ozark trout fisher
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Posts posted by ozark trout fisher
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16 hours ago, MoCarp said:
I will say this, I wouldn't be eating ANY venison ANY time soon...not taking any chances and I am sure I won't be the only one.
its not like pro buy deer hunting paraphernalia advocates aren't getting ahead of this while they can...big $ at stake here,
This might end up being the correct take, but if it is, I'm in trouble. I would say that fully half of my meat intake since early December has been venison or some other form of wild game/fish (don't worry, almost exclusively bluegill in the latter case, lol.) If there is a confirmed/documented case of the disease transferring to humans, I may have to re-evaluate this, but for now the benefits still outweigh the risks for me.
- nomolites and Johnsfolly
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20 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:
I have always thought of the Current as a trout stream. I fished it for well over a decade before I ever fished below Cedar grove. Still hard to wrap my head around thinking of the Current as a big river with more traditional river species.
I was basically the same until last summer, and I can confirm it's a little weird after you're used to fishing it at Baptist Camp or Parker Hollow. Might as well be a totally different body of water. It's still clear, cool, and really pretty though. And while the jet boat traffic can be occasionally annoying, the number of canoes are pretty low once you get a ways below Big Spring, so you can sometimes have a surprising amount of water to yourself.
I had an obscure little access at the end of a gravel road on a long, deep bluff-hole that I would usually use. Generally not having a shuttle, I'd paddle up to the top of the pool, fish my way down, and repeat. There was enough good water just in that one hole that I could do the drift 3-4 times (a couple hours of fishing) before I'd get bored/I'd notice a downtick in the amount of action I was getting.
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Fished the lower Current a ton last summer, as I was living/working basically on its banks. Some great smallie fishing around and below Big Spring (aka below Van Buren). It drops off a bit IMO by the time you get down towards Doniphan, but it's still decent. As someone else mentioned, some surprisingly solid walleye fishing, too. I've never targeted them, but caught several while targeting smallies. It's big water and definitely a different feel than any other Ozark stream I've fished, or even the middle Current.
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Very cool, thanks for sharing.
Two summers ago, I was hiking just outside RMNP in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. It was getting late in the evening, it was rainy and cold, and we were borderline hypothermic, and a cow moose was blocking the only decent ford of a branch of the Saint Vrain River. I waited awhile, but eventually I had to yell at her to scare her off because otherwise we were gonna get caught out after dark in a rainstorm. Even then it took awhile. She just kind of looked at me like "What are you gonna do, puny little thing?"
That was a pretty nerve-wracking experience, although she never actually showed any aggression, as much as a general unwillingness to leave her spot in the stream. Any other situation I would have let her have it.
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I feel like mine is somewhat self explanatory, although it's no longer particularly accurate, since I don't live particularly near the Ozarks, and mostly fish for smallmouth.
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Creek chub, aka the thing many of us secretly catch more of than trout while fishing with nymphs in most Ozark rivers.
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Had a buddy of mine compete in that a couple years back. He didn't win, but was very competitive. Described it as the most difficult/grueling thing he'd ever attempted.
I'd like to try it sometime, though the goal would definitely be just to finish.
- Haris122, Johnsfolly, Ham and 1 other
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Without speaking even to anything else, Mr. Dablemont's lack of understanding of the conservation utility of timber harvest is striking. Because we don't allow big, tree killing wildfires to burn anymore, and many forests were high-graded/poorly managed before being acquired by the MDC, selective harvest is most often required to get the forest to a state that works for anyone.
Without any harvest, most Missouri oak forests would become sugar maple forests over time. You lose a mast tree that benefits wildlife for a dominant species that mostly doesn't. You can already see it happening on most privately owned forests in the state. If you are a deer/turkey/squirrel hunter, bad news.
- Johnsfolly and MoCarp
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1 hour ago, slothman said:
I just heard that it is going to take a year to release the results of the investigation about what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it in the future.
It seems to me that while there may be multiple answers to these questions, the answers do seem pretty common sense. Why is it going to take that long. Seems to me, that there must be some reason for them to already be planning to drag it out that long.
Full investigations into potential criminal/civil matters take a long time. That is not an unusual time-frame.
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This strikes me as a failure of having protocol in place-or at least following it-on a number of different levels. As someone who works in remote areas of the outdoors dang near every day, and has to make decisions that could ultimately decide whether I and my crew makes it back at the end of the day, you have to constantly keep yourself informed of conditions-and never let the situation/conditions/people who are yelling at you talk you out of making the right decision and getting the hell out/not leaving in the first place when that becomes necessary. It can be difficult, god knows, especially when you're being pressured to make a bad decision, but it's the one aspect of your job where failure is basically unforgivable.
Just today we had an extremely violent storm occur at our sites. 95% of the way done for the day and the temptation was strong to push it when I got the weather alert. Came out of nowhere, was not supposed to happen today. But no, we got the hell out. And thank goodness. Wind gusts got up into the 60s mph and there are down trees/limbs everywhere. Had we not left when we did, maybe not all of us got out.
