ozark trout fisher

In my opinion we should keep the bait areas on the trout parks the way they are. There does need to be some water for bait fisherman, and what better place than a stretch of stream that has it's population replenished on a daily basis? But I think it is outside of the parks that bait fishing does it's damage. I have no problem with bait fishing whatsoever ( I honestly think it's a respectable way to fish) but some of the smaller White Ribbon areas simply can't be exposed to serious meat getting techniques and still sustain quality fishing outside of the week of a stocking. As Outside Bend himself pointed out, trout water in Missouri is a finite resource. Managing some of that resource in a way that causes the trout population to be extremely unstable is a great waste of that resource.

Tommorrow's low is 38 degrees, with the lows for the next several days getting down into the upper 30s. How do you all think that will affect the fishing? Just last night I was out, and it was 65 degrees, and I was catching bass and bluegill on hoppers one after another. This morning when I woke up, it was in the 40s. I'm afraid we may be coming towards the end of our warmwater fly fishing as well as terrestrial fishing-it was sure good while it lasted! Oh well-fall brings it's own opportunities for good fishing-just a month and a 1/2 until Catch and Release season at the trout parks.

I actually agree with JD on this... I wish there wasn't reception on any of our trout streams. That way I'd be telling the truth when I say "I can't be reached." Fishing and cell phones don't go together.

That place looks pretty neat. I've seen some pictures and talked to folks that have fished there, and everyone has said it is good. But as I've said before, I refuse to pay for fishing access-so I'll have to take their word for it. Nothing wrong with a place like that, just not my cup of tea.

The Current River is fishing really well with Hare's Ear Nymphs, hoppers, and ants according to my experience and the others I've talked to below the park. There seems to be a higher than usual number of browns in the river right now, although maybe a few less rainbows. But that's just my experience.I don't know anything about inside the park-I haven't fished there since June. I'm sure there will be plenty of fish, but why bother with the crowds when you have 15 miles of relatively uncrowded trout water downstream from there?

I'd be interested to see what the results of the shock-up was. Last number I saw for the Current River's Blue Ribbon stretch was 294 per mile, but that was a couple years back. And I think that year the population was down because of low water.

Sounds like fun. That's odd about the smallies-I was down at Parker the weekend before last and didn't see or catch any-I never have on the Blue Ribbon stretch of the Current. But then I fish mostly the fast water where there wouldn't be many smallies anyway.

I'm not saying that it is the MDC's intent to stock trout as a "protein supplement".That's just how it ends up when you allow people to keep 4 fish a day without any size limit. A lot of the catch and keep guys I see on Missouri trout streams don't seem to be out there for sport so much as to fill up a cooler of trout for themselves and their buddies. Hence the "protein supplement" comment. I'd rather see our trout being caught and released for someone else to catch than unceremoniously thrown in a cooler. It's not wrong to keep a trout or two for dinner when it's legal-I'm not opposed to that, but I don't like to see trout management that involves most of the stream's trout ending up dead in coolers.I'm not trashing the MDC. They do a good job generally, better than most states. But it still could be better, although it may be asking too much. As for what you said attracting kids to our sport, and not scaring them away with tight regs-that's a fair point.Let kids 12 and under keep a limit of four fish and use any kind of bait they want. I don't have a problem with that. All that said, I do think Troutfiends idea for having short 1/2 mile C&R areas within regular white ribbon stretches is probably the best idea. It's not exactly what I would like to see, but it's better than the status quo, and it would be a lot more likely to pass the public opinion test that is involved with any new hunting or fishing regulation.

I just think that White Ribbon (put and take) management is based on an outdated concept. It's based on the concept that trout are stocked as a protein supplement instead of a sport fish. Take the White Ribbon stretch of the Roubidoux and the Blue Ribbon stretch of the Little Piney. The habitat is pretty near the same-they are both smallish freestone rivers with a good constant spring-flow, and occasional thermal problems in the summer. But one is managed as a White Ribbon area. It has lots of trout and trout-park like crowds for a week after stocking, and after that it's all you can do to find a few left overs. On Little Piney, there is good year-round fishing for wild rainbows. There might be less trout there than on the Roubidoux the day after a big stocking, but there are always fishable numbers of trout around. I'd rather have all our streams have steady trout populations than the huge variation you see on White Ribbon areas. I'd also like to see the trout have a chance to grow and reproduce. Maybe not all White Ribbon areas should be eliminated. There are some stream stretches like White Ribbon stretch of the Little Piney (it gets way too warm in the summer) or Stone Mill Spring (there's just not enough water there to support a resident population) But the streams that can support wild or holdover trout management should be allowed to do so.

That's how I understood that as well.

I don't know anything about Capp's Creek myself having never fished it, but this is what the MDC had to say about it on their "fishing prospects" page. "A 2009 population survey confirmed previous tagging study information which indicated that rainbow trout are rapidly removed by anglers between stockings as only 9 rainbow trout were captured." That's pretty powerful evidence against White Ribbon management as it's done now. If what the MDC says is true, these fish aren't "spread out", they are dead, in freezers with very few exceptions. It's not acceptable to manage a fishery in that way.

