Outside Bend

The snow's piling up here, and Flytyer57's, Njardar's, and Cricket's bugs all arrived in the mail today. Thanks guys!

Mine does.

They make waterproof paper.

If a stream can support a quality wild trout population, it ought to be considered for wild trout regulations, regardless of how many miles of stream are already under wild trout regulations. Any number of Missouri streams will support trout long enough for the catch & keep crowd to have their fun, while only a small number of streams have the habitat conditions to support self-sustaining trout populations.

I didn't think there was enough dirt in Ozark county to bury much of anything, much less half a llama carcass. Maybe sedentary mountain lions don't bury llamas, but according to MDC there's no breeding population of lions in the Ozarks. We're talking about migratory mountain lions. Perhaps if two mountain lions were working together they could bury a llama carcass, if they gripped it by the husk...

16 but yeah, same idea. For whatever reason I like the curve better on this one for caddis patterns than the standard scud hook. We'll see how the fish like it.

Jeff- yeah, CDC legs. First time I've tried it, I like the way they turned out. Eric- Mustad C49S

No worries, Zach. Here's a photo of what I've been working on...not as far along as I should be, but they'll be done by the end of the month

Works for me, you'll take Ness' place.

Did we establish which half of the llama was eaten?

Nah. I was figuring if we have extra flies they'll either be donated to Casting for Recovery, or to Phil's flybox.

Yet another victim of methamphetamines in the Ozarks...

They may be able to tell where the animals come by looking at the chemistry of the animal's teeth, bones, hair, etc. They frequently do it with poached animals, and with critters they find on the black market.

Excellent fish!

I'm not sure a bear could or would take down a llama. From my experience llamas can be pretty ornery critters, and I would imagine there's plenty of other, easier to acquire food sources around for bears to take advantage of.

A mountain lion doesn't have to be tan, and if the state did have a very small resident population, it's possible inbreeding effects could play with the coloration quite a bit. Not saying it's definitely a lion, but it's certainly possible.

As long as we're dealing in hypotheticals, what if he'd just wounded the cat with his .22 caliber rifle? A wounded animal is far more dangerous, and one could argue he was risking his lives and property more by shooting it with an underpowered weapon than by leaving it alone. Far and away one of the better posts on these related threads, Trout Commander. I was curious if the guy reported the cattle killings which he said occurred months ago, and whether they had been investigated as lion kills or if it was just a hunch... It's probably a moot point though, I really doubt MDC is going to do too much investigating of this one.

Cool bugs, I think the unidentified one is either a hellgrammite or an alderfly larvae.

God's just mad Oprah got her own cable TV station.

That's sort of what I'm thinking. Dogs frequently kill livestock, and kill many more people each year than mountain lions. I'm not sure that gives me license to kill every dog I see under the guise of protecting myself and my property. Same with deer- they cost farmers plenty, and have been known to attack folks. That doesn't mean I get to shoot every deer I see on sight. There's no evidence the animal was threatening people or livestock, and if it was, there are better ways of dealing with it (call the agent, at least that way it's on the up-and-up.) This guy instead chose to kill a protected species- that's a crime, and IMO he ought to be treated like any other poacher.

I figure they at least ought to pay the market price for their trophy...there are folks out west spending 5-7K for a mountain lion hunt. That's a good place to start. Couple that with revocation of hunting privileges for a few years, taking game out of season and all, and I think that'd be a start.

It's all the rage in Europe.

At one point I wanted to be cremated and made into fireworks for the enjoyment of my friends and family. I think I've matured, though. Now I just want a coffee-can, Donny style.

You buy into a provably misleading article by a disreputable source, and yet everyone else is drinking the Kool-Aid?

My favorite was #5: I'm sure, being the bastions of journalism they are, the folks at FOX News simply forgot that anti pollution legislation like the Clean Air act would render such predictions inaccurate. They want you to take the bait, without stopping to think that a statement like that says more about the ignorance (perhaps malfeasance is a better word) of the folks at FOX News than of the scientists they're trying to portray as inept. FOX relies on people not being able to think for themselves. That's their bread and butter. This article is a prime eample.