ozark trout fisher

Welcome to the forum Happy fishing

If your looking for good fishing books, Ray Bergman is your guy. He wrote two amazing books, Freshwater Bass, and Trout. In my opinion, they are the two best fishing books ever written. The writing style is really easy to read, and most importantly, the fishing advice is still very relavent, although both books were written in the 1940s. These are great books, written by a true legend. They are absolutely a must have for any fisherman. Happy fishing

Glad to hear it. I understand some fly fisherman being upset by me using a spinning rod in a traditional fly fishing area, but I feel it is my right as long as I stay in the law. A few weeks ago I would have wished that fly only areas didn't exist at all. But after a couple of trips to Montauk experiencing the rudeness of some in the bait area, I definitely want to keep those fly/artificial only areas. I really like the C&R area. Heck, one kinda clueless lady asked me when I was there if I was fishing in the hatchery, which is I guess a reasonable mistake based on the number of fish in the Catch and Release Area at Montauk. You can't hardly make a cast without hitting one, but yet they still managed to be pretty hard to catch.

Yep, the more people who comment the better. Just like the less chance of getting hit by a jet boat in skinny water is all the better LOL.

I have two questions regarding the legality of different fishing methods at Montauk. 1. Is it legal to wade out in the fly area with bait rigged on, and cast below the dam where bait is legal? I can't imagine it is, but I saw several people doing it last weekend. I thought about saying something to them, but since I wasn't 100& sure, I chose not to. 2. Is it legal to spin fish with marabou jigs in the C&r area? I was pretty sure marabou jigs were considered flies. So I used them to catch trout up there in the catch and release area, but I got yelled at by someone telling me that it was fly fishing only, and that I'd better not be using my spinning rod. He threatened to report me even after I explained that I was pretty sure I was legal, but I don't think he actually did, as I saw him go in the opposite direction of the hatchery office... In any case, I continued to spin fish for several more hours there, and I didn't get any visits by a conservation agent. I think I'm in the right on this one, as I checked the regulations twice before I did it.

Some folks hate for me to even mention this, but I will anyway. If the water is high and muddy, you just can't beat nightcrawlers for those smallies. I know its not up everyones alley, but I will tell you that you will probably catch fish that way, pretty much regardless of the water level. It should be said that you will have to pick a lot of other species off your hook besides bass. You'll probably catch goggle eye, suckers,bluegill, and catfish. I consider that a good thing myself, but some folks don't like it. Of course if you get water that isn't muddy, the regular line of soft plastics, spinnerbaits, and small crankbaits will work fine. I wish I could tell you what the water is like, but I haven't been by there in awhile, as I've been spending all my time at Little Piney and Montauk lately. The Meramec is running 889 CFS at Steelville currently, which is high, but it should be at least moderately fishable by Friday presuming no significant rain. I wouldn't expect gin clear water though.

One time I fished Joachim at Festus. Pretty easily wadeable. Where I fished it was pretty slow, and I only caught largemouth and channel cats. With that said, Joachim further upstream is a special smallmouth area, so one would expect there would be a good population.

Sorry about your rod. I've done that before myself. Don't be too embarassed. Oh well &!%$ happens.

I'm gonna have to agree with you on that one

Lets just hope it was a heron..................... Trout giggers make me sick. It seems like it would be pretty tough to accidentally gig a trout, you would have to be pretty bad at identifying fish. I'm not against gigging, just against the ones who gig trout, smallmouth, etc. If your not sure what it is, don't gig. Better to miss one sucker than to gig a trout or smallmouth. Not being able to identify fish properly is no excuse in my mind. No better than doing it on purpose. The end result is the same... A dead gamefish that doesn't need to be.

There was a lack of foresight, I'll agree. But don't be too quick to dismiss the MDC as "another bad government agency". What they have done for this state is pretty incredible, excellent fishing and hunting despite the fact that we don't have as many natural resources as some Rocky Mountain or Appalachian states do. So another words, I agree with all but your last sentence.

So has anyone fished it?

I was fishing the Little Piney a bit last weekend, and I was wondering if there was any fishing to be had up in Lane Spring Branch. It looks big enough to hold a few wild trout, and I would certainly think cold enough, but who knows. I looked in the regs book, and noticed that the spring branch is part of the Blue Ribbon Area. So is it public, and are there fish? Just so you all know I always fish c&r only in little creeks like that. Thanks for any info you can give. If anyone doesn't feel like telling me on a public forum, feel free to PM me.

Bryant Creek is nice. I floated/fished it a few years back. I didn't kill the fish or anything, but got a few nice smallies, and man was the solitude nice. Its hard to come by in many ozark streams these days.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Lots of boat traffic, but also lots of smallmouth bass and walleye.

Some of our streams definitely are supported by natural reproduction. Just an example, some folks think most of the trout in the wild trout section of the Little Piney are stockies from the White Ribbon area, but I have honestly caught more 3 to 7 inchers than anything else, so I think that kinda disproves that theory. I know that that is a little off topic, but wild rainbows definitely do spawn enough to keep up populations in Missouri. I believe the 1% survival statistic means that only 1 percent of the eggs of a given fish survive NOT that only 1/100th of the trout spawn successfully. Considering how many eggs a trout lays each spawn, that should explain how this works. At least thats my take on this.

24" bass, 3" live sunfish.

