Extreme low water fishing was a success

[tjm]

Many places the water is there , under the gravel. When wading wet you will notice a cool spot as the water resurfaces. I thought for years that all Ozark streams had this feature, but I guess not. I'd  consider the pictured stream normal for late summer.

[Johnsfolly]

2 minutes ago, OzarkFishman said:

It kinda makes me think of this situation .... if you see a nice fish in a shallow, drying pool that is seperated from the main river in the middle of the summer ... what do you do?

Usually nice fish don't get caught in this situation, but what if ... I would get it out and put it in the deeper, flowing water and give the guy a chance. Might have to go home to get my cast net, but if it is a nice fish in a special piece of river I say do what you got to do. Sure there will still be fish if that nice fish doesn't survive, but we all know how long smallmouth take to grow.

 

I would do and have done the same thing and tried to get them into deeper water if possible. It's hard to think about trying to get them all out. I have a situation like that here in Maryland where there is an isolated pool from when the creek flooded that is way outside of what seems to be the normal channel. This pool may no longer get water until the next flooding event. I'm thinking about catching as many as I can and get them back into the main creek.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

7 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

I would do and have done the same thing and tried to get them into deeper water if possible. It's hard to think about trying to get them all out. I have a situation like that here in Maryland where there is an isolated pool from when the creek flooded that is way outside of what seems to be the normal channel. This pool may no longer get water until the next flooding event. I'm thinking about catching as many as I can and get them back into the main creek.

My sons and I did that with a pool of gar one day.  He still talks about it, and it's been 4 or 5 years.  He's 12 now.  

[OzarkFishman]

tjm - you are correct ... they are called disappearing streams. Some reappear and others flow into underwater aquifers and then come out later in a spring. 

Gravel creeks are cool for sure!

[tjm]

I was just looking at the inventory of that water shed and MDC designates 177 miles of it  as "losing", so not all of the water will resurface in those stretches.    The gravel absorbing, cooling filtering and releasing water is the reason we have clear cool streams. Some of the really cool flows will also be underwater springs fed by sink holes.

[OzarkFishman]

You are right. They call them losing, but disappearing is another term used. It’s gotta be right, it’s wikipedia!

 

We watch a video in my class called ”Karst in the Ozark” ... check it out on YouTube.  Cool stuff!