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| r | His Place Newsletter - November / December 2003 Hello! Well, it's been getting colder, and the trees have pretty much lost their leaves. The weather didn't cooperate by staying cool, however, and the foliage was not quite as beautiful this year as it has been in years past, but there are some areas further south that were lovely. The Browns are on the move, and their colors are spectacular, however! If you get a chance to get over to Dry Run Creek, the fish are jumping the little waterfalls there. There are some monster fish going up that creek right now! We've seen literally thousands of Snow Geese migrating, and Mallards and Canadian Geese are on the move too. It's always amazing what you can see in the Ozarks... :-)
They're never too young... Thanks to Ruth Kelley, one of our guests, who took this wonderful picture - Just goes to show that you're never too young to learn how to fish!
Welcome to the Newsletter! We hope to see you soon...
The Brothers 'Rola'...
Ben's been fishing a little longer than Pete, but not to be outdone by big brother, Pete wound up with an equally nice Brown, earning them both Catch and Release Pins and Certificates. Luckily for the sake of family harmony, both Browns were exactly the same size. Mom, Linda, gave the boys a fishing trip for their fall break.
It's that time of year again. The Browns, and even some of the Rainbows, are running up river for their yearly romantic liaisons... :-) From wherever they're at, they go up river, at least some distance, until they find just the right spot. Many will spawn in locations such as Rim Shoals, and others will go up all the way to the dam. Smaller numbers of redds will be found all up and down the river, wherever you find gravel. And yes, even some Rainbows are on the move and spawining this time of year, too. Thought Rainbows were spring spawners? Well, nature did make them that way. It's been interesting on the river because we've seen spawning Rainbows all throughout the year. I asked our Trout Biologist about this, and he told me that indeed Browns are naturally "fall spawners", and Rainbows are naturally "spring spawners". However, the Rainbows have been altered to be fall spawners, because it works better for the stocking program. Once they get out into the river, some of them revert back to what nature made them in the first place, which is a spring spawning fish, others stay with the 'fall program', and some others are just plain confused, which is why you can see spawning Rainbows anytime of the year.
Yes, it's not just the picture... This Brown's belly was really that orange. Each one is unique, and Greg held this one long enough to get a picture and then let it go... :-) Please remember, especially this time of year, that wherever you are, you may be fishing near redds - Watch Where You Step!
November / December - What the fish are biting on…
Fly Fishing - Streamers - various sculpin, and minnow patterns are working right now, along with flashback gray and tan sowbugs. When the fish are a little skittish, make your retrieves a bit slower. Make sure you're using a 6X tippet, long leader and small indicator. Bait - Waxworms, and Redworms and Sculpin if you can find them... Red, Orange and Pink Powerbait is also doing the trick. Artificials - Countdowns, size 5 - silver/black and black/gold, Colorados in silver/gold, and Rooster Tails in Rainbow colors are still working really well right now.
Traffic Collision... Sometime traffic collisions occur when the trout succumb to the urge to swim up river... :-) This 'fender bender' occurred at Dry Run Creek, where you can take the kids under 16 to fish, only about 25 minutes away from here. If you haven't seen this before, it's really something. As you can see here, these two didn't make it this time around... Running into each other sent them back down to the bottom to try again.
How do they count those fish, anyway?
Ever wonder how AGFC counts the fish in the river? They go fishing! Well, their fishing equipment is a little different from the rest of ours... They use a process called Electro-Fishing. With electro-fishing, they temporarily stun the fish with mild electrical current so they can be counted and measured.
Metal rods hang down from the sides of the boat, and 2 long poles extend from the front. Powered by an on board generator, current runs from the rods in front of the boat (anodes) to the rods hanging down the sides. They use 30 pulses of DC current per second, running approximately 2 - 3 amps, which has proven to cause the least amount of trauma to the fish. This gives them a fairly wide area to sample. Once stunned, the fish are counted and measured. Steve got to go on an electro-fishing trip recently with AGFC down at Rim Shoals. Electro-fishing has to be done at night, so the fish are less likely to see the boat. It also has to be done in low water in order to reach them. They move along at a snail's pace, with one person driving the boat, and the other activating the charge into the water, and scooping up the "right" species of fish! When I refer to "right species", there are some suckers that come up with the trout, and you don't want to net them too!. Did I mention that there are some BIG suckers in the river, too? The largest was probably 12 pounds, according to Steve! The person on the bow will scoop up the trout, and place them into the large, aerated livewell in the center of the boat. No, you don't get every fish in the river, but you get a good sampling, just the same. The purpose of this particular outing was to see how many previously tagged fish would be found in this location. Earlier this year, 1000 trout of various sizes and species were tagged. That night, they captured 300 trout, and found 4 that were tagged. After the livewell is filled, the boat pulls into shore, where the fish are counted, measured, and some (the tagged fish) were weighed. Steve was impressed with the great care taken in handling the trout during this process. Before counting the trout in the livewell, clove oil is added to help anesthetize the fish. This makes it easier to handle them without injury. Steve noticed that after the addition of the clove oil, the fish became noticeably more docile. Great care is used in examining the selected fish. Very little time is wasted with the fish out of the water. After the fish are released, they are monitored to make sure they're all revived and able to swim off on their own. During the entire outing, Steve didn't observe a single fish injured. Pretty amazing considering hundreds of fish were handled that evening. Some observations from Steve - did he mention, there's a lot of suckers out there? There were also a lot of stocking size fish, a few really nice sized rainbows, a fair amount of nice sized browns, and even a few lunkers... And there was even one lone small mouth bass, who'd obviously lost his way. What was surprising to Steve was that they didn't sample a single brook trout, which he didn't really expect, but there wasn't a single cutthroat, either. Steve was also concerned about shocking spawning fish. In the sampling they took, not a single females lost any eggs. They also chose not to shock in the areas where there are a lot of redds either. In their test area, above many of the redds, there were many fish that didn't have their spawning colors yet either. The spawners may have moved down into the area they didn't sample after sunset, when the people / boat traffic lessened. With the information gathered from these studies, AGFC gathers crucial information regarding growth rates of the trout, retention in different areas of the river, overall health of the population, movement, and probably a whole lot of other things I'm forgetting. Without this data, AGFC would not have the information they need to manage our precious resource. In the future, AGFC is going to have all this data - and what it means - available online, in their ongoing effort to promote good relationships and understanding of what they're trying to accomplish. We'll have a link to this when the information gets posted. Fish Story of the Month! The Good Lord 'keeps it together'...
