Coldspring

Sorry to hear about your injuries. I'm a recurve/longbow guy and have noticed I don't like pulling so much weight these last couple of years, don't like the thought of losing the ability. I really don't know about a thing about crossbows, or even these all those newfangled compoundwheeledthingermajigs, but I would think I'd rather have a fixed blade head instead of having to deal with a mechanical head which might not work function properly or be reusable. The only heads I would use from Bass Pro for my traditional bows are the Magnus ones. The Excalibur Boltcutter looks like it might be a decent head for you, a little cheaper too.

I've did a LOT of hiking trail work on MDC property, and a bit of stream cleanup elsewhere. Not sure how you put a dollar value on the work, when you consider all the office paper pushers and their bureaucracies involved, equipment costs and expenses it has saved MDC, and they don't even appreciate it, all I got was a $2 water bottle and cheap handkerchief for thanks. I'm sure they wouldn't let me work for them doing menial labor, since I don't have a biology degree, but they sure like volunteers. LOL I'm sure if you added it all together, it would make up for a lifetime of trout stamps and fishing licenses. I'm C&R anyway, and do buy licenses and stamps. I'm not like a bunch of locals in my neck of the woods that keep everything legal or what they can get away with. There are a LOT of fish fries here...we got more baptist churches than we have river fish.

I don't have an Arkansas trout stamp, but, in Arkansas, I only trout fish on the Spring River. I just flyfish and C&R a few of them for something to do. Everyone else uses powerbait, corn, and whatever, and usually takes their limit, or more. Then you have all the locals that hate them and cut them up for bait.

There's plenty of examples in history of little civilizations cutting down all their trees to build and burn. I've seen some families cut the crap out of their little woods for firewood. In the small towns there are smoke clouds hanging overhead every winter night, no telling what this does to respiratory systems, but it chokes me up. I really don't know how much you save by burning firewood when you have to fuel a pickup, have wear and tear on a pickup, fuel a chainsaw, buy new chains, repair chainsaw, then your man hours spend getting in the woods and cutting, loading, unloading, curing, splitting, putting wood in and tending, etc... Good exercise though.

I canoe upstream all the time. A rope, kayak paddle, sturdy shoes, and even a long pole are all you need to get it back up to where you put in.

I have about the same beliefs and wonderings as you flytyer... When the 100 year floods are every 5 years, downpours of 10 inches precipitation in a few hours, tornado outbreaks, daily thunderstorms, high winds, DERECHOS, widespread ice storms, hailstorms, constantly, we never get a break to recuperate. Or I'm just getting older and paying more attention? And whatever happened to the cloud seeding that was so prevalent? I don't see much anymore, here. Does your area have lots of cloud seeding now? I just wonder.

This morning's serious flash flood in SW Arkansas got me to thinking. I don't know if I'm just getting older and have began to have a boring life that involves thinking about the weather all the time, but is it just me or has the weather seemed strange the last two years? I don't really believe one way or the other, but how do you feel about it from your personal observations?

Glad I joined this forum, I've lived around the area most of my life and never knew there was an access there! Worst thing about that part of the North Fork, everytime I go out there I hear more hammers than I do woodpeckers. There is always construction of new cabins or remodels going on.

I think it is more than a few. There are certain areas around the MTNF where you see trailer after trailer of ATVs being hauled in on a Sat. morning, and you know they all aren't headed to ride in a completely legal manner. I wish there were more areas designated for riders, I like riding myself, but never cared for mudding and the like. I think there's a lot of animosity between the hiker community and atv riders, the hikers see them are trail destroyers and even as physically threatening when encountered on the trail, while the atv riders see those little sissy hikers as the ones that took their rights to ride away.

Could have been kids that didn't know any better, you never know. I think kids like to play in the creeks more than adults, but that's only an observation based on a small sample. Kid's like to mud too. The riders I've actually seen on the hiking trails weren't kids, or at least kids weren't the leaders...like the father that teaches his kids to roadhunt, poach, trespass, shoot signs, litter, be illiterate, cuss, spit, etc...

It might be 4 miles from Hammond's at Hwy CC down to North Fork and Rainbow Springs. It's swift enough that I don't see why you couldn't get there in an hour-ish and start your trout fishing. That's the best scenery, BTW, it's National Forest and Devil's Beckbone Wilderness, then you get into the cabins below Rainbow. Not sure about kayak rental advice.

Mitch, how long was your friend's fight with that monster?

Don't even get me started on ATV riders!!! You should see what they do to hiking trails! Once they start using a hiking trail for their personal route, it basically turns a handbuilt single track into a rutted out loose rocked, double track...ruined forever. Most hiking trails are built by volunteer labor, by the way. There's nothing like putting in a bunch of hours or hard labor on a trail, for the beer drinking ATV riding deer hunters to find it a few weeks later and purposely spin their tires as they take the corners, so it will rut them out into a nice ATV path. They can destroy stuff in a matter of minutes. And they have no problem carrying a beer cooler full of beer into the woods, but of course they don't carry out their empty cans. The fines are so paltry that they really have nothing to lose. I say they should have their ATVs forfeited, if caught in blatant disregard for the laws. Last time I complained about some ATV riders playing in the water along the North Fork River, I was told "get used to it, this is the Ozarks" What can you do? There are very few hikers, and a whole lot of ATV riders with a whole industry built up around it. At least there are a few fisherman to speak out.

