exiledguide

Eric thinks that River Otters "deserve" to be there, what about the coyotes, skunks, and other varmints that lived in what is now St Peters MO but was farmland 50 years ago when St Peters was a town of 500 people? Should these critters be put back in peoples back yard? Every stream that goes through private land goes through someones back yard. Even worse peoples farm ponds are not only for recreation. Two of my brothers kids live in Texas county and both have small farm ponds where they grow catfish for food. Texas county was one of the places where farm ponds were hit hard by the River Otters. Just because its not hurting the fishing on youre waters doesn't make it right. How many of you who float woud like to see beavers on those streams and have the beaver dams protected because they were there first.

I lived in Saline county from Memorial Day 1999 till Christmass 2007 fished the Ouchita River above and below the lakes and the Saline river all three forks down to Benton Arkansas both floating and wading and only had one problem with an idiot deputy and got that taken care of by talking to his boss. However I did see at a few bridges where fences had been built ileagly on public right of way but there were so many places to access the rivers that it never became a problem for me. You might want to talk to the folks at Fish and Game in Little Rock or Bryan Hendricks at the Arkansas Democrat Gazzete in Little Rock.

Just finished "When The Mississippi River Ran Backwards" By Jay Feldman and am rereading "How I Got This Way" By Pat McManus

I agree with Trav if I was being paid to fish I am sure I would have the best electronics available. My question after seeing Mike Webb's class at BPS last January, how many guides can afford the cost and still keep their fees low enough too stay in buisness. I also wonder what kind of electronics KVD or other tournament winners use when they fish. There seems to be a lot of folks today who seem to buy into the idea that buying certain products makes you a better fisherman. I was probably the first person to own the "Green Box" and The Bird Trap flashers amongst my friends and one of the first to take an electronic fishfinder graph to Ontario so I'm not against electronics however I was smart enough to know I was going to need to keep my day job because I didn't have the ability to compete with the Rick Cunn's of the world. I now go pretty low end when it comes to electronics and I still fish with with the old Double Deep Wee R,Little N, original Warts, Jitterbugs & Rouges altough I prefer the Super Rogues.

I never had the patience or the skill to carve a lure out of wood but i have made plastic baits and tied my own hair or marabou jigs and tied my own flies and built a number of fly rods and casting rods out of Fenwick fiberglass blanks (a long time ago). You are right one of my big thrills was catching a 15 inch Largemouth some 30 years ago on a home made fly I designed myself on the fly rod I built on a So Ill strip mine and a week later catching 2 keeper Smallmouth from Dogs Bluff on the Big Piney. Also it it was a lot cheaper tying my own jigs and catching Smallmouth in NW Ontario on them.

Welcome to the forum. I fished the area around Valley Parka bit in '98. Is Donahue's Bar & Grill on Marshall Rd at the railroad track still open? I used to meet my wife there for lunch after a morning of fishing. Great lunches and the owner knew more about Smallies on the Meramec than anyone I've ever met before or since. I'll be waiting for fishing reports from the area.

Welcome Norm now I can tell my wife that at least I'm not as bad as Norm

Gary I,ll be at the meeting I've got about 18 copies of 200 "Missouri Smallmouth Adventures" and a bunch of signs and any day of the week is okay for me.

Good to know you are here. I am still useing a Ambassadeur 5000 I bought in 1970 and two Ultra Mag XL1. Getting them tuned up every so often is a lot cheaper than buying new Reels.

Coming from the creek going to Bllings the highway turns left the first street on the left is one way heading back to the creek in the middle of the first block on the right is Crane Cafe amongst flea markets and other little shops. My bride of 48 years saw your pictures and said lets go fishing.

Why is it that the so called pros don't seem to be required to follow the same rules the rest of us do? I got fed up with Pro tournaments a few years ago when a "Pro' on Lake Ouchata weighed in a slot fish and nothing was done by any law enforcement. If any of us had that fish on our striger or in the live well it would have cost us money and a loss of fishing privlages for a while. The excuse was he didn't know the regulations! I will bet if that would happen this weekend the same thing would happen. I was fishing long before there was a Bassmaster or FLW or the products that sponser them but we had ethics and manners something that seems to be missing on the water today.

Great pictures, I was there yesterday at noon on the way home from Galena I don't do much Trout fishing but what a great looking stream with public access I may have to give it a try. If you see a lot of leader and flies in the trees you will know I was there Before I left I stopped at the Crane Cafe and had the lunchon special an overloaded plate of Beef Tips and Noodles, smashed taters with gravy, peas, cole slaw and a dinner roll for $4.95. I did tell them I was eating there because of the fishing in the creek.

I was there. I had the same reaction. Maybe there will be more interest later on?

I'll be there

My brother and I stayed at Knotty Pine Resort, www.knottypine-resort.com, on the Niangua Arm the opening round of the NCAA tournament last March. Heated dock with Cable TV and propane gas wall furnace and the dock was super clean. Nothing wrong with the fishing either.

Present

Hello everyone, I joined this site in May and figured that I would introduce myself. Spent most of my life living in ST Louis suburbs,fishing mostly strip mines and farm ponds in southern Illinois each year until smallmouth season opened then I spent most of the summer fishing the Big Piney, Castor, St Francis, Marble Creek, etc. We moved to central Arkansas in 99 and fished Ouchata chain With Lake Catherine and the river below Remel dam were my favorite fishing holes. Moved to Missouri two years ago and now call Fellows Lake and the James River my favorite waters I have gained a lot of info from this site so if anyone has any questions I can help with just ask. Merry Christmas to everyone.