ozark trout fisher

Got on the river today. It was only at 250 CFS at 10:30-ish when I last looked at the USGS website......about 10 times that level by the time I arrived, way up in the trees along the stream. I did the float anyway. The eleven mile stretch from Reikers to Mayers took app. 3 hrs with hardly any paddling. Needless to say the fishing was basically non-existent, but still a nice (short) day on the river. I'll try to get back next week when hopefully levels will be more reasonable. As annoying as it was to deal with a muddy river I'd take it over the drought we had this time last year. Sorry to interrupt the spotted bass discussion. Just didn't feel like starting a new thread to tell everyone I got skunked:)

Was planning to float it today, but someone at the top of the watershed left their garden hose on overnight and now it's way up (all it takes for the Bourb.) I still will try to go if the storms stop within a couple hours unless it gets around 1000 CFS, but it'll be muddy so there won't be much in the way of fishing. Edit: headed out after all. Gonna have to make that 11 miles from Reikers to Mayers double quick since I won't get there until after noon.....higher water should help. I will post a report. I probably won't be able to fish much because late start/long float, but I still think it's better to get out than not.

This. For what it's worth, I don't actually identify with either party. I don't think I lean left but if I do it is only a hair. There are ways in which I'm very conservative, and others where I'm liberal. But as to my value as a human being, it doesn't matter...... unlike a certain poster on here seems to say. I have friends very far on both sides of the political spectrum. All of them good people, despite wildly divergent beliefs. Strong opinions are great but a disdain for people on either side is just ridiculously limiting.

Yep, just what I was thinking.....Can't quit fishing, and I'm betting and hoping you won't. You sure shouldn't go and sell of all your gear, because when you come to your senses, it will be a hassle and quite expensive to buy a bunch of new stuff. There are plenty of ignorant people that don't care about our smallmouth. Consequently, there aren't a whole lot of trophy fish around here. But there are still hundreds of really pretty smallmouth streams with admittedly less than huge fish and there are not a lot of ways to make you feel better about life than fishing for them. You know this as well as anyone, clearly. Once fishing has become a huge part of your life giving it up will be a HUGE loss. You're talking to someone who hasn't gotten out nearly enough lately and it's a really crappy feeling. Make that permanent and NEVER getting out and that's going to be really bad. Maybe it's not the same for you, but that's just how I feel about it. Otherwise, have fun doing whatever you're going to do that you think will replace fishing. But in my experience, it simply doesn't work that way.

6 weight, for real? I do have one of those. I am just envisioning getting it torn up pretty badly but maybe I'm wrong. We plan to be on the Pere Marquette trout fishing anyway, so if there are salmon in there we shouldn't have to go far......

I feel your pain man, I really do. It's incredibly hurtful to see people being totally apathetic towards what we are so incredibly passionate about, and to see people not caring when destructive behavior towards our rivers like this is going on. It tears all of us apart. With that said, you can't quit fishing, my friend. It's pretty obvious that chasing smallmouth bass is pretty close to your first love and as painful as some of these situations are, it will make you a MUCH less happy person overall if you just give it up. There have been times in my life where I haven't fished much for months at a time and it's pretty awful. We need people who care as much about the resource as you do with us or we're in a ton of trouble.

Awesome. We will have kayaks and canoes so floating should be an option.

Well, never made it over there this weekend.....but managed to free up a day during the week to float the middle section. I do plan to post a report.

Thanks a lot for the advice, Feathers and Fins. I just don't think a guide is in the cards.There will be several of us and the bill on that would run up pretty quickly, and we're pretty cheap....which is why we're going to Michigan instead of Montana LOL.

Awesome thanks! Apparently, they're already starting to trickle into the rivers up in northwest Michigan. Very early. Hopefully there will be a few around when we get up there. I doubt I'll spend too much time salmon fishing even if they are in, given the crowds that are usually associated with good runs up there and the fact that we'd like to spend plenty of time fishing for trout and smallies, and otherwise spending time in places that aren't so likely to be overrun with people. But spending a day or two chasing salmon would be nice.

