ozark trout fisher

Every once in awhile you run across a creek in the Ozarks that, by all appearances, should be great, and has nice looking habitat, but just doesn't produce worth a darn. I always tend to think I did something wrong the first time, and come back because I think there must be potential there. Sometimes there is, but other times, there are just stretches of creek that are basically barren and it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. Although other times its pretty obvious. The Little Piney is one of my favorite streams, both in the lower sections for smallmouth bass, and up above Vida Slab for trout. But in between there are some pretty long stretches of water that, for a fisherman's purposes might as well not even exist. Wide, shallow, exposed, nothing that would even suggest it's worth a cast in passing. The reason there (and many, many other creeks like it) is pretty obviously cattle destroying the banks and instream habitat, but I don't know if that applies on your creek.

Sounds like a good day to me. I too have been having the vast majority of my success this year with Ned Rigs, tubes, and other soft plastics. And I much prefer fishing crankbaits, spinnerbaits, etc. and usually only turn to soft plastics when nothing else is working. Not exactly sure why it's playing out that way.

Doesn't ring a bell, but I wasn't around all day either on Friday.

He apparently has a dozen+ wildlife/fishing violations pending total, not counting his most recent adventure. Obviously he's a jackwagon, but the much more salient takeaway is that he seems exceptionally bad at getting away with anything, ever.

Thanks. The Huzzah is one of those creeks that has never fished particularly well for me, but is just too darn pretty to give up on. And I've heard more than enough stories to the contrary that I'm sure I'm just not getting the best out of it. Headed back to the Ozarks tomorrow. for reasons that are work related, but may still result in a line getting wet a time or two. With any luck I might have another report within a day or three.

The Bluff really did make for a pretty amazing backdrop. The over-used "the fishing kinda sucked, but it was nice to get out" line actually applies.

I understand people not wanting to deal with bears. But it would make more sense if we didn't have things that could "get" you in the woods already. Mosquitos and ticks with variously awful diseases? Check. Wildly unpredictable weather that can lead to lighting strikes, tornadoes, and flash flooding? Check? Copperheads? Check? Rattlesnakes? Check. A recent, and highly unpleasant encounter drove that point home with authority. Methheads with questionable agendas riding around your campsite at 2 AM in the middle of nowhere? Check. Plenty of things can ruin your day in the Ozarks. It is not as "friendly" as you think. Even a fully functional population of black bears, which like to run away from you any chance they get, would be pretty far down the list of things I'd worry about.

I managed to get over to the upper Huzzah for Thursday and Friday. I've gotten plenty of time in the Ozarks this spring/early summer, and plenty of fishing in, but this was the first time for awhile I got to take a couple days, check out a new stretch of creek, and really put in some hours on the water. I ended up over at Red Bluff on Thursday morning with a kayak and some vague plans for a quick (because the water, while crystal clear, was up and moving at a pretty good clip) 8ish mile float, but for reasons that aren't worth going into that never materialized. Luckily, there is no shortage of water that is reachable from Red Bluff to a wade fisherman who is willing to bust a little brush, so it didn't turn out to be much of a problem. When the Huzzah isn't crowded (and it wasn't, this high up, on a rainy weekday) it is always a joy to fish. Red Bluff Campgrounds namesake is really impressive, both from the stream and from Red Bluff trail. The creek (despite what felt at the time like about 40 inches of rainfall due to a cloud that kindly decided to sit over Steelville and not move for the better part of the day) was crystal clear, there was plenty of holding water, in all, the perfect place to be on an early June day.. Oh, and the fishing sucked. I'm not going to say the fish weren't there, because they were. I could see them. The problem is that many of the smallies were on their beds, and that's a game I prefer to avoid playing if I can. Given the relatively small size of the stream and the total, glass-like clarity, I did my best to stay away from the beds and specifically target fish that were actively feeding. I don't need to tell any smallie fisherman that this isn't the most effective way to go about it, but did find some success, even if it was more work than I'm used to. But it was spotty. I'm a guy who tends to pick one thing that's working at stick with it most if not all day, but I went through the tackle box three times by the end of the trip. Almost nothing completely failed to work, and absolutely nothing established even close to consistent success. I'd had some successful days recently on other bodies of water, but sometimes you need a reminder we still have a ways until the glory days of midsummer smallie fishing when hand-over-fist results are the expectation. The size of the fish caught wasn't bad, but not spectacular. 9-14 inches on average, the usual drill. I hooked one that may have been 16-17 inches, but that was about it. But if I have to endure a couple rain-soaked days of iffy fishing, doing it on a pretty, clear little creek under Red Bluff might be the best way to do it.

