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The weather finally warmed up a bit, so I was able to get out and do some fishing. SWPA schedule showed 1 unit all day. Fishing was good with lots of rainbows on a size 16 Y2K under an indicator. I also had good luck on bigger fish using a 1/32 oz olive and brown jig. Got this pretty brown on the jig.

I fished Friday. Great to be out. Fishing was ok. I had issues getting the boat up the hill and tucked away, but it all worked out.

Lovey invented a new game for the dogs. It's called "The Disappearing Ball". They chase snowballs and get a little confused about where they went. Too funny to watch.

Invasive vs Introduced. If Fish and Game Managers from days gone by made Bad choices and dumped Trout into waters that had native trout, it may be real tough to fix that. I sincerely doubt ppl are going to shoot expensive fishing arrows into rocky bottoms in the hope of killing a few rainbows and browns. I am not unaware of Eastern gamefish foolishly introduced into Western waters. I know they are trying to reduce populations of Smallmouth Bass and Walleye. “Bowfishing” isn’t going to fix that either. you’re conflating / expanding the argument about bowfishing. The wanton waste of guys with bows killing fish just for the thrill of killing them is not sustainable. They are robbing other people of opportunities to fish with a hook and line for many species and the fish don’t get to fulfill their role in the environment. Why do they get to damage populations of slow growing / slow maturing fish for their entertainment? Hopefully, other states will follow Minnesota’s example and protect native fish better. We have to change the mindset of game fish vs rough fish (many would say trash fish). I value suckers and Buffalo as much or more than introduced trout.

Linguine and clams. Trust me, there are clams under there. The missus loves this, easy to do and everything was already in the pantry.

Cracked open the first of my latest batch, made back in August. This one was carbonated, the others were still. All of them have been pretty dry. I’m very pleased with this one. It’s very good now, but it will only improve with age. The missus says I need to start some more. That’s probably the best compliment I could get.

There were a few boats, but a very few. I would bet less that 20 boat between Gaston’s and White Buffalo

It's pretty, but I will be happy to see it gone.

Anything below 32 is too cold for me. Lots of football and basketball to watch and the fishing shows are all first run. The Van Dam show is pretty good. Might get out later this week, looks to be a bit of warming Thursday and Friday.

I’ve accomplished nearly all of my personal goals regarding big fish and tourneys over the past few years so my goals are changing. The only two goals I really have are to fish with dad as much as possible and try to take more youth out fishing.

I fished this morning and the cold weather really changed where the bass are hanging out. I checked two really good pre-cold snap locations and they were totally void of bait and fish. Then my third location had some fish and salvaged my morning but the numbers at this location were way down from 10 days ago. Not sure about impacts on crappie, but they probably made a few moves. 27 degrees with no wind is my tipping point.

Yes😆. For me it is.

I’d need more than a shovel for the driveway. What I needed was a more off-road tread and more tread in general. I’ll replace the tires the truck has on it soon and get a more off road capable tread. I shoveled some areas and that’s no big deal. I’m not shoveling a long driveway.

In the video, the guy mentions an increase in crappie guides on those lakes. What he was saying is that the crappie harvest has increased due to other factors also, including FFS. Those crappie in those lakes get hammered when they are in the bushes spawning, then get hammered again by techniques like spider rigging and trolling crankbaits when they are done spawning. The guides filled limits before FFS came out. No doubt FFS can make people more efficient in harvesting fish, but in the case of those crappie lakes, it's too many people harvesting too many fish.

I'd imagine the crappie guides put a major hurt on the population with FFS. Multiple limits taken daily for hundreds of days/year. Far different than the angler with FFS taking a few to eat for dinner.

Those are invasive species there and here, so should be under a "no limit, any method, kill all you can eat" rule, as should carp. No fish should be discarded though. But there should be enormous fines for any misidentification that leads to killing of non-invasives. One of the problems with our current regs is that even MDC doesn't want to learn to identify most species beyond the umbrella of "rough fish". At a guess from streamside conversations over a lifetime 90% of anglers can't tell the difference between a chub, a redhorse, a buffalo and a carp. Just as they class all "sunfish" as "bluegill", they tend to class all "rough fish" as carp and therefore "trash fish".

