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World Class Smallmouth Fishing Sign Posting Project


Dan Kreher

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World Class SMB access sign.final.pdf

Smallie Fans!

The Missouri Smallmouth Alliance has just recently finalized its new and improved Help Create World Class Smallmouth Fishing informational signs. The new signs (if I figure out how to post a PDF on this message I'll show it here) feature new graphics, including a beautiful smallmouth bass illustration courtesy of Al Agnew, and are less wordy than the old ones they're replacing. Key meassages include a depiction of the slow SMB growth rates in Ozark streams and encourage anglers to carefully release all sub-legal fish and to practice voluntary catch and release to improve fishing quality. The content and format of the signs has been officially approved by the Missouri Department of Conservation (as in the past) for posting at all MDC owned/leased stream access sites. We're working with other agencies (ONSR, USFS, DNR) to obtain their formal approval for posting at those locations as well.  

We are planning our official sign posting day for Sunday, May 6th (I will provide details in a separate post) where MSA volunteers will meet for breakfast to receive their sign posting packages and then head out to post a planned 130 or so accesses on about 30 rivers located in the Central and Southern Ozarks. A good turn out is needed to get this important work done.  

Despite the help we'll receive from largely St. Louis-based members, we will definitely need assistance from other folks around the state in order to effectively hit those smallie waters in the SE and SW portions of Missouri. That's where the outreach to conservation-minded members of Ozark Anglers comes in. We need volunteers to commit to post one or better yet groups of stream accesses on the following waters which we cannot easily reach on a daily round trip from St. Louis.  These rivers include the following:

SW MO                                                                               SE MO
Sac River                                                                            Marble Creek (Iron Co.)
Turnback Creek                                                                  Black River  (Reynolds, Butler Co.)
Pomme de Terre River                                                        Indian Creek (Butler Co.)
Weaubleau Creek                                                                Bear Creek (Wayne Co.)
North Fork Spring River                                                        Apple Creek (Cape G. Co.)
Spring River                                                                        Crooked Creek (Bollinger Co.)
Center Creek                                                                       Whitewater River (Bollinger/Cape G. Co.)
Shoal Creek                                                                        Cane Creek (Butler Co.)
Hickory Creek                                                                    
Big Sugar Creek
Indian Creek
Elk River
Flat Creek
James River
Finley Creek
Clear Creek
Beaver Creek - Corps of Engineers Access
Swan Creek - Corps of Engineers Access

Due to the distance from St. Louis, other streams where additional help may be needed include: Niangua/Little Niangua, Little Black, Eleven Point, North Fork, Bryant, Spring River (Howell Co.), Warm Fork Spring (Oregon Co.)

Thanks in advance for your help on this project!

Anyone interested in helping out with this angler educational project can contact Dan Kreher via PM on this board or send me a direct e-mail to dankreher@yahoo.com for more information. We'd like to get all the stream accesses across the Ozarks before Memorial Day weekend so they can be out there when the folks start hitting the streams.

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Missouri Smallmouth Alliance

Sign Posting Day

When: May 6th, 7:00 AM

Where: Meet at Denny's restaurant on South Outer Road across Hwy 44 from former Chrysler Assembly Plant in Fenton, MO

Bring: An appetite for a free breakfast, a cordless drill or screwdriver, road atlas/GPS and full tank of gas

What: MSA volunteers will be assigned a stream access checklist and provided educational signs, driving directions, access maps and mounting hardware for posting specific public stream accesses

Who: Existing and prospective members of the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance

Volunteers organize and disperse to Missouri Department of Conservation-approved angler educational signs at approximately 140 public stream access points located in Central and Southern MO Ozarks

For more info, send me a PM via this board or e-mail me directly at dankreher@yahoo.com

Thank you.

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What types of sign posts are you using? Or are you allowed to attach the signs to the exising MDC sign posts? And what is the best way to attach the signs so they last more than a couple of months? I would be more than willing to hang some on Shoal Creek and surrounding creeks.

If fishing was easy it would be called catching.

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You can attach them to the existing sign posts. I can attach some in SEMO, but you may need to ship them to me.

Thanks. That's what I figured.

If fishing was easy it would be called catching.

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Good work! Wish I could help, but got other things going on that day. I support what you are doing with this. Hope you get these signs all where they need to go.

No need to post signs just on May 6th. That's just the day that StL-based members will be meeting to post signs at accesses more easily reached on a day trip from here. If you are willing to post signs at any of the SW/SE or more remote locations listed in the post, you can do it anytime in the month of May. We can just ship prospective posters the signage and mounting materials and e-mail the access lists and posting instructions. So, don't dispair if you cannot join us on the 6th. Send me a PM with the stream/area you are interested in posting and I'll get in touch with you on more specifics.

We'll take all the help we can get.

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Thanks. That's what I figured.

I will send interested posters the specific posting instructions/locations/checklists/directions via e-mail when they contact me with a PM. Didn't want to get into all those details on the message board here. All questions will be answered in the materials provided.
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I have spoken to Dan and agreed to hang signs at 7 Shoal Creek accesses and one at Hickory Creek. There are several more creeks over here that need signs. I'd be glad to help anyone who picks a creek in this area. Just let me know.

If fishing was easy it would be called catching.

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