No. The MDC may make the rules but once the cases get tied up in county courts there isn't a ton they can do. I seriously doubt anyone within that agency is satisfied with this legal outcome. I am simply making the point that outside of the MDC, such assaults against natural resources are not regarded as a serious transgression. This ranges from the legislature on down to rural court systems. It is a massive problem and I can't begin to see where a solution is coming from.

If it was significantly more expensive for me to replace the flat tire I popped crossing the low-water a couple weeks ago than it is for this lovely person to pay the fine for killing a large native carnivore that is in the middle of a long, slow process of reintroducing itself to Missouri, there might be a problem with how our lawmakers value our natural resources.

I'm not particularly gloomy. I just think the offense is still going to be pretty young next year. You don't go from dead last in a whole lot of categories to being a top-50 offense, and honestly, I'd take a top-100 performance given the fact that we have to replace almost the whole ( admittedly crappy) o-line. The defense will be really good, but improving on a top-5 defense is never a given, especially when there are coaching changes. The team will be better, and I think they'll get to a bowl against a brutal schedule, which is fine for year 1. I think 2017 is the year that potentially sets up to be really good. Lock will be a junior (and hopefully an NFL prospect) , as will most of our current receivers, much of the defensive line should still be more or less intact....with Beckner terrorizing opposing offenses. If you're Barry Odom, you're probably seeing that year as your chance to get back to the top of the SEC East and perhaps even be in the playoff talk for a minute or two. 2016 should just be about making offensive improvements and getting back to the postseason.

The Barry Odom hire....I just have no idea how it's going to work out. On one hand, as many have pointed out, he's been amazing at almost every coaching job he's ever gotten his hands on. On the other, he's a first time HC in a conference where first-time HCs tend to get their butts handed to them. There's no telling. The team next year has a chance to be decent, but with a non-conference game against West Virginia and a game at LSU in cross-divisional play, will it matter? I honestly don't know. The offense literally cannot be worse (they flirted with last in most offensive categories in all of college football in 2015) and in theory, the defense shouldn't take a huge step back. I see a modest rebound in 2015 regardless of coaching. Even if the offense only improves to 80th to 90th, and even with a harder schedule, the defense probably gets us back to bowl eligibility. But that's about all you could ask in Barry Odom's first season. 6-6 and a bowl game. Anything else is gravy.

Not a good way to end the Pinkel era. I'm still very thankful for what he did. With that disclaimer, the team didn't show up in Fayetteville on Friday. While the offense was the main problem of course, the defense didn't play anywhere near good enough against the run. And every time Brandon Allen rolled out of the pocket, you knew it was going to be a completion for a first down. Barry Odom should be considered, but I'm in no way wedded to him. First time HCs tend to struggle in the SEC, and it might take years for Odom to get the hang of things. Do we have time to let him learn on the job? I'm honestly not sure. I think we need to look at the mid-major head coaches, which Rhoades is apparently doing (he interviewed Matt Campbell at Toledo before he signed with Iowa State, and Temple's Matt Rhule is in the running as well.) I also think you hit up established head coaches who are known to be having issues with their AD. That could include Sonny Dykes at Cal and Dana Holgerson at West Virginia...possibly even Mark Richt if the UGA administration makes him feel enough heat. They probably don't up and leave for Missouri, but they might, and they are the kind of "sure thing" that Missouri could really use right now. You know they can recruit at a power 5 level and field teams good enough to make bowl games in the SEC east. That would be huge. The other question is whether Mizzou accepts a bowl bid at 5-7. Given the way last weekend shook out, it's a virtual certainty that they will be offered, most likely to the Independence Bowl, as there simply will not be enough .500 teams (and Mizzou's academic rankings put them near the front of the line as a replacement team). The question is whether the old staff (now led by Andy Hill) will want to coach one more game. I'm a football addict, so I'm sure I'd end up watching us play Central Michigan, or whatever. But I understand if the clamor to see this Mizzou team play again is less than deafening.