I like both of those ideas a lot.

Fly fishing only in Missouri doesn't mean fly fishing only. It just means that you have to use single hooked lures and no soft plastics-and preferably there should be a feather on their somewhere, although I'm not entirely sure if that's even required. Most single hooked spinning lures comply, including some spinners and spoons, as well as all marabou jigs. There are some states (mostly out east) where fly fishing is really the only method allowed on the best stretches of river- you have to be using a fly rod and reel. That's not fish management but class warfare, and I wouldn't support that. Drew03, I see what you're saying about trout stocking in MO being unnatural. What you said is a valid point, but I don't see Missouri's trout going anywhere soon, and it would make a lot of people pretty sad if they did. And also, I think trout could sustain themselves in a lot more places if they were allowed. It's just that the harvest pressure is pretty tremendous on most of our trout waters.

The MDC does a great job managing our trout streams, but I still like to harbor the delusion in my mind that I have a better plan, which is almost surely not the case. Here are a few suggestions of mine. 1. I'll start with an easy one: I'd like to see at least a short catch and release fly only area at the trout parks that don't already have one-I believe Bennett Spring and Maramec Spring are the guilty parties here. On Maramec Spring, I would make the stretch from the "legal fishing boundary" wire downstream to the first rock dam catch and release fly only. This is only a short stretch of water. It is immensely appealing to fly anglers, but difficult for bait guys to fish effectively anyway. I'm not sure where the C&R area should go on Bennett Spring, but I'm sure an appropriate place could be found. 2.I'd like to see one more trout stream managed as a wild trout, public access Blue Ribbon fishery in the near future. Possible candidates for this include Roubidoux Creek, Dry Creek (I know some possibly expensive land acquisitions would have to be made to make that work),or maybe one of the southwestern streams like Capps or Hickory. 3. I really wish they could find a way to stock between Pulltite and Akers on the Current. That is a stretch of stream with the potential to grow truly big trout if only they were stocked. Big numbers wouldn't be needed-just 2500 or so off the top of Montauk Park's fish would be plenty. Well, I'm done playing fishery biologist for the evening. I hope this post provide others with entertainment if nothing else.

Funny! When there are lots of hoppers in those rivers up there, those fish go crazy. Everyone talks about the salmonfly hatch-I'd take a good day of hopper fishing above that any day.

I love that area of Montana, but the question is not whether the wind will blow, but how hard. On the bright side,maybe the wind will blow some hoppers in the water if they're still around up there...

Sunklands Conservation area-there's not a trail there that I know if, it was more of a bushwhack. It's a nice area to hike (I only did a 4 mile round trip loop from a little county road down to the river), but it did involve busting through some pretty thick clear-cuts, so it takes longer than you'd think. Where I hiked in to the river, there was a really cool old house that appeared to be from the 1800s in the last stages of deterioration.

Beautiful pics. The Current is the prettiest stream I've ever been on.

Yeah, it was a good time. I love the Current and the area that surrounds it. The chili was right out of the can-not the most flavorful stuff, but taste is the last thing your thinking about when you're that hungry.... Cricket, I more than willing to admit that the White Ribbon stretch of the Current has more to it than I was able to find in one evening. I never really judge a stretch of stream by the first time I fish it, and it did look like there was some potential there. I was just enjoying a nice evening fishing, and I didn't really fish really fish that stretch real hard-I was just relating what I found. Anyway, I'll be back down there and maybe I'll find it to be different then

Favorite fishing season... The dead of winter in late December, January, and February. There are no crowds, and the trout fishing is as good as it gets on the Current and other similar streams. The fish are eating egg patterns like nobody's business, and it's possible to go out there on a terrible, nasty, cold, wet day, with icicles shooting down from the bluffs, and catch 40 or 50 trout pretty much all by yourself, all while freezing your butt off. It just doesn't get any better than that. But I like the entire year... The seasons change the character of the fishing and the experience, but there are unique things to see and good fishing to be had 12 months a year.

