by Sara DeBold

A new reel and an old fillet knife get a workout on the trip

GALLATIN, Mo.— “How long you been fishing, Howsman?” asked David Gray.

“Oh, since I was six I’d guess,” replied Bud Howsman.

For Howsman, of Chillicothe, that meant 80 years. Gray could not match the older man’s depth of experience. However, as the founder of a high-end fishing reel manufacturing company, he had every reason to call himself an ardent angler.

The three of us, all newly acquainted, had one thing in common when we met to fish the Grand River last August: We were eager to catch catfish. Until that day, I had never tossed a lure in northern Missouri. I am not the only one. Many anglers turn south to Missouri’s big lakes and rivers to catch their limits. A day on the Grand River with Howsman and Gray convinced me that northern Missouri has a lot to offer an angler.
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he North Dakota Game and Fish Department is funding a small project in Cavalier County to keep carp in the Pembina River drainage from entering the Devils Lake basin.

For the past few years the Game and Fish Department has been working with landowners and water boards in Cavalier and Ramsey counties in developing a plan that will keep carp out of Devils Lake. If carp were to enter Devils Lake, the carrying capacity of game fish populations would suffer dramatically and the nationally-renowned walleye and northern pike fishery would decline.

This fall, an existing road grade near Loma will be raised to serve as a permanent barrier. In addition, water flow through the area will be enhanced. All permits and approvals have been procured, and construction should be completed prior to next spring’s runoff.

News release courtesy North Dakota Game and Fish Department

MOKANE, Mo.–When it rains, it pours, according to the old saying, and July has produced a cloudburst of fishing records in Missouri. The Missouri Department of Conservation has certified three new fishing records so far this month. Two could be world records.

The first record catch came in early July, when John West, of Republic, caught a 58-pound, 10.4-ounce striped bass at Bull Shoals Lake in Taney County. The monster striper measured just a shade over 48 inches from nose to tail and had a girth of 34.25 inches. The fish inhaled a 6-inch swim bait that West, 37, was casting from the bank with a spinning rod and reel. A swim bait is a soft-bodied lure rigged with a weighted hook.

Friends introduced West to striper fishing three years ago. They were fishing together on the rainy evening of July 8. West was tired from casting the big, heavy lure and decided to make two or three more casts before starting the long trek back to his vehicle when the big striper struck. The fish felt bigger than any he had caught before. He assumed it was in the 30- to 40-pound range. His friends had caught several fish that size in recent weeks.
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Eight reservoirs open during second year of program; special permit required

PRATT — For the second consecutive year, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) will allow floatline fishing at eight reservoirs this summer. Anglers will be allowed to use floatlines only during daylight hours from July 15 through Sept. 15 at Hillsdale, Council Grove, Tuttle Creek, Kanopolis, John Redmond, Toronto, Wilson, and Pomona reservoirs. This fishing method provides an additional angling opportunity on reservoirs with untapped channel catfish populations.

Floatline fishing, sometimes called “jug fishing,” allows Kansas anglers to use no more than eight floatlines with no more than two hooks attached to each line. A floatline permit (available for $2.50) is required, enabling department staff to survey floatline anglers during this three-year pilot program. A valid Kansas fishing license is also required, unless exempt by law. During this season, anglers are allowed to set eight floatlines or eight setlines, but not both. In addition to floatlines, an angler may fish with two poles, or three poles with a three-pole permit ($6.50).
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Limited season open on portions of Kansas and Arkansas rivers

PRATT — For a few rugged outdoorsmen who love nothing more than exploring rivers in summer, the Kansas handfishing season has become a much-anticipated adventure. The season runs June 15-Aug. 31, a time when those of strong nerve may catch flathead catfish using nothing but their hands and wits. Although such anglers may be few, the season offers a special challenge.

In addition to a limited season, there are a number of restrictions during the handfishing season. Only flathead catfish may be taken, and legal handfishing hours are sunrise to sunset. A special $27.50 permit is required in addition to a regular fishing license. Handfishermen may not use hooks, snorkeling or scuba gear, or any other man-made device or possess any fishing gear except a stringer. Stringers may not be used until the fish are caught by hand and are at or above the surface of the water. No man-made object that attracts fish — such as a barrel, box, bathtub, or any other object — may be used. Only two locations are open: the Arkansas River from the John Mack Bridge on Broadway Street in Wichita downstream to the Kansas-Oklahoma border and the Kansas River from its origin downstream to its confluence with the Missouri River.

