ozark trout fisher

I have to go with Seattle. San Fran is a trendy pick, and on a neutral field maybe they are better than Seattle. But in that stadium? It's going to be tough for the Niners. Basically no one has won there over the past few years, and the 49ers haven't been much better there than anyone else has .

Here's my opinion: Is it well advised to publicize the location of a major wintering hole for smallmouth on a forum open to the general public? Probably not. I wouldn't do it. But do I think that the reaction to this report was necessary? No, I absolutely do not. I know this forum gets a ton of views. But here's another thing; I often read fishing reports about the Elk River or the Roaring River or the Little Red River on here. There's a pretty solid chance I will never fish any of those waterways, and if I do, it won't be because of this forum. I just enjoy reading fishing reports for the pictures and the stories that go along with it. I suspect I'm not the only one. If 700 people view a fishing report thread, a few of them may act on the infromation. But I'd say the vast, vast majority are reading for entertainment purposes. A few more might file it away as a place they may visit at some point in the future, but even the majority of those folks never get around to it. With that said, I don't have a huge problem with someone saying that posting extremely detailed information isn't a good idea. Because, in this particular case, it was probably not a good decision. But browbeating and ridiculing someone for doing something that (they believe) is only being helpful, is highly counterproductive. At a certain point, if this is going to continue to happen, there needs to be rules about naming streams. Many forums have them, and it can clear up the gray area. Until that is the case, getting mad over someone publicizing an already well known "secret" is going to be a huge waste of your time.

Go broncos!

The SEC is a weird, weird basketball conference. I think both Arkansas and Missouri are pretty good teams. Same with LSU, Tennessee, and Ole Miss. I think they'd all make the tournament in the Big Ten or ACC. But there are so many awful teams, that those good (but not great) teams can hardly avoid a couple of losses to bad teams. Because if you are playing 10-12 really bad teams in conference play, the odds are pretty good you are going to lose a couple just out of complacency. And that can send a quality team to the NIT really quick. In the Big Ten or Big 12 there are maybe 7 or 8 conference games where you have the chance to get a really high quality victory. In the SEC you get maybe 2-4. You better win those when they come along, or else you'll be in big trouble on selection Sunday. That's a lot of pressure without many chances to help yourself.

They looked good against 'bama today. Alabama isn't great, but the quality of play was much, much better. I was there and despite the miserable season, there was a good crowd and a pretty good atmosphere. That was nice to see. The tourney is a realistic goal. I'm in no way resigning myself to the NIT, though it's a legimate possibility. But I think they do have to win the rest of the home games (especially against Kentucky) and win one more road game. That would get them to 10-8 and 22-9, which is probably enough for an 11-12 seed in the NCAA tournament. Anything less, and they need to win a couple games in the SEC tournament to have a good chance. While we are all pretty disappointed, they are still 14-3, and 2-2 in SEC play. It's far from a lost season. Despite worse play, they are basically in the exact same spot they were last year. I could see this team rallying to get into the NCAAs, but they need to feed off this big win. And they absolutely must, must take down Kentucky at home, or somehow find a way to beat Florida on the road. And no more loss to RPI 100+ teams. Beating a good LSU team on the road in a few days would be a great confidence booster for the rest of the way.

Funny. You certainly must post a report in exactly the right way here not to get browbeat one way or the other. Here are the acceptable replies to a fishing report. 1."Really, no pictures?" 2. "Why on earth would you take a picture of a 5 inch rainbow? We already know what they look like." 3. "You included way too much detail and ruined my spot forever due to the (maybe two) people that will actually act on your information." 4. "Really, you fished with a Rebel Craw? What a rookie. A real angler would have used (insert the name of a lure that costs $15.)" It's one of the main reasons why I rarely post reports anymore.

Yet another game headed down to the wire. 48-46 Vandy with 12:00 to go. Missouri never gets blown out, and never blows any teams out. It makes for a lot of stressful finishes.

