ozark trout fisher

I stand by what I said 100%. I get to hunt on public land. The streams I fish have great public access. The trout streams I fish in are well stocked. In this case I do get what I want, and I believe it is what is best for Missouri

You may not be a conservation hater, but you sure area a Missouri Department of Conservation hater... It's all the same in my mind. We've had this argument before, haven't we? Missouri has great hunting, and great fishing almost solely because of the MDC, and I take my hat off to the many good Conservation agents Missouri is blessed to have. I couldn't care less about anyone who thinks otherwise. That's my opinion.

I'm so sorry about my comment Al Agnew. I misread who wrote the comment that kinda pissed me off. It wasn't you, it was Bigredbirdfan, our resident conservation hater. I should have known you would not have had written the comment I responded to. My mistake.

Agnew, how do you really feel? you are way too tough on the MDC. I don't know what is going on at the upper levels, but I know every conservation officer I have met is very nice, and I can tell they are there to help. Think where we would be without them. You must know something I don't, thats for sure. I have no problem making suggestions to the MDC, I just did in the poll about the trout park zones, but I believe such a wholesale attack is completely out of line. Unless somebody gives me some evidence of these abuses,(I am sure they occur occasionally, but I bet not often) I certainly won't be joining any organization opposing our excellent department of conservation. I read Larry's blog, and at one point he suggested that we stop buying licenses. I hope he doesn't like to catch any stocked fish, hunt in conservation areas or anything like it, because doing this would cause the conservation to be bankrupted. Is that what you want?

I agree. His posts are great.

Now that I look at the regs, I believe you guys are right.

I'm pretty sure that's the rules. I agree it's not really fair, but I believe you are not supposed to have any bait that is illegal for an area in your possession. But I could be wrong.

Thanks a lot. I have caught a few down in the Meramec River on spinners, but they were all stocky rainbows within a few hundred yards of the park. All of these times were side trips where I had come to fish the park, and had just decided to take a few casts in the river. I think I want to try to spend a whole day on the river this March, which is apparently before they stock. Does anyone have any spin-fishing tips? I'm willing to try anything, (as long as its legal), and I don't particularly care whether I catch browns or rainbows.

Yeah, I was pretty shocked, that every single one had corn or some other bait in their belly. Would have released the trout, but there wasn't enough room to cast lures, so I used nightcrawlers, just because I wanted to get some fishing in. As you probably know, this type of fishing isn't very conducive to catch and release, and most swallowed the hook. I can usually avoid that happening in rivers that have open water, but in lakes it is a challenge not to gut hook them. Still, I was pretty pleasantly surprised at the fishing today, it was much better than I expected. I caught 5 in all, but three of those swallowed the hook, and those became my daily limit.

I went to Lake Eleanor today today, with the expectation that this late in the season trout would be few and far between. Someone had carved a three foot wide hole in front of the dock, and I decided to drop nightcrawlers down into it. The first cast produced a 10" rainbow, and that ended up being the order of the day. I got my limit (it is three of any size in this lake) within about thirty minutes, and when I cleaned them I found that every single one had either corn or powerbait in it's belly, a sign of how pressured this lake is. It was a nice day, and the trout were hitting quite well. Trout have been open to catch and keep fishing since January 1st, and there was only one stocking of 200 rainbows, so I'm quite surprised the fishing is holding up. As a matter of fact, this was by far my best day fishing there this year, or ever for that matter, and it almost makes me wonder if another stocking had taken place that I wasn't aware of. The trout are kinda small here, but they make good sport on an ultralight. I am really starting to enjoy this whole winter trout pond thing. I always used to overlook it, but I want make that mistake again.

This is where I got the number. They surveyed 900 trout in the measured 3.1 mile stretch of public creek the most recent survey, which works out to be 290 per mile. This was according to Missouri Fishing Prospects, but they did say that surveys before this one showed consirderably fewer. Here's the link http://mdc.mo.gov/fish/prospects/streams.htm#bluesprings

Big rainbow trout and smallies... You can't beat that.

Yeah, I misread the poll the first time.

Yeah, mine is twelve feet, should be alright I guess.

I have never fished Hickory, but from everything I have read, it seems to have potential. It clearly has a good source of cold water because it is formed from the outlet of a hatchery, if I am correct. From pics I have seen, it appears to have lots of decent holding water. It's a bummer this stream is so heavily pollutted, and overused to the point that the majority of the people taking this poll say it fishes poorly. This is a stream that from what I hear, tougher enforcement could greatly benefit.

good article. Well written

Wow, that is incredible. Where I live (just north of the Missouri River, fifty miles west of STL, we got about three inches of snow, still falling, but no ice. That is a crazy picture though.

