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ozark trout fisher

Fishing Buddy
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Everything posted by ozark trout fisher

  1. Hello, old friends. I know it's been a minute, but I always thought I'd make it back to this part of the world, and now I have. Just some pretty pictures from the last few months in the Osage watershed, nothing more. I assure my catch and release ethic is generally better than the one fish picture included indicates. 😂 Though that one did swallow the bait, and ultimately formed the centerpiece of an excellent dinner. Mostly I just wanted to show some firm evidence I am in fact still capable of catching fish here and there. 😂
  2. There is very little resemblance between what (most) Ozark forests look like now and what they would have looked like in the 1700s and much of the 1800s. Historically, "wildfire" was a huge part of the ecosystem that drove almost everything else. Wildfire is in quotes, because only rarely was it ignited by a truly natural source; far more often it was started intentionally by Native Americans for the purposes of hunting, agriculture, etc. Most land in the Ozarks was burned between once a year and once every 20 years: on average once every 3-5 years according to most dendrochronological (i.e. tree ring) sources. This created very open forests where a lot of light was hitting the ground. This meant that grass, forbs, etc could grow and create almost prairie-esque conditions. This in turn allowed the land to support vast herds of bison, elk, etc that it never could today. And the forests were dominated by a mixture of pines and oak, the latter of which obviously produce acorns, and the open conditions allowed them to produce a lot. Now for the most part we control fire. So trees that normally would be killed by fire (primarily maple) creep in, and in general the open conditions that allowed for grass and forb understories do not exist, due to much higher density of trees. There are enough oaks in most if the Ozarks that species like deer can still subsist off acorns easily enough most years, but larger animals like elk and bison could not survive in anywhere near their previous numbers even if they were reintroduced and allowed unencumbered population growth. There just isn't enough browse in close canopy forests. If you want to see a rough approximation of pre-settlement forest in Missouri, I'd suggest visiting Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The combination of regular prescribed fire at similar intervals to historic fire, and other management practices have restored it to about as close a replica as you can get in many areas. And in a pretty vast scale too,, especially if you consider other surrounding Conservation property surrounding it managed similarly (namely Current River CA). You'll find open woodlands, savanna, tons of browse (yes, there are also the very non-natural food plots everywhere to fill in the gaps, but nothing is perfect.) It's no coincidence that this is also where they reintroduced elk. It is maybe the only forest system in Missouri that could support them without causing problems. It also seems to be excellent black bear habitat. It is the only place in Missouri I've seen bears on multiple occasions, and never once in the last decade have I visited without seeing at the minimum scat or other clear signs of their presence.
  3. Hey everyone. I realize it's been several years (at least) since I've been a regular here, but to those few of who have any idea who I am (and everyone else, of course), I hope you are all doing well and are healthy. It's been far too long since I've been able to wet a line in the Missouri Ozarks; I had a four day camping/floating trip on the 11 Point scheduled this month since literally last year. My folks and I were going to do the whole trout section and some smallie fishing dang near to the Arkansas border and were very excited about it...but my folks are a bit on the older side and have a few health conditions, so we decided to cancel it out of an abundance of caution, which broke my heart to a degree that is difficult to describe, but was probably a good call. In any case, here are a few pictures from my recent outings in and around Indiana, which, I'll stress, is not nearly as nice as the Ozarks. I miss you all, and I miss the Ozarks. Catch a whole bunch of fish, and be safe and healthy when I can finally come back to Missouri, ya'll.
  4. Hello, all. It's been a minute. I recently backpacked in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness for a few very chilly and snowy days, took a fly rod, and this forum came to mind when I got back. Here are some pictures. None of them are of the fish, because not one of the 7 or 8 cutties I caught was longer than the cork section of my fly-rod. Blame the snowmelt and the raging flows in the upper Arkansas watershed, or my thin backcountry fly-box at your discretion. Only place I found any feeding fish was in backwaters and beaver ponds. The elk outnumbered the folks we saw outside our party, 5-2. It was a hell of a trip, with several 14ers summited, a lot of avalanche debris waded through and plenty of use for the snowshoes.
  5. But more importantly, does the apostrophe come after the second "s" in his username, or do we add that third one in there?
  6. To answer the topic question, no, I don't buy Miller. Usually Blue Moon Wheat, Coors light on float trips. Pretty picture of an elk, though.
  7. It honestly didn't even look real. I've never seen a smallmouth anywhere near that big outside of a Bass Pro fishtank.
  8. I lost a monster a couple years back in the Big Piney that haunts my dreams (like, I've literally dreamt about it.) Couldn't have been any less than 6 pounds.