Ok, so this doesn't technically belong in the "trout talk" section, but close enough. I'm planning on heading up to Michigan in early August. Last time I was up there also in early August, the king salmon were just starting to run on the lower sections of the Little Manistee River. We didn't have the right gear to go after them, so we just had to fish for the trout that were luckily plentiful as well (which was fine, really.) We plan to spend much of our time floating and fly fishing for resident trout on the upper part of the Pere Marquette, but if the salmon are running on the Little Manistee we may want to give it a try this time. I don't have a fly rod that is anywhere close to big enough to take on that kind of thing. And honestly, I just don't want to about double the cost of the trip by buying a 9 or 10 weight set up that I'll use for maybe 2 days and won't use again for several years in all likelihood.....especially since hitting the run on time is far from a certainty. So I'm thinking about just spin-fishing (which is legal for the stretch we want to fish.) I've got a couple of spinning rods intended for going after flathead catfish that are plenty big enough to spool of with 20-25 pound test, probably 30 in a pinch. Will that be enough, or do I need to get something bigger? Also, any ideas on what to use? We're just not willing to use bait, so anything besides that. We're thinking big spinners and spoons, but honestly I've got no clue.

The level of vitriol on a couple of threads in the past few days is just sickening to the point where it just makes this forum a worse place to hang out, no question. There are some types of hate-based speech that are not okay. I just don't understand it and hope they won't be allowed to dominate the discussion here.

I'm not sure anyone's shocked that this goes on.Most of us have caught too many gig-marked smallies already for that to be the case. Still, seeing a picture of that many smallies (and other species) lined up like that still pulls at the heart-strings of any angler worth their salt. It makes me physically sick to look at, honestly.

He was projected by most in the mid-second round. Which doesn't guarantee a roster spot and is hardly better than going completely undrafted, really. That said, he's in a good position to be a major contributor early on for Boston. Their star point guard (Rondo) is recovering from a knee injury and will likely miss the start of the season. Guess who is projected by most to start in his place, if that happens? Pressey may well get his chance early on, for better or worse. Maybe he should have stayed another year, but the more I think about it I begin to come to the conclusion that he made the right choice. The reality is, he's a very good college point guard.......but Marcus Denmon, Kim English, and Ricardo Ratliffe helped him look like a truly elite point guard in 2011-12. Once those guys were gone he didn't have anyone he felt he could lean on (except Laurence Bowers.) I don't see that changing next year with us losing a lot more talent and bringing in a whole new batch of transfers/freshman in their place. Unless you're a really elite talent that can stand out all by yourself, you usually need a really good supporting cast, and oftentimes a deep NCAA tournament run to help yourself get noticed. With Missouri likely fighting just to get in to the tournament next season that wasn't likely to occur. He may have hurt himself by staying, to the point where it would have been harder for him to make an NBA roster. I appreciate what he did for our program. He was an incredibly fun player to watch. But with that said, this also now gives us the chance to see what Frank Haith can do with a roster of entirely his players (or in the case of about half the roster, players that he brought in from other colleges.) If Missouri gets back to the tournament next year there will no longer be anyone saying "Well, he's just getting by on Mike Anderson's recruits." Because most of us are tired of hearing those words by now.

Have to agree with this post 100%...........

They spots are fun to catch.....especially if you are frying them up afterwards (and letting the smallies go, of course.) The annoyance is you basically need the full limit of 12 spotted bass to have a decent fish fry given how small they are. Though that catching that many spots is rarely a problem on the Bourbeuse, unfortunately.

Trying to block out a day to float it this weekend, if so I'll have a report.......Not many rivers that you can float without it being crazy on 4th of July weekend but the old, muddy, fishless Bourbeuse River is one:) The more I think about it, I'm happy that so many people have a preconceived notion about what a "beautiful" river is. It leaves the Bourb and others like it for those of us that don't care and like spending time on the river (mostly) in solitude. Thank goodness for muddy rivers, if that's what it takes to keep the crowds away. And I know the people that I do see fishing/floating that river mostly feel the same way that I do.

I think this makes all of us pretty angry, Smallie. No need to explain yourself.......

The sad thing is we all knew this crap was going on.........but doesn't quite hit home until you see a picture like this.

This dude should never be allowed to fish again.......I don't know if the MDC takes people's license privileges away permanently but this guy appears to be a prime candidate.

