ozark trout fisher

Nice! Those are some nice smallies. I'm headed down Tuesday if the river isn't completely blown out from the storms they're predicting. Hopefully I'll hook up with a few like those.

Awesome! Great job catching fish on your first trip with the fly rod. Anyone who says they didn't curse more than they caught their first few times fly fishing is probably lying.

Yeah, there are a lot of tributary streams between Lane and Newburg that can change things. The streams biggest non-spring tributary, Beaver Creek, comes in just upriver of Newburg and that can change the water levels a lot. Corn Creek above Vida Slab is another. You almost just have to see the creek itself to know whether it's fishable. The difference between even Lane Spring and Vida Slab just a few miles downriver can be very significant. It also usually rises very quickly after a rain and drops almost as quickly. It often will only stay unfishable for a few hours after a spike in flows up in the Lane Spring area.

You can fish from the bank in several areas below the put in in the recreation area. But it's very limited. Maybe not a these flows but at normal summer water levels you can wade below the bridge. It's fast and it can be an adventure, but it's doable.

Go for it. That should get you started just fine. Good luck. But be warned that getting into fly fishing can be a dangerous proposition! It starts off as such a seemingly small thing, just another way to catch fish, but it can pretty much end up taking over your life or at least a big part of it...It kind of happened to me, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I have one tip for you related to fly fishing that has nothing to do with your starting set up. If you are ever fishing and you have no idea whatsoever to tie on, make it a Woolly Bugger in #10 or 12. Whether you're fishing for trout, panfish, bluegill, or pretty much else, that's generally about as good of a bet as anything.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a good day. I'm troubled to hear about the warm water temps though.

Great. Thank you.

You can buy a serviceable 5 weight Scientific Angler outfit at walmart for 70 bucks or so that includes the rod, reel, and line. That set up will be usable for trout and bass fishing in our area. That is the set up I started with, and even though I now use a St. Croix, I still keep it around as a spare. I would reccomend it for your first fly rod and reel. It won't be top quality, but you won't need a top quality set up to start with. The $19.95 set ups are junk. There's no real harm in getting one as at worst you'll only be wasting 20 bucks, but if your first experience fly fishing is with one of these outfits, you're probably not going to enjoy yourself very much. You'll want a better rod than the Scientific Angler as you get further into fly fishing, and maybe you'll even get into the bamboo thing eventually. But it's best to start simple.

I've been trying to manage a trip down to the Eleven Point for a while now, and I managed to recruit a couple friends to join in on the weekend of July 9th and 10th, so it's on. I know that river really requires at least a three day trip to really do it the way it should be done, but unfortunately none of us have that kind of time. We really want to float from Cane Bluff down to Turner Mill (camping somewhere in between) so we see both the smallmouth fishing on the upper river and the Blue Ribbon trout water. My question is will the river between Cane Bluff and Greer have enough water by then? None of us mind having to get out and drag every once in a while. I know it's impossible to know for sure two weeks in advance, but maybe someone has a better idea than I do. I see that the river is running a little high now which could bode well for that.

Sounds like a great trip.Ten days straight fishing for smallies..I'm envious. Looking forward to the report.

That's a very nice video with some beautiful water and beautiful fish. I enjoyed it.

Some great fish! Thanks for the report. A trout up in that stretch of the river had to be a pleasant surprise during the summertime.

Good luck on your trip. That stretch of river above Mill Rock does sound like a lot of fun. I bet it doesn't get much pressure. I also worry about leaving the truck at the access overnight in that area-most of the locals are good, upstanding folk but there are unfortunately the meth-heads to worry about around here. But sometimes there isn't much alternative if you want to do a two day float and you just have to hope for the best.

This is consistent with my experiences fishing Montana and Colorado. Montana's stream access law makes all the difference in that state- a good part of the reason why I think it's the best trout fishing state save Alaska. The stream access law opens up so much water- if you can find a bridge crossing you are usually in luck even if the stream is pretty well locked up in private land. Not so in Colorado (or Wyoming). There if the stream is privately held on both sides if you even touch the bottom of the stream you are trespassing-which makes wade fishing illegal on those stretches and float fishing very difficult.

I hesitate too point this out because Brian Sloss by all I've heard probably knows more about the Eleven Point than anyone else on here, but just for the sake of saving the original poster some confusion, I believe this was a typo..I think you meant to say great smallmouth, right? I could be wrong though. There is some good wading water right around the Highway 19 Bridge. Have you been fishing right at the boat put in, or closer to the bridge? Wading is pretty restricted (almost non-existent) at the recreation area put in, but it is much better below the bridge with some shallower water that is pretty manageable to wade at medium to low flows.

Just a fun poll. What state in the contiguous United States has the best trout fishing? I didn't include all 50 states, but I think that most of the top choices are up there. Not that it matters, but my choice is Montana. There is just such a wide variety of good trout water and so many good watersheds. You've got the Madison, Yellowstone, Gallatin, Big Hole, Bitterroot, Clark Fork, Blackfoot, Bighorn, Missouri, and hundreds of other trout streams. There's great stillwater fishing as well. I'd say the runner up could be Idaho, Colorado, or Wyoming. I think those three all about equal.