  9. That's awesome! I'm surprised by this. Used to hike out there all the time, beautiful area.
  10. OTF's Totally Arbitrary and Meaningless Standards 16-18"= "Good one" 18-20"="Holy crap!" 20-22"= "Welp, that's probably the biggest one I'm catching this year" 22+" I, uh, I don't have experience in this area.
  11. Do you mean Daniel Boone State Forest (between STL and CoMo) of Daniel Boone NF in Kentucky? If it's the latter, there a bunch on the hilltops around Cave Run Lake. I nearly got bitten on two occasions, but it was worth it. They're pretty cool critters.
  12. I realize this probably will not help, but I saw 7 this past summer in the mountains of eastern Kentucky (Daniel Boone National Forest, near Morehead, KY). Found them mostly in rocky, glade-like areas on mountaintops. Wasn't looking specifically for them...was just doing forestry research.
  13. Thanks! Pretty good morning on the water. Nothing of much size, but plenty of action all through. Best right around dawn, unsurprisingly. #16 bh hares ear the star performer. Hit both Baptist and Parker. A bit better at the former, I suppose, but not a real noticeable difference.
  14. Headed back to MO right now for a long weekend...planning to fish the upper Current at Baptist and/or Parker most of the day tomorrow. I'm intimately familiar with that stretch of river, but just curious about current (no pun intended) conditions. It's been ridiculously wet and cool where I've been this summer in Appalachia, but I understand it's a teensy bit different in the Ozarks. Just want to make sure I'm not gonna be fishing over a ridiculously low river/stressed fish, basically. I can pretty much handle it from there.
  15. That is not smart. Slight segue, but I saw a couple of timber rattlers early this morning on a rocky mountaintop in the Kentucky Appalachians. Managed to step out of the way in time. Afterwards I regretted not getting any pics, but in the moment I was fairly intent on getting myself and my crew out of there without any further excitement.
  16. SW Colorado is awesome. Great pics! Looks like you got into some really nice cutties.
  17. I don't particularly care about when/whether this is allowed for deer hunting, but I do get a bit annoyed when people use crossbows and other non-bow things during archery season and call it "bow-hunting". I'm fine with you doing it, I'm fine with it being legal, but it is not bow hunting.* It's like using a glo-ball under a bobber with a spinning rod in the fly area of montauk and calling it fly fishing. No problem with you doing it, but you are not fly fishing. *Doesn't apply to folks that are doing it for health/disability reasons.
  18. One of my field technicians this summer seemingly has dedicated his life to telling me that literally every thing I eat is going to give me cancer. I eventually had to resort to telling him that I regularly climb 14ers during the winter, rock climb, and whitewater kayak, and one of those things will probably get me first, so don't worry about it.
  19. It's pretty funny. One guy in particular I know has taken every different side of just about every hot button issue, just depending on who he's talking to. He could be a far-right fanatic or a flaming liberal any day of the week depending on who he's talking to. It's a talent, because his arguments usually are shockingly coherent and logical. I literally have no idea what his actual political beliefs are.
  20. Eh, it doesn't bother me. I have several friends that play devil's advocate to the point where it's an art form.
  21. Given that this thread is 12 pages long, are we actually sure that anyone has remained quiet?
  22. If there is one thing I'm gathering from this thread is that the term "waste" is pretty subjective when applied to the MDC. I believe this has been hinted at, but we all bring our own biases into the discussion. I'd say a majority of regular OAF users (at least that I regularly interact with, including myself) are very into smallmouth bass fishing. Therefore, most of us are going to look very favorably on projects that benefit smallmouth bass habitat, or prevent the poaching/illegal gigging/whatever else of the species. Many of the same folks (me included) are not big into, say, bird watching. Therefore you might be inclined to look at projects where a significant amount of money is being spent on non-game birds as a waste of money. But the problem is that the MDC represents a really broad constituency, namely, anyone in the state that uses or values natural resources, or the properties owned by MDC. And that constituency includes a hell of a lot of bird watchers. Heck, it includes people that are fascinating by insects, rare plants, any number of things that the average fisherman/hunter might easily be given a pass for considering pointless. Just as the MDC regularly has to (and does) throw bones to smallmouth bass fishermen and deer hunters, they have to do the same for these other groups. I'd be shocked if there aren't some folks out there who are interested in bird watching/hiking/etc who think that dumping a bunch of money on fish habitat is a waste. I just think, even if it's annoying, it's important to try to see the big picture and that we are not the only interest group that matters.
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