ozark trout fisher

I've been a Mizzou fan for life. But I will not root for John Calipari. I hope I'm never again in a position where I have to cheer for the Jayhawks, but unfortunately the world is such that I am now:)

Yep. Within a couple years you guys will most likely be the "official" national champions no matter what happens tomorrow. Cal cheated at Memphis, at UMass, and I've got no reason to think he's changed his ways.

I'm not sure what I think of this national title game...Two teams that I absolutely cannot stand: Kentucky for a legitimate reason (the one and done system) and Kansas, well, because they are Kansas. But as much as I can't stand them, the Jayhawks are a team that has shown a lot of heart throughout the year, and I like Bill Self. That's more than I can say about there opponent, who was just supposed to be here based on pure NBA-level talent. Go Jayhawks. I can't believe I just said that.

I just went out on my kayak and the bass and bluegill in the local ponds are behaving like you would expect them to in May, not March...I'm already starting to get some on dries in the evenings. After I got done fishing today, I went swimming, which I think pretty much sums up our weather so far. We just didn't really have a winter this year, and now it seems we're headed straight into summer.

I'm the same way. If I didn't have anything but Rebel Craws I'd be okay. Many summer floats go by for me where I never once tie on anything else, and catch smallmouth 'til my arms fall off. They say there's no such thing as a magic lure but... I carry a few other lures when I'm smallmouth fishing of course. Other than Rebel Craws I like Rooster Tails, Rapala Countdowns, Bomber crankbaits and black Jitterbugs at night. I've been told that this is the tackle box of someone's grandpa 40 years ago, which I naturally took as a complement. Most of our grandpas caught a lot of fish.

Yeah, I don't usually edit my blog entries either until about a week later when someone complains about all the grammatical and spelling errors, so I wouldn't worry about it...

I've been doing well lately with 1/4 ounce white spinnerbaits lately on the spinning rod, and black and olive woolly buggers on the fly rod. They aren't spawning yet though, at least in the lakes I'm fishing. If you do target spawners, make sure to release them all and as carefully as you can...Try not to wear them out too much during the fight; bring them in as quickly as possible. For that reason I like to use pretty heavy tackle in spawning season, preferably nothing lighter than 10 pound line. Good luck.

I enjoyed it...The best fish stories always seem to be about the ones that got away, don't they?

What kind of fly floatant do you guys think works best? And why do Rebel Craws work so much better than any lure in existence? Do you think the Meramec River will be blown out next week when I fish it?

And mountain lions....

Can't think of any real good options along trout streams. There is some nice "off trail" hiking that I've done along the upper Current River, but that's better in the cooler months minus the poison ivy and other thick vegetation. And that window is about closed now. Lots more options for hike-in smallmouth fishing though. The trail in Paddy Creek Wilderness is one you should check out if you're interested in that. Absolutely beautiful, wild country and the Big Piney has some nice wade fishing in that area given the right water levels. Lots of other places like that, just check out about any of our wilderness areas or the big conservation areas in south-central MO. Most have some sort of hike in fishing for smallmouth or goggle-eye in beautiful country...The sky is pretty much the limit.

Yeah, who cares, they're all pretty. When you get to streams like the Huzzah, Meramec headwaters, and upper Current they're all so clear and so pretty that it just doesn't matter. I've not spent too much time on the Black but I may have to get down there soon.

Fishing is tough on ultraclear streams. But how pretty the usually are makes up for it.

I'd say the upper Current would have to be up there too.

Great report. Got to love it when they're up and taking big attractor dries...

Look, there will be hoosiers out there that abuse the resource, and the MDC isn't going to charge them more because they do. That isn't fair but it's just life. So I'll pay my $7 to help make up for what those hoosiers are doing. I'd pay a lot more than that.

