Terry and Roxanne Wilson of Bolivar, MO, are well-known seminars on the subject of Ozarks fishing. They have written a pair of books we think are of interest to Traveler readers. They are reviewed here by Traveler Assistant Editor Jo Schaper.

Bluegill….Fly Fishing & Flies
Terry & Roxanne Wilson, Illustrated by Lefty Wilson
Frank Amato Publications, Inc., ISBN 978-1-57188-176-2
$16.95    151 p.

Bluegill, for many people, means farm pond fishing with standard rigs, and live bait for fish stunted by overpopulation and sub prime habitat.

If you are one of those people, the Wilsons’ book will open an entirely new bluegill reality for you. The thought of tying into one of these scrappy fighters, with a relatively light fly fishing rig never occurred to me until I saw this book.

Terry and Roxanne Wilson, of Bolivar, Mo., treat the scrappy bluegill with utmost seriousness here. If you are just curious what makes this fish tick, they cover it, season by season. They explore the different approach you must take for success in still or moving water.

They include patterns for flies they have found successful, excellent color photos of this most colorful animal, and make the case that not only do trophy bluegill exist, but that anyone can catch them with a little forethought and practice.

They include enough anecdotes and small stories that, even if you are an armchair angler, it makes a good read.

Smallmouth Bass Fly Fishing  – A Practical Guide
Terry & Roxanne Wilson, Illustrated by Lefty Wilson
Leathers Publishing, ISBN 978-1-58597-431-3
$19.95    191 p.

The first sentence that leapt out of this book upon flipping it open was: “Nearly all good smallmouth rivers contain lots of rocks.” (p. 73.)

Maybe there is something to this smallmouth fishing after all.

The title gives away the main purpose of this book – it is a practical guide. Neither anichthyologic tome on the lifestyle and habits of smallmouth, nor solely a guide to the fly fisherman’s art, it marries both, so that by the end, you know both the fish, and the Wilsons’ advice on how best to catch them.

This book, like the one on bluegill, presupposes a certain familiarity with fishing, although it doesn’t aim too high, nor expect a lot from a reader’s knowledge. Relatively short chapters break into many smaller sections.  First the fish, then the tackle then the tactics are covered.

Once past the mid-book color section of flies, fish, and the scenic beauty which often accompanies smallmouth streams, the Wilsons present fly patterns, and the rationale behind them, and just why the fish are presumed to think them tasty.

One would think that a fishing fly would mimic a fly, but this book explains how some flies resemble the natural food of smallmouth. The Wilsons add a light, but effective conservation message through the book—tips on how to keep the streams clean for both the fish and the people.

This book hits the mid-range of fishermen: neither the novice, nor the expert, though it is easy enough to read for a newbie, and every seasoned fisherman knows there is always something to learn. Recommended for anyone interested in fishing Missouri and Midwest smallmouth streams, lakes and rivers.

Copies of either fly fishing book ordered from our Valley Park Traveler Bookshelf are signed by both authors.

Kurt Kirchmer with a Castor River smallmouth caught on a live crawfish.

I find it amusing that the folks who constantly complain about restrictions on fishing all have the same argument. “It takes the fun out of everything” to quote Ken Elfrink of Robertsville.

I have been fishing for 30 years now and I have never had a day that wasn’t fun. I have been caught in some of the worst storms, been bit by a copperhead, and been hooked by my buddy but I always have a good time. That is the whole point of going for me and everyone I fish with. We catch plenty of fish to eat and have plenty of stories to tell, it may not be every trip but that’s okay because the grocery store will have plenty. (I wish I knew where they fished).

Every now and then we catch a big fish (my personal best small mouth is 18 inches) caught out of the Jacks Fork in a management area. My goal is to catch one 20 inches or so and that is another reason I go so I can try to match or beat my previous best. Yes I could travel to Tennessee or to Michigan and catch a 6 pound smallmouth out of a lake or large river but it doesn’t have the same appeal to me that wading an ice cold Ozark stream and fighting the best sport fish I have ever had a pleasure to catch close to home does.

Another argument I hear is that restrictions kill kids fishing because they can’t keep anything.Really, because as a kid on the Current and Jacks Fork I caught a ton of sunfish, goggle eye, and if I was lucky a decent sized smallmouth and if it was legal to keep the fish we did and had it for dinner. Kids don’t care what they catch as long as they catch fish, and I can’t remember a trip that we couldn’t catch something with a crawdad below a split shot.

The Ozark streams in my opinion are the prettiest and best fishing in the state. The restrictions have never kept me from wanting to go fishing, it may limit the type of fish I can keep but I never go away unhappy and if you have ever seen me you know I definitely don’t go away hungry.

I am not a biologist and I don’t know what is best for our fisheries but I do know I always catch bigger fish in the management areas. Case in point is floating above Alley Springs and floating below Alley Springs. The last five years I’ve floated both every year and it isn’t even close in comparison. The management area produces bigger fish and larger numbers of fish.

