Stoneroller

catfish are already included. redear would be a bonus catagory, bragging rights kind of thing. with no 'entry fee' all wagers will be side bets. i'd like to see everyone jump in a pool for biggest 3 (or 4) fish and have pools for big fish in each catagory of fish, but that will be up to the participants. Trying to keep this as cheap/free as possible, but wagering is always encouraged. we'll have to come up with an acceptable amount and some way to get into all the pools and/or just the ones someone may want to compete in. again, i'm not interested in making money, i just want to have some kind of event where people can get together and fish, if the participants wish to compete for money, ok i'm game, but i would like it to be something within reach of anyone who wants to show up and/or compete. Do not feel like you have to pay to play if you want to just come for bragging rights. there is no monetary requirement other than your own transportation/lodging/food/air evacs, etc. so to clarify, there will be the following catagories: Black bass (smallmouth, spotted, largemouth) Temperate bass (striper, white, hybrid) Catfish (channel, white, blue, flathead) and some kind of 'bonus' catagory. for example crappie, redear, chain pickerel, drum, walleye etc in the river roundups it'll be biggest black bass and biggest stringer of spots (which we intend on keeping to thin the numbers to help the smallies) state and/or local regulations will determine any size or slot limits and bag limits for all events. it is a CPR series, but if people want to keep fish, that's their choice. I would strongly encourage everyone to release any trophy size fish after photographing/videoing it, but again, that's only a recommendation. you will be able to submit a picture of 1 fish in each catagory. it would be possible for one person to win overall, and big fish in each catagory. this way there are 5 ways to 'win'. what you win is still up in the air, but at least we'll be fishing.

I've confirmed with MDC that no permit is needed as far as they are concerned for any kind of tournament or rodeo or whatever. They did point out we'd have to follow the wildlife code and whatever local restrictions there are for limits. which is pretty obvious. so looks like it's a go, just need to pick some dates now. i'm kind of waiting to see what jdmidwest says about duck creek. (i heard crappie are good down there right now) i might have word on some kind of 'sponsorship' for this thing after a meeting tomorrow, but i'll let everyone know if it materializes. We'll obviously have to do the spotted bass roundups during the black bass season, but no reason we can't fish the lakes in the meantime. I'd like to fish the lakes early and late in the season and the rivers during the peak of the summer activity on the lakes to avoid any issues with class 5 offshore speedboats and the like. still open for suggestions of lakes as it looks like we have the rivers pretty locked... oh and i'm kicking around the idea of having some kind of 'special' fish allowance depending on what body of water we are fishing. for example you will be able to submitt 1 fish in each of the following catagories at all the events: Black bass, Temperate bass (white/striper/hybrid), and catfish. for a little extra interest we could have say bowfin be the 'special' fish at duck creek, redear sunfish at council bluff, drum at LOZ, etc not only will it give us extra fish porn to look at, it could help to open up fishing opportunities depending on what's biting at the time and how lucky someone gets. input?

Reintroduce free range Bison!!!

another reason not to drink to excess, faster on the draw! pew, pew!

correct it's called the Constitution of the United States of America. not money grabbing, greedy state of missery 'permit' which is funny because most people in missouri who have a ccw permit, have one a non resident permit from another state. proof that the permitting procedure is a failure, at least from a revenue generating perspective. firearms ownership and possession is a given right. sure it can be taken away, but it's not something you should have to 'gain' at some point, it's already there, in the Constitution. Sad that our 'leaders' have whittled away at it to the point of making the law abiding gun owner the "criminal".

that's because the data that tim provided was not on BIRTH ratios. it's on survival and mortality rates of adults. If you actually read the article you'd know that. i'm not able to cofirm a million to one female to male ratio on social insects. looks like the reality is something closer to 3:1 because the colony doesn't really live that long and almost all males are produced when the colony begins to fail and start to swarm. my brain hurts from skimming these research papers, nobody just comes right out and lays out the ratios in black and white, hence why i'm not a geneticist or population biologist. clearly it's me and only me who sees some anamolies in the way MDC falls all over themselves to assure everyone that not only are there no confirmed breeding populations but if any did show up, it wasn't MDC who put them there. Maybe it's whomever puts out these press releases or whomever is responsible for the wording of the information just not getting the wording right, but it does seem odd. that's all i'm saying. hell back in oct? when someone posted "mt lion" tracks on the meremac, I was the one who pointed out that it was highly doubtful that the tracks were a mt lion's and further highly doubted there were many, if any mt lions in that area of the meremac river. a few months later one is caught on a game camera on the outskirts of the st louis population area. <Slaps forehead with hand> every day is a learning experience. on the bees/wasps/hornets/ants being females some trivia for you... the stinger of a bee/ant/wasp/etc is actually the modified egg depositor of a female. called the ovipositor on a breeding insect. you can sex grasshoppers and crickets this way. the ones with the long "tails" are females. they stick that tail in the ground and lay eggs through it. bees sting you with theirs instead. bugs are weird.

never needed a gov't agency or entity to write me a piece of paper to tell me it's ok to excercise my constitutional rights.

so chief, are you saying you weren't aware that a colony of ants, bees, wasps, hornets are made up of all females except during swarming times when males are produced? and if your own logic doesn't hold up in the real world, then why do you keep trying to push it?

so if we use your 'logic' chief, of those 15 confirmed sightings 25% must have been female (that we know of). and although some species of animals are polygamist, it's actually quite rare for it to work out that way. The most numerous and largest biomass of creatures on earth actually produce a million to one ratio of females to males. social insects are tricky that way. but for most mammals, sex ratios at birth are closer to 1:1, which has nothing to do with the mating system of the species.

