Stoneroller

I was savagely and viciously attacked at bass pro shops while minding my own business in an area I though was safe! I was looking for some topwater lures so decided to go by bps the other day here in 'the lou' (even though it's really in st charles) So I go inside, walk past the useless bag of skin standing at the turnstyle... I think they call them 'greeters' I rarely see them doing anything but chatting it up with other employees. BPS could probably lower prices if they weren't wasting $ on someone to stand at the front turnstyle and do nothing, but I digress... (cabela's usually has 4 or more idiots at the front, doing nothing) I take my normal path back towards the fishing section, purposefully going through the boating section, past the electronics and back to the back wall, then along the back wall to the aisle I want. I stroll down the rapala aisle checking out a few things, feeling quite safe and sound and that's when it happened.... out of nowhere, lurking around the corner, I was pounced on by one of the most persistent and deadly predators known to mankind. It pounces on me and goes straight for the throat! no emotion in it's eyes, no feeling in it's heart, it knows only one thing, get the sale!!! Enter the 'vacation sales associate!!!' she starts off with the annoying awkward battery of pointless questions geared to make you feel like you and her are best friends, not. Then she quickly rolls into her sales pitch. Which is exactly where I cut her off. I didn't come here to buy a frigging bs vacation to where? branson? are you frigging kidding me? why would I need an itenerary to play putt putt golf, ride go carts and see some washed up has been country singers!!!!!??? PLUS!!!!! i'm waaaaayyyy back in the fishing section, get back over in your vacation sales troll hut by the fish tank and leave me alone! I was finally able to fend her off with a combination of abrasive attitude and snide remarks. "No I didn't ask you to dance... I said you look fat in those pants." My question to those of you in the Branson/Springfield area... Do the BPS vacation sales trolls try to sell you vacations to St Louis???!!!!

kid you not, I see paddlers guides on amazon market place for $100 and more... check it out... I really hope they update the guide with the new accesses, more information about the accesses and accurate information concering the mileage and location of springs along many of the rivers. left is right, right is left sometimes. =)

it's not like conservation agents are ever at the accesses to deter theft. hell, it's pretty much the one place you definately will never see law enforcement... no speeding tickets to hand out in a parking lot. no easy revenue. fighting crime is hard work, requires many donuts.

just a precursory search: average adult male whitetail deer weight: 130-290lbs average adult male elk (not roosevelt subspecies) 710lbs hitting an adult male elk would be like running into rosie o'donnell. game over

on a related note, I heard the Paddler's Guide to Missouri (Misery or Mizura) was being updated and rereleased this spring. Has anyone heard anything on this?

I love them, I just don't like how the rear hook will get hung in the opening between the claws, but I really feel like that opening and the overall design of the craw is what sets it apart from similar lures, most of which are just regular crankbait bodies, painted to 'look' like a craw (fail!). Cabelas make a similar craw crainkbait which I have not tried. This year I picked up some of the Kopper's LiveTarget crayfish cranks to try. so far, nothing, but i've only used it for less than 50 casts, so the jury is still out on it. (btw it's the old style with the flat paint, not the new shiny or translucent ones)

sad thing is they are supposed to be protecting what is here first and foremost, hence the "Conserve" part of Conservation... As other's mentioned, I would much rather see that money and 'my portion' of the public land go towards helping animals and plants that are already here and need help. I can't imagine the nightmare that will occur when a Mt Lion kills and eats one of their precious little elk babies next spring.

i can never slow down enough to fish with soft plastics for long. I use them more frequently when I'm not catching the fish I want to catch by other means. That being said, just about every hardbait presentation has an equal or better soft plastic presentation with a few exceptions. and there are definately a whole slew of things that soft plastics can do that hard baits can't. I love topwater presentations and one thing I've honed in on, if the water clarity is 5 feet or more, big fish will come up from deep, sometimes over 15 feet deep to slam a top water bait. Two keys here, one is water clarity, not really an issue on most ozark streams. The other is the speed of the topwater bait. sometimes you have to give a popper a deep chug and let it sit for 20 seconds or longer, but they will come up from the deep if the water is clear.