Tomorrow is Gary Pinkel's last home game at Mizzou. I don't think there's any question that he's not only the best coach in Mizzou history, but, given the state of the Missouri program when he came, and where he got it, an all time great on a national level. .At this point it''s awfully hard to process the idea of Missouri football without him on the sideline. After a rough season like this, we've always been able to say, "well, Pinkel will get it figured out" and really believe it. We've been really lucky to have that for fifteen years. That loyalty (doing things like reportedly turning down the Michigan job to stay in Columbia) might be my favorite thing about him. With all that said, the game Saturday is tremendously important, and they are going to have to channel all that emotion very well if they expect to compete. To make the postseason this game is basically a must-win. You don't like to stake everything on a Post-Thanksgiving trip to an SEC West stadium. Last time we tried that the opposing quarterback won a Heisman partially off our performance. It's just really hard to see Missouri winning that Arkansas game, but this weekend presents a much more interesting opportunity. Tennessee comes in as an 8 point favorite, and that sounds about right. They are good, better than Missouri for certain, but they are far from unbeatable. They've almost beaten Oklahoma, did beat Georgia, and nearly took out Alabama...but nearly blew a home game against a South Carolina team that even Missouri handled rather easily, and failed to dominate a terrible North Texas team last week. So if the recent Tennessee team shows up Missouri can hang around and potentially steal it late. The offensive line must play better, or at minimum, as well, as they played against BYU. If you can make Hansbrough at least a credible threat, that opens up some play-action passes that Lock needs to take advantage of. If that happens, Missouri is probably in it for four quarters, and may well get itself bowl eligible. I think Missouri plays hard and gives everything for Pinkel. I'm not sure it equals a win. My prediction is Tennessee 19, Missouri 15 (our games have weird scores this year) but the result could easily be flipped.

Barry Odom seems like the default choice right now. Mack Rhoades is going to want to kick the tires on some big names in his first coaching search at MU, but there's still a strong likelihood that this is where we end up. And certainly Odom seems like a good choice. This Missouri defense should have taken a big step back given the losses to the NFL/graduation, but if anything it's gotten better. Sure, some of that is on DL coach Kuligowski, but it hardly matters, because he probably stays if Odom gets the promotion. Odom can also probably keep Mizzou's recruiting class together, assuming he retains the rest of the current staff (probably promoting Kuligowski to DC), and prevent transfers from occurring. That's a big deal, because as bad as this season has been, there is plenty coming back next season to have the potential to return to the top 2-3 of the SEC east. With that said, if Odom is retained, I do think you have to consider whether a change at OC is in order. I don't like to advocate firing coaches, but I'm not sure Henson has warranted another season running the offense. Obviously you'd expect Tom Herman and Justin Fuente to get calls. And if you can hire either of them, you probably do it. I also think it would be wise to wait until the end of the season to see if any big-time names are available. Coaches like Mark Richt and Les Miles have won tons of games and SEC titles, and due to the....let's be nice and say unstable...fanbases in Athens and Baton Rouge, there is a scenario where BOTH are looking for a new home, and possibly wanting to stay in the SEC. Unrelated: if Mizzou's season hasn't been weird enough, there are rumblings that this team could be headed to a bowl game...even if they lose out an finish 5-7. In their infinite wisdom, the NCAA now has 80 bowl slots to fill with 128 total FBS teams to fill them. That's bad math. 80 teams have never become eligible in a season, and it's unlikely to happen in 2015. Teams like Nebraska and Missouri who are likely to finish 5-7, but could still be expected to sell some tickets at bowl games, may not have to worry about winning another game. Of course the idea of making Pinkel lead a 5-7 team to an empty Independence Bowl Stadium in his last game as Mizzou coach is not appealing. So here's to either getting a 6th win and making it to the postseason the right way or ending this thing in Fayetteville next weekend in front of a full stadium in a game that actually matters.