Missouri has a huge game tonight vs. Vandy. As bad as Missouri has looked the past few games, given the 13-2 record we are just a couple straight wins (and more impressive performances) from forgetting about Georgia and Auburn. Vandy is not very good, but they have been scrappy at home. If Missouri doesn't play better this could easily end up a loss.

I love smallies, but why would you waste a day fishing a single wintering hole in a theme park atmosphere? I guess a few people might but it's just hard to picture. It's not like there are no other good spring holes on Ozark streams to fish and you are going to have a lot more fun fishing any of them.

For what it's worth, this is far from the first time I've read about this particular fishery in that particular park, on this very site. I don't think it's a big secret. Even long since knowing about it, when I go down there during the winter, I don't fish for smallmouth. Why? Because if I go to Maramec Spring, it is to go trout fishing, and that is the case for 99.9% of those who visit that park now. My point: I seriously question how many people reading this thread are going to get up on Saturday morning and drive an hour and a half so they can catch a few smallmouth out of a manicured ditch. I wouldn't if it flowed through my backyard.

I feel like I use the proper amount of discretion of revealing spots that I fish. I always try to be careful, like I said, not to do something that has a good chance of causing damage to a resource. If I was revealing the exact location of a pool containing a 4 pound smallie, then you have the right to get upset. If I am saying that an 8 mile stretch of a floatable stream I fished has some nice bass in it, then in my opinion you do not. How secretive you want to be, in the end, is a personal decision. If I found the body of water myself, with little to no aid from someone else, then what I post about it is my own decision to be based solely upon my own values.

I don't know how much I agree with that sentiment. It's a matter of common sense. If a stream is fragile, then posting where/what patterns are working is a bad idea. But there are a lot of cases where I think it's basically harmless, streams that are large enough to handle pressure or ones that are heavily stocked. In those cases, if it's really going to help someone enjoy themselves I have no reservations about telling most of what I know. I got a lot of help not all that long ago and I guess I see it as my job to pass it along when it's likely to cause minimal harm to the fishery in question. I have a few streams that are basically my secret, but those are for good reasons-because they are extremely fragile and even a few more anglers could really impact the quality of the resource. That's always the determining factor in my mind.

I think it depends on the type of water you are fishing. On the Current River every pool is well known to anyone who knows a thing about trout fishing. There's nothing I can post that half of the trout anglers in Missouri don't already know. However, there are entire smallmouth streams(not even just specific accesses or reaches) that I won't reveal to anyone I don't trust completely. Of course a few other people already fish them, but I'm not bringing anyone else in if I can help it. So in other words, if a water is already well used, I don't feel the need for much discretion in revealing spots. If it lies in the middle ground, I'll reveal the general section of stream but not exact pools or runs. If it is highly fragile/unknown as a fishery, then you better be a family member or one or two of my closest fishing buddies or you'll have to find it yourself. I've given away good spots before and been burned badly.

I wish I could say the same about this season. I see a lot of hope long term, with the possible improvement of Johnathan Williams and Wes Clark over the next few years.....along with Zach Price, Deuce Bello, and Bledshield. As long as things don't fall apart, there should be some very good years left in the Frank Haith era, and possibly an SEC title or two. But long term is the key point. During the preseason, it always seemed like it would be a transitional year with a lot of tough moments. Then they jumped off to a great start, pulling out a lot of close games (including a couple of big wins) and bringing higher expectations than they could probably sustain. I believe what we've seen from Long Beach State through Auburn has been a brutal regression to the mean. I don't think we'll play this bad all year, but we will be inconsistent enough to likely keep us out of the tournament. I think this team will get to 20 wins based on its strong non-conference performance (we'd only need to get to 8-10 in conference play to manage that), but it likely results in the NIT. But I hope you're right and I'm not.