Maybe that's the thing. I'm not a serious bass fisherman. I love bass fishing, but when I am floating the smallmouth streams I am thinking more in terms of beautiful scenery, solitude, and a few wild, pretty fish if I can get them. I am a lot more serious and focused when I am fly fishing for trout. I don't like spin fishing for smallies any less than fly fishing for trout, but it is a lot more of a casual thing for me. But all the same I appreciate the advice from the folks that know a lot more about it than I do. I'll go heavier on the topwaters next time.

A 20" brown on the Current is a very nice fish! That's a really nice fish anywhere. Congrats.

Thanks a lot for the info. I don't really mind a couple carries.

I love fly fishing for bass, and also use a five weight. I fish the woollies about the same was as you do-short strips with little pauses in between...drives 'em nuts. You don't need an indicator. They just get in the way. You'll know when you've got a fish on. And except late in the evenings when I go to dries, the woollies are about all I use. I've yet to find anything that consistently works better.

I've got a couple days off next week, and I think gonna head over to the Bourbeuse again on a two day camp trip. I'm thinking the 18.2 mile stretch from Mill Rock to Peters Ford. I've waded up at Mill Rock, but I've never done that float and it would be fun to see some new water. After one really nice float on a river like the Bourbeuse with no people, I think I am going to have a tough time pulling myself away from there to float the rivers that see major float traffic.

If the river isn't good enough you're welcome to fish somewhere more fashionable. As for the Roostertails... Yes, I suppose they are sissy lures. But in my defense I have been doing the fly fishing thing lately, and I have bought much of anything for spin fishing in quite a while now, with the exception of an occasional run to the car repair shop up on the corner that sells crickets when someone asks for a fish fry and I want to be efficient about it. I had to fish with what I had. I did get a kind of sickening feeling at the put in when I realized I didn't even have any Rebel Craws! Maybe they're sissy lures too but I bet I would have caught more fish if I'd had some, or at least that is the excuse I'm going with. As for the question about the dragging- it wasn't bad. I had to get out in a few riffles but it wasn't much of a problem at all. But I don't know of many stretches of Ozark rivers where there is no dragging whatsoever, and this was definitely no worse than most.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with Peck Ranch, but there are already many food plots planted throughout the entire area for deer, turkey, and other wildlife. There have been for years, long before the MDC planned to reintroduce elk. So it's not like they are going to be planting a whole bunch of new plots. They are already there, and yes, that is probably part of the reason that the MDC is putting the elk in the Peck Ranch area. It may seem a little artificial but it is still working in the direction of reintroducing a native species. I realize that it is impossible to restore even this small corner of the Ozarks to what is was in pre-settlement days. But in the end, I do believe that it is the duty of the Missouri Department of Conservation to bring the ecosystem as close to where it was presettlement as possible-given all of the limitations of modern society. This is one opportunity to bring us a little closer to that in one beautiful, remote, and very special part of the state. The only thing that makes me conflicted at all about this is your point that the MDC could have been using the same resources to protect species in danger of extinction. It's hard to argue that they shouldn't have spent that money and effort on something more globally vulnerable. I'm kind of ashamed to say that never even crossed my mind until you pointed it out. It is just human nature to look past seemingly insignificant species in favor of a iconic species, something that even well meaning, conservationist types can easily fall into. How come so many people will fight to protect trout and smallmouth bass but not Niangua Darters? For the same reason that some people will fight for Elk reintroduction and not care much about hellbenders. As happy as I am about elk reintroduction that reality is pretty sad, and it is a line of thinking that we are going to regret long term. Who are we to say what species we can just do without?

I do see your point, and I think it is an admirable sentiment that seemingly small and insignificant species shouldn't take a back seat to an iconic species like elk, especially the ones that are in serious danger of extinction. And in that way I guess it is not hard to say that the MDC didn't get their priorities straight on this one. But it is worth pointing out that the funding from this didn't come just from the MDC-I know that the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation among other organizations footed a large percentage of the bill. I don't have exact numbers on the percentage that the MDC actually paid for, although I'm sure that's available somewhere and if I can find that I will post it.

I disagree pretty strongly with that. I do agree that some of the motivation of the MDC was to reintroduce a species that would give them a lot of good press, but I also believe that having elk in that area will make that already beautiful and wild country even more special, and a little bit closer to the way it was before we messed things up. I don't care what the motivations of the MDC are-I am incredibly happy that elk have been reintroduced down there. It's much more than a good story. It is an iconic native species that is being reintroduced to a little bit of it's former habitat. That's something that I think is definitely worth getting excited about. It's a small step, yes, but a step in the right direction. Would you have said the same thing when the Missouri Department of Conservation reintroduced deer and turkey? That took a lot of money and there would have been many easier species to reintroduce.