trout talk july 2016

TTROUTTTALKTALK

Published byPublished by

JULY 2016JULY 2016

The Lebanon

DDAILY AILY RRECORDECORD

Kids get hooked on fi shing at Bennett Spring State Park

Kim Gavril Kim Gavril spent a lot spent a lot of his life of his life

fi shing at fi shing at Bennett Spring.

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How BIG can they get? Lunker photos, page 9

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BENNETT SPRINGSTATE PARK

AND SURROUNDING AREA©2004 ROBERT S. SHOTTS INC. & LEBANON PUBLISHING CO

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1 Barclay Public Access

2 Bennett Spring Public Access

3 Ft. Niangua River Resort84 Cat Hollow Trail • 417-532-4377www.fortniangua.com

4 Moon Valley Public Access

5 Family Crossing Mobile Home VillageThe Bennett Room17698 Hwy. 64, Lebanon • 417-532-4550

6 Adventures Float Trips & Campground LLC1667 State Highway 643 1/2 miles West of Bennett Spring15 miles East of Highway 65417-588-RAFT (7238)www.mo-adventures.org

7 Weavers Tackle Store11388 Hwy 64417-532-4618

8 One-Eyed Willy’s & Pete’s Place372 Corkery Rd.417-993-BOAT (2628)www.oneeyedwillys.com

9 MacCreed’s Art GalleryFine Arts & GiftsHwy 64 East of Bennett417-588-7993Thurs.-Sat. • Sun. by Appt.www.maccreedsgallery.com

10 Castaway Campground11525 MO-64417-766-3497

11 Bennett Spring Inn11525 MO-64417-588-9110www.BennettSpringInn.com

12 Bennett Spring GrillBennett Spring Taxidermy25970 Hwy 64A417-588-9001

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Bennett Spring State Park is located in the heart of the Ozarks where a large natural spring feeds sparkling clear water to thousands of rainbow trout.

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THE LEBANON DAILY RECORD TROUT TALK JULY 2016 PAGE 3

I would like to tell you about my ex-husband, Kim Gavril. He lost his battle with cancer on Jan. 19, 2016. He was 61 years old. He started going to Bennett Spring with his mom and dad when he was 14 years old.

I met him when he was 17. We dated, and I got pregnant. We got married in 1972.

He loved fishing at Bennett. I used to go with him and sit on the rocks at the Big Bridge and watch him fish. I would watch the stringer and play with the fish on it.

Then I wanted to learn to fish, so he got me the gear and taught me. I was hooked just like he was.

During our early years of mar-riage, his mom used to give him a subscription to Trout Talk for a Christmas present every year.

Over the next 20 years of our marriage, we made a lot of trips to Bennett. We brought our kids, and they fished too. Our daughter, Jen-nifer, liked fishing when she was young, but she didn’t get hooked on it like our son, Jason, did.

We’ve had a lot of good times and memories and lots of pictures of our

trips to Bennett. We were there when it’s been

flooded. We were there March 6, 1989, when it snowed 17 inches, and we couldn’t get home because Inter-state 44 was shut down. (We didn’t mind a bit calling work to say we wouldn’t be there. We couldn’t think of a better place to be. We got in some more days of fishing even in the snow.)

We have stayed at all the places in and around Bennett. We camped many times in the park when the kids were young.

One time I was cooking break-

fast for us on the camp stove and a praying mantis fell out of a tree from above and landed in the skillet of scrambled eggs. It startled me! I thought it was a twig at first, until it started moving. I let out a yell and flipped it out of the skillet with a spatula.

“Yuk!,” I said to Kim. “What should we do?” He said, “Ah. It’ll be alright.” So I finished cooking the eggs, and we ate them.

I can tell you a funny (but embar-rassing at the time) story about one time we stayed at a resort in the area. We were in the family unit.

We had come back to the room for lunch and to take a break. Jason got bored, so we told him to get his rod and fish in the pond out back behind our room.

We sat on the patio and watched him. Someone from upstairs yelled, “Hey kid, catch a big brown trout!” and he started laughing.

