Daryk Campbell Sr

An old liver trick is to use some kind of cloth to hold the liver together. Some people use old panty hose, some use old t-shirts cut into squares, some use netting, ect... Take a 3inch by 3 inch square of 'material', and wrap the liver in the square. Now put that on your hook and you should not have a problem. Another tip is to wrap the liver in a piece of cloth, and wrap it with string, yarn, thread ect. (it will look like a small version of an old 'Money Bag'). Put that on your hook. If you get out to the lake/river and realize you don't have any material to use, you can take a treble hook (not tied onto your line yet), spread open the liver, push the 'eye' of the treble hook into the center of your liver, then tie the hook or clip on to a swivel. It holds pretty well. ( warning treble hooks are not fun to remove from a catfish. ) All of this being said, I have never done "Great" with liver. Shrimp can get more expensive than buying catfish at the store. Cut bait and minnow traps seem to be the ticket. DC

... Well put.

Good job! Sounds like fun. Sorry to hear about the morning, but hey it turned out to be great.

Very nice article. Sorry to hear about your friend.

I wonder if the cell phone service has been improved. I camped there with the family a few years ago, short story long, my son kept opening the door to the van, left the lights on inside and the battery died. I have a motor club memebership and was going to call them in, figured I pay for it, may as well use it, and give the local towing business a bone. My cell did not work No service whatsoever. As is usual the campground host was more than willing to help us and we got it back to be able to start. Good thing too, later that night the remenants of Hurricane Ike came through and flooded the campground we were camping on. We were evacuated before the storm came through, and were camping on higher ground, but still we had nothing dry that was inside the tent. The campground we were camping at was completely covered deep water, and the River was definately Roaring. :-) Good times.

Maybe it is Mother Nature's way of controlling the beetles. Just a thought...

Nice addition to the site, I like the pictures and the commentary.

I don't know about down there, but around me, there are many rental shops you can rent a Cherry Picker/Engine hoist for a reasonably cheap amount. I do have one, and would surely let you borrow it, But I am about 30 minutes south of St Louis. It would cost you more in gas one way then to rent one.

I don't like the idea of puting more species on a "tag" basis. I can agree that our license is very reasonably priced, and some do fish for food. I like to keep some of the fish I catch when I can get out there. Some people are not as fortunate as others and $100.00 may not be alot to you, but to MANY $100.00 would be off limits to spend to have the priveledge to fish even if it were for survival. If the system is not broken Why should we try to fix it. Give perodic maintenance and all will continue to be well. Just my 2 cents (can't afford much else). HEY, remember, MDC accepts donations for all of you rich guys.

Welcome to the forum, I also live in St Louis, Grew up fishing Carondelet's lakes. Night crawlers seem to produce the best results for me, but recently I have learned that shad, and green sunfish are the same as candy to large catfish. Stone, good tip on IL lakes, I have access to a private lake over there which is much nicer since it is not well known. I have not fished any public lakes over there, but may look into them.

I quit about 5 years ago, was in the hospital due to an infection, was told a story by a guy in the room about how he was in the same hospital a few years prior, and had his veins in his legs all stripped out due to the nicotine restricting his blood flow, and he was in the hospital for a few months and missed the major hollidays with friends and family. Long story short, I have never before heard about nicotine collecting in your veins, and kinda blew it off. (this guy was a friend of the roomate I had in the hospital). My doctor was out of town for a couple of more days so a fill in was looking after me. She asked the normal list of questions including "Do you smoke?". I answered yes, kinda had the attitude of I know it is your job to tell me to quit. She proceded to tell me that if I continue to smoke it will restrict the blood flow in my veins in my legs and cause me more problems than I already have. ( my legs hold water like nothing you have ever seen. I look like the elephant man if I dont wear my elastic stokings). My doctor has never told me about this, and he knows I smoke, I asked him, he confirmed it as a possibility. Thank you to Dr. Paula Bruggensmith for putting it into words that made it personal for me to quit. I have had my stumbles when drinking, but for only the night I am drinking. To those of you who are just now quitting, the dreams you have of smoking again, are very vivid and will make you feel like you did something wrong. It is OK, we all have been through it. Keep your head up and as Chief said, "You guy's can do it. You just have to have your mind made up that that is what you want. If your brain is not in it, you won't quit. You have to be determinded!"

