Loyal readers,
Hook and Bullet, the blog I started a few years ago, is moving to the website for River Hills Traveler, a publication that covers outdoors news in the east and central Missouri Ozarks.
Hook and Bullet will continue its mission of providing interesting information that is intended to strengthen our conservation ethics and challenge our outdoors skills.
Keep reading Hook and Bullet: hunting, fishing and other pursuits of the strenuous life here.
Conservation agents seized 240 items including deer and other mounts, antlers and firearms as part of a large investigation in the Ozarks. (Photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Conservation)
The Missouri Department of Conservation released Monday details of a nearly two-year investigation into poaching in southern Missouri. The undercover operation resulted in 68 poachers being charged with 425 wildlife violations.
This kind of news never bodes well for hunters. It tarnishes our image and gives the anti-hunting animals-rights fools fodder for their rants. Click to continue »
A bluegill Kingfisher caught in a St. Louis metro-area creek. (I hope Kingfisher doesn't mind that I 'borrowed' his photo.)
While researching some local fisheries I want to hit soon, I came across Kingfisher, a new blog by a guy whose goal is to fish eight healthy creeks in the St. Louis area.
He’s had some success finding fish in places many fly anglers would not bother with. He’s not deterred by water size or the perceived ugliness of of the fishery. He just wants to catch fish and have fun doing it.
It’s a far cry from Steve Wozniak’s goal of landing 1,000 species. It’s also more attainable and far less expensive. It’s probably just as much fun.
Too many fly fishermen are focused on one type of fish or insist that the only real fly rod adventures involve long excursions to the places we see in magazines.
Kingfisher is proving that just getting to water with a fly rod and a couple of flies can be just as rewarding.
Do you have your own fishing adventure project?
Big or small, Wozniak counts them all. TOP: Giant Shrimpgoby, BOTTOM: Tambaqui. See more fish and track his progress at 1000fish.wordpress.com
While trying to get to sleep the other night, I was thinking about how many species of fish I’d caught on a fly rod. I counted 15, but I am not sure if I got them all. Then there’s fish on other tackle — which I seldom use — and I added 6 more. (Many species have been caught with several types of tackle.)
I figured a couple dozen isn’t so bad. Heck, the list would be way more than that if I’d kept track of the little dinks that have a habit of taking small nymphs in trout runs. But who the hell would do that? Click to continue »
A late-season cold front pushed through and froze up the potholes, moving the birds south before many of us could get out in the blinds.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released its preliminary estimate of duck populations for the year. The estimate is 40.9 million birds, just shy of last year’s estimate of 42 millions birds. This year’s estimate it 21 percent above the long-term average.
Significant estimates include:
The report suggested that wetland breading areas remained generally strong in much of the breeding area with the exception of the western Dakotas and Montana. Click to continue »
The Missouri Department of Conservation has opened its application process for nearly 100 managed deer hunts. For the first time, the hunts must be applied for online.
Hunters may apply for a variety of archery, muzzleloader, modern firearms, historic method and crossbow hunts as well as youth hunts and hunts for persons with disabilities.
The department has been using a points system since 2007 for the selection process. Each hunter has one opportunity to be drawn for a hunt. Hunters who are unsuccessful one year get an additional chance in a future year.
Some managed hunts offer high odds of being drawn and a few had high probabilities of success. Some advance research may be beneficial.
Hunters may apply for just one hunt and may apply as a group of up to six, with the exception of youth hunts. Application deadline is August 15. Hunters drawn for a hunt must purchase a managed hunt permit after Sept. 14.
Managed hunts are listed on page 18-20 of the 2010 Fall Deer & Turkey regulations book or here.
I want to be like this guy: fly rod, float tube, big carp. (Photo from fishbase.org)
There’s been great fanfare in the last few years about fishing for carp on a fly rod. There have been books published and videos produced. Kirk Deeter, a fly-fishing fanatic and writer for Field and Stream, has written extensively about fishing for carp, especially with a fly rod.
One of these days, I hope to get out and fling some flies at the suckers, which have been said to be like redfish or bonefish.
When I go, I don’t intend to subscribe to the catch-and-release ethos that so many fly rodders adhere to. That’s because I’m a also duck hunter. Click to continue »
Whenever I pack for a hunting or fishing trip — whether it’s for just a few hours or several days — I get anxious about my license. I have this recurring fear that a game warden will ask me to show my permit but I don’t have it. I’m not sure what the fine is for that, but it’s something I don’t want to spend my money on.
But I don’t carry my permits in my wallet because I refuse to be one of those guys with a billfold so thick that he sits a little crooked.
So I print several copies of my permits and keep them strategically located: one with my fishing gear, one with hunting gear and one in my truck.
Angler Andy Thomossan is dwarfed by his record-breaking 883-pound catch at the 52nd Annual Big Rock Fishing Tournament. Photo distributed via AP.
In all the years I have been fishing and hunting I have been approached by conservation agents twice, once while goose hunting and and once in a field of sunflowers, hoping for a Sept. 1 dove shoot.
I suppose any good agent might have some mercy on a guy who simply forgot to bring his license. Maybe he wouldn’t issue a citation but would just instruct the violator that his day was over until he had the thing “on his person,” as they say in legaleze. Click to continue »
I had one day of vacation left before the end of the fiscal year, so I figured a smallmouth fishing excursion was the best way to use it. I’m ashamed to say that it was the first bronzeback trip I’ve taken all year.
I can dish up all sorts of reasons: work, the dog, the wife, the weather. The weather is probably the best excuse. It was a horribly wet spring and most rivers within decent driving distance have been too high to wade.
A typical run of the Mineral Fork. Does it get any bassier than this?
I was in the water by 6:30 a.m. The air was a cool 62 degrees, a nice change from the early-summer heat wave that has had Missouri in misery. The sun was trying to glance through the trees, the birds were in full choir and squirrels were in the midst of their morning arguments.
What a great day for an escape. Click to continue »
Growing up, my father and I fished for walleye in one of the largest natural lakes in South Dakota. Our primary method was trolling bottom bouncers with spinner rigs along rocky drop offs and other structure.
I recall a friend joining us one weekend, and he insisted on using a bobber. I’m sure he had little experience fishing and probably just felt more confident with a bobber, despite the issue that a bobber isn’t meant for trolling. We tried to convince him, but he was relentless.
I suspect he’s the guy who invented this:
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