Well, I left the house at 2:30 on Friday to head down to Montauk for some trout fishing. At the last moment, I decided I didn't want to deal with the crowded park campground on free fishing weekend, so I decided to camp at Lane Spring and commute to Montauk for the buzzer Saturday and Sunday (Its about 30 or 45 minutes). Well, for those who don't realize, Lane Spring is right in the heart of the Blue Ribbon trout area of Little Piney Creek, and I had about an hour and a half of daylight left after setting up camp. I waded for about 1/4 mile downstream from Lane spring branch, and managed to pick up two wild rainbow (both about 9 or 10 inches), both on a 1/32 Panther Martin spinner. They had good colors, and appeared to be in pretty good shape. Kinda slow fishing for the Little Piney, but we'll take it LOL. One thing I saw that was not cool at all. I found a bobber alongside the stream that someone had left, and I looked to find that it had a rubber trout worm on it. Thats a big no no in a Blue Ribbon Trout area. It amazes me that it would occur for someone to break the rules in a rather sensitive wild trout creek. I love bait fishing, but it has its place, and the Little Piney ain't it. Got up and headed to Montauk for the buzzer Saturday morning. Headed to the last hole of the spring branch, and joined the crowds to dunk Powerbait a little. Only got one rainbow there before a guy cut me off, so I left and headed to the fly area. Had a few hookups there, but never brought any to net. About 10:00 A.M, I headed to the C&R Area up near the hatchery. Couldn't fool any of the trout in the glassy spring creek, but I landed one rainbow in Montauk Lake that measured 17", caught on a 1/32 White Marabou on my ultralight. Couldn't get anymore in the catch and release area, and headed to the bait area on the main river, and landed a three pounder, and a 9 incher on Powerbait. Headed back to the C&R, and hooked and lost a nice brown trout in the creek. He hit a brown/olive marabou. Next morning, I headed to the first plunge pool of the bait area to catch a couple trout for lunch. Got that accomplished in the first 10 minutes using orange Powerbait. Cooked those up back at camp, and then went back on the Little Piney. Caught one 8" wild bow just below the mouth of Lane Spring Branch, and also a sunfish. One interesting note is that I only saw two other fisherman the entire time I fished Little Piney, which is sure a nice adjustment from Montauk. I'll tell you, there may be better places to fish in the Ozarks than Little Piney, but I haven't found it yet. There are lots of places to catch more and bigger trout, but the combination of beautiful wild trout, great scenery, and few people make it about perfect. The fishing is generally pretty decent too, if you know what to do. But that's not really the important thing on a creek like Piney. All in all, a great trip. Fishing was a bit tough at times, but there was plenty of action to keep things interesting. Next trip on line is the Eleven Point.

I'll be honest... At first glance I thought that was a rainbow, but after looking a bit longer, I believe it is a brown. I could well be wrong. It has happened before Edit: And I am. After zooming in, that is most certainly a rainbow. Oops. I guess mistakes happen. I guess it would be easy for one to slip in. At least they didn't make as big of a mistake as the Colorado department of fish and game. They were trying to re-introduce greenback cutthroats into several creeks in Rocky Mountain National Park. Every one of these fish turned out to be a mistake. They were the wrong strain. Instead of the greenback cutthroat that they were supposed to introduce, they were all Colorado River cutthroat. Now THATS a stocking error.

Thats good advice. I personally believe that a better population of truly big blues and flats is found below Bagnell Dam (dam of LOZ). Down there, the river is free flowing to the Missouri River, so you have some big cats that run up from there, as well as the resident fish. You might even want to try well below the dam, near where the Osage flows into the Missouri. You can find some awful big catfish down there, with all three species in pretty good numbers. Live sunfish and shad should get the job done. If you really want to catch 30 and 40 pound fish, and anything near where twenty pounds is an average fish, you'll have to go the Missouri or Mississippi River. The Osage is great, but the fish just aren't quite as big there as in the mighty mo.

Meramec at Pacific, Big River at Byrnes Mil are both within 45 minutes I believel..... Both of these places have more kentucky bass than smallies, but you can catch trophy smallmouth at either place. To get into smallie fishing where you don't have to pick through tons of kentuckies, the Big at St. Francis State Park, and Meramec State Park would be good bets, although those two places would be a ways further than 45 minutes. Largemouth and Kentucky fishing is literally unlimitted in the lower Big and Meramec River, but it sounds like your after bronzebacks. I like them better than buckemouths myself. Good luck finding some smallies.

I agree with all of this. Onondaga to Blue Springs is great for both scenery and smallie fishing. Also, I would certainly agree that 15 miles is wayyyyyy to far for an enjoyable canoe fishing trip on a somewhat slow river like the Meramec, unless you are a super fast paddler. You'll want to go 5 to 9 miles for a good day trip, double that for an overnighter. If you camp on the river, try fishing for smallies, and maybe catfish at night. It can be pretty awesome, if water conditions are right. As for jets, there will be some, but they shouldn't be too bad.

I'm glad to hear there is a law. I've never heard of it before, and certainly never seen anyone stopped for it. But I'm glad it exists. Not sure if it applies to canoes and kayaks, but if they did, the police could sure have a picnic on the Meramec River every weekend LOL

I got a question for you all. Is it illegal to drive a motorized boat while drunk? I think it should be. No different from driving drunk in my mind.

Also, I can attest to the fact the "mistake" stockings do occur. Wish I had a picture for proof, but I caught an eight inch brown trout in Little Piney Creek a ways below Milldam Hollow. Not supposed to be any browns there.