Gavin

You never know with rainbows. Private hatcheries raise trout and deliver them all over the place. If you want some, I'd recommend these folks. Call and ask for Tom. http://westoverfarms.com/trout-hatchery-sales/

Battery powered LED's are light, cheap, and easy to mount or stick on just about anything. You would think that could light up a kayak for $100 plus the price of a small re-chargeable 12Vbattery.

That’s fatty! Good for you.

The water is pretty deep and cold, so you will probably want waders unless your visiting during the heat of summer. I've always found small gravel bars to camp on. The float camps are close to the river. They are marked with small signs in the trees sometimes, toilet paper balls in the woods most times. You should plan some time to hike down to Greer Spring. Its about a mile and a half round trip from the top of the trailhead, just up the hill to the south from the 19 bridge and Greer campground. You might consider some shorter trips instead of one long multi-day. The Jack's Fork is just to the north of the Eleven Point. and the Upper Current is just north of that. All three are great floats.

Military jets usually have two engines, and they are incredibly loud. I have some hearing loss that I got from working on them years ago. The noise might have something to do with the shape of the engines, number of fans, and exhaust design. They are long and narrow with more fans than a large diameter civilian jet engine with only a few rotating fans. The exhaust on the military engines are variable too. The exhaust can narrow and expand based upon the amount of throttle. A jet mech could tell you more. I just fixed electronic gizmos. They get even louder when they light up the afterburners.

It's been years since I thought of the Butler Lakes. Thirty years ago it was a dump site for construction debris, tires, and old appliances. Have they cleaned it up? Used to have a bunch of carp, buffalo & gar.

Glad you had fun! It's a great place to visit. The cost isn't so bad if you limit the time you fish. Makes a great day trip if your staying on Lake Norfork or the NFoW.

It doesn't really matter how good of a fly tier or fly fisherman he was. I wasn't going there. His contribution to the sport and to the enjoyment of many is huge. I've learned a ton from his legacy, and from many, many others.

Here’s a few tied by Chuck. Nice guy, but not much of a fly tier

That's lake water/slow flow down by Tecumseh, but you can still drown in it. I'm sorry those folks lost their lives. That is a fun river to float, but it does try to get you wet when you don't want too. I've lost count of the times I've floated my hat when wading down there. The last nasty wipeout I had was on the NFoW around one of the islands between Myron's and Blair. I was floating solo in the kayak and tried to run a chute that looked like guaranteed tragedy in a canoe, but a short wild ride in a kayak. I ended up rolling the boat on the face of a 3'' standing wave. Lost a rod, hat, and a pair of sunglasses. Had my PFD on for a change, and was glad I did.

Sorry you took a dunk! That happens occasionally. If you don't retrieve that stuff immediately it gets beat up pretty bad, but no gear is worth risking life & limb, or hypothermia for. Better luck next time.

I won one of these once.

Do you like cows and the smell of manure?

Son! You might just have a future in politics! The suckers will eat it up!

That’s a tall tale if I ever heard one.

Congrats Pete! Those scummy eddy spots can produce when the water is rolling.

Etrailer....there up in Wentzville if you want to pick it up and save shipping. Good folks.

I went halibut fishing once. I'd do it again because the fish you get is fantastic, and you get allot of it. It does not sound like spoonbill are worth the effort.

Breathe in for 4, hold for 1, out for 5....it works. Serenity NOW!

There is a trick to spinning deer hair. Its in the book "Practical Flies and Their Construction" by Lacey Gee (founder of Wapsi) and the Wapsi beginner fly tying manual. Its tough to explain without an illustration, but easy to do with a small amount of practice and a darning needle. Its a commercial tying method, and it works ALLOT better than the spin it around the hook and hope method.

My light line stuff rarely gets used, but that's not the point. Someday, I'll go to where I will use those rods again. Until then, they will bring back memories. If I had no memories attached, I would have no trouble selling them.

I have a 17' Landau PJ...It works really well with a 55lb thrust TM. It will hold 3 to fish, 2 for an overnight with gear. It's really stable, but it doesn't hold any more than a 17' canoe IMO because the seats take up a ton of cargo space. Two small kids and two adults would be max...and only on day trip. It does make 20 miles into an easy overnight down river trip, plus its nice to be able to motor back up and fish a good run. Good luck with it.

Try Montauk, stay in loop 2 or 3 near the disabled access pier.

Great stuff! It’s great with duck, goose, or chicken livers.

The Mill dam has been breached for quite some time. Stripers can move in & out at will. You could drop a jet in at Blair and run to the Falls, over the Falls to McKee Bridge at high water. Friends have done it, and folks would use jets to gig when it was still allowed above Patrick. The main obstacles to boat traffic are the low bridges at Dawt, Patrick, the Falls (2’ rock ledge across the river), and McKee Bridge. Guys with drift boats have trouble getting under McKee sometimes, and Patrick always. Brian Bade @ Sunburst Ranch could show you where they stay. Justin Spencer still lives on the river and he could too.