ozark trout fisher

Yesterday just reinforced what most of us already suspected-that top to bottom, Missouri's overall talent this year isn't enough to hang with upper crust SEC teams. We saw it late against Georgia and it was even more clear against South Carolina. But at the same time, both are top 10 teams, perhaps even national title contenders. So a couple of big losses shouldn't be a season ending thing. I still have confidence in Gary Pinkel to make this work, and honestly I still have confidence in Franklin (although that opinion probably isn't too widely shared anymore.) Franklin was very good towards the end of last year and that didn't just disappear. But he's got to put together a really good game soon or his job will be in some danger. The important thing for Missouri this year is to pick up the wins where they can get them and just forget about the remaining games against Alabama and Florida, because they won't be pretty. UCF, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee, Syracuse, and A&M are still winnable games. Missouri won't win all of them but go 4-2 and they're bowl eligible. In my mind that's a successful season. Next week at Central Florida will be huge. They played Ohio State tight and should be tough at home. A loss there would likely close the door on any bowl hopes for Missouri.

I just hope all of this talk about replacing James Franklin doesn't go anywhere. I'm excited about Corbin Berkstresser as our QB a couple years from now, but right now Franklin appears to be a rising star...yet there are rumors about putting him on the bench permanently after his decision not to plan against Arizona State. I really think we need an experienced, dual threat quarterback like Franklin to be able to go into places like South Carolina or the Swamp and be competitive. Even if Berkstresser ended up being really good, putting the offense in the hands of a redshirt freshman during our first year through the SEC just isn't likely to work out for anyone.

I thought Missouri played well overall against Georgia. But after that game and now ASU, the fourth quarter is quickly becoming a huge problem for us. I think it's a depth issue...we're just getting worn out, particularly on defense. South Carolina will be an extremely difficult game. If Franklin's ready to go we could potentially play them tight. If not, considering our offensive line issues (largely due to injury) and South Carolina's scary defense, it's likely to get very ugly very quickly. Berkstresser looked solid against Arizona State-but a redshirt freshman against one of the top SEC defenses, on the road no less, probably wouldn't bode well. I feel like Missouri's season hinges on James Franklin's health. 7 wins and a solid overall first season is still very much in the cards if he's in the fold. If not we might be looking at 4-6 wins. I think Gary Pinkel will get us to the point where we can win a lot of games in this league, but I don't think we can run with the top-flight teams for four quarters yet. Getting bowl eligible should be the goal, in my opinion.

I just didn't want to torture you all with pictures of 11 inch bass and seven inch crappie.

Before Hurricane Isaac blew through here over the weekend, my options for fishing here in central Missouri were getting downright limited. There were a few larger streams that had enough flow in the last few miles before they dumped into the big muddy, but most were very thin and a few were darned near dry. So needless to say the 2 inches that we got here wasn't enough, but was nonetheless very welcome. Our ground was so dry that it never even properly "blew out" most of the streams, but it gave them a nice rise and some good, solid flow. So I headed over today to a stream that before was running a bit too low to fish, thinking that the rise might have done it some good. And it sure enough had. The water wasn't even what you could call high, but it had steady current and some color to it. This is a slow stream, one that has already dropped well into the Missouri River valley, so there aren't a lot of riffles...but there is one quick, rocky shoal that would do justice to an Ozark stream. Fish often congregate in the well oxygenated water below it, so that's where I started fishing. The water was fairly muddy, with just less than a foot of visibility. So something flashy and visible seemed to be the logical answer. I started with a Panther Martin spinner, and went through a few other things with the end result being a single bluegill. Finally I switched over to a Heddon Tiny Torpedo (even though topwater didn't seem to make much sense in the bright sun) and that was what ended up working. This creek has three species of bass, largemouth, spotted, and whites, and they were active and looking up. I don't fish topwater enough but it was certainly working today, even though the conditions just didn't seem to be right. There's not much else to say really, but it's just so good to see streams like this doing better after the rain blew through-a stretch of stream I was mildly worried about going dry a few days ago now has good flow and excellent fishing. I can say we need a lot more rain to keep these increased flows sustained. If that happens we might actually have some decent fishing this fall... but for now I'm just very thankful of the effects of the weather we've had the past few days.

Thank you. But I'm not scared off...it's just that with rain coming and college football starting tonight, in all I'm in a pretty good mood...No need for an argument over something I really couldn't care less about anyway:)

Alright then...

Ok. Not interested in going further with this.

The reality is, you don't hear about many cases where CCW users accidentally shoot someone. And rarely does concealed carry save anyone's life. So it's basically a wash...Not worth all of the anger that this thread has seen IMO. I don't carry and probably never will, but I respect responsible people's choices. Like I said, this just isn't something that is ever going to be relevant to most of us in the real world.