It’s idiotic that Bowfishing is allowed for any non invasive fish.

can't be more than 60 each, 'cause more than that someone would have turned them in as poachers, right? “Those caught and released immediately had 1.3% mortality, bass caught, held and culled had 14.9% mortality, and fish brought to weigh-in had 39.1% mortality. The researcher in charge stated that bass mortality due to tournaments can be much higher than many fishermen believe.” https://usangler.com/bass-mortality-post-tournament/

When our Christmas lights came on last night the snow gave them a pretty cool effect.

Is 22° (17°) to cold for a 2 hour round trip drive to fish for 4 hours tomarrow morning........ Those are the questions that go through my head when you see a short window when I could go. Lol

The major roads around here are all clear and dry. That being said, I am ready for the warm winds of spring. 😀

Beautiful fish👍

I had maybe 5 inches of snow over the ice we had prior. Fired up the tractor and blades off what I could out to the county road and then the road down to the city limit, nothing better to do with my time. I am gonna be gone for several weeks so hopefully we don't have much more.

Get out there and shovel that driveway! . Or are you snowprotesting. 😆

I had another thought on FFS and these recent studies. What if as @Sethsaid FFS isn’t doing as much damage as we think. But what it did do, was prompt these studies. And maybe the results just reflected what was going on prior to FFS but we didn’t know because they weren’t doing the studies. So there were declines due to multiple factors. Side scan, poaching and probably an overall increase in pressure. Which we know dramatically increased during Covid lockdowns. Just a thought. So in effect FFS at least prompted the studies which is great!

Our game laws sure don't carry enough penalty to be deterrent. Suspension of privilege/permits doesn't have any affect at all on people that don't have the permits in the first place. I wonder if confiscation of vehicles, boats etc. would have any effect, whatever vehicle was used in getting to the water regardless if it's the poacher's or a buddy's or a spectators. But you know I feel just about as upset with the culling and transport of tourney fish and I can't report them, so it is a quandary. I start to wonder if the game laws that support competitive use of wildlife by the wealthy and at the same time prohibit consumption by the poor are really laws that I want to support. If netting of fish is happening, they might be feeding themselves and their families, although I can't see bass as that good of eating. When a family is hungry, it might be that anything can be food. I remember about 1975, the newly arrived Asian refugees seining along the beach and putting anything that moved into the pot to cook later. That was eventually stopped but I think it was more of a health issue than adherence to our laws, given the state of the bay at the time.

I'm all for catch and release immediately tournaments, but they have their own difficulties including cheating. Catch and weigh derbies still have cheaters, rule benders, and ethical problems. I could care less about FFS unless I have to compete against them. Heck, I wish the A-rig was illegal. On the winter river derbies, I wonder about the mortality of fish taken from a wintering hole and let go miles away at the put in. Sure seems that the anti-FFS bandwagon has no issues with technological advances in SI/DI graphs, 360, boats, motors, trolling motors, rods, reels, and baits. All of which make it easier to find and catch fish. FFS has made quite a few folks more efficient fishermen than they were before FFS. The amount of crappie stockpiled by some dock owners at LOZ would boggle one's mind.

The prediction today is for 45 for a high with a breeze out of the south. The snow is going to get spanked.

8:40 PM on Day 7. Power on. Stoking fire and light and tv came on. Just got done with a roast and fixins in instant pot. Cresent rolls in the Coleman Oven on the camp stove. And fireplace warming house to 72 degrees. Shut lights out, too warm for furnace to kick on, and Dish Tv has too much snow on dish. So, antenna where we was when ice storm. Beat it down pretty good.

I have had to stop voicing my personal opinion on Livescope fishing because once you say anything negative about it, a large portion of the fishing community immediately determines that you are an asshole and that you belong in the Randy Blauket category.....and they avoid speaking to you, or bringing their boats in to you for repairs. 🙄 The whole issue has gone political.

Looks like about 4 inches here. Tomorrow I get to have fun on the tractor blading it off our quarter mile super steep lane.

