Nature Archives - Missouri Trout Fisherman's Association - Springfield Chapter

Steelhead in Missouri

By Bob Randall on Sunday, January 12th, 2020 in Fishing reports, Nature, No Comments


Kim Schultz recommended a program topic of “Best Steelhead Waters in Missouri”. I thought he was kidding or maybe testing me to see if I really read the program topic suggestions on the membership applications. I emailed him a message that was something like, “What are ya, nuts?” and “The closest place for steelhead to […]


WOTUS

By Bob Randall on Sunday, January 12th, 2020 in Conservation, Nature, No Comments


WOTUS: Acronym for Waters of the United States, also known as the Clean Water Act There is a particular farm near one of my favorite trout fishing locations. It is a small cattle operation. I wouldn’t call it industrial scale. It is, however, intense enough that the feeding area is a mud hole after a […]


Cottonmouths at Crane Creek

By Bob Randall on Tuesday, June 25th, 2019 in Nature, No Comments


If you have heard Larry Wegmann telling about Crane Creek, you have heard of the high population of water moccasins in the area.  Larry’s not just telling stories.  He is speaking from herpetological research conducted at MSU.  Additionally, “Shane Bush, an MDC fisheries biologist, said … Crane Creek has an unusually high population of venomous cottonmouth […]


Walk Under a Trout Stream

By Bob Randall on Monday, April 1st, 2019 in Conservation, Nature, No Comments


The American Museum of Fly Fishing and Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife aquarium and museum in Springfield, Mo., will give curious anglers the chance to walk under a carefully crafted trout stream and see  how trout move about the water column thanks to a new partnership between two entities. In addition, a large portion of […]


“No prudent man is a fisherman.”

By Bob Randall on Monday, April 1st, 2019 in Conservation, Fishing Wisdom, Nature, No Comments


One of my heroes is Aldo Leopold. Many people consider him to be the founder of wildlife conservation and he was one of the early leaders of the American wilderness movement. After receiving his Master of Forestry degree from Yale, he spent most of the next 20 years in the US Forest Service in New […]


Stream bed manipulation at Bennett Spring

By Bob Randall on Tuesday, December 12th, 2017 in Conservation, Nature, Uncategorized, No Comments


MDC is manipulating the stream bottom to improve habitat/fishing.   There is a hole just where the main hatchery outflow stream enters the spring creek, some anglers call this the “Gut Hole”.  It’s about 15′ in diameter and probably 10′ deep.  It’s almost like looking into the spring itself.  Lots of fish holding and feeding […]


6/10/2017, James River Float Trip

By Bob Randall on Friday, June 16th, 2017 in Fishing reports, Fishing Trip, Nature, Social Events, No Comments


Text by John Bush: On Saturday, June 10th, Harry Morgan, John Dozier, and John Bush got together to float the James River from the Delaware town access down to Shelvin Rock. The water level was almost perfect, and the river had cleared up a lot from the rains. The temperature wasn’t bad most of the […]