OzarksRiverman

Cool video. Did you ride directly out Division to 125 then go south? Or did you take the backroads?

awesome.

I think river ranch has some nice cabins.

Nice hat, and what is that concoction in the first pic???

Nice fish! Both of em. What did you do with the one you kept? Eat it?

Sounds easy enough. I like the jaw comparison method. Maybe I haven't caught enough spots to know one when I see it? I usually creek fish Swan, Beaver, Upper Finley. Thanks

I find it hard to differentiate the Spot and LM. Especially after having consumed a few beers. Does the LM always have an unbroken "line" going down it's side? I've caught several that I swore were LM's but the line down the side was interrupted in places. Is that the distinguishing feature of the Spotted Bass? Is there anything else to look for? I see these two examples are different in color, but the bass I catch on creeks around here are so varied in color it's hard to judge by that.

I was wading the Finley last weekend and found a big seep. The cool thing was that where it was coming up from, the mostly gravel creek bottom turned into a big patch of sand & silt. I stuck my foot down in the sand and it was extremely cold--not bad on a 100 degree day. There wasn't any fish holding in that areas though.

Hey Al. I went to Olga today, fished a 100 yard upstream from the slab from about 9-to-noon and picked up 25 goggle eye, 6 or 7 Largemouth, 2 or 3 decent brownies. Two LM were in the 13-15" range. Crawdad Imitations, and one(1) live 3 1/2" crawdad. FYI--in case you make a trek back towards Springfield.

I'd love to join you, but I've made plans already. I'm going night fishing for the first time on the upper James this weekend. What are a couple go-to lures for night fishing?

Do you catch any in weather like that?

I waded upstream from the access this spring. Caught 2 or 3 green sunfish and one little smallmouth, on a little crankbait. This creek is better suited for wading than floating. Let me know how you do, I only live about 5 minutes from Phenix access.

For night fishing?

It is skinny water and VERY murky. "Clear" creek. I'd recommend the Little Sac. It's in the same general area. The float from the 550th road bridge to the HWY 215 bridge is a good one, I doubt you'd see anybody on the water. Access is relatively easy at both places. If I had a canoe or kayak of my own I'd do this float all the time. Google this: E 550th road S and 90th road polk county mo This would be the put-in.

I might try some night fishing on the upper Finley this weekend. What do you all usually use? Noisemakers?

A few keepers and a bunch of tiny brownies don't sound too bad to me! Sounds like you're going to the right places, just make some tweaks in your patterns/lures.

I got to float the Bryant this past Saturday. Riverside Canoe & Camp was nice enough to put us on at 181 and we floated down to Warren. Didn't get on the water until 12:30 and the water was a little high. Fishing was very slow until the sun started to drop behind the trees around 4:30. I caught around 20 fish on the last mile of the 8 mile float. Only a few of any size. This stretch of the Bryant is a little big and slow for my taste, next time, I'd like to go from 95 down to 181 (and start much earlier). But this trip will have to wait until I get a boat of my own. Traffic on the river was very light--only a few family groups, and one group of drunk good ole boys who did play-by-play as I casted the bluffs near the gravel bar they were parked at. *By the way, anybody worried about the low reading the the Bryant's gauge, don't be. It's underwater and not functioning.

You're right--I'd rather not ever be able to get on the Bryant than have it overran by party people. However I think I've found my way on, I work with a guy that owns a few hundred acres about a mile above Hodgson Mill and he's agreed to put us on the river at 95 hwy and we're going to float down to his place. It looks like a 8 1/2 mile float, and that might be pushing it for a one-day float with as much as I stop to fish. The problem now is the water level. It's running at 117 CFS at Tecumseh. Does anybody who's floated the Bryant know if it's doable at the level (two people and a loaded cooler in a canoe)?

Yeah, already tried Sunburst. They don't put anybody on the Bryant.

Are there any outfitters that will put you on the Bryant? Looking to do a one-day float/fish this weekend somewhere, and I've never been on the Bryant. I'd like to check it out. I'd like to float the 8 miles from Hodgson Mill to Warren Access. Is this Smallmouth water?

I can second this. And this summer and last I've used almost exclusively bitsy tubes.

I'm not Ollie, but I'll give you my two cents. If you're a fisherman first, float with Hog Heaven. They'll put you on the fish. On the Elk and Big Sugar I've had the best luck with bitsy tubes--green with red flakes.

Linden Drive is private, the gate might be left open, but somebody will probably run you off if you go in that way. If I'm reading the article right, there will be barricades restricting foot traffic underneath the bridge--So you can't get through that way. If you're up for it, I'd suggest parking where you usually do, wade across the creek, climb up the ditch next to the bridge, cross the road, walk back down the ditch and that would put on the other side of the bridge. You could do that on the side with the parking, but it's much steeper and harder to get back down on the other side too.

It looks like the access road to the river is still going to be open, they're just putting up barricades or fencing to keep people out from underneath the bridge. So if you wanted to, from Ozark you could go up through Smyrna to get to the other side of the bridge (west side), take the access road, then you'd be able to put in there and float back to Oz.