Well.......The one good thing about a tough season is you get to see who are actually fans and who just follows the team when they're good. There is nothing wrong with the latter group of people, but there is something satisfying about continuing to cheer really hard for a team even when they're down. There is one major difference between us and most SEC schools/states. Ole Miss fans get excited for football every year, even though they're awful more often that not in the past decade. Kentucky is a basketball school and won two games last year and packed 50,000 in the stands for it's spring football game, nearly three times Missouri's crowd for the same thing. Auburn had even more than that coming off a 3-9 season. In Missouri, many will just forget about the Tigers and cheer for the Chiefs or Rams whenever things aren't going well. The one thing is, we can't really complain about poor football until our fan support is up to par with the rest of the schools in our conference. We're expanding our stadium but will we even fill the seats we have now? It's just got to be better if we want to be competitive in the SEC. Big time recruits usually don't like playing in front of empty seats.

At this point, we're basically a little over a month and a half away from the start of college football. And honestly, I can't think of a time when Missouri has had a more important season. Things can go one of three ways at this point. The first way, and what I'm hoping for, is that Missouri proves that last year was just the result of a tough transition to a new conference and a whole lot of injuries. The schedule looks a lot softer this season (There are no teams like Arizona State or Syracuse out of conference, and Alabama is replaced by Ole Miss) and an 8-win season is well within range if the offensive line and quarterback position can hold up even a little bit better. 8-4 or 9-3 would give Pinkel his job security back and our bad first season would be almost completely forgotten. The other possibility is that Missouri completely bottoms out, goes 5-7 again (which given our schedule this year, would be MUCH worse than our 5-7 record last year) and Pinkel almost certainly gets fired. But here's what I think happens, and I'm not at all sure how I feel about it. Missouri wins all four non-conference games, grabs 2 or 3 wins in the SEC against the likes of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Vandy, and finishes 6-6 or 7-5. That probably brings Pinkel back for one more season. But I also think a season like that is the best way to to cut off any optimism in this program, as Pinkel would probably still be on the hot seat. An 8-9 win season would be great, but failing that, I guess I'd just rather bottom out, and start the coaching search/rebuilding process right away instead of delaying it for another year. I really like Pinkel, but with a veteran team coming back, I think the benchmark should be to go at least 4-4 in conference play, nothing less should be acceptable. Tennessee and Kentucky should be wins, Vandy and Ole Miss are winnable, and we should have several opportunities to pull an upset or two against a highly ranked team at home. Is that too high of a standard? I just refuse to accept that Missouri should be a bottom feeder after consistently challenging for division titles in the Big 12. I know it's different here, and I don't expect division/conference titles in the SEC but I'd like to at least win as many conference games as we lose. I was more than happy to give him a pass for last season but now it's time to be competitive. If injuries are truly awful again, I might be okay with 6-6 or 7-5. But barring that.......

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for posting.

The problem with what you're saying, is that the word in question is a highly derogatory term that is most often used by people to describe an entire race of people. It's not simply an "insult" not given what that word has meant to a lot of people who have used it over the years. Some people may say it thinking they mean something else entirely, but that is the understood definition of that word in the society that I live in. Look, I can only speak for myself, and my experience. When I've heard people use that word, it wasn't meant in the relatively innocent way you describe. It was used with the intent to degrade an entire group of people. That's what it means when I hear it. Look, I'm not implying that you're in any way a bad person for your use of it. But if you're honest about meaning it in a somewhat innocent way, it's just not going to matter. If you say it in public, that's just not gonna be the perception. Is it really that hard to simply stop using a word that is so hurtful to so many people?

Um to start, no one said they'd ever want to hurt someone for saying that word. I said I'd give whoever said it an "earful" which doesn't mean that at all. The first amendment protects your right to use that word. That doesn't remotely change the fact that the use of it will offend the vast majority of people, or at least the people I know. Look, I grew up in rural Missouri. I've seen the pain that word and the sentiment that it emobodies can cause, that's why I really can't stand hearing it. This has nothing to do with "political correctness." It's more about not liking to see people treated badly. Honestly, this whole conversation is just painful to me. I was raised fully understanding what that word meant and that it was not to be used. I just have a hard time seeing this the other vantage point on this one. So maybe I'm done with this thread.