It didn’t take us long to realize what he meant. Kim and I looked at each other and our mouths dropped open. We called Jason back to the room. We didn’t know that the pond was the cesspool. We were very embarrassed.

The biggest lunker Kim ever caught was on March 3, 1984. It was 7 pounds and 4 ounces, which hap-pens to be the weight of our daugh-ter when she was born! My lunker is 3 pounds and 6 ounces caught on March 1, 1986. Jason’s lunker is 6 pounds and 4 ounces caught on March 7, 2004.

Kim was an expert fisherman. He

spun and fly fished. We like zones 1 and 2. That’s where we all caught our lunkers. He taught Jason and I as well.

We divorced in 1992, but all three of us have continued to go to Ben-nett to fish. Separate trips of course, except with our son.

Kim married twice since our divorce. He took both his wives fishing at Bennett. His last wife, Brenda, took very good care of Kim during his years with cancer. We all like her very much, and I’m glad she was there for him. A few times all of us would be there at the same time.

Even though we had our differ-ences in our marriage, one thing that stayed the same for us was our love for Bennett Spring.

I wanted to honor him with this story because Bennett Spring was a big part of Kim’s life for 47 years.

Our son is 40 now. He taught his wife how to fish, and she loves it. Now they are teaching their son.

I’m going to carry on the Christ-mas tradition of getting him a sub-scription to Trout Talk every year, just like his dad’s mom did.

Every trip I make to Bennett from now on will be a little different. I will be thinking of Kim.

Our daughter, Jennifer, wants us all to go to Bennett and have a memorial for him. I’m not sure yet what we will do. Bennett Spring will be minus one of her longtime fishermen. ■

BY JOAN GAVRILFor Trout Talk

Family mourns dad, remembers good times

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THE LEBANON DAILY RECORD TROUT TALK JULY 2016

Summer begins at the Spring

Trout Talk photo/Aaron Jennings

Steve Barry reaches to grab a fi sh that he caught on the afternoon of June 20 at Bennett Spring State Park.

A lot of folks got the itch to go out to Bennett Spring and wet a line to mark the beginning of summer.

After a slower than usual Father’s Day weekend, anglers flocked back to Bennett Spring on June 20 to con-tinue what, so far, has been a pretty good fishing season.

This time last year, the amount of rainfall made it difficult for anglers to spend a lot of time at Bennett.

“Last year was a little difficult, but we still had quite a few fish-ing. That was right around the time we had heavy rains, and the water flooded,” said Bennett Spring Park Assistant Hatchery Manager Mike Perry.

According to Weaver’s Tackle Store manager Rick Kirchberg, a lot of preparation is needed before Father’s Day weekend.

“With the exception of last year, Father’s Day weekend has always been one of our biggest days of the year. We have to be ready to go, and it’s best to have everything ready.”

Last year on Father’s Day week-end, only 842 people fished on Sat-urday, and 731 on Sunday.This year, 1,109 people were fishing on Satur-day, and 1,018 fished on Sunday.

BY AARON JENNINGSTrout Talk staff

▼ ▼Continued on page 6

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Although the number of people fi sh-ing was up from last year, Kirchberg said that this year’s Father’s Day week-end was one of the slower holidays that he can remember.

“So far, this is our best year since we started. At times, it’s been an overload, but this past weekend was as average as they come. I thought it would be one of our bigger days. To be honest, this was probably our lowest weekend in three or four months.”

While this year’s Father’s Day weekend wasn’t as busy as Kirchberg wanted, he said the number of people fi shing on Monday made up for it. “Today things are back to normal. A few minutes ago our parking lot was packed, and all of them said they were off to fi sh at Bennett. It may have been a slow weekend, but it looks like more people are back fi shing today.”

Of the many people fi shing Monday, Brian Jacobson from Springfi eld was fi shing at Bennett Spring for the fi rst time. Brandy, Brian Jacobson’s 13-year-old daughter, has been fi shing with her grandparents for as long as she can remember.

