Devan S.

This right here. https://mdc.mo.gov/contact-engage/public-comment-opportunities/landowner-permit-changes From the link above: "As an example, when it comes to deer and turkey, a 5-acre threshold is not a meaningful acreage requirement and does not reflect their habitat needs. Essentially, a healthy deer density in Missouri equates to about 1 deer for every 20-25 acres. In 2018, there were over 180,000 unique landowners that were issued no-cost landowner deer and/or turkey permits. The Department performs an annual qualification check of a random subset of individuals receiving no-cost landowner permits. During our 2018 check, 34% of individuals directly contacted were found to not qualify for no-cost landowner deer permits. The most frequent reasons individuals did not qualify included claiming to possess 5 acres or more when in fact they did not (i.e., fraud) or individuals who obtained the no-cost landowner permits when they were no longer a household member of a landowner (i.e., not eligible)." Moving it to 20 acres makes sense just like you said it takes 20 acres to sustain wildlife. Adding a registry(this should already be in existence due to tax records) means those that are miss-using them and don't have 20 acres wont get the tag anyways.

I find it ironic that with the number of people pushing back against GMO corn, ect. that were now looking at lab grown meat. Now I don't know much about lab grown meat and the process involved but it doesn't seem to be a huge jump to link the 2 very closely.

Most analog speedometers don't have enough resolution(in the face of the gauge) to be accurate to 1 mph let alone .1 mph. Sure the speedometer itself is going to repeat within a tolerance but your actual resolution you can read is likely far less than that tolerance. I don't disagree with you though in 99.999% of situations either/or is more than enough and most of the time neither is needed. For me, it came down to the keeping junk out of the pitot tube vs. turning the GPS speed display on my graph on(the graph is there and already on).

Pitot tubes in and of themselves are instantaneous. The real loss in accuracy comes into how they translate the actual pressure change. GPS actually have an incredibly small delay(that most would never notice) and accuracy can be effected by the number of satellites available to ping. Regardless I have had far less troubles with GPS than I ever had with the analog speedometer and frankly the delay on GPS is so small most people that aren't flying commercial or military aircraft will never know the difference.

Agreed. There's more available public ground than we give credit for. I think access certainly plays a factor but I don't think its as large of a factor as we perceive it to be when we do have a good amount of public land available when talking in the broad sense of hunting and not a specific game animal. All other outdoor activities are growing and they are largely tied to access as well. Fishing, camping, animal watching, hiking, floating all continue to grow and not just grow with the younger group but by all user groups. I don't want to diverge too far but the ultimate goal of hunting is the taking of the life of a wild animal. I could certainly see why someone that wasn't introduced at a young age during their formative years would prefer to migrate toward the other activities opposed to actually hunting. We were taught at a young age likely by our family without preconceived notions of what the public image perceives as right and wrong. Fast forward to trying to learn about hunting when you already have those preconceived notions developed by society that prefers to push realities of consuming meat into the back of their mind and suddenly those other outdoor activities look much more appealing.

To a point, as a country the population centers provide better jobs and opportunities to earn a living for the working class America. Thus working adults with younger kids move to these areas to better provide for their families. I don't know of many kids even in the small SWMO towns that can get outdoors and enjoy much more than a back yard on their own until they are really able to drive. These kids are forced(more or less) to be a product of their environment which are things like school sponsored events, YMCA, local pools, parks, and/or the virtual world. Times have changed. I grew up in rural America and had the same situation; at 13 I was driving dad's truck down the dirt road to neighbors farms to hunt or across the pasture to the pond. That's something that the overwhelming majority of kids don't have the opportunity to do. During my formative years it wasn't about shooting monster bucks, catching huge bass, beard draggers, or limits of fish. It was about going out with my friends or dad and fishing small farm ponds for bluegill, shooting bull frogs, swimming in the creek or pond. It was about the memories and experiences not the trophy. Now if your an adult you either have someone introduce you and teach you the ropes(but your an adult now and everyone is busy) or you learn from what you see on TV. The problem is the TV isn't realistic to the average person. They push an all in lifestyle that costs a ton of money for just the gear without even considering access. Then even when you have access or are afforded access the reality is that not everyone is shooting 160+ class bucks but the TV, which you learned/introduced from, is pushing that narrative time and time again.

You're exactly right owning 5 vs. 500 makes you the same in MDC's eyes but you're smart enough to know the 2 aren't equal in the actual grand scheme. You want to use that argument then MDC gets money from the state, feds, and conservation sales tax. Based on that alone, there should be no "costs" to hunt or fish. Since your awash with deer you should lease out your property for hunting and make some extra $$$. See how long before they are gone.

Frankly I'm appalled that it was ever approved that someone with only 5 acres could hunt on a landowner system. Most of the people I know with 5 acres of pristine yard aren't filling their landowner tags on their 5 acres. It's a joke that only encourages the gaming of the system. In fact, I'm a firm believer that there should be a registry maintained to receive landowner tags and it should require more than 20 acres.