Hey, I can believe your story about the big smallie in the spring branch. I saw about a five pounder swimming around in the river above the spring branch.

I knew you aren't for banning bait fishing, and I appreciate that. I was just making a point to those who do believe it should.

That is a shame about the trash, cows etc. Honestly, I think I still want to try it, if nothing else but night fishing for brown trout. Would the Barclay access be a good place to do that? Also, is it possible to fish the river out of a jon boat, or is it too small?

18" is a pretty old smallmouth. It could have gotten there years ago. Plus, I have seen young of the year largemouth bass even when there had been no recent flooding. It seems that despite the cold water temperatures there is a small resident population in the Maramec Spring. I know that largemouth do better in steady, cold water than smallies though, as far as reproduction. I know largemouth do better in steady, cold water because there is a good population of largemouth in down in Lake Taneycomo, and smallmouth are much fewer.

I know I said I was bowing out of the argument, but am afraid I just can keep my big mouth shut anymore. I agree that there is a big difference, a big enough difference that I think bait should be banned in all of our Blue and Red Ribbon areas, (which would mean banning it in the NFOW's lower section, where it is now legal) . But the White Ribbon area of the Eleven Point, is put and take, (hopefully we'll see some browns in there someday, which would balance the fishery I believe) and I believe if you are going to have such a liberal length limit and daily limit anyway, why not allow bait in the White Ribbon area. Just food for thought. You do have to have more than just trout parks and winter trout areas available to bait fisherman, because at least I know I love and care about the sport of trout fishing as much as many fly fishers. Bait fishing is truly my passion, and it kinda pains me when I hear people saying that bait fishing should be trout parks only, like they mean that we shouldn't be able to have good choices to fish, just like every other method does. Frankly, I like to bait fish, and I don't like the trout parks or the winter ponds too much. Even though I bait fish, I want to fish in a remote ozark stream just as much as anyone else. I do agree with the sentiment of catching your limit, which I actually have yet to do in Missouri,(but that is a different topic) and switching to artificials, or quitting altogether. I should say that I do fish my share of artificials only water, as I do keep that box of Rooster Tails and Panther Martins handy at all times... I understand some areas need to be artificials only though. I would be in favor of banning bait from Turner to Whitten if I was quite sure it would greatly increase the trout population, but definitely not from Whitten to Riverton. Maybe even go ahead and extend the Blue Ribbon area to Whitton. This would leave the White Ribbon area's stockers spread over much less water, and I believe that fishing in both the Blue Ribbon and White Ribbon area could vastly improve. Just my 0.2

Well thats it, I am heading there this summer. Any stream that allows me to float and bait fish for such a good population of trout is likely to be my new favorite river. I only fished there once, in the winter without a canoe. I was trying fly fishing, and this was my first time. I was just below Bennett, and I don't think I even knew what fly I had on, except that it had feathers and a hook. Anyway, one big, (were talking like 10 pound) brown trout happened to be pretty gullible, but he eventually broke me off after a long hard fight. That was one of the most frustating moments of my life, so I haven't gone back since. But I am definitely going to give it another try . Is night fishing for big brown trout any good here during the summer? I have heard it is pretty well stocked with rainbows, with a decent population of brown trout. If so, I will probably fly fish during the day, and bait up a rod with a crawdad for the night shift, in search of that big brown, rainbow, or smallmouth bass. Sounds like one underrated river. Thanks for the response.

Yeah, I made it there, caught some smallmouth and suckers, saw a fair number of trout in the deep pools alongside countless suckers. Didn't catch any trout, or see any big ones, but I will definitely be back. I am used to fishing small streams in Colorado, and while this is much tougher I guess because they are more pressured, this is my favorite kind of creek. I'm a small stream kind of guy, and Blue Springs certainly is small. Also, I read that Blue Springs has 290 trout per mile, which is quite good for a stream this little.

Hey, just wondering how many trout per mile there are in the Niangua? If no one can tell me that number, could some one tell me if this is a worth while summer trout stream, and maybe how it compares to the other trout streams in MO. It seems to not quite get talked about as much as our other streams, I was just wondering about the quality of fishing.