ozark trout fisher

Yep. My fly fishing mantra is keep the fly in the water and let the fish take care of the rest. Whenever I try to get fancy it just backfires and I end up making stupid mistakes. And when I do that I get frustrated, and don't usually catch very many fish.

Very nice! Looks like it was a great day.

Well count me out...Make the regs what you will, but I'm not keeping any. I just doubt that all of the people who have been releasing smallmouth habitually for years are all of a sudden going to start stringing them up because of a regulation change. The same people that are keeping fish now would continue to, and those who C&R now would also continue to. There are just too many people out there that will never string up an Ozark stream smallmouth for any plan based on everyone harvesting fish of a certain size to work. And I'm one of them. I just don't think I could even make myself keep them anymore, no more than I could string up a native Adirondack brookie, or a cutthroat in a remote Colorado stream. They just symbolize too much I guess.

+1

If you think that, just look at the rivers and streams that are in the backyards of city people. Most of them are in a lot worse shape than rivers and streams in the deep woods. Some of the creeks I fish for smallmouth and kentuckies around here are so toxic that you're not even supposed to wet-wade them. So you can say that people from cities are on a whole less abusive towards rivers, but based on what I see every day, that just doesn't ring true. I really don't mean to come off as confrontational, though I'm sure I am. I do pretty much agree with you on what you think the smallmouth regs need to be to improve fishing. It's just that I do think it is important to try to educate people in the value of catch and release along with regs. Here's my point; four years ago I was a bait fisherman, always kept a limit whenever I could get one, and I really didn't think much of the value of catch and release. There will be some people on here that will remember this. When I said as much on here, there were of course a share of people that just dog-piled and told me how wrong I was. Others actually made the effort to explain to me why catch and release is so important, why length limits, bait restrictions etc. are good for our rivers and those who use them. And you know what, it made a big difference. I'd like to doubt it, but if some people hadn't been willing to do that, maybe that's still the sort of fisherman I'd be. So hearts and minds can be changed. I know this first hand.

Maybe if you actually kept an open mind about "these people" who live "deep in the woods" and are "cemented in tradition" you would know that a lot of them actually do care about conservation, and that most of them are not ignorant back-woods hicks who have to be treated like children. I am in support of the tightest practicable smallmouth regs, but I am not in support of your stereotypical way of looking at people who live in remote areas of the Ozarks. I have friends in places like Eminence and Winona, family "deep in the woods" of southeast Missouri, and most of them just aren't like what you describe. I now live right in the middle of a town of nearly 100,000 people. And my favorite smallmouth stream is being trashed by city folk, trashed much worse than any Ozark creek is being by some old-timer bait fisherman who keeps a limit. So yes, city folk can be just as bad or worse in their conservation ethics than people in remote areas. And they often are.

Feathers and Fins, we may not quite agree on some of the specifics here, but I like your attitude that something can be done to help change hearts and minds....Which is the only real hope for our rivers and streams, or any other conservation effort. Rules and regulations help, but until a critical mass actually cares about these things, it isn't going to be enough. Just saying "Well, there are some peoples minds who you will never change, so it isn't worth trying to win anyone over", that's what seems like an irrational argument to me. There are plenty of people that I've come to know hunting and fishing down in the deep Ozarks that truly care about conservation, who would be willing to work to help improve populations of native species. People that some here would certainly write off as rednecks. For every deer dogger and person who strings up a limit of smallmouth every day, there are a whole lot more people that can't stand those practices, and would do a lot to stop it. And a belittling attitude towards those folks isn't going to do anything to win them over.

Yes Oneshot, the BPS set-up will do. No need to go fancy to start out. For the first year and a half I fly fished, I used a cheapo (I think it cost $50 for the rod, reel and line together) from Walmart and it worked fine...It's still my back up fly rod and I use it on occasion. As for lessons...You'll be able to figure it out on your own eventually. If I was able to anyone can; I am the most uncoordinated person on earth, and the least naturally suited to fly fishing. That said, taking lessons would speed up the process and spare you from a lot of the trial and error and bad casting habits, etc, that I picked up teaching myself. So if it's possible for you to get lessons I would encourage it, but it isn't absolutely necessary.

Nobody is against people who want to take home fish to eat. I know I keep fish fairly often, bluegill, channel cats, stocker trout, etc. It's just about doing it responsibly. If the guy wanted fish to eat, the Niangua is just full of stocker rainbows. Those are stocked once a month, or something like that anyway. Not to mention all the goggle-eye, longear sunfish, and other panfish. Why not take a few of those home to eat instead of 14, 15 inch smallmouth which take years to replace?

But the MDC does say that limited hunting will eventually be allowed to manage the herd. Probably will be quite a few years till the population gets to that point though.

Yuck!

I don't know a thing about Ten Mile, but for what it's worth most of the highest quality stretches of smallmouth water I've fished in MO are special management areas. Based on my experience, which is pretty limited compared to a lot of folks on here, I do feel like I tend to catch noticeably larger bass in the SMAs compared to similar streams under statewide regs. I don't want to argue about it, this is just my observation and if others disagree that's fine.