Everyone who purchases a handfishing permit will be given a questionnaire they must complete and submit no later than 30 days after the close of the handfishing season. Handfishing permits may be purchased online or at select locations around the state. To find vendors or purchase permits online, go to kdwp.state.ks.us/news/License-Permits.

News release courtesy Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks

MADISON - It’s hard to say what’s more impressive over the sweep of Wesley Babcock’s 40 years of bowfishing: the more than 18,000 carp and other fish he’s taken with a bow and arrow, or the eye-popping lunker he hauled in last month from the Castle Rock Flowage.

Babcock, a biology teacher for the Pardeeville School district for 33 years, shot the quillback/river carp sucker hybrid while bowfishing on the Castle Rock Flowage.

He’s been bowfishing since he was in middle school, keeping his dad company on trips to the Rock River. It was pretty low-tech, but lots of fun, back then. “We used to tape a coffee can to our recurve bow and wrap line around it,” Babcock recalls. “The arrow was tied to this string. You could not shoot very far.”
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HILL CITY, S.D. – Deerfield Lake, northwest of Hill City, has yielded a pair of record-breaking fish.  Brook trout and splake records both fell during the month of May to local anglers.

Dennis Larive of Lead caught a brook trout weighing 12 pounds on May 1, toppling the previous state record by nearly a pound. Larive was the previous holder of the state record splake.

A record 11-pound, 14-ounce splake was caught by Robert Swift, also of Lead, on May 20. The previous record splake weighed 10 pounds, 13 ounces.

A splake is a hybrid cross between a brook trout (sometimes called speckled trout) and a lake trout.  Splake are stocked in Deerfield Lake every 3-5 years and were also stocked in Pactola Reservoir until the early 1990s.

For a fish to qualify as a state record, the angler must get the fish weighed on a certified scale, have the species verified by a South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department fisheries biologist or ichthyologist, and fill out a form that can be found at: http://gfp.sd.gov/fishing-boating/state-fish-records-list.aspx.

News release courtesy South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks

JEFFERSON CITY MO – Discover the lure of Missouri outdoors with Free Fishing Days on June 12 and 13.  Each year the Missouri Department of Conservation designates the weekend after the first Monday in June for permit-optional fishing. The goal of Free Fishing Days is to encourage people to sample the state’s abundant fishing opportunities. During Free Fishing Days, anyone can fish in the Show-me State without having to buy a fishing permit, trout stamp or trout park daily tag.

Missouri is blessed with more than a million acres of surface water, and most of it provides great fishing. Fly fish for trout in a spring-fed Ozark stream or trotline for monster catfish on Missouri’s Big Rivers. Our waters hold ancient paddlefish and sturgeon, ferocious muskies, wary bass and tasty bluegill, crappie and walleye. More than 200 different fish species live here, and 40 of them are the targets of anglers. Read the rest…

JEFFERSON CITY MO – The fourth Saturday in May marks the opening of catch-and-keep black bass season in Missouri Ozark streams for largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. The Ozark-streams season runs from May 22 to Feb. 28, 2011.

Black bass fishing and possession is open year ‘round for impoundments and areas of the state other than the Ozarks. These other areas are defined as: the Mississippi river, all waters north of the south bank of the Missouri River, the St. Francis River downstream from Wappapello Dam and on streams in that portion of southeast Missouri bounded by a line from Cape Girardeau following Missouri highways 74 and 25, U.S. highways 60, 67 and 160, and the west bank of the Little Black River to the Arkansas state line.
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Kids 5-12 will participate; rods, bait, lunch provided

JUNCTION CITY — On Saturday, June 5, the Milford Nature Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will conduct a Kids’ Fishing Clinic and Casting Contest at Riverwalk Landing Park, on Gunner Road behind IHOP on Ash Street. The event will be open to the first 100 children who pre-register and are 5 through 12 years old. Check in will be at 8:30 a.m., and the clinic begins at 9 a.m. The event is free and will consist of a fishing clinic, a fishing derby, and a casting contest. A picnic lunch will be served at noon.
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