Outside Bend

Pretty cool!

You may be able to do smallies in TR proper as well as do a float/river smallie trip on the Kings or the James.

Hayward's a good bet- lots of fishing opportunities in the area, lots of shopping and other activities to keep folks busy, plus it's not too far from MPLS/St. Paul if the girls want the big city experience. Have fun!

Nice to hear Lancer, I sat down tonight with some glue and foam and put a few things together. Basically a knockoff Pole Dancer- may be a little big for most smallies, but still usable- and I'm thinking they should turn out pretty well.

Very nice- I need to start tying.

PM sent.

He has the blog, and apparently a syndicated column in several regional papers- the only one I could find was lakenewsonline.com. Some of his apolitical stuff is pretty decent. The guy has a right to his opinion, and I'm sure there are instances of bad behavior and bad decisions made by MDC employees. But it seems like an awful lot of the arguments he makes against MDC are based on hearsay, WAGs, misinterpreted/faulty information, or bad fact-checking. It's not really Pulitzer-winning stuff.

Sean's stuff was in the mail yesterday, good looking bugs!

I actually had a dream about casting flies to carp last night. Hopefully that's a good omen- I'm set on getting out and trying it this season. Thanks for the report!

I guess I find it tough to draw comparisons between a solitary, secretive, predatory 30 lb otter and an herbivorous, herding, 300lb elk. The only thing they have in common is that they're both reintroduced, and it's irrational and absurd to think elk populations will explode because otter populations did. Sure the elk introduction could go like the ottter introduction, but it could just as well go like the ruffed grouse reintroduction- they peter out after a while due to poor habitat. Or it could go like the prairie chicken reintroduction- they stock a few, they hang out, and nothing really terrible happens. You're just arbitrarily picking the worst-case scenario. And otter reintroduction is a great example of why we voted to make MDC an apolitical organization, one which doesn't need to make decisions based on votes and politics. There's a lot of misinformation out there about otters, and about how much they prey on sportfish.

That's where my mind is, something floaty and something sinky, I'll probably throw some photos up this evening.

No kidding! Last in the door, first with the goods. PM on the way, Sean.

Not really surprised there'd be a lion in one of the most remote parts of the state, especially after the one captured last year near Salem- it'd be cool if they can determine whether or not it's the same one. Not surprised it was eating an elk, either- that is what they tend to do.

I thought I read somewhere that Ozark Fly Fishers was one of the "organized" groups, but I may be mistaken. And I'm sure they included some of the tourny groups as well. Heck, the tourny nglers may have sandbagged their responses in hopes of maintaining a higher creel limi. , which would've skewed the numbers. At any rate, the numbers are what they are, and I doubt they represent a serious attempt by the MDC to discredit MSA- I just don't see the motive.

How dare they! Those scientists, using "math" and "statistics" to draw conclusions. I just wish those folks at MDC could get it through their heads: we want them using numbers and science to manage our fisheries, just not when it conflicts with our worldview. If you guys wanna know how they came up with the numbers- reading the first paragraph is a good start. The "organized angler" creel rates may be a little high, if only because there's a smaller sample pool than anglers-at-large. And I'm sure it was more than MSA members. The "one in ten anglers fishes springs/spring branches," stat seemed a little misleading- it's probably not a huge subset of anglers, many probably live pretty close to the springs, and many probably aren't gung-ho about filling out surveys or letting on how many fish they've creeled. It'd be easy to undersample them in a randomly assigned survey.

I think model trains are boring, and I think dressing in women's clothing is kinda creepy. But some folks enjoy it...theres no harm in it, and who am I to judge someone elses fun? A lot of time and a lot of work go into many of those videos, and while I may not watch each one I appreciate them just as I do a well tied fly or hand -built rod. Its something I have neither the patience nor the eye for.

Let's do sixteen each then- can be the same pattern, can be different, we'll leave it up to the tier

You're in, Sean. If there's no other interest today we'll cap it at nine. Would you guys rather do one fly per participant (8 ties total), or two flies per participant (16 total)?

This sounds like a better idea to me We'll put the kibosh on this one.

Last bump. If you guys still wanna do this, I have no problem tying up 3-4 different flies to share. What do y'all think?

That'd work fine for me- anyone else want in?

That's what I'm leaning towards at the moment, we'll see if we get anyone else in the next day or two and make a decision.

Sure thing.

Bump. Buehler?