“She likes the outdoors more than I

do,” Brian Jacobson said as he watched his daughter fi sh. Since this was only Brian Jacobson’s third time fi shing, he didn’t plan on catching anything. To his surprise, he caught the one thing his daughter had yet to catch — the tree behind him.

“Somebody should really trim those branches. I wasn’t trying to cast, I was just testing the way it felt and the hook got stuck on that branch. I guess it was funny. Brandy seemed to laugh more than I did. After a while it just kind of hurts.”

Instead of letting his daughter teach him, Brian Jacobson insisted on learn-ing on his own. Brian Jacobson was sporting a brand new fi shing pole that he said his daughter had given him for Father’s Day.

“Brandy convinced my wife to get it for me, and they both picked it out at Bass Pro. They paid for it with my credit card,” Brian Jacobson joked. “I guess it’s a good thing that she doesn’t like the color pink. That would have been a mistake.”

Brandy Jacobson, who picked the fi shing pole out for her father, said fi sh-ing is one of her favorite things to do.

Continued from page 4


Judah Hensley and his grandmother, Kim, fi sh at Bennett Spring State Park. Father’s Day weekend at Bennett Spring was better attended than last year, but not as many came as some expected. Anglers returned in force the next day, however.

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“I can fi sh better than anyone in my family,” Brandy Jacobson said with a smile. “My grandma said I’m good at it because I practice a lot. I fi sh all the time. I usually fi sh with my grandma and grandpa dur-ing the summer, but today I got my dad to fi sh with me.”

Ken Mack from Kansas City was also at Bennett Monday. Mack said he had a long week at work and was ready for a change.

“It’s been so hot outside, so I decided to come and fi sh. My wife and I come down now and then, and we decided it was a good idea to come down and fi sh in the cool water.”

Mack said his plan for the day included two things, fi sh-ing and a picnic. However, if Mack didn’t catch a fi sh, he said he would still have a picnic.

“I’m not fi shing for food. That would be something if I only ate lunch if I caught a fi sh. I brought other things for the picnic, and fi sh isn’t on the menu,” Mack said. ■


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From MDCJEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri

Department of Conservation (MDC) encourages Missourians to discover nature this summer — and one fun and exciting way is through frogging.

Frogging season begins June 30 at sunset and ends Oct. 31. Missouri has two frog species that are legal game — bullfrog and green frog. Bullfrogs are larger and therefore more sought-after.

The daily limit is eight frogs of both species combined and the possession limit is 16 frogs of both species com-bined. Only the daily limit may be pos-sessed on the waters or banks thereof where limits apply. Daily limits end at midnight so froggers who catch their daily limits before midnight and then want to return for more frogging after midnight must remove the daily limit of previously caught frogs from the wa-

ters or banks before returning for more.Frogging can be done with either a

fi shing permit or a small-game hunting permit. Children under the age of 16 and Missouri residents 65 years of age or older are not required to have a per-mit. Those with a fi shing permit may take frogs by hand, hand net, atlatl, gig, bow, trotline, throw line, limb line, bank line, jug line, snagging, snaring, grabbing or pole and line. With a small

game hunting permit, frogs may be harvested using a .22-caliber or smaller rimfi re rifl e or pistol, pellet gun, atlatl, bow, crossbow, or by hand or hand net. The use of an artifi cial light is permit-ted when frogging.

For more information about frog hunting, including how to get started and tasty recipes to try, visit MDC online at huntfi sh.mdc.mo.gov/hunt-ing-trapping/species/frog.

Missouri frogging season begins June 30 at sunset

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How BIG can they get?

Teigan Good of Ottawa, Kan., displays her catch.Lola Linck, 2, of Ottawa, Kan., gets a little help showing off her fi sh for the camera.

Michael Schroeder, 4, caught his 1 1/2-pound trout in Zone 3.

Adelaid Pasow-

icz, 5, caught

her trout in Zone 3

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Zach Mayes, 13, of St. Charles, displays his trout for a photo.

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trout talk july 2016

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