ozark trout fisher

I like the parks in the winter, especially Montauk......but in summer they are (in my opinion) good for dunking Powerbait and catching a limit. Nothing wrong with that, but I don't see them as fly-fishing waters during the regular season. I have had fun on the fly only areas in the past but they aren't (and aren't intended to be) a replacement for blue/red ribbon waters. They are still put and take.

Well, two weeks until football starts at this point! We do get some pretty good week 1 games. I'm particularly looking forward to the ACC/SEC games (UNC/South Carolina, Alabama/Virginia Tech, and Clemson/Georgia.) With the likely exception of Alabama/VT, all should be competitive games and could give an idea of whether the SEC is going to be insanely dominant again. If they are 3-0 in those games the answer is probably yes. I wish Mizzou played a more noteworthy opponent but I understand the need for (hopefully) easy wins.

My personal favorite? There is a heavily used horse crossing on a popular Missouri trout stream. It is not a good looking run and there is essentially no holding water in the immediate area, so I've always wondered why people fished it so much- until I eventually figured out the reason. Apparently, anglers like to gather immediately below where the horses cross......because the mud they kick up causes a feeding frenzy of scuds, mayfly nymphs, etc. They simply stand there until a few horses cross. When that happens they'll fish it for a couple minutes and then wait for the next party to come through. Not my cup of tea, but it sure seems to work for these fellas. Here I am trying to get as far away from the horse trail as possible for some peace and quiet while others are using them to catch big browns LOL.

Sounds like a good time. Thanks.

Like everyone the weather messed with my fishing this summer but if possible, I'm gonna try to to make up for it with plenty of fall/winter/spring trout fishing, not to mention deer season which is coming soon enough. I can't wait honestly. My usual float-fishing for smallies was almost a total loss for me so far, but you can't win 'em all. I have a little creek in mind to try this weekend which could make me feel a bit better about that. With the huge exception of the horrible flooding in the past few weeks..... frankly I'm glad we were spared a typical Missouri summer for once. It even briefly quelled my annual summer desire to run off to Montana. The summer of 2012 was brutal. Whatever else this year was, it sure wasn't a repeat of that.

The rivers I do most of my smallie fishing on these days is the streams just south (and even north) of the Missouri River that are not blessed with widespread habitat. But that, in a lot of ways, simplifies matters. You can skip 75% of the water unless you are interested in largemouth/spots. You get out of the canoe and fish the heck out of the other 25% and you'll usually do well. Occasionally you'll get a really nice smallie in the frog water though, which does complicate matters somewhat. I like fishing the rivers where they found pretty much everywhere, but it is fun to have to find fish as opposed to fishing (and catching fish out of) everything. On the marginal streams I fish, there are a few things I look for. Assuming they are not dead-low (scarcely a problem this year) the riffles are usually full of small (5-12 inch mostly) bass. These are fun areas to fish especially with a light fly rod. But the better habitat is just below the drop offs in those areas where the water is 2-4 feet deep. That is where you have the chance to get a large fish, which are surprisingly common on some of these streams that you wouldn't think would be capable of producing them. Once the water slows down again its usually largemouth or nothing. Also, I try not to overlook the quick flats that are often just upstream from the riffles. Usually there isn't a lot of cover or turbulence in these areas to protect the fish, but there is often a lot of food and the bass will risk it sometimes especially at low light.

Wow. That's cool to watch on video but it would be nothing short of terrifying in person, even if you did somehow get out in time. Never going to southern Utah LOL.

Awesome video. I was up in the Flattops a couple of summers ago. There is nothing like fishing for wild trout in that country. Mic, your only option to fly into northwest CO would be at Hayden. But cost wise you are better to just go into Denver and drive the rest of the way. It's still 3+ hrs largely on windy mountain roads to the Flat Tops from Hayden despite being less than 50 miles as a crow flies. There is no remotely efficient way to get there from anywhere, so the fish don't see a whole lot of flies except in a few popular waters (like Trappers Lake.) It's somewhat more than 5 hrs from Denver depending on where in Flat Tops you go. I'd try the upper branches of the White River, both North and South Fork along with any number of tributary streams.......you probably won't be disappointed.

Well said my friend.

We have disagreed about elk in the past, but to me, this is spot on. These are not wild animals at this point, not with radio collars around their neck. I understand why it's needed but I don't want to take part. My only sadness is that area will get so much attention from the start of an elk season...........I've been going down there long enough and seeing essentially no people to the point where I start to feel Peck Ranch is MY conservation area LOL.

Not interest whatsoever for me in hunting them. No moral outrage here-I'm an avid deer hunter in that neck of the woods. But the idea of hunting an animal so early in the reintroduction process wouldn't feel right for me. I understand that they aren't supposed to spread beyond the designated area and that there is a goal population that is relatively small. I get all that and why it is almost certainly necessary.........but I don't want any part in limiting the distribution of a once widespread native species. Got no problem with others throwing their name in but that is my 2 cents. Plenty of deer in southern MO, they are darned good to eat too. No need for other large game to hunt for me.