This is beyond heartbreaking, and more-so for being 100% preventable.
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I don't have anything to add, but this is just so horrible. I can't even really bear to think about it.
Ugh.
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On 7/13/2018 at 9:23 PM, Johnsfolly said:
I must not have an honest looking face. Been checked a few times in Columbia during the winter trout season. More than a few times at Little Dixie lake. Again after our musky trip in May. I was even used as a blocker for a agent in Maryland. I was fishing a small pier and saw the agent crouched down behind me with a pair of binos. He was watching the couple across the inlet from me. They had just caught and kept a striper before the season opened. So off he went to give them a citation.
When I was a teen I was checked while fishing in PA. My brother got checked and issued a citation for not having his license on his person and visible.
I will admit to two wildlife citations. Both in Florida. One was diving without a diver down flag. We tried to say that we were within 150 yards of shore. It was actually almost 500 yards off shore. We also had two under sized lobsters. I was using my dive knife as a ruler and it was about an 1/4" short of the legal limit. An honest mistake. We just had to through them back. We were able to keep our legal lobsters and two grouper that I hand caught. That was a great meal by the way. We had our day in court the next morning to pay our fines.At least there were no 8 by 10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows or a paragraph on the back of each one to be used as evidence against us.
The next citation was due to being lazy. I was at work a decided to fish a drainage canal at lunch. My license expired a couple of days before. I was fishing for ten min without a bite in a spot where its possible to catch 30 to 50 in an hour. I finally land a bluegill when the agent pulled up😌. That was a $72 sunfish.
Yeah, the latter could've just as easily happened to me awhile ago in a state that I'm not a resident in, that, just in case, shall not be named. Thought I'd bought the three-day license, turns out I only sprung for the one day. So the last two days of fishing were apparently in a state of sub-optimal legality. Would never do that on purpose, and I felt pretty bad. What can ya' do?
Ended up purchasing the year-long the day after. So I feel a bit less bad in that context.
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Hello, friends. I'm currently living/conducting forestry research in the southern Appalachians. Here are some pictures.
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On 7/13/2018 at 7:50 PM, Krazo said:
how was the fishing in that tailwater? is that a cold water fishery?
No, it's pretty decent for white bass and crappie down there, though.
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On 7/7/2018 at 8:27 PM, 2sheds said:
I got checked a few weeks back at Crane Creek, of all places.
Great Conservation Agent, professional, interesting discussion, and some good fishing tips exchanged.
Realized that he had hiked the trail maybe a mile from the Swinging Bridge parking lot to observe me wade fishing downstream, but waited until I fished my way back up to the lot before interrupting my solitude.
After checking my license, asked me to show him the empty beer can he had seen me drinking earlier. Happened to have a fishing vest full of recovered cans, plastic bottles, styrofoam worm containers, and even a can of carburetor cleaner - plus a freshly emptied Busch can !
Glad to have them out visible and helping us protect our treasures.
I've only been checked once in Missouri, while fishing the tailwater below Mark Twain Lake a few years back. We ended up talking about various natural resources nerd-related things for about an hour afterwards. Ended up realizing I'd been in a couple college classes with the guy but somehow we didn't recognize each other.
I cannot say it was a traumatizing experience, lol.
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Apropos to nothing, but I have seen a couple so far this summer. Of course, they are a teensy bit more common over here (in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky). Still, they'll startle you just a bit when you're walking up to a plot to measure trees at 6:15 AM, short of caffeine, and not thinking of such things.
You hear a loud sound, look to see the deer that you've scared up...and oh, look, there's a bear. Not an easy feeling to describe if you haven't been there.
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1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:
All those things that you may have said have been documented and filed away until you run for office then they will all come back and haunt you
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LOL, I'm a research forester, and until that becomes an elected position I should be good.
I've picked perhaps the only line of work where I'm actually more normal than most. Although i will say my fiancee found the Ozark Anglers account awhile back, and she has been using my old posts make fun of me on and off for, oh, ,at least the past year or so.
In all seriousness people, do not let your kids do any sort of social media before the age of, say, 17. They will regret literally everything they said before that point in time.
- Johnsfolly and TroutRinger
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It is probably what CWF is hinting at. Impossible to tell for sure, but...yeah. Not that it's impossible that there could be a bear around Wildwood, but this is a case where location is probably your best friend in guessing what that might be.
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On 7/10/2018 at 8:25 PM, Johnsfolly said:
Sounds like my kind of watershed😁! Too bad I didn't see this before now. Had looked into the Salt and Fabius river systems to try for fathead minnows. Always ended up somewhere else. Thought I would get to that part of the state at some point. A little late for that now.
LOL, this one was actually fine mostly because it was a direct quote from the MDC website, but when I see a quote including both "ozark trout fisher" and "2009" I start to think "Oh dear god, what stupid thing did I say when 9 years ago I was a junior in high school?"
