James A. Reed Memorial Wildlife Area — Attraction in Missouri

The area it self is great but hunting and fishing there is more of a hassle than enjoyment. Reason being is that after a lot of the hunts and fishing there it seems like the “conservation agents” want to give you a ticket for anything. Many times I’ve gone and had all proper paper work, legal guns, and legal limits (never once gotten a ticket) they will see everything is in order then try to say you did something like leave trash or say the “heard” you say something incriminating. Normally a 1-2 hour ordeal just to finishing packing up and leave. A standard check should not take that long or be that harassing. Hope they get it fixed because it’s the ONLY place that i have agents try and dig soooo hard to ticket you for absolutely nothing. Again they have never been able to ticket me and yet try sooo hard everytime even after they run my info and see it’s all always up to date. There is also the issue that there is 2 agents that frequently do not where a uniform (normally just all camo) and when asking for their information as in badge ID or employee identification the always reply with “I’m not required to give you that” which from my understanding they do. Very hard to trust a standard colored truck with a very dark hidden conservation logo. They will also NEVER approach you in the field to inform you that you did something wrong, which is strange to me because if someone does something wrong why not teach them in the act of it so you can show them exactly what they did wrong. They normally just wait till you get to your vehicle and will harass you in the parking lot non stop. Makes no sense to me. Probably will venture up north from now on and avoid the questionable agents here. Met many many great agents but unfortunately there are only 1 or 2 people who truly care about passing down the education that come...

I love this place. I've been fishing in several ponds/lakes there. 10.19.23 I took my nearly 91 year old dad. We used Catclaw b/c he uses a walker. It is paved down to the fishing area. It's quite a stretch for dad b/c his walking stamina isn't great. He had to stop a few times to rest. Next time we'll take a wheelchair. I gave him a segmented cane pole and threw the line in near the shore. We needed more line to throw our worm a little farther out. We caught a young sunfish. Be sure to bring a jacket for anyone who gets cold after awhile outside. 2 officers dropped by. They asked about licenses. Dad didn't need one but I wasn't planning to fish. I looked for my license anyway but it turns out, it expired. So I purchased one on the web on the spot. They were very friendly chaps. And of course, we threw the little fish back. No living creature was harmed in the making of this memory. We hope to go one more time before it gets too...

This place is one of my new favorite place to go for a bike ride because this is not just a place for biking but most especially a perfect place to go fishing because of almost 10 lakes available in the whole area. Some of the lakes have docks where you can just either sit, stand while enjoying the scenic view of the lake especially during sunrise and sunset, or just throw your fishing gear on the water and wait when the fish eat the bait on it. At first, I only want to see the Sunrise but when I got here today it really captured my heart. On our way inside, I saw a beautiful deer and when we showed it to my daughter it comes closer to the road, so we got a good close sight of it. They also have a horse trail. So, if you are looking for a place for those outdoor activities I've mentioned don't miss this one. It is free to come for a day visit from April 1 to September 6am to 10pm, October 1 to March 31...