I spent this weekend in the Ozarks, first hiking through a large Conservation area in the Current River hills Saturday morning, and secondly trout fishing on the Current Saturday afternoon and this morning. The hike I took was along the middle Current, so in the interest of having some time to fish, I decided to stop at the Welch Spring Access for the evening instead of driving all the way up to Baptist Camp. I've never fished at Welch, and the river was pretty different there than the Montauk/Tan Vat/Baptist Camp area. Fishing it was more like fishing a big Western river than the upper Current I'm used to. The river was very pretty and not that crazy either, because most of the canoe crowd was off the river by the time I started at 6:30 P.M. I started off with a #12 Olive Woolly Bugger drifted under an indicator and never switched it. The fishing was definitely alright-and the surroundings were very nice, but the quality of angling was definitely less than that of the Blue Ribbon section.The habitat certainly looked like it was there- I suspect the difference has more to do with the fact that this part of the stream probably gets hit pretty hard by the meat hunters. By dark, I managed to catch a half a dozen fish, all stocker rainbows in the 12-14 inch range. I was totally satisfied and happy with the day, even if the fishing could have been a little better. I went and found the first pull-off on national park land that didn't say no camping (I avoid noisy campgrounds whenever humanly possible), heated up a can of Campbell's Chili and hit the sack. The next morning I decided to try the Parker Hollow Access up in the Blue Ribbon stretch. I just wasn't up for the crowds that I knew I'd find at Baptist Camp or Tan Vat, and I figured the canoes wouldn't be around until at least late morning all the way down at Parker. I guess I didn't really expect much out of the fishing-the pool at the access looked pretty slow, shallow, and stagnant. But as I worked away from the access point, I started finding some good water and found some fish. One fast riffle was particulartly good to me; I managed to land a dozen trout out of in about an hour. I was fishing a heavy nymph rig pretty much all day (a San Juan Worm, a #18 Hare's Ear dropper, and a couple split shot) and that was all I needed. I really like fishing the "heavy water" on the Current, the deep, fast stuff where you really have to have your fly on the bottom to do any good. The places I spend my time on that river are usually the kind of areas that most fisherman pass up- the shallow riffles and fast rips that maybe only have a couple fish holding places. But if you find a stretch of water that is generally too fast to hold fish, you can often find one or two swirling eddies where the water slows down or even flows upstream. On the upper Current (and on any other trout stream I've fished) the trout really congregate in those areas. Sure, there are fish in the deep, luxurious holes, but those places also get fished by everyone that comes through. Just a thought for the next time you're fishing the Current. Anyway, it was a nice weekend on the river-stream conditions are very good, kind of low water, but not bad at all.

You know, I was re-reading this post, and I thought to myself "holy crap, I sound like a mean-spirited grumpy old man." So I apologize. That post was over the top, and I can see that within about five minutes of writing it. I believe what I believe, but there's no reason for a post to be as negative and accusatory as this one a topic like this.

My understanding of economics is probably about average, but my understand of the motivation of the average float-tripper is pretty good. I know that the majority of the party floaters that go down the river wouldn't bother if they had to arrange the shuttle and come up with a boat themselves. Is it just a coincidence that rivers with no canoe rentals are far less crowded than say, the Current River? To use an example, the Big Piney, in just about every way I can wrap my head around, is much the same as the upper Current. There both spring-fed, pretty streams that have great scenery, good fishing, and a nice perenial flow. But one (the upper Current) is littered with canoe rentals, and isn't even worth fishing or floating in the summer time, unless your goal is to see as many fat,drunk people in bikinis as possible. You don't see much wildlife either, because the hundreds of people that already floated by have scared them. The other, the Big Piney, just has a couple small-time outfitters. I floated it once this summer for two days and only saw 7 or 8 other people, and plenty of wildlife. Canoe rentals make a difference, make not mistake about it. I'm done ranting about it because there isn't a darn thing I can do about it. But I just hate seeing our rivers commercialized in a way that is so detrimental to nature and those who want to experience it in a somewhat natural way. I don't have a problem with sharing the river, but I don't like it when people put hundreds of party floaters on one stretch of stream just to make some dough.

I'm not even saying at this point that there is a legal gray area. With the facts in this specific case being what they are, it is more than likely legal to charge access fees. I just don't like it when streams and other natural resources are made into objects to profit from. That mentality hurts our rivers. Look at the Meramec or the Current on a summer weekend. The huge crowds are there because a canoe rental is making money off the river. And those crowds ruin the experience for people that just want a quiet trip on a pretty stream. Don't complain about the riff-raff when you own a canoe rental. As an outfitter, you bring in plenty of folks that I'd rather not see on the river too.

I really do feel for you on the difficulties that you experience. It really is a bummer that people trash the place and take your stuff. That's the kind of crap that ruins the relations between landowners and fisherman/floaters in the Ozarks. That said, I'm pretty tired of paying for what some irresponsible people do. Whenever I get into a discussion about property/river access rights, the landowners always point out that they have to deal with a lot of irresponsible people, slobs that litter, take too many fish, etc. But I don't do any of those things. I will pick up the litter I see and I'll release my fish. Why should I have to pay $10 for the idiots? Ten dollars honestly isn't an excessive amount, it's just the idea of paying to fish a navigable stream. I'm just not going to do it. If I have to pay for access, I'm going to fish or put in the canoe somewhere else. No disrespect intended. I just have a strict personal policy against paying for access. It just doesn't feel right to me. All of my jerk opinions aside, if the highway easement isn't usable (I'm not familiar with the 8 Bridge on the Huzzah), then you more than likely do have the right to charge, at least legally. I was under the impression before it was pointed out otherwise that you were charging people to use the highway easement, which would be totally illegal and generally uncool. But apparently that's not the case, so I do apologize for that.