Outside Bend

Magnolia Crappie? Apparently they're a sterile hybrid of white and black crappie, they're using them down south to stock small impoundments. The idea is to still have a viable crappie fishery in those smaller ponds, without the population going nuts and stunting. Here's the link: Magnolia Crappie

Check it out: How's My Stream? You can search by zip code or city/state and check out water quality and pollution issues for streams across the country.

True- not all lung cancer/heart problems are attributable to smoking- just as not all cases of VD are attributed to intercourse. It doesn't mean you quit wearing condoms. Fact is smoking contributes significantly to both of those ailments, and it's entirely preventable.

I'm already betting this will be the best post on this thread

Are you saying smoking does or does not contribute to health problems?

You've made a decision, and you're willing to accept responsibility for it- to me that's admirable, and if more folks were willing to do that it wouldn't be an issue. But I think you may be in the minority. I'm not against smoking per se, I believe folks should have the right to make their own decisions. But I also believe they are responsible for those decisions, and others shouldn't have to pay for the choices they made. It doesn't sound like you're doing that, but lots of folks are.

You have a spare set of lungs hanging around?

That's basically all I was saying ness, that it'd be foolish to suggest only one political demographic is taking advantage of these subsidies. Personally, I have mixed feelings about the farm subsidy program. I've met many farmers in this state, self-identified conservatives, who are happy to receive $30,000 or $40,000 a year in farm subsidies. I don't blame them, free money is tough to pass up. But to suggest conservatives don't participate just doesn't hold water. Honestly, I don't know what to do about programs like the farm bill. I don't like the idea of continuing to subsidize commodities like corn and soy, and I don't understand why a guy with thousands of acres to work and the highest prices in years couldn't make it on his own. Then again, I see a lot of value in the associated conservation programs. I know a number of farm families who wouldn't have been able to send their kids to college had their income not been augmented through farm subsidies. Many of those students are nurses, veterinarians, teachers, and they're going back to serve rural communities after graduation- to me that's a pretty substantial benefit. I guess I'm just hopeful there's a happy medium between the status quo and cutting the program entirely.

I don't know how we reconcile that with the fact that the Chairman of the state senate's Republican Caucushas received more than three-quarters of a million dollars in farm subsidies. Couple that with the fact that the counties receiving the most farm subsidies voted overwhelmingly conservative, and it would seem those Conservative Farmers happily stand in line for those subsidy dollars.

That's a pig of a fish, Dylan. Good on you!

Yep- there's a fungus that some think may be contributing to the decline, and lots of folks are worried about sewage/livestock effluent, hormones, antiobiotics, etc. But apparently many hellbenders are being collected from the wild and sold as pets here in the states as well as abroad. You can read a little about it here: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/ah/2007/00000004/00000003/art00002

Pretty much what everyone else has said. There's lots of complicated stonefly nymph patterns out there. I've tried a few on the NFOW, and they don't seem to work dramatically better than Pat's rubberlegs. I can crank 'em out faster than the more complicated ties, and losing a few to rocks and logs doesn't give me much heartburn. I've had lots of success with all black, yellow/brown, and coffee/black. Good luck!

It's pretty neat to think that a decade ago we had no idea how to breed these guys in captivity, and now we're starting to see some pretty consistent results- kudos to the folks with the patience and the resolve to figure it out. I know many of the folks working with hellbenders have been worried about illegal harvest for the pet trade. I wonder if captive breeding will someday be able to alleviate that stress on the wild populations.

Haven't had the chance yet, may make time to throw a few in the farm pond tomorrow after I get tired chasing turkeys

Really did those underwater shots, and it looks as though those fish have really been packing it on with the recent rains we've had. Thanks for sharing!

I was able to find a few ripe ones around Perryville this year, pretty tasty. If you crush the leaves they'll smell like green peppers.

Looks a lot like spicebush to me, but they tend to have bright red berries this time of year. Like a dogwood, but singly as opposed to bunches.