Thanks! There sure are too many streams that are having to deal with this. It's hard to watch such an otherwise beautiful stream get treated like most think it isn't worth anything.

Just a short story about an outing on a little smallmouth stream today... It may not be spring yet, but it sure seems like it. It's warm, about 55 degrees, and the soft breeze reminds me of an April day. This time of year, it seems as if the whole world is waking up, and a couple of warm days had me wondering if it was finally time to try catch some fish. So here I am on a little creek five miles out of town, fly rod in hand. I see that the stream-flow has finally started to drop significantly after snow-melt and rain made it a muddy mess, and the water is now tannish green, the visibility up to about a foot and a half. The conditions aren't ideal, but there just might be a chance. Of course, there's never much more than that on this creek. This is anything but a but a blue ribbon smallmouth stream. The headwaters are right in the middle of a good sized town, and most people look at this stream as nothing more than a polluted ditch. Things have gotten so bad that one of its little tributary streams has taken to turning a sickly neon green color from some sort of a chemical leak, an issue that I've been devoting a lot of time trying to figure out lately. Man has not dealt this stream a fair hand at all, and it's one of the saddest things I've ever seen. But down here, well outside of town, the conditions are just good enough to support a very limited smallmouth population. I've been fishing this stretch of creek since I discovered it this past August. The mixture of its beautiful native smallmouth bass and the complete lack of any protection has been a source of consternation for me ever since that is almost as prevailing as the sense of peace I always get from fishing it. But I'm not thinking about any of that now. My mind is squarely in the moment, and my only thoughts are about how I can fool a couple sluggish late winter smallmouth. I start in a deep bluff-hole, my favorite pool on the whole stream. The fly choice is the easiest part. I tie on a #8 Black Woolly Bugger, heavily weighted to get down quickly in the heavy flow. The technique couldn't be more simple. Let the fly sink down to the bottom, and retrieve as slowly as humanly possible, all the while waiting for a strike that probably won't come. It isn't the most exciting sort of fly fishing, but it's the only way to catch fish when water temperatures are like this. But it just isn't working. At first I have trouble getting myself to retrieve slow enough, the same problem that is familiar to anyone who ever fishes soft plastics on a spinning rod. But even after I get past this, the fish just won't cooperate. After about an hour of this, I resign myself to the fact that this is just going to be one of those late winter/early spring days where the fishing isn't going to come together. It doesn't take me long to accept that, and I'm back to just enjoying the beautiful day. While I'm still fishing, it's bit of an afterthought. I'm finally shaken out of my daydreaming by a sluggish pull on my line. At first I think I'm just on the bottom, but I set the hook anyway, just in case. Sure enough it's a fish, but at first the fight is lethargic. Finally he realizes that he's hooked, and makes a good run. It's not big, but the hard pull tells me that this is no bluegill or green sunfish. It doesn't take long to bring him to bay, a 10 inch jewel with the almost washed-out coloration of smallmouth that reside in murky water. I take a moment to admire this unlikely little treasure, a fish that is remarkably resilient to be able to survive in such a beautiful, but desperately impaired stream. Then I release him, and he makes his way back to his hold, to help sustain a smallmouth population that will hopefully be allowed to thrive in the future.

Well, I wouldn't take that too personally. Some people have actually accused me of being a bit disagreeable. I know you care about Ozark streams. Never doubted that a bit. But I just like to argue, and you do too, so I guess that's just how it shakes out.....

Some of the conservation issues that you brought up are valid ones (except pheasants, which are non-native to this continent) but are they more important than reintroducing a long-lost native species just because they are more likely to provide good hunting and fishing opportunities than elk will? I don't personally think so. And would you please stop referring to it as the "Peck Zoo"? If you had ever been down to that truly wild and beautiful country you would never call it that. It's the place where I first fell in love with the Ozarks and will always have a special place in my heart. Objective views of the MDC are encouraged, but referring to them as "Poobahs" and referring to the project as "Peck Zoo" doesn't fit the bill.

I sure like your attitude. A native species being reintroduced in the wild is a zoo, and a waste of money? Isn't that what a conservation department is supposed to do? The MDC's only purpose isn't just to make your hunting and fishing better. If you have some constructive criticisms of the MDC we'd all be interested to hear it, but until then... Maybe you are you just looking to stir the pot?

Probably it won't be too long. Most people down I've met in that area are good folk that go about hunting in honest sorts of ways, but there's a significant deer dogging element down there as well. I wouldn't be too surprised if people who would do that would shoot an elk if they thought they could get away with it. But I think enforcement will be pretty tight, and I imagine the fine would be pretty massive. And speaking of massive, an elk is an awful big thing to try to get away with poaching:)

No, they're all mine! I have heard the elk are doing pretty well in Peck Ranch. I'm a bit disapointed that I've yet to see one myself (despite having been down there a few times this fall) but I've talked to quite a few locals that have. I haven't been in the refuge portion though, just the area outside the fence. And trying to see elk hasn't been my goal as I've been hunting (not elk of course, though I hope I don't have to say that.) But I would like to go down there sometime in the near future to see if I can get some pictures.

