During our Ozarks trip we had a great time fishing at Troutdale. I have very fond memories of fishing here when I was growing up, and I recently found out so does my dad. Our family has been trout fishing at this secluded Ozarks spot for ~ 50 years! The whole place is a cold spring diverted into a concrete runs that serve as a trout hatchery. A certain amount of fish are released into the stream/pond at the end of the property and people are allowed to trout fish there. It is one of only a couple places in MO where people can trout fish as trout are a cold water species and MO gets pretty hot. What is so amazing is the amount of wildlife the small stream and fishery can support. Fishing was fun, but all the outdoorsy stuff we saw made it particularly awesome.
Evidently blue herons had been eating some trout so they had to erect this fence to keep them out... actually they were not only eating them, once they had their fill they were poking holes in them and leaving them! The fence now prevents this from happening. 
During our couple hours there we saw frogs (multiple kinds), toads, trout (of course), 
snakes (2 kinds), a mink (feasting on frogs and a mouse), blue herons, geese with goslings (see below) snapping turtles, painted water turtles, and a marten (not me) or fisher as well as a host of cool bugs (some of which we used as bait).
Little David caught a speckled king snake (salt and pepper snake) floating in the water. It is not a water snake, so it must have gone in the cold water by mistake. It couldn't move very fast when David fished it out. 
Here is one of a few snapping turtles we saw. Little David (always adept at spotting and catching wildlife) found the tiniest little toad in the world in the grass next to the parking lot...
Finally, here is a video of one of the many banded water snakes we saw:
1 comment:
The adept coverage of your family trip really exemplifies the "show me" spirit that MO is known for.
I think water snakes might be my single greatest phobia.
Post a Comment