Awesome time. Love those big bream.

I double a lot of the suggestions of troutringer. A thicker or more insulated pad is always a plus. I ended up with the Klymit Static V insulated and have no complaints. I use a Teton Tracker +5F bag. This combo has allowed me to be very comfortable into the low teens. The only problem is with mummy bags if your not use too them they are awkward. I have a small camp set of pots and pans that nest together that you can get at almost any outdoor store and they work for me along with an MSR pocket rocket. Once again I'm likely only boiling water or warming soup. I carry a 4 person tent for me and my wife because the room is nice to have. I found when buying my gear the big rage was trimming lbs/ounces and while that's great it's a great way to add hundreds of $ to gear. At the end of the day, I was never intending to through hike the App. trail and I'm 230lbs so I could cut more weight off my body than I ever could by spending hundreds more. My pack fully loaded is 50-60lbs. and I have no problem hiking 10-15 miles per day over multiple days at that weight. Since your floating, you're going to be in a similar situation from the standpoint of a couple lbs here or there shouldn't be a game changer provided your under whatever your weight limit is.

Yep I got turned around....meant half not double.

As I understand combined the dam/aux. spillway at TRL have the capacity to dump 1 million cfs. While I am not privy to the actual calculations involved, I would almost wager anything Bull Shoals could not accept a sustained 1 million(let alone 500,000 cfs dump from Table Rock). They might be able to pass that amount of water but that's assuming no other direct watershed inflows. The problem is there is always additional inflows since these activities don't happen in times of drought. At that point you'll have prevented the failure of the structure itself but you still have effectively flooded everything downstream. We are talking an amount of water equivalent to the Mississippi River here at 500k-1 Million cfs. I don't think there is a lake in Missouri that could sustain that kind of volume of water for any period. They probably realistically designed the dams to pass through volume on something like a 500 year flood rating not on a catastrophic upstream failure since the probability of an uncontrolled failure is so low. Anything can and will fail, the goal is generally to prevent the failure up until the point it happens and then when it does, fail in the safest(least impact) manner possible. Which is exactly why every dam in the entire country goes through planning for this kind of stuff. No need for me to go to a meeting. Too much politics at play with people concerned about their business and homes....I want to sit down with the engineers, have them show me calculations, go over modeling software, run through capacities, how things work, let me twist the knob and work the levers, and then they can pay me a salary for my 50 hrs a week.

The dam failure causing another is an interesting proposition. In my opinion, you wouldn't see a failure like we all like to think about. The 70 foot wall of water would only be seen directly below the dam and even then it would have to be a result of almost the entire dam being gone in an instant. Likewise you have to have the narrow channelized features to keep up the wall of water as the water proceeds downstream it spreads out so the biggest wall would almost certainly be seen only at the dam since it would probably be the smallest available channel and get progressively smaller downstream as it proceeds. Could it happen? Sure. Is it likely to happen? Probably not. A far more likely event would be something like a serious hole or leak in the earthen structure is found. In order to "save" the dam, they begin huge releases in an effort to reduce pressure/flow. By huge I mean magnitudes much larger than 70,000 cfs. At that point, it would basically be a calculated risk that even a dam with all the gates wide open would be a more controlled/controllable than a run away washout that grows in size with no way to stop. You also hope that the "leak" is higher than the bottoms of the gate so serious repairs could happen. I am not sure how they could reasonably lower the water below the gates level without a significant amount of time to pass the water though non-stop generation or other means. At that point, the real risk mitigation begins, does LOZ become a real flood control lake and begin trying to hold back some volume of water at the expensive of flooding houses? Does it pass the water through into the Mo river and further inundate areas downstream? What real level of release would be needed to get the drop they are wanting in the time frame they need? Is 200,000 cfs enough(that's basically doubling the flow of the MO at St. Charles at this point) or would it require more? What is the maximum they can release? How does everything up stream and down stream (Mo river flooding, Miss. River flooding, Ark river flooding) calculate into their risk management criteria?

Generally I'm using drop shot rig for the deeper fishing. I put a snap on the end of my line in case I want to add or subtract weight purely a feel thing. Sometimes I'll run double rigs with a hook up 12" and then another maybe 16-20". I find their kind of like kentucky's in that if you can get one fired up and hooked usually I can get another fired up enough to try and steal the one above him. The only problem is that ends up in lots of hooks and fish flopping around. Mocarp is right crickets/bugs are killer.....but I find using worms and baitholder hooks better for me. Less stolen bait from smaller fish. I just haven't found a good way to keep a cricket stuck on the way a worm does when threaded on a hook. Usually if the bite is good I can go through a few fish before needing to re-bait.

Dan these are the exact places I am looking(often how I came about them it) seems the point congregates them just a bit more than scanning the whole flat. A good spot is the long run out of the tip of Viney creek park. A worm on a small drop shot and you never know what your gonna catch(walleye, gills, bass). I think Bo may be onto something because the ones I caught were shallower than I expected so that may have just not moved out yet. Looking back at pictures on my phone I have them from Memorial day to the 3rd week of June so I may just be a bit early. I bet it wont be long and Bill will put up a post where he says there are just harassing the heck out of him and clients and that'll be when its on.

