Justin Spencer

Nothing like being out on a trout stream just you and the fish! How in the heck could anyone, let alone 3 guys in a row manage to fly fish shoulder to shoulder like that? People say the NFoW is a tough place to cast, that looks harder than anywhere in the world to me. I would say those two guys to the left of the fly fishermen had hats before the horn blew. I wouldn't mind sitting on the bank with a little white lightnin' watching the festivities, but I think I'll wait until everyone has their five.

If you go back through some of my blogs you will find one entitled Real Housewives of the OC (Ozark county). Check this out to see what our wives are up to around here, I think you'll like it.

Don't get a chance to smallmouth fish much as I'm too busy in the warm months, but when I do go it is mostly 4" plastic worm, either carolina or texas rigged. Love beetle spins for variety of species, and of course topwater is as fun as it gets, but catch most on the worm along with some nice goggle eye. Have to agree the rebel craw is one of the best as they catch anything that swims and does it well. Whenever someone who isn't fly fishing asks what to use I always steer them toward the crawdad crank, catches trout, bass, goggle eye, etc.

Don't worry I didn't visit them in the pink robe, they came to me and we visited on my big deck.

It was cold out, that was shrinkage!

Am I correct in saying that the Corps of Engineers is a government run program? If so where do their profits go. No doubt the first thing any excess money should go to is mitigation of resources effected by their actions, but I'm sure this is not the case. Without knowing what kind of revenue the county and state gets from the generation it is hard to know who should pay for the hatcheries. Makes sense to me that everyone who profits should help pay (Federal, state, local govts), as well as some sort of yearly trout tag that should be required on any of the stocked waters. As for privatization, other states that have urban trout programs buy fish from private hatcheries already and there are many out there, Missouri even buys fish from time to time if shortages occur in their own hatcheries. Westover Farms is an example of a private (or now bank owned) hatchery that probably makes more money selling fish than the resort brings in. Depending on how the feds would relinquish control of the hatcheries, there is no doubt in my mind that privatization could work in a way that the owner could make a living and the area could still harbor world class trout fisheries. Unfortunately I'm sure the feds would somehow find a way to make it very difficult for a private company to meet all the requirements neccesary to run a large scale operation such as this.

I'm with you Brian, the old spreadsheets were cool because you could go back to all previous samplings and see how things had gotten better or worse. I'm afraid lots of those 6" browns they stocked this year turned out to be fish food for the 20" browns as I have only caught a couple of those fish. Love to see the abundance of big browns in the RRTA, this data corresponds to what fishermen have been saying. Seems like in the last few weeks everyone who has fished from here to James has caught at least one brown in the 18" - 22" range, and even some nice browns in the BRTA. Looks like this could be one of the better years for quality fish if they survived the winter.

Water is finally back to normal level with more rain forecast for Sunday. Once the water gets up (expecially above 800 cfs) it is almost a requirement to have a boat that can be fished from. You can still find some wadeable water, but most people aren't used to wading the big flows of the NFoW and the bigger it gets the better caster and mender you must be (gets tough because you also are throwing lots of lead). Not as cool sitting here in my bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. Definitely not cool that day a few fly fishermen showed up early and I was wearing Amy's hot pink bathrobe and stood on the deck talking to them for a while. Can't remember for sure who it was but I'm sure they'll let us know if they are on the forum (which I think they are). If you use Brian or Kyle hopefully you will take out here (love to meet you guys), plus all the big fish live here since I feed them everyday (not really) although it has been suggested.

I've only fished the Spring once and that was with spinning gear (rooster tails), but I just found one of the little "falls" and fished right below them. Almost every cast had a hit or caught a fish. Tons of walleye in Spring River as well, probably down around Hardy, but I've never fished for them there.

The only way to afford decreasing taxes is to decrease spending by getting rid of unneccesary programs, like federal fish hatcheries. (For the record I hope they don't do this!)

Looks like they mixed up the shipments.

I don't guide, but am more than willing to share tips and even splash around in front of the campground with people if time permits. You can't go wrong with Kyle or Brian if you don't like those guys I don't like you. They both have been around the river longer than I have and can help anyone catch fish!

