Fun Fishing At Ozark Mill

[sgfweatherstud]

Hey everyone...I'm new to the forum. I took my two oldest boys (13 and 9) to the Finley a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised! I have never caught a single fish at the Ozark park before, but this time decided to try just below the dam at the mill. The floods of this winter and spring cleaned out a good area on the eastern end of the dam that used to be lots of brush and thick cover. There is now a rather nice pool there, ranging (I'd guess) from two to five feet deep. Plus, there is the obvious constant flow of oxygen rich water from the falls over the dam. I used a few different lures...and caught a few goggle-eye, a sunfish, and two decent largemouth of probably 12 inches or so. The water is clean and clear, and it was a very nice time!

I snagged a large snake of some sort too...it had a yellow belly with a pattern on top and bottom...I've been searching the MCD web to try and figure out what kind he was.

[Phil Lilley]

Yellow belly... not sure what that would be. Any snake experts here?

[sgfweatherstud]

Here's a pic of the snake from my cell phone.

[J Fry]

Here's a pic of the snake from my cell phone.

That snake is the Northern Water Snake or [i]Nerodia sipedon. It is a non-venomous snake that eats mostly nongame fish and amphibians. They are actually eaten by many of the larger game fish. Consider it a beneficial snake to fishermen. They won't hurt any game fish. They are too slow to catch them!