fishinwrench

Yep, they are killing it. Big ugly bright blue tubes that will puke constant hatchery overflow are being placed right where the good celeryfly and caddis hatches used to occur. They are turning what has always been the best (most natural) stretch of the whole spring branch into yet another perch for the John Deere tyin' bobber floating outlet buzzards From the looks of things I'd say a set of concrete stairs are in the works also... Somebody in charge of hatchery personel obviously hired a city boy that doesn't fish to design the "improvements". What a drag ! If you loved the Highbank for what it once was, you'd better fish her quick, one last time, and save your memories. Progress sucks !

Not to a 17 y/o fishinwrench it wasn't. Freddie Kruger type movies were a new thing at that time, and there were all kinds of stories and urban legends going around... I thought there was a for real freak in the woods.... a rich one ! Our real motive was to conquer the madman and snarf up all the loot that might be in the woods Talk about how times have changed.... We divised the mission the night before, so my truck sat unlocked in the school parking lot with two shotguns in the rear window, boxes of buckshot in the seat, and a revolver in the glove box...and nobody thought anything of it. If some 17 y/o boys did that NOW there would be a statewide school lockdown and SWAT teams in the hallways.

LOL One I'll never forget was on Tavern creek, there was "something" across stream and down aways that from where I was standing looked like a human head, but there was a deep hole between me and "it" so I couldn't cross. I kept looking over there as I worked my way down to a point straight across from it and the closer I got the more it looked like what I was afraid it was. To make a long story short it turned out to be a dead possum in a trap, but I'll never forget that sick feeling I had up until I figured out what it was for sure. Major adreneline rush! Back when I was a teenager (17) I was squirrel hunting in a woodlot behind an old school house site way out in the sticks in Audrain county and I came across a note tied to a tree along a half-butt trail, handwritten in pencil, it said "He is Coming". A little further down the trail another note.... "Are you ready?". I'm looking around and kinda starting to freak out because it was late in the evening, I was alone, armed only with a Ruger 10/22, and a long way from my truck. As I'm scanning the visable area in total defense mode I see what looks like a dollar bill up the trail ahead of me, I get a little closer and I see it is a 20 ! I was like "oh hell no, this is a friggin' trap noway am I walking over to snatch that 20", and I double-timed it back to the truck, squirreless, and GTH outa there. The next day after school I took a buddy and my girlfriend with me to go see WTF was the deal, we armed ourselves to the teeth (12 guages loaded with 3" #4B goose loads, handguns, and binoculars) and headed straight for where the Twenty dollar bill was. When we got within sight of it we started studying the ground and the surrounding trees with binoculars looking for some kind of trap or something, visions of some PTSD Nam vet materializing out of a tree trunk with a machette had my heart pumping like crazy and my girlfriend was about to piss herself. My buddy rigged a stick, creeped over and knocked the 20.00 bill off the branch while I "stood guard" ready to open a hole in center of mass, of anything that moved. He raked the 20 over to him, picked it up and saw that it was made on a copier and spray painted green (colored copiers were unheard of then), the back of it said... "Repent your sins, prepare for Jesus", and was ink stamped with the address of a little country church down the road a few miles. Later we learned that the preacher liked to "take walks". I was a pretty level headed teenager but for some reason that pissed me off. The thought of that old fart prowling around the woods randomly planting little notes to try and fill the seats of his church just seemed totally insane to us. So we went to his sermon the following Sunday (which actually was pretty good) and when they passed the plate I fed it the phoney 20, but then my girlfriend snatched it back out of there. On the way out of the church everyone looked at my girlfriend like she was a freakin' leper cuz they thought she took money out of the plate I'm going to hell for that... I just know it

Sounds like a great deal. How soon could we expect to recieve it after payment ?

And the moral to this story is.... ? Gotta be something about a lawyer with two pussys, right ?

I love it when storys start out like that Did anyone rule out an Emu or Ostrich ? There were quite a few emu farms around for awhile.

The oddest catch I've experienced was a 20+lb. Spoonbill on a 7wt. flyrod, hooked in the mouth with a clouser While fishing for Smallies in a small LO trib. The bummer of it is that after I released him he went belly up, I spent the rest of the evening holding him upright and trying to revive him, but to no avail. It was out of season so I had to leave him for the coons. Also caught a gull on a Rebel Pop-R once, that was kinda nasty. A buddy of mine caught a topless sunbather on a 5/16 Stanley jig and pork frog

I'd rather be left wondering than to see a bunch of fish with clipped fins. I hate that. Wild / Stocked, who gives a RA ?

Seems to me it would be in the states best interest to have as much publicly accessable water as possible. If they wanted to push it I'm sure they could. If push came to shove they could find an endangered pecker-gnat, tadpole, tree or fern living along any given ditch in the state and declare it the property of the people, with a brief swipe of a pen.

I'm behind that, and I don't see why that arguement wouldn't carry weight in a proposed amendment. I might be blinded by my own preferences,... but is there any OTHER way to look at it ?

Oh geeze, Somebody slap this dweeb

The combination of deer season and preparation for holiday travel usually has the crowds at a minimum. Enjoy !

If you see a girl with no top on, rolling a joint... Does that balance things out for ya ? I'll be darn. Two wrongs really CAN make a right.

That has always been my findings as well.... So why does everyone always gotta rain on their parade ? Being naked in public is illegal too, but who calls the law, or bitches when they unexpectedly witness a set of boobs ? No harm, No foul should be a golden rule IMO.

Yep. I haven't tried them all but I'm content with P-line CX on any spinning rig.

I'll say you did ! NIce ! On low water too

You do have to think (and assume) realistically though. In those old tyme pics with massive stringers of fat smallies, those fisherman obviously had just enjoyed an exceptional day. I mean otherwise WHY waste money on a picture and keep it around for 100 years ? Pictures weren't just taken haphazardly back then like digital pics are now. Those days still happen, and probably with just as much frequency as they did back then. Hell,look at the pics and reports previously posted by the Guru, Al, and Bman (just to name a few).

Is that your beer can ? Nice Brown, Buzz ! What was dangling under the bobber ?

I have no useful recommendations, but I'm looking forward to the trip report. Good luck, take pics.

That's not a dumb question at all. Shad spawn in mid to late Spring, The optimum spawning water temperature is supposed to be about 65-70 degrees. The mass migrations you see in the Fall are plankton driven, I assume.

Laker, I think the beat up tails and dark spots on the males is what has him believing they are in spawn mode. Hatter, Have you seen any beds in the shallows with crappie on or around them ? I have no explanation for the vividly colored males with bloody tails, but there is no Fall spawn to my knowledge. Even if they did the hatchlings would probably not find sufficient forage during the winter. I have never witnessed a school of fry in the Fall/Winter, anywhere. You've misunderstood. It isn't a specific length of daylight hours that trigger spawning activity, it is the LENGTHENING hours of sunlight, and WARMING and STABILIZING water temps. Night time water temperatures drop drastically in the Fall at depths where there is sufficient sunlight penetration. Crappie don't do it, Bluegill don't do it, snakes, frogs, crawfish and turtles don't do it.

That's tailwater fishing for ya

So allowing farmers to hold back some of their seed for next years crop would put a sudden halt to biotechnology ? There went the baby right there. I'm sorry, I'm so blinded by the greed that I can't see any further. I'm sure you are making a valid point but it's wasted on me.

So you think that the frequency of accidents will decreases along that stretch of roadway now ? I'll take that bet.

And that would be bad because.......