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33 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:
The darters and minnows are so diverse and during breeding season display an amazing variety of colors. Can be challenging to catch a new species. I love trout fishing but most are put and take fishing when they are out of their native ranges. I enjoyed fishing for native brook trout in the mountains in Maryland. As much for the scenery as the fish.
Totally. Wasn't being sarcastic at all. I am getting much more like this by the day where I'm chasing new/weird species as opposed to the old staples. After the first 10,500 or so smallmouth, you pretty much know what they look like and you feel like you're proving the same obscure point into oblivion. Not that I don't still chase smallies, trout,etc, but it can start to lose the edge after awhile.
It's just that I'm used to people giving me funny looks for this.
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On 6/25/2018 at 11:54 AM, Johnsfolly said:
I have been meaning to get into north Maryland to hit a high gradient stream or two for some new species. Hoping to catch some different sculpin, darters, or madtoms. I had a bunch of things to get done around the house (yes I am domesticated and house-broken
) in the morning and didn't get on the road until after 2:30 pm. I got to the stream access around 4:15. I had fished this stream back in March and only saw three or four fish and could not get any bites. I was hoping for a different turn out this time. I looked into the water around the bridge by the access and did not see anything ,but two juvenile fish that were even a bit small by my standards (or hook sizes). Wasn't looking real good, but I headed upstream anyway.
There is a walking park converted from an old railroad system that runs along the creek a lot like the Katy trail in Missouri. I looked at the creek from the next bridge and saw what looked like some fish activity. I had on a 1/32 oz tube jig head with a green pumpkin body and chartreuse paddle tail slider. I made a cast to the far bank near the bridge wall and got a couple of taps. Nothing solid. I cast along the wall on my side of the bank and got more of the same, just nips most likely at the tail of the bait. I switched to a John Deere microjig and got a nice bite from a redbreast sunfish. I couldn't get a photo, so maybe I didn't catch that one
. I ahd seen another sunfish chase the one that I caught and made a couple more casts but no takers. I could see fish on the other bank and went over there. I put on a #16 hook, a couple of split shot and a small bit of nightcrawler. I ended up catching a rather familiar minnow, a common shiner.I catch these guys a lot in MO, but had not caught on yet in Maryland so it was a new one on that List!
I caught quite a few and some looked more like striped shiners, but there have not been any striped shiners reported in Maryland.
I caught a couple of small bluegill and decided to head upstream where I had a chance at a sculpin back in March. What a difference a couple of months can make, I was seeing a number of fish. My next catch was from a slower water/sandy bottom section of creek and was another Missouri favorite, a creek chub. Again knocks that species off of the "to catch in Maryland" list.
I caught another small bluegill and creek chub then moved down to the faster water/riffles and rocky pools downstream. I could see fish in the gravel, but did not see any darters. I cast my worm into a deeper hole undercutting a sycamore tree and got a decent bite (for a minnow). I knew that this was not a species that I had caught previously, but was not sure what it was.
Fortunately I was able to catch a couple more further downstream including this large one and was able to id these fish as river chubs. A new species for my life list as well as my Maryland list
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As I had mentioned I was catching a few of the common shiners in most spots that I fished. I also caught a few bluntnose minnows as well in the faster water near the tail end of the pools. I have caught these guys in Missouri as well, but not in MD.
So what about the surprise. Was it this Louisiana water thrush?
Nope I have seen them throughout Pennsylvania. What about the fresh and ripe blackberries?
Nah they are pretty common and the number thorn bushes that I remember walking through back in March would have alerted me that these guys would be streamside as well.
How about this ebony jewlwing damselfly? Not expected but again fairly common around streams like this one.
Not even this doe standing broadside at 15 yards from me was a surprise. As I was leaving, they showed me how much they own the roadways as they walked slowly across the road on several occasions.
The surprise came when drifting a bait along this large boulder.
I made a couple of cast and drifts with my worm along that flow. I caught two common shiners and that large river chub in that stretch. I hooked a fish that fought a bit differently than the minnows. I knew that the state of Maryland will release dreaded nonnatives to this stream as a put and take fishery. But that fish felt like a trout, but it came undone. I made another cast and drifted the same flow and got bit again, this time it did not come unbuttoned and I landed this 5 inch naturalized nonnative. That was a surprise to me. I did not know that there would be any browns in this creek.
Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing! I can't even begin to describe how happy it makes me that there are folks who chase minnows are are openly disdainful of trout. I love it.
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Bears are literally the least threatening thing in Jefferson County, Missouri.
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13 hours ago, fishinwrench said:
No theory. Sorry to be the one breaking it to ya, but Santa Claus is fictional. There's better reasons to be a good boy than taking a chance that you might be given a lump of coal.
Dang it, and that was really the only thing that was keeping me going at this point.
Larry Dablemont Article
in Conservation Issues
Posted
I don't think so. I've followed along and while there are certainly some takes I disagree with, seems like a quality discussion.