Maybe the spots are more aggresive and get the best spawning areas, leaving the smallmouth in more vulnerable areas where the spawn fails or young are quickly picked off as they hatch.

Good point, the other day I had been catching a bunch of YOY rainbows and hooked a "nice" shiner, when I hooked it I told Amy "this is a better fish", is there a line class record for striped shiner yet?

Good point Tim, the hard part is when we create a cool water fishery where a warmwater fishery once prospered, then use federal bucks to prop up that fishery. Now that the industry has been created is it ethical to pull the rug out from under those that have invested their time and money into making a living from this resource? No easy answers in my opinion.

In most of these streams that spots are non-native are largemouth native on these same streams?

Nice when you can have your "own private river" to fish and float. Most people still aren't thinking about the rivers yet, what a great time to get out! What a bonus to catch some nice fish.

Am I the only one who enjoys catching spots. I understand they compete with smallmouth for space and food and grow slower than largemouth, but to me they have always fought more like a smallmouth than a bucketmouth. Much like the introduced trout to me it is just another sportfish I enjoy catching. I would be fine with eliminating them, but we know that is virtually impossible so why not enjoy catching them. Maybe i don't understand the negative impact they have on streams, I'd enjoy hearing some discussion for or against them.

I'm putting together a trip to BSC for next month, so far I have about 30 guys going, we'll be taking a school bus (just kidding!) Keep up the postings mic, I seriously doubt that anything we report on the forum in regards to small streams makes a huge difference in where people are going to go fish on a regular basis. Unless you live near one of these small streams I doubt you will fish there more than once and that will probably be just to say you have fished yet another stream. I enjoy hearing about the small streams, and if you are the type that is going to harm the resource I doubt you will waste your time catching a bunch of YOY trout on a tiny creek. If you report catching a bunch of 15-20 inch fish on one of these streams that might be a different story!

Good article Dano, this is where the lobbyists earn their money, hopefully they can stop this. If not then it is the local politicians job to make sure these hatcheries can continue to operate either through the couties, state, or privately. I have no doubt that the resort owners, business owners and county and state officials are working diligently to ensure the hatcheries stay open.

I did find it, and thank you. Seems like when we leave for a few days I always find money on the deck. We are fortunate to have a bunch of great people that visit us and take care of us even when we aren't around to take care of them. If it would have been missing I would have blamed it on a Grover. Did you catch any fish?

I hate to play devils advocate here, but if we are serious about balancing the budget this seems to be a place where some money can be saved. I think this example just shows how difficult it can be for those in Washington to try and balance a budget without upsetting anyone. Every program has people that rely on federal money to keep them going. This is just one example, and I'm sure the conservatives support a cut in these programs as they are opposed to most non-vital governmental programs such as this. I hope they don't close the hatcheries, but if they did I think it would be possible to privatize them and still have good fisheries below the dams. It would take regulation changes and resort prices would have to rise in order to help fund the stockings, but I am not opposed to having the people that use the resource being the major players in paying for it, including myself.

Don't lie Jason you know you don't LOL a Grover. If you look at the history up there, all the Grovers just follow in the footsteps of their ancestors, a spirited people. All of the outfitters (as well as water patrol) report about 90% of the problems have ties to Mountain Grove. As a side note we do have a few Grover groups that are great, just an exception not the rule. Sorry Mtn. Grove chamber of commerce.

Glad you had a good trip. Patrick is a nice campground, but unfortunately no one patrols it and the local wildlife always seems to be a problem there. To answer your question there are really no trout at Hammond. Probably a few around in the winter that have moved up, and a few get stranded at blue spring as the water warms, but not worth the effort. The upper outlet of rainbow spring is where the trout really get going about 4 miles below Hammond. Fishing seemed to be pretty steady this weekend from what I heard. Some of our regulars floated here to James one day and before pulling anchor at our boatramp they caught a 22" brown, and then a smallmouth and an 18" brown before passing our house. The river really gets good once we get a little water in it, this is as low as I have seen it.

Hope you had a tasty fish dinner!