Fishing

We have spent the last couple weekends fishing; unsuccessfully at that. Two weeks ago I decided that I wanted to go fishing on our days off. So off we went to Academy and bought the tools of the trade along with our fishing licenses. In the state of Missouri you must have a permit in order to "pursue, take, possess, and transport fish, live bait, mussels, clams, crayfish, frogs and turtles. There are a number of licenses they offer; ranging from a one day license to a year license to a lifetime license for both residents and non-residents. We opted for the year license. The next day we headed to Jolly Mill to try our hand at fishing. We fished for a couple hours unsuccessfully before packing up and calling it a day. This last weekend we had intended to fish at Kellogg Lake in Carthage but had forgotten our fishing poles and had not realized this until we had arrived. After we finished our errands in Carthage we decided that we would just go down to Wildcat Park and fish there. Once again we caught nothing.

We plan to go fishing again this weekend, but this time around we have done a little research. Tomorrow we plan to get up bright and early and head Cassville Missouri with our final destination being Roaring River State Park. According to the Missouri Department of Conservation Roaring River State Park is a trout park. Roaring River State Park is also ranked a white ribbon trout area; which means that it is stocked with trout intensively. The trout areas are ranked white; being the highest rank, red, and then blue being the lowest rank.

Throughout my research I have found a lot of helpful information that should make tomorrow's trip a success. Among this information is how to identify trout and then differentiate between the different types of trout; rainbow and brown trout. Rainbow trout can be identified by the pink streak that runs the length of their body, as well as their forked tail with dark spots. A brown trout can be identified by its yellow abdomen, red and/or orange spots, and its slightly forked tail with faint to no spots. It is important to be able to identify the different types of a daily limit of four trout per person. If any of the trout you possess are brown trout they must have a length of at least 15"; there is no length limit on the rainbow trout.

In addition to finding a good place to fish and how to identify the different types of trout I also learned a few things that will improve my chance of catching a fish. One of these ways is by wearing polarized sunglasses. Polarized sunglasses reduce the glare and make it easier to spot trout under the water's surface. I've also learned that it is best to use very thin line when fishing on a clear, sunny day because often the larger line can be seen by the trout and will scare them away. Also, that the best bet for catching trout is when the water level is low is in deep holes where they will often pool up.

Hopefully next week's blog will be about how many trout we caught. J