Bumped into a couple as I was walking this afternoon, under some declining red oak trees in a wooded draw. Nice day for a walk

The lower Meramec is a pretty large system. And as with other factors- your 40 years of observtions in spots native range may not translate once they're established in new watersheds. It could well be apples and oranges. I don't. The guy who wrote the book on the state's fishes does, though. It's in Pflieger's Fishes of Missouri. I said a spot can produce 40,000 eggs. I said 10 inch spot will produce more eggs than a 10 inch smallmouth. I never said a 10-inch spot can produce 40,000 eggs. But I don't want to bicker about how many eggs there are in a bass tummy. My point was simply that a lot of spotted bass' life history traits lend itself well to outcompeting smallies. We shouldn't be too surprised, or too dismissive, when we hear folks (MDC included) talking about substantial declines in smallmouth numbers in the lower Meramec. In terms of habitat, probably. But there'll be differences in water quality and nutrient loads, different species and abundance of predators and prey, different parasites, and diseases, etc. As dissected as the Ozark geography is, there's a lot of variability between watersheds- what is the case in one may not be so in the other. I understand the data was collected by watershed, but I don't see anywhere they say endangered/threaten status is determined on a watershed-by-watershed level. If it is, I'd guess that even though some reaches of the lower Meramec are heavily infested with spots, when taken at the scale of the entire watershed the decline may not be enough to generate concern.

But when you add a nonnative predator, it changes the game. Predators like smallies and largemouth are partitioned by habitat- they may be eating the same types of prey, but they're not doing it in the same ecological space. That's not the case with spots, they're habitat requirements overlap so much with the native smallies that they're directly competing for food resources. http://www.dnr.state.../pdf/pub058.pdf And Pflieger says spotted bass eggs are about 1/3 the size of smallies. It doesn't matter whether they're large fish or from lakes- even a 12 inch spot is producing substantially more eggs than a 12 inch smallmouth. True- but larvae and fry are different. Larval spots are translucent, larval smallies are very dark, almost black- making it easier for predators to see them. Spots do tend to grow a bit faster than smallmouths- and again, a little spot can produce as many or more eggs than a big smallie. True- but everything from cane toads to kittycats has shown we can't expect species to behave when they're introduced to a new habitat. It may be that spots fare better in the Meramec drainage than in their native range- different predator and prey suites, fewer disease issues, etc. Can you provide a link or a screenshot? It's a nice day. I'm going to go look for mushrooms now

If the one you're talking about gets about 2-3 feet tall and has nettle-like leaves with square stems, I'm betting it's Beefsteak plant. It's in the mint family, which explains the odor when you crush it. It's edible, apparently non-native, and it's pretty common along streams in the Ozarks. Here's the wikipedia article with a few decent photos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perilla_frutescens

Spots compete with smallmouth for food and other resources. They're more tolerant of warm water and higher turbidity. Juvenile spots grow faster than juvenile smallmouth, and adult spots produce more eggs than smallmouth- a big smallie will produce around 10,000 eggs, a big spot can produce as many as 40,000. Larval spots are tougher for predators to see than larval smallies. And they can hybridize with each other. If spots have the biological advantage in the lower Meramec, it's not surprising they'd out-compete the native smallmouth. If a spot can produce four times the babies as a smallmouth, it makes the idea of four spots for every smallie sound like a pretty logical estimate to me. The threatened/endangered status you're looking at is determined by looking across the entire state, not watershed-by-watershed. Smallmouth are listed as stable because, across their entire statewide range, they're doing pretty alright. My guess is that no-kill smallmouth regs don't address the number of spotted bass in the system, It doesn't matter how many smallies we leave in the river if spots can out-eat and out-spawn them. The overlap in habitat requirements is much greater between spots and smallmouth than it is between spots and largemouth- it's therefore no surprise that LMBs wouldn't be suffering as much as smallmouth due to the spotted bass invasion.

I don't agree with the KKK's message, but if they want to leave a flyer on my car, I'm not going to get worked up about it. I value their right to free speech more than the energy I'll expend picking it up and throwing it in the garbage.

Translation: The sequel is always worse I don't share Romney's vision for what the country needs, but I think he did a better job articulating his position than Obama in last night's debate.

Looks like a fun time, and definitely a good cause- I'm putting it on a calendar. Need anything donated?