10 Stream Catfish - Blue all year None 5 Stream Carp - Bighead, Common, Goldfish, Grass, and Silver all year None No limit Stream Bass - Striped, White, Yellow, and their Hybrids all year No more than 4 longer than 18" 15 Stream Bass - Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Spotted combined Elk River Fourth Saturday in May to the last day of February 15" minimum 2 Black bass management area includes entire Elk River in Missouri. Stream All other species combined taken by pole and line, trotline, throwline, limb line, bank line or jug line all year None 50 total fish Game fish or endangered species are not included in this category. No more than 50 fish may be taken by all methods combined. Stream All other species combined taken by gigging, atlatl, longbow, snagging, snaring, or grabbing Gigging or Atlatl: Sep 15 through Jan 31. Longbow: all year. Snagging, snaring, grabbing: Mar 15 through May 15 and Sep 15 through Jan 31. None Fish may be taken by gigging, atlatl, or longbow from sunrise to midnight. Game fish and endangered species are not included in this category. No more than 20 fish may be taken by all methods combined. ================================================================================ =====================

The narrator, Mike Rowe, used to work the late night shift for the home shopping channel QVC. If you do a search for him on youtube you can see him sarcastically plugging away for cat toys and figurines. You can obviously see his contempt for what he is doing and it is a great laugh. Mike Rowe is the man.

Thanks. I've found lots of MDC sites through their Google Earth plug-in. Hats off to the MDC and google, that works just awesome. I was looking for someplace I could go that is pretty much in town. I think Wildcat glades and the Stones corner access are about the closest to Joplin. Are you allowed to fish where the falls are south of town? Or is that private property?

I am badly allergic to Poison Ivy. I've heard great things about the Technu wash as long as you get it washed off in the first couple hours after exposure. The worst I ever got it was from burning Ivy vines. I was 90% covered in a swollen weeping rash for a few weeks. Finally I went to the doctor and got the steroid shot and prednisone pack. I bought the Zanfel the same day and it pretty much eliminated the rash and itching instantly. It was completely gone three days later. I have had times where the Zanfel didn't appear to work after that, but it may have been a rash from something else. Either way they could charge double and I'd still pay for it.

Hello, I went fishing for the first time since I was in college last weekend and had a great time. I found this site while looking for information on where to go in or around Joplin to go fishing. The info I've found so far is great and I look forward to learning more about fishing in the area.