YEP. Lymphoma is darn serious. And Pinkels hand was apparently forced by his diagnosis being leaked to the press. A little empathy would seem to be in order.

Yep. For whatever reason a whole lot of coaches at good programs have been fired/resigned/retired by this point in the season, at schools that will be competing with Mizzou for its next head coaching candidate. These keeps those schools from getting too much of a jump. But more than that, this is cancer we're talking about, not someone retiring because they're tired or ready to move on. "Selfishness" regarding the remainder of the season is extraordinarily insignificant.

As a lifelong Mizzou fan living in CoMo, the events of the past week have left me pretty drained. A lot of good things happened, a lot of terrible things happened, and my head will be spinning for awhile. Check back with me in a few weeks and I will have started to make sense of it. Maybe. Here's a list of just a few of the things we've been through: 1. Our chancellor and president resigned within 24 hours of each other. 2. Multiple threats (thank God, none of which turned into violent acts) all but shut down the university for a day, and had everyone who was around was way too tense. 3. It looked like we were not going to play a major, nationally televised football game. 4. Our all-time great coach resigned due to cancer. 5. We went out and won said football game despite being significant underdogs, salvaging hope of one last postseason appearance for Pinkel. 6. Somewhere in there basketball played (and won) its first two games of the season. Usually that's the highlight. As it stands, I'm not sure anyone noticed. I'm exhausted right now, far too much so to even state a coherent opinion on campus events, let alone engage in an argument. I've heard enough yelling the past few days to last a lifetime. But I still love this place.

I hope you are right, Al. After the way this football season has gone, I really need basketball to generate some good feelings. I'd be thrilled with a .500 record and a finish close to the middle of the pack in the SEC. The non-conference schedule is going to prevent anything like a run to 20 wins, but a much improved team can find wins against the underbelly against the SEC. We'll see if we have that as soon as November 13th. That home game against Wofford is a pretty good measuring stick. They are a pretty good team and Mizzou will probably be underdogs. A win there shows me they are probably improved. A loss doesn't end the season by any stretch, but I think it would rightfully have some fans bracing for a long year. As for the protest going on with football...there is no need to panic right now. The administration needs to treat them with respect and make it obvious they are hearing the concerns of the players involved. It can't just be lip service. If that happens (or much, much worse) the players are punished, dismissed, etc, there will be a PR disaster that could end the careers of the current administration and signal the beginning of the end of the Pinkel era. On the other hand, a quick firing or resignation of Tim Wolfe would unequivocally show that the football team has WAY too much power over the structure of an entire university system. If anything, this protest makes it impossible for the university to do the "easy" thing and send Wolfe on his way. That would be a huge PR hit, too.. So yeah, the powers that be at Mizzou are going to have to tread really lightly here. But that's what Wolfe and Loftin are paid the big bucks to be able to do. I feel that significant changes can be made without a wholesale firing of the leaders of the UM-system. They've got to figure out what that looks like. My guess is that there will be some resolution that allows the team to play Saturday. There is way too much money on the line, even though the game itself is basically meaningless for both teams. Lastly, I really hope we can discuss this without racial epithets and other ugliness getting brought into play. If that can't happen I'll immediately show myself out.