I know they can be caught on the bluff and lay downs but I always have to end up wading through tons on small fish to get the big ones. Great for catching bait for cats but I want big eater sized fish. I've got a handful of spots that out on the point/run out a couple guys can catch a load of them if the timings right.....but its just not right.

Fished between 10' and as deep as 30'. Fished timbered points with rocks and the normal pea gravel run outs with nothing. Both the fish we did catch came in probably 15-18' We spent most of our time in 20'+ of water. Did catch 2 15" walleye. Probably my favorite was of fishing since the worms and drop shot you never know what you'll catch.

Spent Saturday morning searching for the big Gills out on the points between Eagle Rock and Shell Knob. Hit 2 of my most productive spots and only ended up with 2. Didn't really even graph any. I think I was a touch early. WT was in the upper to mid 70's and boat traffic was pretty calm. Off the water by 10:45.

Well trip went well overall. We fished easily accessible spots between Leadville and Twin Lakes on the Arkansas as well as the outflow of Twin Lakes. I think we managed to scrounge up a rainbow and brown in this area. We tried to fish the blue river but were just overwhelmed with the faster shallow water so didn't really put much effort into it. Fished Glacier Creek in RMNP and caught a bunch of brooks, browns, and cutthroats. Probably had our best luck here and fished it a lot harder than everything else. Best lure by far was a San Juan worm with a jig head weight to get it down. All the jigs I have I feel were really too large for the speed/depth of the water we were fishing. The fish out there are small but gorgeous and the scenery just adds too it.

Great report Bill..Have you been finding the big gills out on the points yet? Thinking about getting out this weekend and trying to catch a bunch.

Everything I saw said 1500 tons of fertilizer which is like 3 million lbs.....an insane amount but when you consider the river at Muskogee is running nearly 400,000 CFS it gets moved through pretty quickly and diluted. The Arkansas is running 400k, Mo @ St. Charles is nearing 400k.......were talking a ton of water moving downstream. We're darn lucky in the white river basin that most of this water is just missing us.

Yep...after the Joplin tornado there was significant studies done to understand why the Joplin tornado was so deadly. A significant number of people that took part in the interviews all basically said "every time we turn around the sirens are sounding" and "nothing happens when they do sound them so we just carry on instead of take cover" I realize the weather guys/gals need to error on the side of caution but its getting to the point that if the wind blows over 50 mph and there's a remote possibility of a tornado they are screaming for everyone to duck and hide.

For all these guys that are only into fishing tournaments for competition and its not about the money. Someone really should start an invitation only tournament, they pay a $100 fee to enter. That will pay for their ride along marshal and their calibrated scale. Since there will be zero payout, there shouldn't be any cheating and since its invitation only if a cheater is found then they can just ban him/her from future competition. You can beat your chest at the end, hoot, and howl, whatever you want when we announce you're the winner but you get no money or trophy. (We could make a stringer of replica bass you can take a picture with the fee structure) After 3 or 4 tournaments we can start rankings and kick the marshals to the curb and were gonna pair you up mono-y-mono. The higher ranked angler gets the back of the boat and the lower ranked angler gets the front and makes all the choices on where to fish. Since its all about competition and fishing, this format should grow rapidly on TRL, we can expand to other lakes and create divisions to further find the real best of the best. We're gonna need qualified tournament directors for each lake. Primary responsibility is to blow all the entry fees since this is going to be so popular(think high end calculators to add up the weights, ect). We can take all the proceeds from fees and the true best fisherman from all the divisions we could pay their entry fees for something like BASS or FLW for a year so that they can begin to really play with the big boys. Assuming of course that the big boys don't flood our format because its all about the competition. Since I've had the idea, I think its only fair that I get 50% of the entry fees right off the top.

your just putting your weight a couple feet ahead of the bait almost like running a bottom bouncer for eyes? How would those rods hold up to say a 5+ lb walleye if a guy was to hook one?

5 gallon buckets are the cheap method but cumbersome to store. I think I bought mine at cabelas back years ago they are big and yellow. They don't get used often so I wasn't overly concerned with buying super high rated bags. Basically one rope tied to the front cleat off the front of the bag and one tied to the back of the bag and to the back cleat on the boat(you'll want the back rope to dump them). I try to keep mine positioned in the front half of my boat so they are out of the way when landing fish. 2 bags slows my boat to less than .5mph at idle. They will pull you around a bit but they also stabilize the boat a bunch too. The only problem I've ever had was I had a big wake boat run by close and the bags helped to pull the front end down into the next wave vs. just bouncing. Hindsight and knowing what I know now I would have jumped up and dumped them really quick. I still prefer the trolling motor since you don't have to man the helm but like I said it has saved me several times.