I don't fish the big bass lakes, so I come into this discussion from a stream fishing perspective. It's rarely a problem on smallmouth streams......if you are fishing the right places it is rarely hard to have plenty of water to yourself. It is an unavoidable problem on our trout streams. I would just advise coming into the parks expecting that few of the other anglers will have any knowledge of common courtesy or else you are setting yourself up for constant frustration. But here's where I get upset, and it's far too common: people carry those trout park ethics to the sections of trout stream outside of the parks, and that suddenly becomes a major problem. If you cut in front of where I'm fishing in Montauk, I will shrug in annoyance and keep casting-the trout will be back in a couple minutes if they ever left. If that happens at Baptist Camp (and it does, all the time) then you have ruined my fishing and you need to seriously reevaluate your approach before you venture out of the trout parks. I don't need a half mile of water to myself, but unless we're in the park, don't fish the same pool (or riffle) as me and don't cut between me and where I'm casting as you pass by. It's really that simple, yet many don't get it.

Arkansas will be fine. The Missouri game was so frustrating that I flipped over to that one for a decent amount of time.. The Hogs looked like a tournament team in that one, at least. We are gonna get destroyed in Fayetteville.

Missouri is really in a terrible funk right now. They beat Auburn, but that was a painfully bad performance from wire to wire. I watched it and even though it was close, I did not find it exciting. Only frustration followed by relief that it was finally over. Frank Haith will not be fired this season (unless we finish 4-14 in league play or something like that) but is he the long term answer? Because of his recruiting, I think so, but I'm not sure. If he can squeeze a tourney bid out of this team it will be pretty good. We must remember there is a lot of very young talent (as well as some good transfers sitting out their year now), and there is real hope that this team can mature together and be SEC title contenders in '14-15 and '15-16. Taken in whole, the season has been about what we expected coming in: an up and down year with a lot of new pieces. Right now the arrow is pointed down, but they are still capable of playing well, at least on an inconistent basis. If that happens to come against Kentucky or Florida it will likely make us forget that past few days. So I'm hoping for the tournament, but an NIT bid wouldn't be terrible for a transitional season. Frankly, it's what I think we're headed for.

He did the right thing though, I believe. Counting the year and a half he missed due to the injury, it sometimes feels like he's been part of the Mizzou program since about 1980. And running backs have a pretty short shelf life. So I don't blame him for going and (hopefully) getting a big paycheck. And we have plenty of talent in the backfield with Murphy and Hansbrough. Both are expected to return and could have been solid starters this year if Josey hadn't been on the roster. I see Hansbrough as the starter and Murphy as the change of pace guy, but they could end up being pretty interchangeable. Mizzou almost never hurts for a good running back or two, though Josey was truly special.

Mizzou finished a very solid #5 in both polls, behind FSU, Auburn, MSU, and USC. I think that's about right. The only questionable team ahead of us was USC. They did beat us, but we finished with the better record and we beat a better team in bowl season. But I don't have a huge problem with it. FSU finished off the SEC's streak. I had mixed emotions. I wanted the conference to keep the streak going, but I had a really big grudge against Auburn for that late hit against Josey in the SEC title game. So I guess I was reluctantly cheering for the 'Noles last night, though I didn't think much of either team. The SEC still had the best bowl record this season among conferences, and I'd argue it is still the #1 conference slightly ahead of the Pac-12. But it is no longer dominant. At the end of the day, I don't see how it reestablishes any level of its former dominance next season. Every elite team looks set to take a step back, except Auburn. There is very real danger of the Pac-12 taking over as the country's top conference in the years to come if Oregon/USC/Stanford can keeping playing at a high level.

I hear the rumors of Printz challenging Mauk, and I believe he's pretty good. But he will pretty much have to look like a preseason all American or hope that Mauk has a ridiculously bad spring. Mauk will likely enter as the preseason all SEC quarterback given all the turnover in the conference (assuming Johnny Football is gone), and it's going to be extremely difficult to unseat him as long as he's healthy. I must say I'm really looking forward to the Mauk era (along with the rest of the Mizzou fan base) and if someone is going to prevent that he better be Chase Daniel II.

