Ozarks Fly Sales

Starting April 1, Family-Outdoors will offer a limited number of fly designed for fishing Ozark streams.

There will be 2 sets available.  There will be a 25 fly streamer/nymph set and a 20 piece dry fly set.

Get more information at Ozark Fly Sales.

Foundation awards MDC $35,000 grant for elk restoration

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JEFFERSON CITY Mo – The Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation (Foundation) recently approved a grant request from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) for $35,000 towards the Department’s elk restoration plan.The grant was approved at the Foundation’s Feb. 25 board meeting and will help fund costs related to elk trapping, holding, disease testing, research, monitoring and transportation.

MDC has been working with the Kentucky Division of Fish & Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) to trap and hold elk from eastern Kentucky. The agencies are currently conducting extensive disease testing on the several dozen elk that will form the core of Missouri’s restored elk herd. Following a 90-day quarantine period in Kentucky, the elk will be transported in late April or early May to a 346-square-mile restoration zone in Southeast Missouri covering parts of Carter, Reynolds and Shannon counties. The zone has extensive public lands, minimal agricultural activity and low road density. The elk-restoration plan includes provisions for protecting Missouri wildlife and livestock from elk-borne disease and for dealing with elk that wander outside the zone onto land where they are not welcome.

“We are very grateful to the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation for its support of our elk restoration efforts, and for its long-standing support of numerous conservation efforts in Missouri,” said MDC Director Bob Ziehmer. “Partnerships between government and citizen conservation groups, such as the Foundation, make it possible to achieve things beyond our separate means. It is a model that has proven successful time and again and is responsible for Missouri’s -- and America’s -- greatest conservation success stories.”

The Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization created in 1997 to meet financial demands placed on Missouri’s natural resources. Its mission is to advance the conservation and appreciation of Missouri’s forest, fish and wildlife resources by matching financial resources with the priorities of donors, the Foundation and the MDC. The Foundation receives funding from the Stream Stewardship Trust Fund along with funding from Conservation Heritage license plate sales, grants and individual donations.

Board Chairman Chris Nattinger explained that MDC staff apply for Foundation funding for projects they initiate or that they endorse on behalf of partner groups. These projects address priority conservation and outdoor recreation needs. The Foundation board of directors oversees funding decisions and is comprised of conservation, community and business leaders.

“The Foundation is pleased to be able to help MDC restore elk to Missouri,” said Nattinger.

“This magnificent animal is part of our natural heritage, and we think that the public as well as the ecosystem will benefit by bringing elk back to Missouri.”

Since 1997, the Foundation has provided more than $11 million for conservation and outdoor recreation. In 2010 alone, it funded 33 projects through more than $1.35 million in grants.

In addition to the Foundation grant, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has pledged $300,000 for Missouri’s elk-restoration program and the Appalachian Wildlife Foundation has pledged $50,000.

For more information on the Foundation, visit www.mochf.org.

For more information on MDC’s elk restoration efforts, visitwww.missouriconservation.org.

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Related articles

• RMEF helping restore elk in Missouri, Virginia (sports.espn.go.com)
• Hoping to create tourist draw, Missouri will get elk herd (reuters.com)
• Revived, then reviled: Ky. lets community hunt elk (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• A life with wildlife: DeLozier retiring after 32 years of managing Smokies' animals (knoxnews.com)

Interior Department appointments to NGAC include Missourian

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Secretary Salazar appoints 15 members to National Geospatial Advisory Committee – including Missourian Tony Spicci of the MDC

JEFFERSON CITY Mo – Tony Spicci of the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is among 15 individuals and the only Missourian (Columbia) recently appointed by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to serve three-year terms as members of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). NGAC provides recommendations on federal geospatial policy and management issues and advice on development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The NSDI promotes sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors, and the academic community.

Spicci has been with MDC for more than 18 years and is the Geographic Information System (GIS) coordinator for the Department and a supervisor in the MDC’s Resource Science division.  His responsibilities include the coordination and administration of geographic information technologies, ecological classification systems, human dimensions and Resource Science information support programs.  He also serves as the liaison between the MDC and other organizations and represents the Department on various committees including the Missouri GIS Advisory Committee, the Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership (MoRAP) Technical Committee and other local, state and federal organizations. 

Geospatial data and products, including maps, simulations and databases, are invaluable tools in the effective management of utility infrastructures, transportation, energy, emergency management and response, natural resource management, climate analysis, disaster recovery, homeland defense, law enforcement, protection planning and other civilian or military strategic issues. The newly appointed members of the NGAC represent the varied interests associated with geospatial programs and technology.

Additional information about the NGAC, including a complete list of the 28 committee members, is available at www.fgdc.gov/ngacc

Economic Benefits of Elk Restoration

Family-Outdoors Very Amateur Video...Missouri's Beauty

Trout Park Fever

Image by Dr.Nomad via FlickrOh boy!  Here they come.  The annual ritual for many of Missouri's trout fishermen is upon us.  It signals that Spring is around the corner, and that has me feeling pretty happy.  It also signals that for about the next month, for some fishermen the trout parks will be off limits.

The trout parks close for a couple of weeks before the March 1 trout "opener" and then there is my self-imposed restraining order keeping me away for a couple of weeks thereafter.  After all, I just posted the annual MDC press release about the big day.  They are forecasting 8,000+ anglers to descend on the Missouri Trout Parks this year.  That to me is a blessing and a curse.

I reckon that all that craziness will have most of Missouri's trout nuts kind of penned up in one central location.  I probably sound bitter, but I assure you I am not.  I cannot begin to convey how pleased it makes me to roll through Montauk and to see the party atmosphere, and then to leave it all behind as I move downstream on the Current to the wild beauty of what I enjoy about trout fishing.