Wouldn't be a bad way to go, if I was by myself. Wonder if there are any water sensors that can be setup that would sound a siren alert, has anyone ever marketed them? The old stick in the gravel doesn't do much good when you are sound asleep after a day in the sun and a few cold beverages around the campfire.

MO Conservationist Magazine has an article in the latest issue. Not that it tells a lot, just inspiration. http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2010/06/30.htm http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/gallery.php?volume=71&issue=6&article=3

How many of them would take some premium microbrew from your region?

Sounds like paradise for the resident snapping turtles and crawdads.

The "Falls" are probably less than 2 feet high, I'm not sure about that though. http://www.riveroflifefarm.com/canoeing/The_Falls.html There is a "fall" on the Bryant Creek a few miles west of there, and I suppose it might be part of the same geologic line. Too bad about your camera. I was fishing by Parker Hollow this spring, with my new camera and dumped it. Hope you get it to working again, w/o messing it up too bad. Mine now takes milky pictures due to water spots inside the lens and the LCD is also very hard to see. My next camera will be waterproof. This isn't the first with a similar fate.

Is the river already pretty low around the Rockhouse area? I'm not thinking I'm going to make the King's River trip this year.

Been mostly using 3X and 4X leaders and tippets. That's the advice I need right there, only needed to here someone else say it. Part of it is just training my brain and body movements to compensate for another variable while moving along. I'm not really that clumsy... I actually am quite particular about the way I arrange stuff in my boat, I don't want a lot of junk and disorder, and you won't see me going down a river with a couple of rubbermaid storage containers sticking out 12" higher than my gunwales, or a huge barrel size cooler, I have my pet peeves...I keep everything packed lower than the gunwales. I found this guys PVC rod holders, and thought that might be a possibility. http://www.derekspace.net/fishpic19.htm#rod Being as particular as I am, I would have to paint the PVC, because I hate white PVC pipe. Or could some actual Cordura covered rod tubes be used? And does anyone use a rod holder, like a Scotty? http://www.scotty.com/fishing-gear-equipment/rod-holders/clamp-mount.htm

Zack, it’s a TFO Professional 4 pc. Model. I can’t get it to cast any fly like I wish to a reasonable distance….not saying I know how to cast, but I did a lot better with a 9 footer. It seems to really have trouble with the weighted flies, like the crawdads. Don’t ask me what size they are, I don’t really know that much about the sport yet. Hey, I'm here to learn some things, and I try to be humble about my incompetence. I’m going to put a smaller reel with 4 wt line on for the next outing, and see how that does. The huge 5-7 wt. reel I have been using with the 7 ½ footer is a bit ridiculous looking, but I didn’t think it would matter a whole lot, being that I’m so amateurish. I might even try the new 3-4 wt 8’6” rod I just got. I haven’t had a chance to use it, and am a bit afraid to take it in the canoe with my luck…I wanted to have something in reserve for when I go trouting, and I'm realizing that I probably need at least 3 backup rods of some sort.

I might had better add a few details. I've been out in the canoe twice since I took up flyfishing, a few months ago. The first time, I had a 9' 5 wt, and was doing okay with casting. I had to break it down in half so that it wouldn't stick out in front of the canoe. I had a little problem when I was standing outside my canoe digging through my gearbags for a snack...the canoe got swamped...I retrieved everything except the end half of my fly rod. It either would have broken or stayed with me had I been using a shorter rod that fit in the boat. 2nd trip, another 9' 5 wt, sticking out in front of the canoe, well, it didn't last too long. Luckily, I had my 7.5' packed away the second trip, even though I didn't see a single fish, other than a sucker, the entire trip. I do have a 7.5' 5 wt. TFO now and am running 6 wt. line on it in hopes that it might shoot a little more. I might try some better quality line. I'm not sure what good the rod really is, I though it would make a great small creek rod and canoe rod, but I don't know. Might have to just get four identical $50 rods from Cabela's or something, and pack them all along every trip. Warranties are one thing, but they don't do much good when you ruin a rod every trip! Suppose I need to look at rod holder too, but I have a feeling that if I get another 9 footer it won't last long either. I've got too many things going on in the canoe to look after a rod constantly, maybe I'm just not coordinated enough.

I’m interested in another fly rod (new to fly fishing) to take in my canoe. What I want is something that will fit well in the front of my canoe, not suffer greatly from abuse as in taking a little beating, cost less than $150…preferably a lot less, and handle smallies in streams no larger than Current River above Two Rivers. My 5 wt. 7.5 ft isn’t casting to suit me, but I do like the length. Curious what you might suggest?

No, they're back on the water. They were building some in Fort Smith, I should have got in gear and went down to get one at a bargain when they closed shop there. They've moved all operations to Chatanooga. I could be wrong on this.

You might check into a Mohawk Nova 17. Very stable and fairly light. If you could find one other than factory direct.