Danoinark

Sandy said the main problem was the traffic because power was out. It took her well over an hour to get from the strip to home in Harrison..Dano

My wife is one of the managers at Walmart on the strip and saw the funnel cloud in the air, not touching down. She was at the front door trying to get people back in the store....Dano

http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../603110301/1002 Dano

I agree with Tim..alcohol burner will work, and maybe just a regular lighter. I have pulled them after heating them in boiling water too. As to the guide on the rod...scaping is ok, don't get too deep as to cut the graphite or whatever the blank is made. For a temporary guide fix, I suspect sewing thread would work, I have never tried it, always used rod building thread. Dan

Steve soon as we get that water temp a bit higher them smallies are going to be hungry....Dano

Amazing!

Phil How is C of O doing? Dano

Yep, count me in...Dano

Leo...Your Dad did good! Dano

On fishing a dropper rig. I would use as small a dry as I could get away with, but without causing the point fly (nympth, scud, worm, etc) from pulling the dry fly under. I attach the length (depending on depth) of tippet material to the dry fly at the hook bend by a clinch knot. I would think the only time you couldn't use it is in single fly only areas. It's always worthy of a try...Dano

Ain't it da truf!!!!

Thanks for the kind words JoRob, but you are a heck of a caster, and much better than I will probably ever be. The only thing I did was maybe show you where 10 oclock and 2 oclock were...you lay out good line and you did it yourself. That has always been my story, show somebody something and they show me up .. But the neat thing is JoRob has introduced his son to the sport, so the circle isn't broken. Isn't that the way it's supposed to be? Dano

Phil This may be what you are talking about...it appeared in the Little Rock paper a couple days ago.''Dano Didymo algae seen as a growing concern for anglers, river lovers BY ROBERT J. SMITH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE The high, rocky cliffs near Bob Britzke’s house on the White River are picturesque, but an ugly, invasive algae is beginning to gunk up the Northwest Arkansas trout-fishing area just steps from his back porch. By April, Britzke predicts the algae commonly referred to as "didymo" and "rock snot" will blanket the bottom of the river downstream from Beaver Lake Dam. The algae look like wet toilet paper, and it’s spreading in the three-mile stretch of the river between the U.S. 62 bridge and the Parker Bend fishing area. "This is not a major outbreak yet, but it’s a symptom of what’s to come," said Britzke, a board member of an Arkansas chapter of Trout Unlimited. "It’s a nuisance. It interferes with fishing, and it looks horrible." Nationwide, and in Canada and New Zealand, didymo is the bane of fishermen and biologists who haven’t figured out exactly how to curtail its growth. Once limited to Western states such as Colorado, Washington and Idaho, it’s now found in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee in the chilly tail waters that flow behind Army Corps of Engineers dams. Predicting didymo’s spread, the potential damage to bottomdwelling invertebrates and its impact on some of the nation’s best trout fisheries has been elusive, experts said. "It started expanding in Colorado 10 years ago, and it’s at the point where I’m waving my arms and trying to attract attention to it," said Sarah Spaulding, a freshwater ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. "It seems to be showing up in warmer waters and in higher nutrient-concentration waters. "It used to be water with low nitrogen, low phosphorus and cool temperature waters, but that’s not the case anymore." The proper name for the alga is Didymospenia geminata, and last summer it clogged a section of the White River area downstream from Bull Shoals Dam in north-central Arkansas. Didymo, however, arrived in Arkansas a few years earlier, but it didn’t draw much public attention. 1 Britzke, who’s owned his 4 /2 acres on the White River since 1992, said he recognized didymo in the Beaver Lake Dam tailwaters in April 2003. "Clumps the size of basketballs" were in the river, he said. "Nobody knew what it was," Britzke said. Spaulding said didymo was once a rare, beautiful diatom with range limited to pristine lakes and streams in northern areas of the United States and Canada. It’s no longer rare. The cells attach to rocks on the bottom of streams and grow white or light brown stalks that trap sediment. The algae thrive in direct sunlight in streams with depths of 3 inches to 6 feet, Spaulding said. Low flow conditions caused by drought help it grow into large mats that cover stream bottoms, she said. A retired Missouri State University biologist believed what he was seeing in 2003 near the Beaver Lake Dam was didymo, but it was the didymo outbreak behind the Bull Shoals Dam that caused the first public stir about the unfamiliar algae. People first reported what they thought was toilet paper clinging to low-hanging tree branches near the White River, said Darrell Bowman, state trout biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Many theorized that the small sewer plant that serves the city of Bull Shoals had overflowed, putting the toilet paper in the river. That wasn’t the case. Instead, when the Southwest Power Administration began generating hydroelectric power through the Bull Shoals Dam, the water that was pushed through raised the river’s level. The higher water deposited the algae on the low-hanging branches, and the algae remained when the water receded. When the river’s flow slowed later in the summer, biologists and fishermen found a thick layer of didymo covering the rocky river bottom. Erica Shelby, a water-use and resource specialist for the state Department of Environmental Quality, began to study it. At first the state wasn’t sure what it was. A draft version of Shelby’s report on the algae’s appearance at the Bull Shoals Dam was completed in February. She confirmed what didymo researchers in New Zealand, Missouri, Tennessee and many western states had already confirmed. Didymo was spreading further in Arkansas. "It is important for us to understand and determine the effects of [didymo] on Arkansas trout-supported streams," Shelby said. HARM TO TROUT Water-quality experts and biologists aren’t sure whether didymo will harm trout, but that’s one of the main fears. Its growth on the White River bottom and in other streams could smother small invertebrates that trout eat. In the long term, fewer invertebrates could mean fewer trout or trout that don’t grow as large, Bowman said. The White River section below the Bull Shoals Dam is one of the world’s best trophy brown trout fisheries. The section of the White River near Bull Shoals Dam that’s impacted by didymo stretched 13 miles last year, according to Shelby’s report. What its presence in the river means is uncertain, Bowman said. "As far as the trout fishery, the take-home message is we don’t know," Bowman said. "We’re in the process of trying to get all the information from New Zealand and other places. "You see a range of things. In New Zealand, it’s caused the crash of at least two trout fisheries. But my counterparts in Tennessee say didymo got in there a few years ago, and the brown trout flourished." Shelby said there’s "early colonizing" of didymo in the Little Red River below Greers Ferry Lake. Officials from across the nation plan to meet in May at Bozeman, Mont., to discuss doing more extensive research on didymo and developing a response to its spread, Spaulding said. Spaulding and others think didymo is spread by trout fishermen who wade into the river, get didymo on their hipwaders and then fish at a different stream without using a 10 percent bleach solution to rinse their gear. "We think it’s spread by fishermen and that has something to do with the spread, but it doesn’t explain why it wasn’t spreading 20 years ago," Spaulding said. "It’s not that they have such different fishing patterns now. "Didymo needs to get attention to work toward solutions."

