ozark trout fisher

Well, I work in the woods, not a field, but yes.

Yep, I have buddies that show me pics like that sometimes. I don't really approve, for reasons I'll detail below, but it's done legally and usually with at least some ethical justification. As an avid hunter I don't really understand the impulse to pile up all the dead stuff for the big hero shot. That has always seemed awfully immature at best, and bothers me a lot more than the actual taking of the animals in question. I love hunting, I sure as heck love venison, but I'll freely admit I hate the actual killing part. If you're super proud that you can kill a lot of things in quick succession to the point where you need to share that with the world, I think that's worrisome for reasons that have nothing to do with game management.

Just like any degree, it is not a guarantee of success. You might have long years of temp job's at $10/hour. Sorry but 2 years isn't at all atypical to wait for a good job, in fact that is exceedingly common. Doesn't mean it's a dead end. This is a profession where you are expected to pay your dues. I was lucky to get a job w/salary and benefits right off (I also participated in research every summer during undergrad and generally made darn sure I had a resume that stood out). But let me tell you, I often work 60-70+ hours per week, so in reality I'm very likely actually (scratch that, certainly) making less on a per hour basis. I'm not giving out numbers, but we are talking a monthly figure that keeps me on the right side of the poverty line, but just barely. I don't even slightly give a darn. I love what I do, wouldn't trade it for anything. It isn't always easy to make ends meet, but it is what it is. You pursue a career like forestry or Fisheries and Wildlife because it is the lifestyle you want, not because you are gonna be totally (or even a little) financially secure for awhile. Because you won't be. My friends/coworkers are mostly in the same boat, and sorry, but I'm here to tell you we're a hell of a lot happier than your average bunch of, say, engineers.

Yup, some of those pics could be just fine...or a mid-level atrocity...depending on where it happened and how many folks were involved. They are meaningless without context, except to invoke an emotional response. That said, in a world where PETA nuts exist, the massive "hey, look what we killed" shots probably ought to stay off social media. Unnecessary ammunition.

Let's break down the tape: Pic#1 So you've got your typical haul of frog-legs here. It might look a lot, but the whole family is coming over You've got your wife, ma and pa, then the cousins. Well, scratch out one of those cousins, because she's also your wife. Then there's your brother Jed, and his wife Edna, who is also your sister, so at least that's nice and convenient. Now you're the one in the left in the picture, you sure do love baseball, but can't quite pick, out a team, so you just go with the generic Nike "Baseball" shirt. Nothing wrong with keeping it simple. Your buddy (whose name, coincidentally, is also "Buddy") is standing there next to you. He's a good stand-up guy, and his meth problem hasn't even been all that bad this week. You're not sure who the right is. He just walked up on ya' right in the middle of the giggin', said, "Hey' Ahm Cletus, kin Ah help you stick some frogs." You're not sure why you said yes. You can't get rid of him, now he wants a ride home, and just asked you if you have any moonshine tucked away in your jacket. Which, well, of course you do, you're not some kind of city kid. Pic #2 Man, what a day out on the bayou! Virgil 'n you couldn't stop catching those bass. That dynamite stuff sure does work, guy in the tent who sold it to you sure wasn't lying! It was kinda loud, sure, but the DNR doesn't come down here too much, and if that poor guy saw your knee length white beard, dynamite, and machete hooked on your belt he'd be skippin' to the next county anywho. Also you caught some other things, the mouth wasn't quite as big, but you weren't too sure what they were. Now it's time to clean them, and that's really the best part to be honest. Nothing like spending an evening with sharp, electrically powered knives and a copious supply of good ol' American brewskies. Pic #4 You were attacked by a duck as a child. You hate ducks. You kill lots of ducks. Pic #5 Man, it sure does seem like there are less deer around here every year. That conservation department must not be stockin' em as much lately. Dang gubment. It tooks us two days and 5 dogs just to get our yearly alotment of all the deer in the tri-county area. But that's okay. Brutus and I just like being in the woods on a cool, crisp Autumn morning, while killing vast quantities of terrified ungulates chased by radio collared dogs. It really isn't about the end result anyway.

Yep, northern hog sucker. That's gotta be the best species name ever, right?