I agree with Mr. Todd that the Ozarks are great but I disagree when he says the management areas aren’t working. I also don’t think he fairly compared the Ozarks to bodies of water that were the same when it came to catching large smallmouth. I believe an 18-20 in smallmouth in those streams are amazing and I would love to see more of them. I don’t agree that regulations run people off and keep them from fishing. I have never met a person who stopped fishing because of regulations. I can always find a place to fish that suits what I’m looking for whether it be a stringer for dinner or a personal best for a replica mount.

The MDC gets paid to study and protect our fisheries. I may not always agree with their regulations but they are looking at a broad picture and in my opinion most people who disagree with them are doing so based on their own wants and not what is best for the wildlife.

Everyone has a right to their opinion and I’m glad we have one of the best Conservation Departments in the country that actually listen to the residents when considering regulations. And I have faith they will ultimately make the right decision and do what is best for the wildlife and not what is best for us. Without the wildlife we will have nothing to hunt or fish and nothing for future generations to enjoy because you will always have people who abuse every system and ruin it for everyone else. Regulations aren’t a bad thing in my opinion.

I hope Mr. Todd and Mr. Elfrink have fun the next time they go fishing and we may disagree on certain regulations but I think we all have a passion for fishing and that is a great thing to have in my opinion.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe summer and gets to catch a lot of fish. (Even if they are too small to keep)

Kurt Kirchmer
Arnold, MO

• http://www.mdc.mo.gov/fish/sport/bass/smallmouth/ Mo. Dept. of Conservation Smallmouth website;
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallmouth_bass Wikipedia;
• http://www.fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=3382 Fishbase (Has a lot of further links).

Although smallies and rock bass are usually seen as being in competition with each other, bronzebacks might be legitimately called “the other rock bass” due to its scientific name:
Micropterus: small fin; dolomieui: in honor of M. Dolomieu, a French mineralogist and friend of Lacepède, for whom dolomite was named (Becker 1983).

I appreciate the amount of attention that River Hills Traveler has given to the management issues surrounding smallmouth bass in Missouri’s streams and the responsible manner in which you have covered this topic.  As you well know, Bob Todd is a very experienced angler with well developed opinions about fisheries management and angler interests.  As a member of our Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel over the past two years, his input has been quite valuable in particular providing some keen insight into what consumptive SMB anglers might be looking for in terms of fisheries management changes.  And, we believe that the Panel’s proposals recently put forth to the MDC, despite Bob’s seeming disdain for the expansion of Special Management Areas, are both sensitive to the interests of catch-and-release anglers such as members of the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance as well as to those anglers who prefer to take home their legal limit of stream SMB.

In fact, in developing our proposal for a statewide length and creel limit change, the interests of consumptive anglers are well represented as 3 SMB exceeding 15” in length would be able to be kept to eat, plus a total of up to an additional 3 other black bass (largemouths and spots) exceeding the 12” MLL (unrestricted on spots in Meramec basin) for a total daily black bass creel limit of 6 fish.  Again, in the Meramec basin, anglers can currently and still would be able to keep up to  12 spotted bass daily (in addition to their largemouth and smallmouth take).  So, it seems to me that even with a reduction in the daily SMB limit, anglers would still have plenty of bass they could take home or clean for a shore lunch. The proposed updated statewide regulations for stream SMB — the current regs have been in place for 35+ years — in addition to supporting sustainable fisheries would provide better fishing for everyone while not unduly infringing on anyone’s past times.

The Missouri Smallmouth Alliance’s proposals involving the expansion of the well-established Special Management Areas were based upon maximizing the quality (defined as both increased numbers of SMB and larger average sizes) of our better smallmouth streams through the use of regulations that have been proven to work to significantly improve angler catch rates, average sizes and proportional stock densities of larger SMB in the areas where they’ve been enacted by the MDC.  True as documented in the  White Paper, many of these existing Special Regs Areas did not meet the MDC’s stated goals of doubling the number of SMB between 12-15 inches and those over 15 inches, but it is hard to determine whether those doubling goals were realistic during the time of the study given the slow growth rates of Ozark stream SMB and their naturally low densities as  predator species.  Regardless, fishing was generally much improved in these areas compared to both the recent past and the control areas outside the Special Regs waters.  Folks can certainly argue whether the Special Management Areas have improved angling enough to warrant their expansion, but MSA believes, as does the MDC, that the regs were effective and anglers generally supported them and would not oppose to their being more of them.

