ozark trout fisher

I've been living and working this summer in the Current River Watershed. It doesn't suck. But this does. Back to nice, pretty sunsets, and such

Are you talking about that one game that's a spin-off of cricket?

This thread is everything that is awesome about Ozark Anglers. You all sound lucky in that sense. She's great in a lot of other ways, and we have a lot else in common... but in reference to outdoor activities the GF is likely to say things like "Can we stop playing with the fish?" or, "Where is the nearest Starbucks?" I'm convinced she thinks my job (which, as my profile says, primarily involves measuring trees) is mostly made up, if not an outright scam.

Not surprised to hear that you didn't tear it up around Parker. That's where I've been doing most of my Current River fishing this summer, to avoid the wading crowds at Baptist and Tan Vat (of course, having to time it right to avoid the floating crowd). It's been anywhere from reasonably okay to "are we sure there are actually any trout left here?" A lot of my accumulated knowledge over the years on the stretch has gone out the window now, some pools look similar but a lot not so much. Needless to say the best (only????) results are coming at dawn and dusk in the midst of this heat wave. But when I've had success it's been just as likely to come on dries as egg patterns/nymphs, so that part is okay.

It would take about 5 seconds on the Ozark anglers archives for my opponent to dig up more than enough dirt on me to...well, in this environment, probably insure I win the election handily.

What happens if I complain about you complaining about other people's complaints about their complaints?

Not sure what the hell happened to this thread, but in an attempt to get her back on track.... I'm in my mid 20s, one of those dad-gummed millenials that can't get off their twitter boards and wouldn't know a smallmouth bass I'd it slapped them in the face (yes, that's an amalgamation comprised entirely of actual quotes from fishermen of older generations.) Yes, some of us suck. I had a person who worked for me this summer, about my age, who whined the whole way to, at, and from Greer Spring because he couldn't catch any 4G data there and thus couldn't check Tinder. He no longer works for me, not for that reason but for reasons that are not entirely unrelated. On the other hand, I know tons of younger folks who were raised right. Grew up working hard, maybe tending to a farm, maybe working summers in a factory. They work hard, love the outdoors, and don't complain. Same generation, similar background, they just had parents that didn't suck at their job. Basically, people are people. Some suck to be around, others make the world a more enjoyable place. It has jack to do with "Those Kids These Days".

Any outdoorsman that doesn't read Thoreau is missing out, in the same way as a fly-fisher that doesn't read John Gierach or Thomas McGuane.

I come down on the side of agencies 99% of the time on enforcement issues, to the point where it is almost a running joke...but this kind of a checkpoint system seems seriously problematic to me. DUI checkpoints are one thing...mostly LEOs are looking for bloodshot eyes and smelling alcohol on the breath, if they smell neither, you're moving on, otherwise, there is your probable cause for a more thorough examination of the situation. But if they really are looking through everyone's cooler, etc, after its already been loaded into the vehicle, and without a specific cause for suspicion, I don't see how this isn't unreasonable search and seizure and a violation of the 4th amendment. I know if I got my cooler taken out of the car and searched with no probable cause, I would state my unwillingness to consent to the search, and if it happened anyway, I'd be seeking (very unlikely to come to fruition, admittedly) legal recourse against that officer/agent. If this is as described, this is entirely unacceptable.

That fish is a fairly obvious example of a Cowalskie, a somewhat controversial new hybrid of Coho salmon, musky, and walleye the MDC and AFC have been stocking in some of our reservoirs. The one in the picture is a juvenile specimen. The adults look like this:

I live for smallie fishing on those little creeks. It's all I ever do anymore, really. Never seeing anyone else on the water has spoiled me to the point where I mostly just don't want to do anything else. Plus, I enjoy the stealth game. Not so different from stalking rainbows on Blue Springs Creek, except if anything a good smallie on one of those creeks is smarter and harder to avoid spooking.

Agree wholeheartedly.