Yes, I graduated from the Forestry program...and I'm here to tell you it is a pretty good one. And perhaps more importantly, it is was the only one in the state of Missouri. Now it won't exist because the money just isn't there. It isn't there because the legislature keeps cutting funding, either because they do not value post-secondary ed, or to send some nebulous "message". Now it is no longer offered to incoming students, and people of that field are being directed to a major called "Natural Resource Science Management" which is not even specific to forestry (or fisheries and wildlife, for that matter). Look, some of you may not care about things like forest ecology or preservation of rare woodland plants. I'm not here to try to indoctrinate you on that. I am here to tell you that timber is one of the biggest businesses in the state, especially in the Ozarks, and that having people who can capably manage those forests to insure more or less perpetual financial return is kind of important to the economy of our state. And the state of Missouri has leaned very heavily on Mizzou graduates in the past. Not sure what happens now. Either they look elsewhere or hire people who have less specialized training and presumably come in with a skillset that wasn't what it has been. So this is not only saddening from a personal perspective, it's something that is going to hurt our state down the line. Not least some loggers, sawmill owners, and other industry people that are almost certainly amongst the ones hating on "Liberal Mizzou." Yes, I took a job based out of another state because of this climate. There were good jobs in Missouri that I could have taken, but I didn't want to be swimming upstream for the entirety of my career. That makes me sad. Maybe I would return to the state if something changes, but that is hard to see.

It's a good thing I'm naturally pretty simplistic in terms of gear. Because the GF, for all her awesome qualities, gets the whole fishing thing not at all. I tried to change her mind by taking her out to a good bluegill pond for some easy fishing, but no. Her response after barely a half hour was "Can we leave the poor fish alone now?" Long story short, if I start funneling thousands into fishing gear now, well...it might be easier to explain if I just lied and told her all that money was going down the drain because I picked up a nasty drug habit.

I have a buddy who used to make a carp bait that takes hours to make and smells like someone left a pork chop out on the counter for 6 months. We were fishing together once, and the only carp caught that day was...by me...by accident while bass fishing with a crankbait. That was the last time I've seen him break that god-forsaken stuff out.

I'll not say too much more, but it legitimately does cause me pain to see the state of Missouri turning on its flagship university. Missouri is going through a rough time, for sure. Some of that is self-inflicted, most of it is a result of a lack of funding from the legislature meant to "punish" the school for 2015, whatever the heck that means. This is not a political statement, rather a statement of fact. The degree I received at Mizzou won't be offered much longer because of that. So yes, I'm sad and more than a little bitter. This isn't a game, or a silly political statement. It's affecting the lives of many young people in the state of Missouri. I only ask you think about that a little before you make your next cringe-inducing wise-crack about how those liberals have Mizzou headed into the crapper. So no, things aren't perfect. This doesn't mean everyone who didn't choose to attend Mizzou actually has to start circling the school like vultures. Have a good evening, and Go Tigers!

If you're like me, fly fishing pretty much exclusively means small to medium sized rivers (and sometimes ponds and smaller lakes), and species like trout and smallmouth bass. But this evening I decided to try something a little different. The Wabash River runs just a few miles from my place, but I'd never given it much attention. When I was here in the spring, it was far too flooded to even think of fishing (although it demanded a different kind of attention, the kind where you are wondering what parts of town are under water) and this summer I was off working in Missouri and hitting the Current and Jacks Fork and all the old favorites in my old backyard. So despite being the closest fishable body of water, it might as well not even have existed for my purposes. But come late August, it's still big and a little intimidating...but also pretty clear, and I couldn't help noticing people fishing it every time I drove over/past it. I can only take so much of that before I'm bound to cave. So I put in the kayak this evening, and fished a short stretch near the closest access to me (the current is slow enough that it is very easy to paddle upstream, fish your way back down, and repeat multiple times). And honestly, it was a pretty satisfying experience. I tied on a white #4 clouser (about the biggest I can actually cast, as opposed to "awkwardly fling" with the set-up I have, and a decent shad imitation I thought). It worked. What got me was the sheer variety in this kind of big river setting. In one casual evening on the water I caught white bass, freshwater drum, largemouth bass...and one very aggressive and possibly confused bluegill. I'm told there are walleye, as well, but I'm still looking for one of those. None of them were very big (the largest being a white bass of about 14 inches), and I know you are supposed to use broom-stick rods and chase huge blue cats in a river like this...but again, it was a really fun evening. The only downside was having to dodge high-powered boat after high-powered boat, none of which could have been in a bigger hurry if they'd just been told they needed to be down to the Gulf of Mexico in two hours to avoid having said boat repossessed. Oh well, when you are on a big river, you are living in their world, not the other way around. Better to just duck into shore for a second and forget about it. I was surprised at how much fun this was. I'm already itching to get back out there.

