Thursday Float 8/18

[yaknar]

Floated down the James around 4 pm Thursday, a little late in the day to be putting in. I put in at Jamesville. When I put in there, I use the Boaz gauge, which was reading 2.36, which means a lot low water and only a few deep holes. As you can see I caught a few but didnt take pictures of all them. The biggest one turned my kayak around, pointed me upstream, I always like when that happens. I have never picked up trash floating down the river but, as you can see by the last picture, armed with my new conservation red bag, I picked up trash, but only saw one can. It was empty when I found it.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Super job Yaknar!!!! You got some really nice fish there!! That is one beautiful Ozark bass too!!!!!

Kuddos to you for picking up the trash too. Also, I meant to tell you this the other day, but, you can also recycle that MDC bag. When you get home, just dump it out and use it again. I don't always do that but, I have a lot of times.

[Ham]

Beautiful river. I'll have to get back over there one of these days. Real nice picture of that Shadow Bass.

[Chief Grey Bear]

You won't find a Shadow bass in the James. It does look very similar though.

It took me a little while to get this all figured out myself. But the more I caught and studied them, I finally think I figured it out.

The Shadow bass has dark blotches in a vertical pattern running down the side. It will have "freckles" dark spots on each scale, in parallel rows along the sides running from head to tail.

The Ozark bass will have it's freckles in a scattered pattern. Much like the scatter pattern of a shotgun if you will.

The freckles is really the best way to tell the difference. And knowing what watershed you caught it in. You will only catch Ozark Bass in White River, Pomme, and Sac drainages.

I kinda quit studying these critters a couple of years ago and need to resume. I had looked around on the net, like Google Images, but, found that it wasn't very accurate. It just picked images from differents sites that individuals said was one species or the other without any real validity. I need to target them again and take plenty of pictures and notations.

[RSBreth]

What's funny is the ones from over here on the Finley look a little different than the ones in the James - same drainage.

Nice pictures, sounds like a fun trip.

[yaknar]

Shadow bass or Ozark bass....I had not heard of these so I had to go to Missouri Conservation site, Introduction to Missouri Fish, to learn about these fish. I found them under Northern Rock Bass. It shows their distribution in the state and a little about them. I learn a little today.

[Flysmallie]

Nice attachment yaknar. It says that Shadow bass can be found in the White River drainage and that's exactly what the James River is. But it doesn't really matter and you can't go wrong with just calling them goggle eye.

[OzarksRiverman]

only saw one can. It was empty when I found it.

Too bad...

[Chief Grey Bear]

Nice attachment yaknar. It says that Shadow bass can be found in the White River drainage and that's exactly what the James River is. But it doesn't really matter and you can't go wrong with just calling them goggle eye.

You might want to reread that. Or you can ask Al for confirmation. Which ever you prefer. But you are right about one thing, you won't go wrong just calling them goggle eye.

[drew03cmc]

Yes, Ozark Bass. My Shadow Bass from Shoal, was much differently marked, and Shadows are not in the James drainage. I guess, experts like you all are, should have read more closely.