Very cool. Good job on the carbs, they can be tricky sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago I seen some kids walking about halfway out from the Flamm City Access of the Meremac. They were not even waist deep. Hopefully with the rain we had this morning it will help. Pretty scary stuff.

I would guess the wardens have a scientific way of deciding where to check. I have been checked a couple of times in my life and they have been some nice people. One was in uniform, and one was not easily detected (until he identified and showed his badge). The one in full uniform came upon my son and I while throwing rocks on the upper Meramec. It was youth Turkey season, and we stopped hunting to have lunch and do some fishing. We were not doing well with the fishing so decided to throw rocks (it was his weekend). Any how, he was very stealthy and my son spotted him first, pointed him out and I guess he realized that the was caught and he came down to talk. Very nice guy, asked how our day was, and even gave us some pointers on hunting the conservation area we were next to, he also explained to me that alot of the roads that are usually marked for authorized vehicles only were open for the youth hunt. He checked me after I told him that we had been fishing, but stopped. A very pleasant guy, and seemed to be doing the job appointed to him.

Nice pics, thanks for sharing your info of the trip.

They look good. Eat-able size.

Very neat fish. Thank you for sharing with us.

Yes, Jerry that is interesting. Neat to see records broken, but tied is cool also.

I have seen a few of your videos before. Good stuff.

Sounds interesting. I have not heard, but I could imagine it would be a good turnout.

I would be equal to the three who had no idea. Is there a certain time of season, day, etc to plan for these hatches? I am a newb who has learned alot on here, but don't have any direct access to trout fishing up in the St Louis area. I would like to be prepared for the fall trip that I plan on going to a trout park. I generally like to go to Roaring River, but I seem to encourage the rain when I go. I went about 4 years ago and the left overs of Hurricane Ike came through there, and it was not a fun time in tents. The next year was just soaking rain, and needless to say, the kids really did not enjoy it.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/rftmusic/2010/11/camp_zoe_site_of_schwagstock_f.php Some interesting information here concerning the seizure, and the laws used.

Great article, I love the picture. The article is full of great info, thanks for sharing.

LOL, looks like your recon has been intercepted. :-) I seen the same add a couple of days ago on St Louis Craigslist. I like the looks of his items.

For those who wish to see them now, today, you can go to Lone Elk Park in St Louis County, Off of Hwy 44. (or 44 hwy for the rural members) The website is http://stlouisco.com/ParksandRecreation/ParkPages/LoneElk . It is a free park, donations are accepted. The wild bird sanctuary is right across the road, and is really neat also. There is an area in Lone Elk Park that you can exit your vehicle and walk on the road and be as close as you dare to the elk with no fence. There are trails to walk through the park also and the animals are familiar with people, so they will generally stay their ground. There are elk, deer, buffalo, turkey, and many other wildlife that are allowed to roam while you drive through the park kind of safari like. They can do damage to your car, beware. As far as Peck Ranch goes, I am in the wait and see campaign. I know that many other things MDC has done have had general outlash and then turned to benefit the state more than have negative effects. I would like to see a large elk roaming through the area freely, but I realize that we will have to pay for that benefit. I am not sure the cost outweighs the benefit at this time, but I will quietly wait and see. I do see a problem that does need addressed which is the human population. Not nessicarily the population, but the ability to live 3-5 times longer than we did as well as being immune to a good amount of the problems that used to have control of us. I know some here will nominate ME to make the first sacrifice, But it is illegal. I don't like to intentionally break the law.