I'd suspect the fish will have gotten plenty to eat in this flood. They might be fat and hard to catch for a little bit.

I have friends that sometimes want to make a "competition" out of it but it's never serious and I just tend to ignore it or admit that they outfished me whether or not it actually happened. I rarely keep track of how many fish I catch and almost never measure them, so it's kinda impossible for me to get into that. Fishing has nothing at all to do with competition or one upping someone else.......if that's your purpose I suggest golf.

I am in the same boat. But I'll have no trouble rooting against the Chiefs as hard as ever unless Daniels gets the starting job. If that happens then I have no idea what I'll do.

Heck with anything much in the way of fishing being ruled out these days I'll take all the football I can get. My broncos played exactly the least interest game (preseason or otherwise) in history last night though. A 10-6 win over San Fran in February would be great but in August it's just boring!

It will be interesting how my creeks look after this clears out. I kind of enjoy the change that flood creates. Oftentimes, on waters I'm really familiar with, I'll get in a rut and fish the same good holes over and over again. Flooding and the resulting changes force me to try some new areas. Oftentimes that works out pretty well in all. I plan to try to hit the Current when the water drops enough, which may be a few days or a few weeks, I have no idea. With that said, I do hope that we are about done with this rain. I live just a few miles north of the affected area but I hate hearing the reports of what is going on immediately to the south. I think the fish will be just fine (they always are) but I do feel very bad for those living in affected areas.

I could buy that.

Whatever the heck goes on on rivers like the Niangua during summer is scant issue for me. I'm never gonna know about it. There are a whole lot of really good rivers out there with essentially no party crowd, mostly just fisherman so why subject yourself to that kind of crap? Just have to get away from the ones with outfitters and you'll be fine. I used to love the BIg Piney and rivers like that in the summer, but now I basically have a self-imposed rule (at least here in Missouri.) If a stretch of river has even one outfitter of any size, I'm EXTREMELY reluctant to float it May-September.....even on weekdays. There needs to be a pretty good reason. You would be surprised at the number of secluded rivers to float, not to mention hundreds of others to wade. And the fishing is so much better where there is actually room to cast without hooking a canoe or kayak.

Thanks for all the comments guys. I really do love it up there. I have been a western guy at heart but now the North country feels just as good to me. I complain about it, but there is a rather big part of me that loves 50s and rainy in the summer!

I'll take the rain after last summer, about as much as we can get. I cannot stand drought and what it does to my rivers....... The warm water may kill a few trout but just having water of any sort at this time of year is an improvement from the last few years. You'd be surprised at what trout can handle. I've seen them survive 80 degree water temps and then a few days later when it cools off into the 60s again, often it's as if it nothing ever happened. Yes, you read about the massive fish kills on occasion but from what I can tell, that's the exception unless it gets up above 80 for a full day or two, or upper 70s around the clock. These were stocked trout but they still didn't have much trouble finding the cold water, that's just hard-wired into most trout. The less healthy (largely older) trout die but the younger, hardier ones will probably be fine. I'm not a fisheries biologist but this is my experience from fishing a lot of eastern rivers where this is a constant concern in the summer. I think it's largely the fishing pressure in warm water that's the real killer but that's not much of a concern when it's high and muddy.

Looks like the epic Texas AM/Bama game may be on hold, if Manziel doesn't get out of this NCAA investigation clean, sooner rather than later. It will probably be an epic beatdown if he can't play. I'm hoping he can play and have a good season, but even so, I don't think that Heisman trophy was good for him. Chances are, it will be another Cam Newton, and he'll never get any formal sanctions out of this though. I don't like the NCAA rules that make this a problem in the first place so I'm fine with it if that happens.

That is a very good brookie for up there. Congrats on that. The brookies we were hooking were barely pushing 10 inches and we thought that was great. Thanks for the nice comments guys!

We saw some good browns rising there among the brookies. But as usual they were the harder of the two species to land, and we didn't get any of them.

Okay, here's those pictures I promised. Fishing the Fly only water, Pere Marquette The Pere Marquette River below the fly only stretch, very good rainbow water Typical Michigan brookie stream

I definitely like college ball more than the NFL......but I'm excited for both. One thing the NFL is good for is getting through those first 3-4 weeks of college football when everyone is playing Georgia State and Florida Atlantic. There are a couple good opening week games this year though (for scouting purposes, I'm really looking forward to Ole Miss/Vandy, two teams Missouri could find themselves in very close games with later this fall.) I certainly plan to watch Mizzou/Murray State but I'm hoping for very little excitement there.