I'm looking forward to the Arkansas game already. I think Arkansas will be a bowl team next year. We know how quickly a team can rebound from a 3-9 year to the BCS if the right things happen. I think they just got mentally beat down after the Rutgers game and let things snowball, because they looked primed to have a pretty good season before that. Win that game and they may win another 2 or 3 in SEC play, and we're talking about something pretty different. I know this because Mizzou had some gut punch losses in 2012 (Vandy comes to mind) and basically responded in the same way.

Late to the party, but what a win. The announcers called out Michael Sam for his quiet night, and two plays later he wins the game for us. Franklin had his worst game of his career (except maybe Florida 2012 when he was basically playing with one arm and one leg) but Josey and the defense made it not matter. I thought it was a mistake not to leave Mauk in after his drive but I am glad that Franklin was able to finish without costing us the game. Mizzou sets up very well for next year too. QB should be a strength again with Mauk. Running back will be a strength even if Josey goes pro, though I doubt he will at this point. The defensive line will again have to retool at end, but the d-line has never been a real concern for Mizzou and I doubt we break that trend. The offensive line will again be pretty solid, one would think. The one concern is at receiver, where DGB will have to live up to all of his potential to make up for losses to graduation. I'd say we'll finish about 5th in this years end of season poll and 10th-15th in next year's preseason. We will go in with a lot more hype, as the likely favorite in the SEC east, and we'll see how they handle it. I bet we drop off to anywhere from 7-5 to 9-3, but not much further. Of course anything is possible with enough injuries, if you just ask Florida.

I made it down to the Current River on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31st for the first time in awhile. We arrived about 1 PM on the 30th at Parker Hollow. We set up camp just a few yards from the ford, and immediately made our way to the river. I tied on an Egg Pattern and started working my way downstream from the little creek that feeds into the Current just below Parker Hollow. There is a large pool not far below there that always looks inviting but generally fails to produce. That's because getting a dead drift is nearly impossible in the swirling, conflicted current. I decided to try wading out as far as possible to minimize the amount of line I had on the water, and it produced quite well for me. When that pool reduced in productivity after one particularly long fight with a rainbow, I moved down and fished a couple of the many trout filled riffles, with good success. At about 3PM, I left the river for a little hike up to an old, abandoned (but well maintained) farm/ homestead on NPS land just a short distance from camp. I will let the pictures tell the story on that when I get them (probably tomorrow) but suffice it to say that it's a pretty interesting place to visit. Given the rocky, vertical nature of the land, it couldn't have been easy for its past owners to scratch out even a meager living. Dinner was white chili in quantities more than befitting the amount of energy I had expended earlier in the day. The night was a bit chilly, not least for the dog, who had decided it was a good idea to get extremely wet despite the impending cold. I didn't get the earliest of starts the next morning, but the fishing was slow even when I did get to the task at hand. At first, ice in the guides was a problem, but that alleviated as the air warmed to rather balmy temperatures. The only fish I took was on the previously determined "last cast" an occurrence that I'm not entirely sure has ever happened to me. With it being the last cast, I decided to let the drift go a long distance downstream before lifting it off the water, and soon found a 17 inch rainbow a good distance directly downstream from me. That mistake lead to an adventurous fight that resulted in slightly overtopped waders and some other fun. But it was rewarded with a fish in the net, so I'm not going to complain. Hard to imagine a better way to spend New Years Eve. As I said, pictures are coming.

Yeah, I see them being more steady and avoiding the bad road losses this season. There is less experienced talent on this team, but the chemistry is much better. Wes Clark still needs a lot more experience to be a viable point guard option, which is expected for a true freshman. He'll likely be a star by his junior or senior year, but until he settles down his role may just be occasionally taking pressure off Clarkson

No that wouldn't be my camp as I haven't made it down there yet......I wasn't planning on leaving until this morning, though now it looks like it will be moved back to Monday/Tuesday.