Justin Spencer

If MDC really wants to stop this from happening they need to follow the advice of my favorite deputy and "nip it in the bud" They should come out with a press release, go on local news stations all over the state and try to educate the public while outlining what constitutes being in danger. This problem won't go away on it's own as it looks as if we get more cats "passing through" every day. If coyote runners out west tree one and shoot it illegally what happens to them? I assume it's bad enough that they just back away and leave the cat alone. Nip it boys, Nip it.

I agree with Gary. As much or more so than keeping it out of water too long, handling the fish with dry hands is not good for them. The slime layer of the fish protects it from disease so anytime you touch a fish with dry hands you are removing that protective slime coat that leads to illness days or even weeks down the line. Always wet hands before touching fish (even though it hurts this time of year). And if you must put them on the bank to take a picture (as some like to do) please put them on wet vegetation, or wet down the rocks real good before getting your picture. This by no means ensures their survival but might help some. 1-3 may lead to rougher handling, but all can be used responsibly.

Yum, fried stonefly or chocolate covered?

Keep this in mind for that time of year, wading is tough over 800cfs, not an issue right now at 300cfs. We have a link to the gage at our sunburst website. Felt soled boots a must (even at low water), studs even better so I've heard.

ROLF has beautiful cabins, not sure about crowds at ROLF but usually river is pretty quiet. Don't expect too much for the newbies in the way of catching, NFoW is a tough river for beginners. I hope other (less biased) people will chime in about the fishing at ROLF, I can think of 2 areas that can concentrate fish: right at the falls and Jacks riffle, between the falls and the next riffle which is cave riffle. The rest is pretty subtle runs with gravel and bedrock bottom. Not sure if you can hike to cave riffle which is a great spot. You should really plan on trying to get on the river, or explore some of the other public accesses. I should have some rental equipment by then and hopefully my fly shop will be fully stocked and going (this snow is slowing me down). Stop by and I can give you some tips. Check out deaddriftflyshop.net to see what I am working on.

I don't know that MDC claims that is the reason, I think they are trying to do what the masses want, and it seems as if the trout fishermen on this forum support the current 1 18" fish per day in the BRAreas, because we don't feel C@R would make any difference. I would argue enforcement is much more difficult in Missouri than Arkansas due to the mileage of streams involved. With a few exceptions our anglers get spread out so it is tough to go to a spot and check dozens of anglers at a time. A conservation officer could waste an entire day looking for someone to check on a blue ribbon stream when those resources could better be used elsewhere. Take a look at the WILD brook trout fishery in the Great Smoky Mountains, after being closed for decades they reopened it to fishing and keeping because they determined anglers had little impact on the population. This is a much more fragile resource than the naturally reproducing rainbow streams of Missouri but it seems to be doing okay with much less regulation than we have. I have faith in the state departments knowing much better than me what is best for each area, they take yearly samples, make fish count estimates and are much more informed about what is happening in each system than any one of us could hope to be.

Sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way, but it is always easy to find a reason not to go fishing for this reason or that no matter what time of year (some people argue it's too warm in the summer and trout die because of exhaustion after being caught) I trust the MDC to manage how they see fit, and if we are responsible as individuals then I doubt we are seriously harming the resource. The people on this forum aren't the ones we need to be worried about!

I don't personally trap minnows, but I think those around here that do use mason jars with the screw on funnel you can buy to make them in to a trap. Not sure what they bait them with.

I believe a secondary spawn has started, with the snow coming in if the river rises they should spawn again, and possibly once or twice more, then remember at least 21 days after the last sign of spawning the eggs will finally hatch. See you back on the trout streams in a few months troutfriend, while your avoiding harming the resource I'll be carefully catching them without harming the resource. By then the smallmouth will be spawning so there goes a few more months people should avoid fishing. I guess if MDC really cared they would only allow fishing from July-August.

I have just recently seen the advantages of barbless hooks and agree that would be a good way to go, but the lack of access to these hooks makes it a little tough. I always try to pinch them down, but they still have some barb, and even wonder if I might get in trouble for this when fishing with my son at Dry Run Creek. As for Taney vs. tailwaters, the Missouri Conservationist said they found a 41.75" dead brown there a few years ago that they thought would have broken the current(former) world record had it been weighed alive and healthy. Slot limits are good management tools, but not sure how well they would work in a trout stream, especially an unstocked one. I think the one over 18" is better in this case. I'm glad my troutfriend is happy with Arkansas fisheries, I will admit it's much easier to catch fish there, but I'll stick to my Missouri trout streams and enjoy my fast water fish not seeing another fisherman all day. Hopefully MDC will keep up there poor management so the fisheries don't get over run with fishermen.

As far as blue ribbon regs are concerned: I live in a blue ribbon area and there is no one here in the winter to walk through redds, and harass fish on redds. If this was a problem I'd be the first to be putting up a fight. We have had no rainbow stocking (since mid 60's) and have a wonderful population of stream bred fish. It is much more variable than a stocked stream, due to water conditions during the spawn, but the management done on this stream has worked for decades, you can't just stop fishing on a river altogether(Stalin might), they've have already forbidden gigging in blue ribbon areas, which went a step too far in my opinion. I'm all for new regulations if they will help, but if things aren't broke, don't try to fix it! If you think a state line is the only difference between the trout waters of the two states you haven't fished many waters in Missouri. I've never fished Missouri tailwaters but I guess you could compare below Tablerock (I think) dam to the Ark. waters, and there is probably a world record swimming around in Taney, but even if the world record came from Missouri that wouldn't be a reason to say they are better managers. Both states are doing a good job attracting scores of paying trout fishermen to their states, I for one am happy with how both states are managing their trout waters, keep up the good work!