Don't misunderstand me, I am not a trout park snob.  I will even wet a line in the social hole if I have someone with me that insists on baitfishing.  And, I enjoy it!  When I go to the parks, I expect a bit of social interaction, mostly pleasant, and some not so much.  I find the parks beautiful in their own way.  And, I get why some people love opening day.  There are some B-I-G fish in there then and besides, for some families and groups of friends, it's tradition.

So have a great time in the parks, and let a few sneak out the bottom of Montauk into the Current for me.  Maybe even one of those hawgs!


Current River Trout

Up to 8,000 anglers expected at trout park opener

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Missouri’s trout parks will be well-stocked on opening day.

JEFFERSON CITY – You can’t see it now, but a trout-fishing tide is rising. Missourians are rummaging around in basements and garages, patching waders, tying flies and checking fishing reels and lines. The wave will continue to swell throughout the remainder of February. When it breaks on March 1, Missouri’s four trout parks will be awash in anglers, and the anglers will be up to their bellybuttons in rainbow trout.

For more than 70 years, Missourians have made the late-winter pilgrimage to trout parks, where the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) stocks rainbow trout. Today, MDC stocks spring branches at Bennett Spring State Park (SP) near Lebanon, Montauk SP near Licking, Roaring River SP near Cassville and Maramec Spring Park near St. James.

The number of anglers present on opening day depends partly on weather, but it takes a major winter storm to make much of a dent in the throng at any of these destinations. The most important factor is what day of the week March 1 falls on in a particular year. Total attendance at all four parks has topped 14,000 in years past when the weather was good and the season opener fell on Saturday or Sunday.

MDC hatchery managers have 50 years of data on which to base predictions of angler turnout on any day throughout the catch-and-keep season March 1 through Oct. 31. This year, with a Tuesday opener, hatchery managers expect throngs of approximately 2,200 anglers at Bennett Spring, 2,000 at Montauk, 1,800 at Roaring River and 1,600 at Maramec Spring. If the March 1 weather forecast is unusually good, total attendance could top 8,400.

Hatchery managers use these estimates to determine how many trout to stock each day. Throughout most of the season, they stock 2.25 fish per expected angler. On opening day, however, they put three fish in the water for every angler they expect to attend. These fish average around 12 inches long. However, MDC also stocks dozens of “lunkers,” hatchery brood fish weighing upwards of 3 pounds. A few tip the scales at more than 10 pounds.
Three of Missouri’s trout parks–Bennett Spring, Montauk, and Roaring River–are owned by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Maramec Spring Park is owned by the James Foundation. The Conservation Department operates trout hatcheries at all four. For more information about trout-park fishing, call:
• Bennett Spring - 417-532-4418.
• Maramec - 573-265-7801.
• Montauk - 573-548-2585.
• Roaring River - 417-847-2430.


Anglers need a daily trout tag to fish in Missouri’s trout parks. Missouri residents 16 through 64 need a fishing permit in addition to the daily tag. Nonresidents 16 and older also need a fishing permit.
One new feature at all four parks this year is the availability of wader-wash stations. These are baths with a 5-percent salt solution for boots and fishing gear. They are designed to kill the aquatic invasive species, Didymosphenia geminata. commonly known as Didymo. It’s less appetizing nickname, “rock snot,” captures its slimy experience and general undesirability.


Didymo is an invasive alga that forms dense mats on stream bottoms. It can become so thick that it disrupts natural food chains, making fishing impossible. Its arrival in trout streams around the globe probably is the result of its ability to cling to the porous surface of felt-soled fishing waders. Didymo is known to infest streams in 19 states. The infested stream nearest to Missouri is in northern Arkansas.



“We strongly encourage anglers to make use of the wader-wash stations to clean not only waders, but any fishing equipment that has been used in other states,” said MDC Hatchery Systems Manager James Civiello. “Anglers can unknowingly spread the microscopic alga on fishing gear, waders, and especially in any porous materials on wader soles.”


Civiello said anglers can help prevent the spread of rock snot by cleaning fishing gear and waders and drying them in the sun for 48 hours when moving between waters. They also can help by replacing felt-soled waders with rubber-soled ones.


Trout parks are only one option for Show-Me State anglers. For more about the state’s extensive system of trout streams and winter trout fishing, visit www.mdc.mo.gov/7248.


MDC also maintains rainbow and brown trout populations in 120 miles of 17 streams designated as blue-, red- or white-ribbon trout waters. Lake Taneycomo has world-class trophy trout fishing, and MDC stocks trout in selected lakes and ponds in several communities around the state during the winter months. You can find details about all these trout-fishing opportunities in the Summary of Missouri Fishing Regulations, which is available wherever fishing permits are sold or at http://bit.ly/g8carJ. Information about winter trout fishing in urban areas is available at http://bit.ly/gSLEyx.


A Trout Permit ($7 for adults, $3.50 for anglers under age 16) is required to possess trout on waters outside trout parks. A fishing permit also is required, unless the angler is exempt.


A survey conducted in 2001 showed that trout anglers spent more per day on their sport than anglers pursuing any other species. Trout anglers’ expenditures that year totaled $115,561,474.


These expenditures generated more than $240 million of business activity, supporting 2,078 jobs and creating nearly $52 million dollars in wages. This produced more than $5.5 million in state sales taxes, $2 million in state income taxes and more than $8 million in federal income taxes.


Thirty percent of Missouri’s trout anglers come from other states, so a substantial portion of trout fishing expenditures is “new money” for the state’s economy.


-Jim Low-


Missouri Trout Parks