Interesting idea, I've never thought to try this.

When I was younger and didn't think about these things and the impact it has (big cats take a LONG time to grow, they are not exactly easily replaceable) I kept and ate a number of 10+# pound cats...and well, unless your definition of tasty is "mushy, gamey, and generally unpleasant" we've had different experiences. Now I still love me some 2-3 pound channel cats. Nice firm meat, as good eating as any warm water fish I'm aware of. But in my experience taste starts to nosedive around 5-6 pounds.

Definitely worth reading. I love smallie fishing this time of year, and into October, but it's definitely a different challenge than it is in, say, June. I also tend to prefer the faster water and skip the deep, "fishy" looking pools more often than not. The only problem is that many of my new streams around here (NW Indiana) are really slow for long stretches, so you pretty much have to pound the glassy, still pools or go home. I need to get better at that game if I'm going to be as successful here as I was in the Ozarks. Of course, there are some faster, more turbid waters I can hit when I need a little break from having to try to be a stream-ninja. But mostly I don't mind it, as someone with a background spending a lot of time stalking spooky wild trout in Missouri creeks, it's not all that different.

One of my best friends lives right in the area hit the hardest...thankfully she was on what turned out to be a very well time trip out of town when this hit. Obviously it's not as bad as the people stuck there, but you do still kind of hope you have a place to come back to when it's over.

Yep, a catfish of that size is going to be junky eating anyway. And that's not like saying "smallmouth taste bad" to keep people from killing them, big cats really do taste exactly like whatever body of water they spent a matter of decade(s) in. And that generally is a very unpleasant one.

Yup, I was definitely kicking myself for not bringing the spinning rod pretty much right away. Based on the way I got the fish I did catch, I feel like a ned rig would have done very well. I ended up having to go to an 11 foot leader and dropped to 5x tippet...for smallmouth. Not exactly what I'm used to...

A few more pics:

Edit: this was supposed to have a bunch more pictures, but I'm having trouble uploading them now. Maybe later.

Spent an enjoyable morning/early afternoon chasing smallmouth in Wildcat Creek just outside of Lafayette, In. Imagine a 50-50 cross between an Ozark stream like Huzzah or Mineral Fork and a flatland, northwoods stream and you pretty much have Wildcat Creek. Crystal clear, cool, spring-fed water, and, basically no current to speak of. Not easy fishing conditions. The smallmouth were everywhere, but spooky as hell. There was no one else there today but you could see this place getting some serious pressure given it's location very near Purdue University. So the fish were real unforgiving, and would be gone into the ether with one false move. I don't claim to be a great smallmouth fisherman, especially with the fly-rod, but when there are that many in a stream I can usually do okay. I did manage to avoid the skunk by catching a few 10-12 inchers with a #6 woolly bugger. The best strategy was to basically let it sit on the bottom, let them come have a look on their own (this was clear water, so you saw everything that was happening) and then give it a subtle twitch or two to close the deal. They put up a nice fight on the light fly rod, so no complaints. I did hook one nice one (maybe 17-18 inches) but didn't hold onto him long before he shook off. Anyway, a beautiful little stream not far from home that I will probably make a lot more trips to in the future. And SIU, if you are still looking for places to hook into smallies around here, this might be a nice answer for you. I hit it right at the junction of the north and south fork (I went up both forks, they are about the same size and fish pretty much the same, but the main stem below is big, froggy and looks more like catfish/largemouth bass water and the kind of place you'd need a canoe/kayak to do much damage.) Next time I will know going in that I need to be a little on the stealthy side, and maybe I'll do a bit better.

Well, I'm sure that's only decent by your standards, but for most...that is the about as good as it ever gets. Leaving me only to say...darn.

I plan to give it a shot this weekend, if, god willing.,for a second weekend in a row the truck doesn't decide to play hell with me, lol.

I can't help you any, but I can say that sounds like a pretty good year on the water, especially for being considered a disappointment!

Nice, might give that a try this weekend!

Just looking at those pictures has me on the verge of blowing off work and buying a plane ticket to Denver or SLC!