Not every wintering hole is straightforward as to where the fish in it are located at any given time. Sure, some of the holes I fish, the whole pool isn't very big and the fish-holding spots are few and small, or else one little stretch of bank is good and everything else is too shallow to hold fish in normal clear winter water. But there are plenty of them that are a half mile long, deep from bank to bank and from head to tail. These are pools that I might spend a half day just trying to find the fish when you have to fish slowly and carefully in the winter, because they won't be everywhere. It is in these pools, seems to me, that FFS would speed the process up considerably; just cruise it looking for fish, make some casts when you find some to see if they are bass and interested. Successful fishing, whether tournament or not, is all about efficiency. The less time you spend making casts to places where there aren't any fish, the more efficient you are at catching fish. Are these winter river tournaments impacting the populations of bigger fish? Who knows? But seems to me that it's a bit of an arms race. As anglers get more efficient with better equipment and knowledge, they catch a greater PERCENTAGE of the bigger fish. So it could very well be that there are just as many fish being caught now as there were 20 years ago, but those numbers are a greater percentage of a smaller total number of big fish. And as efficiency continues to increase, at some point the numbers of big ones caught will start declining because the available pool of big ones from which to catch them gets too small.

I didn’t even get the snow blower out. I didn’t put it there and I am not going to get it off. It’s bound to melt sometime.

Heaviest most perfect snowman/snowball fight snow lately. The snow blower could hardly move it - bottom layer is nearly slush. The go part of the snowblower just spun on top of it. But got enough done to live with it.

Looks like we got around 10-11" here in the Cotter area.

Which chaps my rear. Catch and drop back in water immediately is one thing but setting the hook and crossing their eyes then hauling around in a live well all day looking for a bigger one then dumped who know where on the lake is ok but no one else is that fishes. Just shows you money talks in conservation making rules. You started it @snagged in outlet 3 with the tourney guys. I can't let you be alone in this.

Just got back in the house from clearing the walkway and driveway with the lift and throw manual snowblower. I'm guessing 6-8 inches here. A few days ago they were saying maybe 2 inches at the most. HA!

Good 6" plus and it's coming right on down as I type this. Going to be a snow blower afternoon after it quits.

I call this one nopocolypse here. Called for 1 1/2 to 2 inches. 5 1/2 when I measured still snowing. 6 about now and snow about done. I cleared the hive entrances that needed it. Pat cleaned off the bird feeders. Bummer I won't be wearing my crocks to the woodshop today.. lol Glad the ice pretty well went off the trees yesterday snow was sticking if it was added to the ice it could of added to the ice storm mess.

Guys are using it on rivers in winter holes right now. One of them posting it on YouTube. Tournament fishing when hauling fish around do nothing but harm to our fisheries. They should be banned. I wrote the MDC about it during the holidays. No answer from them yet.

I could certainly see it having an impact on winter fishing on the larger Ozark rivers. Other than that, I don't think it could have much impact on warm weather fishing where the fish are more scattered and easier to find. I'm especially concerned when it comes to the winter tournaments that have cropped up on streams like the Current, Meramec, and Gasconade, where the anglers carry their fish to a weigh in point and release them all there. Moving more and bigger bass out of their wintering habitat and releasing them in a spot where they are going to have to disperse to get back to wintering habitat seems to me to be a recipe for disaster...it's happening already, and FFS will probably make it a lot worse. I really wish that these tournaments would be required to go to a format where the fish are photographed, measured, and released immediately.

It is sickening. Practically every boat that comes in for repairs is equipped with FFS. Even little old tin boats with 15-30hp motors, on trailers that I wouldn't trust to go 2 miles down the road with. The only positive side for me is that it lets me know that I can give myself another healthy raise this year without hurting anyone's bank account too bad.

Cheesy Corn Chowder

11-inches and counting here where I'm at in KC (according to my driveway measurement). Layer of 1/4" ice underneath it. Yesterday hunted in Clinton and fished Truman, and driving back it was starting to get bad. Slid a few times but the way people were acting was too over the top. Just drive slow and don't be an idiot. Took almost 3 hrs to get home. 435 was shutdown right after I pulled in.

Soup season! Chicken, andouille and shrimp gumbo: Vegetable beef:

It is a New York Times recipe, but I found a copy here: https://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/shortcut-moussaka/ Be warned, the eggplant does not take 40 minutes in the oven, start checking at 20. I used 3 peeled Roma tomatoes and wound up adding about a Tablespoon of tomato paste. I used ground cinnamon instead of sticks and used more spice than the recipe called for.

Not only that you should see how many bass get netted from the streams and river around Carthage. There are folks from Southern countries netting bass with reckless abandon and keeping everything. The local authorities know about it, but cannot stop them. It's crazy over here !