ok, lets take a moment for some background in wildlife population genetics. Overall, wildlife populations typically reproduce at a 1:1 male:female ratio. For MDC to make the assumption that all these sightings are young males wandering around "looking for territory" is pretty shortsighted on their part. And no Chief, it's not bashing, it's the facts. I'm not sure who their population biologist is, but epic fail on that individual's part. Think about young male humans. Clearly they always hang out where no females can be found. teenage boys are into all kinds of stuff, but girls are never one of them... do the math, it's not a difficult concept to understand. Males aren't going to wander into an area with no females, it's conterproductive to reproduction. All a male of breeding age thinks about is food, sleep, females. (not neccessarily in that order)

http://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/mdc-confirms-mountain-lion-sighting-oregon-county WEST PLAINS – A tuft of hair left on a fence in Oregon County March 9 definitely belongs to a mountain lion, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). MDC Resource Scientist Jeff Beringer today released results of a DNA test on hair taken from a fence along Highway M, near the community of Rover. Beringer said Conservation Agent Jerry Elliott retrieved the hair after receiving a report form an area resident who saw the cougar run across the road. The man told Elliott that a full-grown mountain lion ran across the road in front of him and got its hind leg caught as it attempted to jump a fence on the opposite side of the road. He said the animal struggled briefly before it escaped, leaving a tuft of hair the size of a cotton ball in the top strand of the barbwire fence. When he arrived at the scene, Elliott placed the hair in an evidence bag. Subsequent testing at the University of Missouri positively identified the hair as coming from a mountain lion, Puma concolor. Beringer said the University’s laboratory does not have adequate reference material to evaluate the cat’s possible relationship to mountain lions from different geographic areas. “We want to find out as much as possible about where the animal might have come from,” said Beringer, “so we will send the remaining hair sample to a genetics lab in Montana to determine the cat’s likely origin.” Beringer said that testing could take several weeks to months. This is the sixth verified mountain lion sighting in Missouri since late November and the 16th in modern times. In cases where carcasses have been available for examination, most have been young males. Young male mountain lions go in search of new territories when they mature. Beringer said MDC has no evidence to suggest that a breeding population of mountain lions exists in Missouri. Mountain lions, also called cougars, panthers and pumas, were present in Missouri before pioneer settlement. The last documented Missouri mountain lion was killed in the Bootheel in 1927. The closest populations of mountain lions to Missouri are in South Dakota and a small population in northwest Nebraska. Beringer said that MDC has never stocked or released mountain lions in Missouri and has no plans to do so. To report a sighting, physical evidence or other mountain-lion incident, contact a local MDC office or conservation agent, or email the Mountain Lion Response Team at mountain.lion@mdc.mo.gov. There have been no confirmed cases in Missouri of mountain lions attacking people, pets or livestock in modern times. For more information on mountain lions in Missouri, visit www.MissouriConservation.org and search “mountain lion.” -Jim Low-

you get what you pay for. i've seen multiple complaints about the rigidity of the plastic used on the ascends. warm weather, esepcially sunlight, plus being strapped to the top of a vehicle tends to cause the hull to dent and the dent can become permanent causing big stability/handling problems. i'm not saying rush out and buy a hobie, but there is a reason the majority of the 'popular' name brands are around $800-1000 for their 10-13 foot fishing kayaks. you get what you pay for. personally for strictly river fishing i'd go for the coosa, but for all around fishing in both rivers and lakes i like the moken by feel free.

check austinkayak you can view many of the popular models there. The Pungo is made by wilderness systems and is probably close to what you might be interested in.

here's the issue you'll have. you are legal to camp up to the high water mark anywhere. but that means you have to camp in the flood zone. so keep a very, very close eye on weather, and take a weather radio! if you have a cell phone app for weather, that might help, but don't count on getting a signal. a wind up emergency radio is what we usually take, no worries about dead batteries then. you'll have to pick a good time to float the upper part. if the water is too high you won't have any places to camp. if it's too low you'll be doing a lot of walking/dragging, but thats usually not till june or so from what i've seen. have fun, take pictures and make sure you give some responsible people your travel plans and check in at certain times. also be careful of the occasional bear, dont leave food lying around or right next to your tent. unlikely you'll see one or even have an issue if you do, but better safe than sorry.

lol we were there and some woman, who obviously didn't have very good reading skills looks at the tag on a tank and says, "LOOK! it's a BANDAID PIPERFISH!" the tag read "Banded Pipefish" =)

we went there last year in the middle of the summer, amazing place! the mt streams were trout heaven! tellico river is the most beautiful trout water i've ever seen. kicked myself HARD for not bringing my gear, but from what the guys at the local fly shop were saying it's all very highly regulated and in season only a certain number of permits are issued each day and they aren't cheap. I've been wanting to go back ever since we left. Ripley's aquarium is awesome, loved it. after we left gatlinburg we went to chattanooga and the aquarium there, which is awesome too.

mine's coming with a 5.56mm minigun on the front, just in case...

i guess Libya should start making baits so people won't forget that they are begging for our help while be slaughtered by a maniac. I guess it's all about perspective.

wonder why...

don't let your so called friends and all those annoying relatives ruin your may fishing! they'll be drunk, just have someone drop your gift off and insist you were there.

we probably won't 'live' through another quake if it's as big as what hit japan.

you've, ah, got a little something brown on your nose there, smallie...

if you find yourself fishing with worms, stop by walgreens and by a deworming kit. don't need those nasty buggers crawling around in your colon.

wait, some people are saying this is not a public forum, yet one of the reasons i've seen for threads being shut down is because this is a 'public forum' so which is it? I wandered in here on my own, registered without being invited, was granted access with no special procedure required beforehand. seems pretty public to me. a private forum would be one in which you could only be invited.