oh I though you were gonna say "teach how to wash with soap" =)

The entire elk scam is nothing more than a pet project of someone high up in MDC who wants to be able to shoot elk in missouri. It has zero to do with conservation and everything to do with creating another self justifying situation just like nonnative fisheries. The entire reason the elk are being brought back is simply so a hunting season can be established, it serves no other purpose than that. MDC has readily admitted this fact, one of the reasons I'm so critical of them. Can't take the time to put a 18" minimum on smallmouth, won't bother protecting the mountain lions that are repopulating on their own, it's better to waste taxpayer money to reintroduce a herd animal so people can kill it. you aren't missing it. the stupidity of it all is hitting most everyone right between the eyes. don't they dart the elk to capture them to bring them here? why wasn't this one darted after it got loose? seems like they'd be prepared for this, or maybe they were.

st louis zoo has a copperhead, cottonmouth (water moccasin), and timber rattlesnake on display all the time. They are all great examples of adults and have all of the characteristics typical of their species.

as little rain as we've had you can probably walk around the entire shoreline of the lake. They've had a bit more up around the lake but I really doubt it's a full pool, it rarely is unless its a flood year. I'm partial to catfish charlie dip bait, but frankly I don't think it really matters. I've never put two different dip baits in the water side by side to see which caught more fish. you might want to check with your local grocery stores/fishmonger to see if they have any bad skrimps they are going to throw out.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=07052250 looks like the river is at an 18 year low.

carp are the #1 sportfish in europe, but then again they like techno 'music'.

I want world peace and everyone to live together in harmony... oh sorry, thought this was the wishful thinking thread.

AWESOME news!!! Now if MDC would place Mt Lions back on the state Endagered list, which they should have never been removed from.

$50! that's more than it would cost me in gas to drive down there. These shuttle fees are out of hand. Using YOUR car, and YOUR gas and still charging you half a bill?! insane and greedy imo. sounds like you had a lot of fun though. nothing beats getting out on the water and enjoying nature. except maybe, well that's for a different forum.

also the 'triangle shaped head' thing is one of the worst ways to try to identify a venomous snake. All snakes should be observed from a safe distance, allowed to do their own thing, and left alone, unharrassed by humans.

that is a black rat snake. the blue racer is skinnier and doesn't have the banding. they also look 'blue' in the sunlight.

igloo makes a cooler that fits inside a milk crate perfectly. I will do some brainstorming and see what I can come up with. There are plenty of areas where some kind of product can be developed for kayak anglers. Hell, we may not even know we need it yet!

two of these things go together, one doesn't belong which of these things are friends with another and which one is wrong?

a better option than the coosa scupper plugs are two sets of ocean kayak blue plugs for the foot well and 1 set of the red plugs for under the seat. these scupper plugs still allow plenty of room for water to drain out quickly but will stop your gear or personal items from being washed down the scupper holes.

if people aren't worried about the complete lack of rain this spring, they will be in another month when we are in some really serious trouble. The watershed I frequent is setting daily ALL TIME low flow records that are less than half of the previously recorded low flow. Very concerning as low water not only concentrates the fish, but also concentrates toxins, it warms faster, holds less oxygen, provides less habitat, etc etc.

2. Shenandoah Valley even if the fishing isn't great or it's pouring rain one day, you can visit the civil war sites in the area. if I were going near the great lakes, I'd just hit Erie or St Clair and catch monster smallmouth there.

these pictures showed up on facebook today. they are legit. we can discuss genetic mutations/evolutionary changes if you want, but look at these pictures this way. This is evolution that will likely fail due to the fish being more visible to predators and more likely to be killed before it gets to breeding age. Now if you take this bass and breed it with other bass like this, or even a normal colored bass for that matter. you will get more like it, and some normal ones. keep breeding the colorful ones together and we could eventually be fishing for 'koi' largemouth. someone pointed out that this is known as 'piebald' pigmentation. it's a natural pigmentation variation along the lines of albanism (lack of pigment), melanism (all black pigment), amelanism (lack of black pigment) etc. I've heard the term when people are talking about domestic bred birds and repitles.