Bob’s contention that these areas “ran folks off” needs to be put into context as well.  Obviously if an angler’s goal is to take six SMB home to eat, he is going to avoid a stream section where you can only keep one SMB.  However, the statistics cited by Mr. Todd are based upon the limited angler survey data obtained during the first few years of the Special Areas and are heavily skewed by the initial results on the Meramec stretch.  But if you look as these figures more closely you’ll find that angler effort also fell off greatly in the control areas of the Meramec outside of the Special Regs Area during those early years and in nearly the same magnitude.  If anglers were being run off from the more restrictive regs areas, were they going to an entirely other stream when less than 10% of the Meramec’s main stem was affected by these regs?  It’s hard to say.  Over time, however, as word spread that the quality of the Special Areas was indeed improving under the new regs, more and more anglers (likely C&R guys) began to frequent these reaches in search of better fishing.  Angler surveys conducted in the later years of the study would bear this out and just about every article you read in outdoor publications about Missouri’s SMB stream resources notes one or more of the Special Management Areas as being bronzeback hotspots.  MSA does not believe it productive to debate the angling pressure issue still further as the MDC appears to be convinced that the regs areas have been successful and popular with anglers.  But, if one has a beef with the MDC’s numbers, I suggest they take it up with them.

MSA’s proposed expansion of the SMB Special Regs Areas may appear to some as an aggressive campaign as we suggest essentially doubling the number of stream sections included in the program and increasing total stream mileage from about 350 miles up to 760 miles in total.  Even so, this would still represent but a small minority  of the available SMB stream resources in the state and would effectively provide a greater number of avid SMB anglers with increased opportunity to catch more and larger fish.  Undoubtedly, there are some serious SMB anglers in the state who somehow don’t want to catch more fish or even larger SMB if it means throwing more back to let them grow up for a few more years, but as a long-time fishermen who is in a fishing organization more than 300 members strong, I cannot say I know many of these folks.

Again, I believe that your publication’s coverage of this issue provides a forum for healthy debate and offers a great opportunity for angler input to help shape the future of stream SMB management in Missouri.  Most who pursue stream bronzebacks are indeed passionate about it and have genuine interest in how these fragile stream fisheries are managed and sustained for current and future generations.  Throughout the Ozarks, we are clearly blessed with some of the most beautiful streams in the country and are well recognized for this; the recent proposals offered by the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance are simply designed to make our stream SMB fishing resources just as noteworthy and appreciated by fishermen.  We will continue to work on behalf of the resource and for the interests of avid SMB anglers across the state.

That seemed to us a timid effort, considering the huge number of stream miles in the state. The Meramec River and tributaries, for example, has 1,733 miles where up to 12 spotted bass per day can be taken with no minimum length limit, and only 15 miles of smallmouth special management area, but no additional regulations were proposed.
The Missouri Smallmouth Alliance Blue Ribbon Panel studying improvement of smallmouth fishing issued an ambitious report this year calling for raising statewide minimum length from current 12 inches to 15 inches, reducing the statewide creel limit from current 6 fish to 3 fish, adding 9 special management areas with a 15-inch minimum, 1 creel limit and adding four trophy special management areas with an 18-inch minimum, 1 creel limit. The Conservation Federation of Missouri has endorsed the MSA Blue Ribbon Panel’s proposal.
Many members of the Smallmouth Alliance are enthusiastic catch-and-release anglers. What they’re after are far bigger bronzebacks to catch and let go. Their panel’s report calls for creating “world class” smallmouth fishing in Missouri.
We’ve talked with more than one angler who doesn’t see it that way. Not to stereotype anyone, but it seems many folks who live in the Ozarks prefer to catch a mess of fish to eat instead of going home with just one fish.
Former Traveler publisher Bob Todd, a member of the SMA’s Blue Ribbon Panel, also offers a dissenting voice. In a piece on Page 10, he opines that Missouri has world class streams that he wouldn’t trade for world class fishing, such as that at Wilson’s Dam in Alabama. Size isn’t everything and existing special management areas are decreasingly less popular places to fish, writes Bob. “I am opposed to taking our best waters to extend the special areas and imposing a 15-inch, one-fish limit that has driven away anglers,” he says.

Mr. Todd, as usual, makes sense. The right amount of protection for Missouri’s smallmouth probably lies somewhere in between the MDC’s White Paper and the MSA panel’s recommendations.

What’s your opinion? Do special management areas work? Do you want to keep more of what you catch or release more in hopes of bigger smallmouth?

This editorial opinion represents the views of River Hills Traveler magazine and was published in our June 2010 print edition. Signed responses are welcome. Send to estyron@rhtrav.com or P.O. Box 220, Valley Park, MO 63088. Responses will appear in this column and a representative selection will be published in our July print edition.

Traveler Outdoor News

The Missouri Smallmouth Alliance holds its monthly membership meetings at the MDC’s Powder Valley Nature Conservation Center in Kirkwood, on the third Wednesday of each month. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the meetings run from 7 to 9 p.m.

The Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center is located at 11715 Cragwold Road. From the intersection of Interstates 44 & 270, take Watson Road to Geyer Road, turn north on Geyer for 200 yards to Cragwold Road. Go west on Cragwold for one mile to the nature center entrance on right.