Phil, I think I sent you an email the other day about a one fly again...I think with all the interest you have generated with the forum you might be surprised next time.. and the FOOD is GREAT.... Dano

I think there is room for everyone. I believe this thread was actually dealing with safety..and its just imperative that each and everyone of us be mindful of first our own safety then the safety of your fellow angler. I know as a wader I will give the boat a wide berth, and I hope the boater will do the same for me. And as we pass each other a wave of greeting...Dano

Where was your clinic Brian..for some reason I thought it was RR....Dano

Good luck Joe...as to colors, I always have luck with olives, tans, grays, blacks...all of these shades in the scuds and midges... soft hackles in black, red and olive San Juan worms in, red, orange and worm color eggs in Pink woolies in olive and black Dano

Gosh John, how could I forget the crackleback?.... Yep a geezer moment. Oh, I would also add some real small elk hair caddis Dano

Randall, never heard of that, but I assume its not out of the realm of possibility. Might be interesting research....Dano

Joe I don't think you can go wrong with having a few of the following in various sizes and colors. scuds sowbugs soft hackles san juan worms egg patterns woolie boogers midges This would give you a good start. Dano

Joe Its probably an excellent choice. Dano

Brian I had never heard of Reading, but sounds like he is a master of the artistic butt wrap and design. Clyde Dent in Little Rock is very proficient with decorative feather inlays..I really like his use of feathers especially jungle cock. Dano

Brian...my gosh man....fish an old Medalist on that cane rod.....or a Hardy..... As to a rod for Taney....think about what you are liable to encounter...lots of 12 inch to 18 inch fish, and always a chance for a 20+ hog. Something to throw small size 20 midges or #6 Wolley Boogers...So for someone who does not like to carry around more than one rod at any given time...here is my most humble opinion... A medium fast soft tip 8 1/2 ft to 9 ft 5/6 wt...medium tip to feel those light midge / nympths / soft hackle takes, soft enough to fight the fish on light tippet but fast enough to cast heavier bugs. As to a brand there are many out there that would meet the qualifications. You should cast a few to see how it feels in your hands and whether it meets your casting style. As to brand name, that bothers me less than how it feels and casts...Dan

Jeremy have you ever added lead wire then covered the body.and added the rib..seems this would help make them sink quicker. ....Dano

Its called a Lamprey eel, even though its not truly an eel...here is all you would ever want to know about them.. Dano http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navc...LD:en&q=lamprey