Browns

[FishinCricket]

Well then you need to request that Laker67 lays off on his campaign to give a sore jaw to every lunker in the park!

Seriously though, I agree that there's been a shortage of decent sized fish, but I've also noticed more people in zone 1 with stringers than I ever recall seeing before.. A correlation, perhaps?

[Wayne SW/MO]

Whatever happened to the idea of stocking 100 small brown trout a month in the zone 1 area of BSState park?We fished the park the weekend of 09/10 and didn't see any evidence of this occuring anymore.In fact, we didn't see many big fish at all.Always like to see several lunkers just for the challenge of catching and releasing them.We stayed a Sand Springs and they said it has been a slower year;part of it is the economy and some of it might be the abscence of trophy fish.Years ago the folks at Roaring decided that big fish took up too much space in the rearing pools.By the next year the same people were saying they wouldn't make that mistake again.Big fish bring in the people.We still caught a lot of fish and had a great time but like Laker67 I sometimes need the fix a big fish provides.

Bennett, or any of the trout parks for that matter is not the place to expect a big fish fix. It is a put and take, with emphasis on the take.

I think it's a waste of fish, and expensive, to put browns in the park. They will hit hot oil just like the 'bows.

If the river was conducive to growing large trout the 'bows would get large also. The fact that 'bows are generally more attainable, but large ones very scarce, is a sure sign that the environment just isn't friendly for big fish to grow.

[FishinCricket]

I think you're full of it, Wayne.. Example 1: who fries Trout?!? You bake em, goofy...

Example 2: you mentioned nothing about the giggers, but there's (IMO) a direct correlation between low water winters and "no lunker" summers on the Niangua..

[Guest]

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[Wayne SW/MO]

Sorry Cricket, but i was afraid I had worn the one about giggers out. And by the way, fish were made to be fried or smoked. I'll bet you even cut the head off. Don't you know a 5 pounder has a lot of meat in the head?

[FishinCricket]

Sorry Cricket, but i was afraid I had worn the one about giggers out. And by the way, fish were made to be fried or smoked. I'll bet you even cut the head off. Don't you know a 5 pounder has a lot of meat in the head?

See, I told you that you were full of it!

I don't eat cooked trout, I just rip off the heads and eat em raw!!

[Wayne SW/MO]

See, I told you that you were full of it!

I don't eat cooked trout, I just rip off the heads and eat em raw!!

Why do I believe that?

[laker67]

Bennett, or any of the trout parks for that matter is not the place to expect a big fish fix. It is a put and take, with emphasis on the take.

I think it's a waste of fish, and expensive, to put browns in the park. They will hit hot oil just like the 'bows.

If the river was conducive to growing large trout the 'bows would get large also. The fact that 'bows are generally more attainable, but large ones very scarce, is a sure sign that the environment just isn't friendly for big fish to grow.

In the 6 or 7 years that it takes "our" rainbows to attain a respectable weight, "our" brown trout will be double that size in the same time period. Under ideal situations, such as taney, our browns can grow close to 30 pounds in their 12 to 13 year life span. An ideal situation for rainbows is the hatchery raceway, where in that same time period they can attain 18 pounds. Missour raises the "midget" of all rainbow strains. Look at other state records and you will see what I mean. Look at line class records, and you will see that we don't even grow them as big as the smallest fish on the books. The closest thing we have to a friendly enviroment, to grow big rainbows, is taney or the hatchery raceway. Browns are more resouceful and "nomadic". Ha, not even sure that nomadic is a word but a good description for missouri browns. Over the years, JT and I were used to seeing several large rainbows in the trout parks. Those numbers have all been evaporated in the past few years. An 8 to 10 pound rainbow is on the endangered list for sure. Browns are survivors in the wild, whereas rainbows seem to self-destruct. Our big browns grow up out in the enviroment, whereas most rainbows can only grow large in the hatchery. They are "not" survivors.

[Wayne SW/MO]

They are "not" survivors.

Really, so where do the large ones come from? Bennett consistently produced big rainbows that were said to have grown up in the stream. I suspect it is more a case of protection. There was a time when you couldn't see the bottom under the Rock bridge, in front of the whistle, the Suzy or the Bluff hole, just to name a few. These hiding places are pretty well gone.

Your example of 30# browns and 18# "bows doesn't make sense to me. That could well be true, but if the Niangua can produce 6# browns, where are the 3# 'bows?

[Jeff Tief]

In the heydays of state park and Taney rainbow trout fishing;SPORTS AFIELD named BSState Park and LAKE TANEYCOMO the best places to land a trophy rainbow in the continental USA.That figure was based on returns of their annual awards programs for best in state awards.Found a tag from RRState park from a trip in October of 2002 with my son's lady friend at the time that was numbered 149858.We were there in August of this year and my tag was only 51901;With tag sales that low don't know what is needed to revive our sport.On a side note any suggestions on help trying to get a bench at one of the trout parks in memory of our son,Brett, who passed away last September 10.I have filled out the necessary forms and contacted the park Supt. twice but haven't had much success