Huge game tomorrow. Mizzou gets back into the east race with a win....with a loss, the rest of the season basically comes down to whether we play in the Independence Bowl or the Music City Bowl. It's not a must win, given the result last week. Mizzou can still cobble together 7-8 wins with a loss. But if this season is to be more than that they've got to find a way to pull the upset. It's probably too much to expect Drew Lock to play great against this kind of defense, so our running game has to keep the offense ahead of the chains, and our own defensive line has to wreak havoc on Florida's own freshman QB. Honestly, I think this is a terrible matchup for a freshman QB and a struggling offense. BUT it is a night game, and homecoming, so there is the possibility of some magic. The smart pick is Florida, something along the lines of 24-14, but this defense is capable of shutting Florida down if they play to their potential. Do that, and a low scoring, ugly Mizzou win is absolutely on the table.

I actually get your point, but there are a lot of key differences for me. Most importantly, Green-Beckham was accused (and based on that police report, was in all likelihood guilty of) a violent crime, and worse a violent crime against a woman. Even the more wild of the rumors I've heard about Mauk don't go nearly that far. Wanna know why I'm glad the program is being somewhat protective of him right now, though? That man is going through things right now that no one should have to go to. He was suspended literally the day after his dad had cancer surgery, and whatever he did, I'm feel safe in guessing it was probably a dumb, emotional reaction to that situation. It's likely that his suspension was well-earned, but I see no use in dragging him through the mud. I do think this is going to cost him the starting quarterback job on a very permanent basis (even assuming he returns at some point this season.) That's punishment enough.

Well, the SEC is completely turned on its side at this point. We all had to know Ole Miss wasn't going to keep playing great (a good start for them almost always means an equal or greater collapse following it) but what Florida did to them was still pretty shocking. Meanwhile, we now know that Georgia is still pretty good, but they are not the elite team we thought in the early season. They are imminently beatable. Then you have supposed SEC east darkhorse Tennessee blowing its second straight game against a team it was expected to beat. They are now well out of the divisional race and might struggle to get bowl eligible. They need to improve just to keep Butch Jones off the hotseat, let alone meet expectations. Honestly, that Florida/Mizzou game is pretty big. The winner might be the division favorite, because I'm not sure it's still Georgia. And yes, we actually have to seriously consider the possibility that Kentucky could make it to Atlanta. So yeah we aren't gonna have much of a clue for awhile.

No one outside of the football program seems to know. There are a lot of disgusting, unsourced rumors going around around from the underbelly of our fanbase that I won't aid in passing on. All we know is that it wasn't a legal issue.

This is why Pinkel is a good coach. Just when everyone thinks Mizzou is dead the past couple of years they come back with a performance like this. I still don't think this team is going to Atlanta (or getting particularly close) but this win was very likely the difference in getting bowl eligible or ending the season in early December. If this team can hit 8 wins in the regular season that will be a great success. Beat Florida next week and we'll be on track for that.

I agree that the fans that boo Mauk (or any other player on our team) suck. I had the misfortune to be standing near quite a few of them at the game, and it took all the restraint I've got to keep my mouth shut. Booing your own team/coach/players should really be saved for the most extreme of circumstances. Like if that player has committed a violent crime in the recent past. Or the coach has been physically abusing his players. Or your head coach is Lane Kiffin. Or you are a Kansas fan at any point since about 2008. We can't check off any of those boxes My lack of concern primarily comes from how low-pressure this season is. The last two years have been so good and the attrition so extreme in a few position groups that I can totally accept what's going on, frustrating as it is. If this team just gets to 6-7 wins we can all be shrug our shoulders and move onto next season, which should be pretty good. Even a 4-8, 5-7 type face-plant would have to feel like little more than a bump on the road. This is a rebuilding year. There will be some good moments and a lot of bad, before we have another shot at a 10-win type of campaign in 2015 with a more seasoned roster. When you look at the bigger picture everything is still pretty much on track.