Yes, the sunset was beautiful today. I spent it on a little central MO smallmouth stream. Given the high flow and low water temps, there was no real chance of catching fish, but what an evening to be out on the water. Once we get a good long stretch with highs in the upper 50s and night-time temps that aren't getting much below freezing they ought to start waking up. I'm pretty hesitant to really start thinking too seriously about that this early on though...I bet we still have some winter in for us, which I'm more than okay with. Given our lack of cold weather this year I could sure go for a little more. It wouldn't feel right if spring came after no real winter!

Well, it's the third week of February now and all of the highs in our 10 day forecast are in the 50s...I'd say we're definitely headed in the right direction. I bet we have one more little cold snap before spring comes on for real, but then again we may not. Given our milder than usual winter this year, I could see the warm-water fishing getting started as soon as 2-3 weeks from now, which would be a lot earlier than last year. I am looking forward to it, but all in good time.

Usual reasonable post Al. Some of my posts are....not as reasonable. I agree that doing what is necessary to help improve watersheds is as tough a thing as any conservation issue. Maybe a losing battle in the end, I don't know. But when I see streams with a few miles of my home that could support good smallmouth populations so polluted that they are literally changing colors and no one even cares, well if there is anything on this earth that can motivate me to do anything humanly possible that is it. It just makes me so sad to see that, and I either have to let it drive me nuts or at least try to fight what is probably a losing battle. I don't see any other choice. Not that I think I can actually do a danged thing, but I still have to try.

What can one person do about any of the conservation problems facing our streams? Not much. But I do suppose if everyone just sits back complaining that nothing can be done, that's going to end up being a self-fullfilling prophecy. But your question is valid, what can you do? Well I really don't know the answer to that, but I'm starting by writing everyone who might be able to have some kind of positive impact on the specific streams where I'd like to see improvement. The MDC, congressmen, anyone. And then going to those streams on a regular basis and picking up as much trash as humanly possible. Heck if I know what I'm doing, but at least I'm (probably ineffectively) trying to do something. When you see what amounts to your home water being absolutely trashed, you'll want to do something about it.

Yes, we need both. But my concern, is that if we start we the easy part (changing regulations), will we just leave it at that? And I would argue that in most cases, it is not going to be rocket science to find solutions that will help improve habitat. In most cases it is so darned simple. Stupid, easy to fix things like cattle eroding stream beds are mostly what are hurting our streams. If the habitat in a stream won't support a good population of whatever species of fish you're trying to manage, you can put all of the regulations in place that you want an the effect will be minimal. I say we shouldn't start with the easy part. We should start by trying to improve the most important factor, which I think most people would agree is habitat. Maybe my opinion is a little bit biased on this now, as I would have agreed with you in your assessment on this a few months ago. But I have spent a disproportionately large time lately fishing streams where the habitat is seriously impaired, one way or another. Just spending time on the streams near where I now live in Central MO has really colored my opinion on how important habitat and water quality is compared to other factors. Spending a whole lot of time on streams with excellent potential, that just aren't given half a chance with pollution, erosion, stream-side development, etc will do that. Heck, one of the streams that just this August I was catching smallmouth out of, got some sort of chemical leak in it, and the water turned green. Neon green, and it's now happened three times in the last few months. Talk about something that will catch your attention. I guess I just think I'm going to focus my energy for now on doing what I can to help streams that are total wrecks now get to the point where they can be half-way decent fisheries. Everything else can wait. I appreciate that it's good that we have others who will be fighting the good fight as far as regulations go, but I only have so much energy to give to conservation causes and this is what I'm choosing to take on now. Wow, long post. Got to go.

Yes, that is exactly the point I was trying to get across. It's just so much easier to ask for better regs, when what's really necessary for an improvement in a fishery in most cases is habitat improvement. I know this because I've been guilty of it in the past...Regs are if course important, but compared to gravel mining, rising temperatures, cattle, sewage, and all the other problems facing our streams, it's kind of small potatoes. When I look at so many of the rivers I like to fish, the Little Piney (outside the Mark Twain stretch), tributaries of the Meramec, and just about any of the streams here in central MO, you really can't hope to make much progress with better regs until the habitat is drastically improved. They're just not in a state where they can support much, for significant stretches of stream. It isn't easy to get the ball rolling on that kind of change, a lot harder than getting some length limit changed, but it's what needs to happen more than anything else. Our rivers will never again be like what they were 300 years ago, but progress can be made. The things is, in a lot of case all it would take for significant improvement is fairly simple stuff like better gravel mining procedures, keeping cows out of a stream, and taking some basic steps to keep sewage and other nasty stuff out of rivers.