ozark trout fisher

I don't think so. I've followed along and while there are certainly some takes I disagree with, seems like a quality discussion.

This might end up being the correct take, but if it is, I'm in trouble. I would say that fully half of my meat intake since early December has been venison or some other form of wild game/fish (don't worry, almost exclusively bluegill in the latter case, lol.) If there is a confirmed/documented case of the disease transferring to humans, I may have to re-evaluate this, but for now the benefits still outweigh the risks for me.

I was basically the same until last summer, and I can confirm it's a little weird after you're used to fishing it at Baptist Camp or Parker Hollow. Might as well be a totally different body of water. It's still clear, cool, and really pretty though. And while the jet boat traffic can be occasionally annoying, the number of canoes are pretty low once you get a ways below Big Spring, so you can sometimes have a surprising amount of water to yourself. I had an obscure little access at the end of a gravel road on a long, deep bluff-hole that I would usually use. Generally not having a shuttle, I'd paddle up to the top of the pool, fish my way down, and repeat. There was enough good water just in that one hole that I could do the drift 3-4 times (a couple hours of fishing) before I'd get bored/I'd notice a downtick in the amount of action I was getting.

Fished the lower Current a ton last summer, as I was living/working basically on its banks. Some great smallie fishing around and below Big Spring (aka below Van Buren). It drops off a bit IMO by the time you get down towards Doniphan, but it's still decent. As someone else mentioned, some surprisingly solid walleye fishing, too. I've never targeted them, but caught several while targeting smallies. It's big water and definitely a different feel than any other Ozark stream I've fished, or even the middle Current.

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Two summers ago, I was hiking just outside RMNP in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. It was getting late in the evening, it was rainy and cold, and we were borderline hypothermic, and a cow moose was blocking the only decent ford of a branch of the Saint Vrain River. I waited awhile, but eventually I had to yell at her to scare her off because otherwise we were gonna get caught out after dark in a rainstorm. Even then it took awhile. She just kind of looked at me like "What are you gonna do, puny little thing?" That was a pretty nerve-wracking experience, although she never actually showed any aggression, as much as a general unwillingness to leave her spot in the stream. Any other situation I would have let her have it.

I feel like mine is somewhat self explanatory, although it's no longer particularly accurate, since I don't live particularly near the Ozarks, and mostly fish for smallmouth.

They definitely make a distinctive noise that is a little freaky the first time you notice it.

Creek chub, aka the thing many of us secretly catch more of than trout while fishing with nymphs in most Ozark rivers.

Had a buddy of mine compete in that a couple years back. He didn't win, but was very competitive. Described it as the most difficult/grueling thing he'd ever attempted. I'd like to try it sometime, though the goal would definitely be just to finish.

Without speaking even to anything else, Mr. Dablemont's lack of understanding of the conservation utility of timber harvest is striking. Because we don't allow big, tree killing wildfires to burn anymore, and many forests were high-graded/poorly managed before being acquired by the MDC, selective harvest is most often required to get the forest to a state that works for anyone. Without any harvest, most Missouri oak forests would become sugar maple forests over time. You lose a mast tree that benefits wildlife for a dominant species that mostly doesn't. You can already see it happening on most privately owned forests in the state. If you are a deer/turkey/squirrel hunter, bad news.

Full investigations into potential criminal/civil matters take a long time. That is not an unusual time-frame.

This strikes me as a failure of having protocol in place-or at least following it-on a number of different levels. As someone who works in remote areas of the outdoors dang near every day, and has to make decisions that could ultimately decide whether I and my crew makes it back at the end of the day, you have to constantly keep yourself informed of conditions-and never let the situation/conditions/people who are yelling at you talk you out of making the right decision and getting the hell out/not leaving in the first place when that becomes necessary. It can be difficult, god knows, especially when you're being pressured to make a bad decision, but it's the one aspect of your job where failure is basically unforgivable. Just today we had an extremely violent storm occur at our sites. 95% of the way done for the day and the temptation was strong to push it when I got the weather alert. Came out of nowhere, was not supposed to happen today. But no, we got the hell out. And thank goodness. Wind gusts got up into the 60s mph and there are down trees/limbs everywhere. Had we not left when we did, maybe not all of us got out. This is beyond heartbreaking, and more-so for being 100% preventable.

I don't have anything to add, but this is just so horrible. I can't even really bear to think about it. Ugh.

Yeah, the latter could've just as easily happened to me awhile ago in a state that I'm not a resident in, that, just in case, shall not be named. Thought I'd bought the three-day license, turns out I only sprung for the one day. So the last two days of fishing were apparently in a state of sub-optimal legality. Would never do that on purpose, and I felt pretty bad. What can ya' do? Ended up purchasing the year-long the day after. So I feel a bit less bad in that context.

Hello, friends. I'm currently living/conducting forestry research in the southern Appalachians. Here are some pictures.

No, it's pretty decent for white bass and crappie down there, though.

I've only been checked once in Missouri, while fishing the tailwater below Mark Twain Lake a few years back. We ended up talking about various natural resources nerd-related things for about an hour afterwards. Ended up realizing I'd been in a couple college classes with the guy but somehow we didn't recognize each other. I cannot say it was a traumatizing experience, lol.

Apropos to nothing, but I have seen a couple so far this summer. Of course, they are a teensy bit more common over here (in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky). Still, they'll startle you just a bit when you're walking up to a plot to measure trees at 6:15 AM, short of caffeine, and not thinking of such things. You hear a loud sound, look to see the deer that you've scared up...and oh, look, there's a bear. Not an easy feeling to describe if you haven't been there.

LOL, I'm a research forester, and until that becomes an elected position I should be good. I've picked perhaps the only line of work where I'm actually more normal than most. Although i will say my fiancee found the Ozark Anglers account awhile back, and she has been using my old posts make fun of me on and off for, oh, ,at least the past year or so. In all seriousness people, do not let your kids do any sort of social media before the age of, say, 17. They will regret literally everything they said before that point in time.

It is probably what CWF is hinting at. Impossible to tell for sure, but...yeah. Not that it's impossible that there could be a bear around Wildwood, but this is a case where location is probably your best friend in guessing what that might be.

LOL, this one was actually fine mostly because it was a direct quote from the MDC website, but when I see a quote including both "ozark trout fisher" and "2009" I start to think "Oh dear god, what stupid thing did I say when 9 years ago I was a junior in high school?"

Totally. Wasn't being sarcastic at all. I am getting much more like this by the day where I'm chasing new/weird species as opposed to the old staples. After the first 10,500 or so smallmouth, you pretty much know what they look like and you feel like you're proving the same obscure point into oblivion. Not that I don't still chase smallies, trout,etc, but it can start to lose the edge after awhile. It's just that I'm used to people giving me funny looks for this.

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing! I can't even begin to describe how happy it makes me that there are folks who chase minnows are are openly disdainful of trout. I love it.

Bears are literally the least threatening thing in Jefferson County, Missouri.

Dang it, and that was really the only thing that was keeping me going at this point.