The first thing out of the dock that I noticed was one of our eagles, sitting in a tree just across the river from us, slightly upstream. Steve thought we should go up river too, so we were running the boat pretty much right at Rebekah, the female of our resident pair. (You can tell them apart fairly easily, as she's quite a bit larger than her mate, Isaac.) Anyway, as we got about to the tree where she was sitting, she came off her perch and flew right over us. Then, she circled around and started following us up the river for a bit. I was just staring at her, as she was flying above us. She was off to one side, and parallel with the boat for awhile, and was looking right down at me as she flew. She then circled back in front of us, and returned to the tree she had been sitting in. It was almost like she was trying to point us in the right direction, and as it turns out - she was right - but we'll get to that in a minute. That day I was trying a #7 Countdown in Black / Silver, and had gotten a few strikes, but hadn't managed to hook into anything. Then I had a snag, which I managed to get loose. I had a few more hits, which I missed. Then I had another snag. Well, it felt like a snag until I pulled hard, and the 'snag' pulled back! I told my husband I had a good one on. Of course, he was full of suggestions... "Don't horse it so hard, you're going to break it off!", and "Get it out from under the boat!", etc. Well, when I saw this fish - I had a few suggestions for him! "Get the net! Get the net!", and "If you lose that fish you're a Dead Man!", or something like that... :-) Anyway, we got the fish in the net, and took a hurried picture without handling it (that's why the picture's cut off...) and released her. She was full of eggs, so we didn't want to touch her. She was kind of 'curled up' in this picture, but holding her in the net in the water, her nose to tail nearly spanned the net, which is 24", making her 23", which is about 5 lb. 4 oz or so. So, not a record or anything, but I was really happy nonetheless! (So happy, in fact, that I was acting very silly - bad case of 'fishysteria' - when we got back to the boat dock, and I did not notice guests fishing just below us, who probably thought I was either drunk or had completely lost my mind...) Anyway, now for the kicker of this story. We came up from the dock, and went inside, and I had reeled up my line until the Rapala I had been using was up to the first eye of the rod. Steve said he wanted to take that lure off and put it back in his tackle box. So, he opened the bail to reach for the lure, and it fell to the floor. The line was BROKEN about 10 feet above the lure! Don't ask me how it didn't break with that fish on... We just kind of looked at each other for a minute. 10 feet would have been about where the line was rubbing under the boat while I was trying to land the fish. Of course, the first thing I said was, "Well, Praise Jesus!" (If you know me, I wasn't being sarcastic, either... :-)) And then, I just went on, thinking it was just a strange coincidence. I decided next to go get us some dinner, and I was buying. I told Steve I was going to get some money and go, and he asked me for $20, too - for being a great guide and all. (Really, he was just out of cash.) So, I grabbed two $20 bills out of my dresser. I was holding both bills by one corner, extended flat, and Steve took one of them from me, and I wrapped my left hand around the remaining bill as I hopped into the truck to go. Once in the truck, I opened my hand to put the $20 into my purse. You'll never believe this next part, though - that's OK, I still don't believe it either. When I opened my hand, the $20 was in TWO PIECES. Torn completely down the middle. It startled me so much, I went back inside and showed Steve, who had seen both bills intact just 30 seconds ago. At that point, I realized that catching my little 5 lb. Brown was definitely a "God Thing". Kind of like God's way of letting me know that He can "Keep Things Together" when He sees fit to do so.
In Closing...
Please remember to support the minimum flow initiative by signing our on-line petition. Although we had been looking forward to getting our copy in the October / November time frame, it now looks like December / January. We'll keep you advised on this vital legislation as it comes down to the wire. And remember! It's OK if you live out of state - we still need YOUR signature! - Just check out the Hot Issues section of the website.
As always, remember to pray for our soldiers, and our president, as we walk through these times.
May God Bless and keep you and yours...
Until next month - Good Fishing! Julie NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES BACK TO CURRENT NEWSLETTER - CLICK HERE September 2003 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) July/August 2003 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) May/June 2003 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) March/April 2003 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) Jan/Feb 2003 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) Dec 2002 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) Nov 2002 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) Oct 2002 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) Sept 2002 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) Aug 2002 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) July 2002 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE) June 2002 - Newsletter (Use your Browser's BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THIS PAGE |
Nothing like a little friendly,
brotherly competition, is there? Well, that's what Greg had in store when he took out these two very competitive brothers, Ben and Pete Rola.
This is a beautiful hook-jaw male with his fall fighting colors in full bloom!
It
was one of those perfect afternoons... The girls were done for the day, all the guests were checked in and taken care of, emails were answered (well, most of them, anyway) so my wonderful
husband decided to take me out fishing for awhile before it got dark.