The National Weather Service is specifically warning those who are floating or gravel bar camping in the Ozarks during the storm...The Current, Jacks Fork, Eleven Point, and Niangua were all mentioned as streams that could see the brunt of the storm.

Very interesting, and thanks for posting the link. I'm so used to the spring-creek water on the first 20-30 miles of that river that I'd never think of it as the slow, agricultural artery that is in Arkansas where this video was shot...Looks like it would be a fun stretch to float though if I ever get a real wild hair. I'd always assumed that the lower stretch around and below the border wouldn't be of great interest, but it looks like I was wrong on that.

8-9 inches of rain is very serious stuff. Great for the rivers probably, but if anyone is really planning to fish through this I'd seriously discourage that. I'm not sure that much came down when the Albert Pike disaster occurred. That's worth thinking about, even if rainfall this will occur over a much longer period of time.

Mizzou plays this weekend.

They are predicting the possibility of "flooding rains" at least in the central part of the state. Everyone needs to be careful out there. If it's as significant as they're saying, fishing during this, let alone camping along the river sounds like a really dangerous idea. All that said, I am desperately hoping for rain, and lots of it. When the possibility of flooding comes when a few of your favorite streams are a series of pools seperated by expanses of bare gravel, it's hard to think of that as being all bad. We will see if it actually hits us. We've been a bit unfortunate at times when it comes to storm systems that seem to be obviously headed our way somehow dissipating just before they get here, or changing course at the last second. I'm not counting on anything until I see the rain falling.

Several weather forecasts point to the strong possibility of heavy rain over the weekend. So naturally I'm expecting dry conditions. I hope the damage and/ or loss of life isn't too bad along the gulf coast. That is the main thing, as much as I'd like to see a good shot of rain come through here.

It's been a bit too long since I've done any meaningful fishing (besides some quick evenings on the ponds) so I really needed to spend some time on the water today. I didn't really have the opportunity to make it down to the Current or Meramec or any of the streams that would be my first choice, but I still wanted to fish... and as much as I may forget it sometimes, there are some pretty good streams north of the Ozarks too. So I decided to check out one of my favorites. It had been awhile since I'd fished this particularly stream (a tributary of the Missouri River) and I was worried about how it would be effected by the drought. It's a pretty large watershed and usually has a good, steady flow, so I still thought it was at least worth a look. It's one of those streams where no one fish species is all that abundant, but on any given day you can expect to catch decent numbers of largemouth bass, spotted bass, green sunfish, longear sunfish, crappie, and various rough fish (drum and chubs primarily). Neither smallmouth or white bass are all that common, but often provide a nice surprise if you're lucky. It's not your typical MO river trib, by which I mean it's clear, quick, and has at least the appearance of being spring-fed. But as I'd expected, it wasn't exactly looking like its normal self today. The riffles were merely trickles over a wide bed of gravel, and though there was still plenty of deep (4-5 foot) water in many of the pools, the current was imperceptible in places. That said, for a stream only fed by run-off and a few small springs, if anything I was impressed that it had any water at all. And the better pools were still deep and inviting as ever. The fishing started off slow. In the past, crankbaits and spinners have almost always been the lures that I've had the most success on. But my go to bait, the Rebel Teeny Craw, had one of those ever so rare days where it simply would not take any fish (yes, that does happen every once in awhile.) I tried a spinner as well to no avail, although it did at least elicit a few follows. Finally I dug out an old crappie jig from my tackle box and that ended up being the ticket. By this point of was beginning to wonder if the bass were still around, but after the switch, pretty quickly I had an 11 inch largemouth to hand and had lost what looked to a 15 inch beauty when it took to the air. I caught and released several out of that hole before moving upstream. The next place I fished didn't seem to be holding much in the way of bass, but still it did not disappoint. It's one of those rare small stream holes where if you waded out in the middle you'd float your hat. I had visions of big smallmouth hiding under some of the rootwads there, but instead I found a nice school of crappie, a fish that I generally don't associate with flowing water but was happen enough to catch anyway. Before leaving I would also miss opportunities at a good sized drum and something else of size that I wasn't able to identify (perhaps another drum.) One thing I've got to say...if you live in central or northern Missouri, chances are one of the streams you live near that most write off as a mud-hole will actually have some decent fishing if you're able to find the right stretch of water. And I don't mean just for catfish or carp-many of these streams are great for largemouth or even the occasional smallie. It's worth checking a few out, doing so has definitely resulted in me finding some good water in really surprising places.

Good luck wherever you do end up. It's tough to go wrong with either the Big Piney or the Gasconade. That's one of my favorite corners of the Ozarks without a doubt.

