March is the time to catch largemouth bass on spinner baits. More than any other time of the year, according to writer Bill Cooper.

And Charlie Slovensky assesses the deer situation in Missouri and the challenges we'll face in the future. Basically, hunters need to value does as much as bucks, and we need to bring new hunters in the ranks. Women are an obvious choice for recruitment efforts.

The cover, incidentally, is a photo of Roaring Spring, also known as Posey Spring, along the Eleven Point River between Thomasville and Cane Bluff. A story about the status if fish populations on the Eleven Point is included below.

Jim Featherston has a historical story on Amos Stoddard, the man who officially accepted Louisana from France in 1804. Kathleen Brotherton has another kind of history - telling how Indians caught fish.

There's a story by Bob Todd on a walleye fishing trip to the St. Francis River. No walleye were caught but companion Mark Boone caught a golden redhorse sucker, a first for him on hook and line.

There's also a story on walleye stocking in Current River, and about a smallmouth bass study going on there. Another item reports the 18-inch length limit on smallmouth in Jacks Fork River will remain in effect for a few more years.

There's a story about the Between the Rivers Section of the Ozark Trail. This section contains artifacts of early settlers, up to and including the 1950's.

This issue contains the seasons, sunrise and moonrise information, letters to the editor, coming events, news and updates of conditions on Big Piney River, North Fork River, Eleven Point River,

Living in the country, you often run your own "water company". Bob Todd tells how a well works, after having to replace the pump, the piping and wiring.

There's a story on a stream improvement project at Montauk State Park. Trout season opened in the park this month. There's a story about the idea of closing regular trout management areas during the winter too. They'd be available for catch and release fishing and stocking would continue, providing a large trout population by March 1, when they'd open. Comments are being sought. There's also a story by Charley Schmidt on fishing more effectively with jigs.

A word tour of Eleven Point River fisheries

By Bob Todd
Everything you wanted to know about Eleven Point River . . . .
Well, maybe not everything, but Conservation Department biologist John Ackerson took us on a verbal tour of the river recently, starting with goggle-eye, which range from highest points in the drainage into Arkansas to the south.
If Eleven Point is not the best goggle-eye stream in the state, it certainly ranks with the best. A few years ago, an eight inch minimum length limit was imposed for the whole length of the river.
It hasn’t changed the population much. Its purpose was to protect the good size structure already in the river and it seems to be doing that.
John notes that for a regulation to be effective, it must be popular, and this rule gets very good compliance from Eleven Point fishermen. (It was requested by a local fisher-men’s group, as a matter of fact.)
Goggle-eye fishing IS expected to get an upward bump in the next few years. Drouth conditions seem to have been beneficial to goggle-eye spawning, or at least survival of young. At any rate there is a big bunch of goggle-eye coming on that will reach keeper size in another year or two.
TROUT
Eleven Point has a wild trout management area for 5.5 miles below Greer Spring, and a trout management area below that. The same drouth that benefited goggle-eye has been devastating to the wild trout area.
Ackerson says trout numbers in the wild area are at 80 per mile, the lowest in 13 years. It takes a high water event in the fall to produce a good trout spawn, he says, and while we got that last November, it will be a few years before natural reproduction gets the trout count back up to 200-250 per mile.
So in the meantime, the population will be augmented with some stocked rainbow trout. About 1,500 are to be stocked. Trout must be 18 inches long to be a keeper in this stretch, and while it will take awhile for the stocked fish to reach that size, they’ll provide a lot of catch and release fishing in the meantime.
Downstream, in the trout management area, there is no length limit and trout are stocked to be caught and kept on a somewhat regular basis. John says about 14,400 are stocked between March and October. If supplies are adequate, he hopes to add a December stocking this year.
The trout waters, incidentally, also hold a good population of smallmouth bass. John says they are not as numerous as they are further downstream, but they tend to run bigger. Trout fishermen should be prepared to deal with a smallmouth or two. Limit on Eleven Point is one smallmouth and it must be 15 inches or longer.
An influx of spotted bass in some areas makes them a current concern, but although the Eleven Point is part of the spotted bass’ historic range, they are seldom seen on this river, in Missouri.
PICKEREL
Another fish that seems to enjoy drouth conditions is chain pickerel. They spawn in quiet, weedy bays, and require very clear water for survival and feeding. Persistent low water gives them both.
Currently, John says there are a lot of pickerel in the river in the 24-25 inch range, and they are getting larger. There is no length limit on pickerel. They are often kept as a food fish by those who are unsuccessful at catching other keepers.
WALLEYE
No, let’s not talk about walleye. Let’s talk about sauger. This species is a close relative to walleye. And like walleye they tend to move around a lot. For some reason, they’ve moved up into the Missouri portion of the Eleven Point in recent months.
John thinks it may have something to do with the November high water that he hopes triggered a successful trout spawn.
To anglers, sauger are as desirable as walleye. Problem is, they don’t grow as large. And this is complicated by an 18-inch length limit on walleye AND sauger on the Eleven Point.
The walleye — well at this point Missouri seems to be stocking for Arkansas. Although the lower portion of Eleven Point was once known for walleye, John says he didn’t see a single walleye all last year despite a stocking program that has been going on for a few years.
He said from fishermen reports, apparently there are very few large walleye still in the Missouri part of the river, but they are not common enough that a biologist could find any in the course of his year’s work.
But Arkansas folks are finding them. Arkansas officials estimate that a third of the walleye they are finding in the lower river are the result of Missouri stocking.
John doesn’t know if a gradual filling of deep holes with gravel could be the problem or if it is a temporary thing resulting from drouth conditions.
But last year, Missouri stocked 600,000 fry, 13,000 fingerlings and 3,000 5-inch fish in the Eleven Point in the final year of an experimental stocking program. There’s little doubt most of these fish moved down to Arkansas. Still to be answered is whether they will return to Missouri as catchable fish at some later date.
Fry are newly hatched fish. Survival is very low, but they are easy to stock. The fingerlings were about two inches long and were marked with a chemical that can later be used to identify them. The 5-inch fish - most expensive to raise - were freeze branded.
Arkansas also stocks walleye and marks its fish, but differently so as to be able to tell which fish came from where.

From the Past, TRAVELER, March, 1979

In 1980, both Clearwater and Wappapello lakes were expected to produce some extra fine fishing, due in part to a period of high water in the spring of 1979.
At Wappapello, a late February meeting concerning an experimental crappie regulation drew the ire of fishermen. A creel of 10 was in place, experimentally; data from the first years was conflicting.
On the one hand crappie were indeed bigger after the first year. But instead of reducing fishing pressure by 40 per cent, fishing pressure under the regulation had actually increased. Fishermen believed high water was more responsible for the size boost than the regulation.
Meramec Dam gets all the attention, but in 1980, there was still a $500,000 appropriation being spent by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for advanced planning of the Pine Ford Dam on Big River.
Al Agnew wrote about the section of river that would be impounded - well below the lead mine spills, but well above the growing urbanization of the lower river. In other words, it would dam up the best of Big River. Al asked if there were enough people who cared about this river to save it.
There was a photo feature on fighting forest fires.
And who ever heard of crash helmets for canoeing? Well, they were becoming popular at Millstream Gardens on the St. Francis River, where the annual Whitewater Championships were scheduled to take place.

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