Tip: The new refrigerator kegs hold 1.5 gallons, load up as many as needed and hit the river. Nice try government, keep them coming!

In the blue ribbon streams I would argue that 19" are not very important to next years population because very few fish reach that size due to natural mortality. Most of the reproduction is going to come from the youngest reproductively mature fish for the simple fact their are many more of them. I do agree we want those few that reach 19" to reproduce and pass on their genes. I also would argue that people who want to keep fish probably don't go to the blue ribbon areas because they know their chance of catching a keeper on artificial bait is slim to none, and even if they did it would only be one fish. I have caught only 1 rainbow over 18" on the NFoW in Missouri and in no way feel it is because too many people keep big rainbows, I think it's because the ones that have gotten that big are way too smart to be caught by a hack like me.

Had the priveledge of fishing with Kyle and Aaron Scott on Sunday out of Kyle's longboat. With the forecast being for dreary overcast skies we decided to go from Sunburst to James and hoped to catch a few nice browns slinging streamers. The pesky sun made for a gorgeous day on the river but slowed the brown trout fishing to a crawl. Caught or missed a decent number of rainbows between Sunburst and Patrick and did manage a few browns on the lower end, including a few Kyle caught on a streamer. Kyle let me captain the longboat some which I really enjoyed, and fishing from this unique boat was a pleasure as well. Saw one other boat on the river early on, but after that had the river to ourselves. Kyle brought some homemade chili which he heated up for lunch (much better than my PBJ). And washed it down with a little hot cider (thank you Mr. Dickens). The longboat was the way to fish in this low water as we could go shallower than even a canoe it seemed. Overall a wonderful day on the river even though the fishing was mediocre at best.

When you talk about management usually there is a choice between managing for "trophies" or managing for numbers. I would say the food source and habitat has more to do with the Michigan browns fast growth than does the strain. This strain may grow well in MI, but bring it here and it may flop.

If you don't think that 1-18 inch fish per day is a nice way of saying catch and release than you are a much better fisherman than I. I bet the number of 18" fish taken legally out of blue ribbon streams per year could be counted on two hands or less (per stream). Next time you think you have an 18" fish put a tape on it, I bet you'll be surprised that it's not quite that big.

My understanding is that as of right now styrofoam is still legal, tupperware (polypropylene)is illegal because they can't afford a dictionary in Jefferson City and wrote the bill wrong. Jello shots are legal, there may be individual county laws for certain rivers such as nudity laws on the Elk, but the statewide laws are covered in huber's post. In addition glass was banned a few years ago statewide, so put your pickles in some tupperware (they said they won't enforce that one). Overall I think these laws are good for the rivers and the whole experience, although it is govt. regulation.

Twice along the North Fork I have seen what I believe to be Golden Eagles. We have tons of Bald's, both mature and immature, and twice I have seen eagles that seemed bigger than immature bald's and with different coloration and can only assume (without being sure) that they were goldens. Hard to explain until you see one, but they are definatly different, and to me seemed bigger as well.

My guess for trout is that they adapted a winter spawn to avoid flood events that are more likely to occur other times of the year. Longer incubation due to cold water is the tradeoff for not loosing the entire nest to a flood. The size of the eggs probably lead to a higher survival of young which is the tradeoff for not having as many eggs. Evidently it works as trout haven't gone extinct and are even doing well in some places where they aren't native. Don't pick a fight with nature, we always lose.

I don't know if anyone has tried the Redington pursuit series, I personally have not, but do own several redington rods and they are very servicable. The Pursuit series combo has everything you need for under $200. Rod has limited lifetime warranty and you are on the river with the addition of a fly. I would assume the rod is okay and if it is you can't beat the price. Go to redington's website for details.

I'd find a rod that has a lifetime warranty, most of these can be replaced or repaired for 50-60 bucks, and you should be able to find one for $150 or so. You WILL break your rod, no matter how careful you are, and with a warranty you won't feel too bad when it happens. Everyone is right, the rod is what you want to concentrate on, if you can swing it look for a reel with a large arbor, helps get line back quickly. If you have to toss in a little cash yourself to get what you really want, by all means do it. The quickest way to end your fly fishing hobby is to try and do it with poor equipment. Most of us started that way and somehow survived it, but when we finally got a good rod we were really hooked and got snobby about poor rods.

Coming from Kansas and having worked for KDWP be thankful for what we have. The MDC does a great job in the areas of education and public relations. The different education centers they have and the things they do with schools are much better than what they have in Kansas. They have many conservation areas that are managed for different hunting opportunities, and do a pretty good job of managing the streams and lakes of the state. We have a great magazine and a good kids magazine also. Trying to get people to enjoy the outdoors and having a place for them to do it should be one of their main goals, and I think they do this pretty well. There will always be room for improvement in the areas of law enforcement, but for the most part people who are going to cause problems will find ways around the law. We can never have enough people to enforce all the game laws over such a large expanse of wilderness. I think they have decided their money is better spent educating people as to why the laws are in place, and then hoping this decreases violations. Missourians need to be thankful for the department we have, I am certain we are much better off than most states, by far. We are generally a society of complainers so I'm sure we'll continue to b#@!tch and moan about the job they are doing (I don't agree with everything they do either), but overall I think we are fortunate to have them overseeing the wildlife and fisheries of this great state.

Most of the tags filled by others are probably free landowner tags (i guess we pay with our property taxes), can't imagine many go buy a tag just to give it away.

Not to brag (okay maybe a little) but I have my screen set up so I look out the window and see the river. Sure looks cold right now with steam rising up from it.

Thanks for raining on my parade!