I've spent some time wading around the accesses on the Big Piney. It's definitely not the ideal way to fish that river (you really should float it) but there are some bass to be caught within wading distance of most put-ins. They're just not very plentiful or large, but if you need a quick fishing fix it's still worth trying. The best way to fish that river without a boat is to find a stretch that flows through the National Forest and hike in. Much more time consuming but it results in much better fishing most of the time. When I want to do the BP and can't find someone to help with a shuttle that's usually what I prefer to do. The one benefit of the drought is that wading is real easy. Normally that rivers a bit deep for anything besides float fishing, but you'll have lots of options now. It is a pretty river with quality bass. As everyone else says, you really owe it to yourself to get away from the access, whether it's finding a remote National Forest stretch and covering a lot of water or preferably if you can float it. For a river that's ideal to paddle around on without actually using two accesses (it seems like that's what you're looking to do) maybe the Big Piney isn't the best option. Just up the road is the G'nade which is perfect for that method of fishing. It's a much slower stream than the BP, which makes paddling upriver a whole lot easier.

A couple months ago I was kayak fishing one of the Ozarks' more popular smallie streams and as I was apparently fishing through some very territorial angler's favorite hole, I starting hearing shots over my head. Not close enough that there was any chance I was being shot at, but definitely too close for comfort. I suppose it's possible the person simply wasn't paying attention, but that's really giving them the benefit of the doubt as they were shooting across a popular floating stream and you'd have to think they would notice someone paddling by. In any case, it was a bit spooky, but having a firearm around sure wouldn't have helped me. The person was out of sight, as the shots were coming from a steep, heavily timbered hillside above the river. How could having a gun have helped me besides giving them a great excuse to shoot a little closer to my head? Others can carry a firearm on the river for protection in these situations, but it seems to me that almost all the time you're better off paddling (or running) away from the scene as quickly as possible. It doesn't feel particularly good but it's the right thing to do, and will probably result in you coming home intact. That said, I really won't get into this any further. If you choose to concealed carry on the river and are darned responsible about it, fully understanding the consequences of a bad decision, then you are not negatively impacting anyone and most reasonable folks would consider you well within your rights. It's just that I remain unconvinced that it protects you more than it might put you in danger in some situations.

Only in bear country does the thought come up, and even then I prefer pepper spray as the more proven form of protection. Heck, if you're trying to protect yourself from fellow humans pepper spray might be a good way to go also. And no, I'm not considering the Ozarks to be honest to goodness "bear country" just yet (though we may not be too far away from that.) By that I'm referring to places like Montana, Colorado, or certain parts of Michigan.

I've always considered MDC agents to be very reasonable people on the whole, and while I can't be sure, it's just tough for me to imagine them handing out a ticket for using a spinnerbait or a rubberleg fly. Because that is not against the intent of the regulation, and may not even be against the letter of the law. Now put a soft plastic trailer on the spinnerbait and then you've got a problem.

When I'm smallie fishing those streams my go-to lure is the Rebel Teeny Craw-just like everywhere else. Plus they work very well for trout most of time too. But I'm usually fly fishing on Blue Ribbon water, and an olive woolly or leach pattern in #6-10 is often great for catching a combination of bass and trout.

On the Big Piney, I'm used to doing the two day float from Slabtown to Ross, and it's a good one. But there is an intermediate private access at Six Crossings for the purpose of day trips. I've never used Six Crossings myself always since I usually reserve that river for overnight trips, but I have heard that floaters can park there, perhaps for a fee. Others can hopefully shed a bit more light on this access if it's the route you choose to go. I'd recommend Slabtown to 6x for scenery, lack of crowds, and excellent smallie fishing. The fishing and scenery are also good from Six Crossings to Ross Bridge, but in my experience the crowds there are at least 2-3 times worse than what you'd find Slabtown to Six Crossings-and that may be an understatement. I'm not familiar with the stretch between Ross and the Fort Leonard Wood boundary, though it does sound like a fun area to explore. If you do check it out make sure you let us know how it goes.

This is an interesting topic that relates to one of the lakes I spend a lot of time fishing. It's an (approximately) 100 acre body of water that has plenty of dead-fall, aquatic vegetation, and excellent water quality. Simply put, it has the appearance of perfect largemouth bass habitat, and everyone who fishes it the first time thinks it just has to be a trophy factory. But there just isn't much of a forage base, so while bass are present in fairly respectable numbers, anything much over about 17 inches is considered quite a large fish. Bluegill and green sunfish are the only available forage. A good effort to alleviate the problem has certainly been made by those who manage the lake. Several forage species from shiners to shad have been stocked, and everyone has had high hopes each time... but none of these efforts have been successful in establishing even low density populations of baitfish. At a certain point, I have to wonder if there is simply no good solution for some of the lakes with this sort of problem.

Congrats on a great fish. Gar are a lot of fun.