Since 2003 the Missouri Department of Conservation has sponsored a course every May on how to catch catfish in the Missouri River.  Columbia FRO participated in last year’s event by hosting a fish fry, during the classroom portion of the course, and providing guides and boats for the field portion of the course. 

This year, Columbia FRO provided guides to take out registered students to try out the gear they had created during the classroom session.

The second day of the course, instructors from MDC and Columbia FRO set sample gear at the Overton Bottoms Unit of the Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge for students. At 6 p.m., the participants arrived with their own gear, boarded the boats to check the previously set gear and set their own. 

Branch Chief Wyatt Doyle, and Fishery Biologists, Andy Starostka and Jeff Finley each guided a crew, setting trot lines, bank poles and throw lines.  The crews then fished late into the night using rods and reels and discussed the finer points of Missouri River management and the adjacent mitigation projects on the Big Muddy Refuge.

The participants returned Saturday to check and pull their lines, attend a fish cleaning class, take pictures and swap stories.