But I just don't think that's true. We all have an impact on the resource whether we want to or not. If you have a decent day of trout fishing, and catch and release 20-30, there's a pretty good chance one of them isn't going to end up surviving even if you don't know it at the time. In the grand scheme of things, that isn't a huge deal, but if you do that enough times I think it's only right to pay the $7 to make up for it. I understand where you're coming from and respect your decision not to buy one, but I feel like I don't really have a right to complain about regulations if I'm not paying the (very small) fee to use the resource. That's all I'm saying.

You need a trout stamp to fish the parks during the winter C&R season, as well as Lake Taneycomo (I think just the trophy stretch, not really a Taneycomo guy), and to keep trout anywhere. For C&R fishing on blue, white, and red ribbon streams you don't need one. I just don't see why someone who fishes for trout in Missouri isn't willing to buy a $7 stamp to help support the fishery, but there will always be mysteries in life... Guess our trout aren't worth that?

Better not do any winter fishing in the parks... All I can say is it's a $7 donation to the folks that make any sort of trout fishing in this state possible. So make your own decisions based on that:)

I know...After that happened, I thought to myself, if they're going to be those kinds of shots to go then maybe they just deserve to win. I doubt they've ever had that kind of a three point percentage before. They probably never will again...I guess they just saved it all for us:)

But I do come off the wrong way sometimes, and like I said before, it's just not my intent to hurt anyone's feelings. So I apologize. Anyway I really am going fishing now.

If you choose to be offended by someone telling you to "go fishing" then maybe you shouldn't insult other people's beliefs. Don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but I lost my patience. That is all. Carry on. Now I'm going fishing.

One funny story relating to all of this.... I was talking to a friend of mine after the game, who happens to be a Duke fan, and he was ranting and raving about how this game proved that Haith was not a good coach. The last thing he said was "Coach K's team would never get upset by a 15 seed like this in the first round." But then a couple hours later........... The take home message: stuff happens. Don't pin this on Haith who I think has exceeded all of our expectations, and certainly don't pin this on those seniors who played their hearts out for the last four years. Norfolk State played the best basketball game they have played in their lives. They couldn't miss a shot, and just played really tough. Hats off to them. Missouri came out slow and had one of their worst defensive and rebounding performances of the season. It's that simple. Upsets happen to good teams, even to teams led by legendary coaches. If enough things go right (or wrong), Lehigh can beat Duke and Norfolk State can beat Missouri. Tough that it had to happen when it did, but if everything always went as planned in sports, or fishing, or anything else, it wouldn't be much fun, would it?

I'm sorry...Thirty wins. I'm not going to complain about the coaching, or anything else for that matter. Heck , if our whole season didn't include anything besides that Kansas game in Columbia, I'd be happy. Never been to a basketball game anything like that one. Frank Haith did seem to freeze up a little yesterday, but he's also the one who's largely responsible for giving us such a successful season. So in all, I'm just pretty thankful for what he was able to do for this program in his first year. Remember last year; we lost 5 of our last six games and almost ended up missing the tournament. It will be tough to get back into this position next year, but I actually wouldn't rule it out. We'll have Lawrence Bowers, and Phil Pressey who might be the best point guard in the country, plus Michael Dixon and everyone else we've got coming in. We could be pretty darned good.

I do agree with that. I thought Haith did an excellent job this year, but the one thing that was always making me pull my hair out was our defensive struggles. Every single game that we lost this year, the main reason was that we just had a complete defensive breakdown. A lot of the time it didn't matter, because we were able to swamp most teams early with hot shooting and transition points. But once we get into close games against teams that aren't turning the ball over, you really have to get some stops at the right time to win. And that just didn't happen last night. Look at South Florida...By far the worst offensive team to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament, maybe ever. And yet with their incredibly stifling defense, they've easily won their first two games of the tournament to get to the Round of 32, and against a couple of very good opponents (Cal and Temple). They shot 11% in the first half of their game last night and still won by 14, because their defense just makes it unnecessary for them to score a lot of points. It's just a little more evidence that strong defensive teams tend to go deeper into the tournament that elite offensive teams. We learned that the hard way.