To be fair, a large number of people mostly from the Ozarks reading anything 12 pages long has to be considered progress. /mic drop

"I swear I would have set the hook, but that smallie shouted so loud at me that I got startled and just forgot." -My excuse the next time I miss a nice fish.

In my experience, things like "Yep, let's boil bacon, that should go fine" usually come as a direct result of the first thing. Or, more true to my personal experience, due to some unfortunate mixture of bad float trip beer and fireball/wild turkey.

Quick thought from this thread: there are far too many people on this careening ball of dirt, but even so, there are an awful lot of places you can go fish, camp, hunt, whatever, and see a minimal number of people. And generally not hear loud music or screaming drunk people. Those places tend not to include large corps of engineer lakes. Or rivers with a bunch of canoe rentals or a scenic river designation. Or, for the most part, state parks. You are left with three options, basically: 1. Deal with the crowds, enjoy yourself anyway, or, to go further in that direction, join in the festivities. 2. Get away from it all, go find a small stream or pond or a wilderness area, or whatever, walk a little bit, and get away from all the BS. I'm here to tell you, these places are all over the Ozarks. They are only a teensy bit of imagination and a short walk away. Variant on this: go to the popular places during weird days, times of the day, or seasons. Whatever works. This is the "Trout Park in the Winter" corollary. 3. Go to the crowded places and be miserable because they are crowded. Some people are good with #1. I almost always prefer option #2. But if you are going with #3, and believe, me, I've been there, that is not what you'd call a road to happiness.

LOL. Hesitant to even say this, but I am +/- 90% sure I saw a mountain lion a week ago south of Highway 60 in Carter County. It was from a distance, it was on the move, so my confidence is less than it would have needed to be to report it. But...I'm fairly sure. There are limited options for large felines with long tails. In any case it was on the move away from me, and towards a notably large and relatively unbroken forested area. As good a place as any in this state, one would suppose.

Well, they needed some more prey for the wolves they re-introduced last week.

I realize it's a little bit odd starting two "photography" threads in 12 hours about two decidedly different corners of the continental United States....but such is life when you work a job in a remote area where you rarely have access to internet and have to confine all of your posts into those rare periods where you reenter "civilization". And Greer Spring is still pretty enough to be worth the trouble. Also, one of these is a bonus image from the Colorado trip I forgot to include, but that I like enough that I don't want to omit it entirely. I'll let you figure out which one. Side note: On this day, I went to Greer Spring with three other people. Two of them were absolutely captivated, having never been there before. The third complained about the "long" (really, dude, it's like a mile, that barely counts as stretching your legs) walk in and whined incessantly when it became clear this wasn't going to be a good place to swim. Will never make the mistake of sharing with this person anything cool or near to my heart ever again.

Went out west for...all of a day and a half. Didn't get done what I would have liked in the fishing department, but we did bag a couple 14ers in one day, so that's something.

Several of my buddies and I try to make it out west at least once a year, or as close as we can approximate it. Though we've only been doing this for four or five years (since we met at Mizzou) it has morphed into the early stages of what you could call a tradition. But I just took a job that takes up plenty of my attention, and anyway, I'm working in beautiful Ozark countryside with cool people. That I wasn't gonna be able to go this year seemed sort of okay. But then, intentionally or not, I somehow still got tied into the group text wherein the trip was being planned. That was too much. Next thing I knew, well, a flight was booked, the savings were drained more than they should have been, and we're doing this. Here is the schedule: get into Denver at 10 PM Friday, get up early the next morning, climb two 14ers if possible (starting with Gray's Peak), spend Sunday trying to find a trout stream that isn't in full runoff...and fly out at 10 PM that night. I might die, but in the interim it could be fun. Wish me luck.

Well, the post-flood Current river watershed is as pretty as ever.

Well, I am back. I will quite literally be living/working from a place a quarter mile from the Current River for the next two months. Much later start for my research work here than I've expected due to flooding and some other projects I had to help out on back in Indiana, but I'd hazard to say that life could be worse. Now we need to get the lower Current's water level down so I can harass some smallies.