fishinwrench

Drew, Tryon's book alone is worth the cost of membership. Sounds like a darn site more incentive than Trout Unlimited, and certainly on par with FFF or any other fishing related organization I know of. We are talking less than the cost of 2 spools of tippet material here. C'mon man, don't nitpick. They are looking into a SWMO chapter which I'm sure will address any different western native strains you might be specifically concerned about. Have you considered joining a Stream Team, or anything else in the area of your concern ? The MSA is the only group doing ANYTHING as far as Smallmouth preservation....that I'm aware of. I plan to join ASAP.

Drew, The state vehicle inspection centers don't check to see if your car is equipped with seatbelts, and that they are in good working condition, either.

That is definately a reasonable assumption. A major increase in money spent on enforcement would likely go unnoticed as far as end results are concerned. Even if the extra funds WERE used as directed.

Are you finding enough down there, John ? There isn't a single back yard around L.O. here that doesn't have a healthy stack of it. It is against regs to burn it, bury it, or throw it in a landfill, and it cost like hell to have it hauled off. So people are coming up with creative ways to utilize it. (dog houses, wrestling mats, worm farms, garden borders...you name it). The move to incapsulated floats was a good thing...but it moved the mess from water to Land. This stuff will never...go away ! LOL Wrench

TH has always had "cycles" of good Winter Crappie fishing. If last year was good then you have a 50/50 shot at some really good slabs. It has been years since I fished it, but I used to live closer and fished it regularly. Typically there would be a year or two of awesome average size in the warm water arm, then a couple years of nothing but dinks. If you hit it right it is outstanding. There isn't much cover in the arm, unless someone has planted some...so you gotta keep moving and searching out the loose groups of fish. When it is slow it can get down right boring and pointless, casting and cranking to featureless water. a Kalin 2" grub on a 1/16 ball head (chart./wht.) is really hard to beat. Hope that helps, good luck

Hi Kathy, Excellent ! Glad to see you're still on the mission. Glen

Here ya go: Put up signs along the river, that say.... You have entered a satellite surveillance area. To avoid being marked by laser for future prosecution Please be aware of, and strictly follow all state and federal game laws. Compliments of the new world order

Increasing license fees specifically to fund more enforcement could be a double edged sword. While I'll admit that it urks me to see someone violating game laws, I really don't want to be scrutinized and borderline harrassed every other time I visit a stream. I hate drunk drivers too, but I gotta tell ya....These DWI checkpoints really piss me off, and I kinda like not having Big Brother breathing down my neck while I'm doing what I enjoy the most. Ok, now it's a race to see who's the first person to say... "if you're not doing anything wrong then you've got nothing to worry about". Ready - set - GO !

I've known MDC officers to enforce Littering, arson, and trespass laws, but I don't think they would investigate or pursue drug or DWI issues unless it coincides with a game law, or is a blatant violation right under their nose. Even then they should just take down some info and report it to the "proper" authoritys. In my area the main problem isn't poachers, my #1 concern at this time is excessive Gravel dredging and landowner misuse of the streams. And I feel that if a stream is designated as a SMA it would help make it more than just a gravel source, cattle pond, and dump site to people in the area that don't care about fishing and are creating permanant damage.

Cool. Thanks ! Are we talkin' "Big", as in 3 1/2 inches overall ......Or BIG ?

I'm asleep at the vise, repetition overload.... I need something new to tie. Show us the FLY. What was it ?

How was it guys ? I had to spend the weekend...(oooh I hate this word)....Shopping.

Would there be any benefit for the swmo chapter if I waited until it's formed to sign up ? Or does it not matter which chapter you join through ?

I guess in Kansas that limits you to Green Sunfish and Bullheads

Chief, I've read over the MSA website and I must have missed the "astounding hateful rhetoric" that you are referring to. Can you give me an example ?

Matt, While it may be true that alot of us here live too far away from Kirkwood to be active meeting/outing attending members of MSA, there are plenty of us who are active MDC Stream Team members with most of our work aimed at protecting smallies and their habitat. I considered joining MSA several years ago but I couldn't see how my silent membership in MSA would benefit the cause much....even though I still thought the tee-shirt looked really cool If increasing your member list creates a louder voice then I'll gladly join up. One question first though....Did your latest newsletter give reference to this "White Paper" ? This was a document that I had no idea even existed until Wayne stumbled across it and posted it here. I also got the impression that Al wasn't aware of it until then either. Stream Team headquarters had left us with the impression that the "study" had not even made it to Gravois cr. yet, even though the completion date was posted to be in 2004. So, was MSA "on top of this" so to speak, or were you as suprised as I was ? Wrench

It isn't a dead horse, or they would not be re-evaluating PDT. I just wish I knew what caused them to backstep on that one.

We had a B.A.S.S. federated club going for 7-8 years that scored on paper like that on L.O., it started out with 30 some members but participation gradually petered out to less than 10. That was a bummer, cuz I always thought it was the best format ever for club tournaments, and for qualifying teams to the state championship. The only drawback we ever had was multiple ties for big Bass. So we ammended the rules so that each angler could bring in one fish over 3 lbs. to be weighed, and big bass was a side pot among those who chose to enter on the morning of the tournament.

ok, but they "evaluated it"....then for some reason have decided to RE-evaluate it. My thinking is that they should not refuse to RE-evaluate the whole darn plan. Don't count on it. The difference there lies between educating yourself to earn a wage, VS. educating yourself out of passion for something. As an example, I have a much greater desire to educate myself on river and fish related issues than I do Outboard motor design and function. On the first topic I can't get enough info to satisfy myself....but on the later I don't study any deeper than I need to.

Does anyone know why the PDT river is being RE-evaluated ?

Ok, I'm in. But I'm going to pick an argument that I'm confident I can win, so I'm only going to (primarily) address the criteria in regards to Gravois cr. And I plan to question their reasons for giving Big Buffalo the designation years ago, while denying other (larger/better creeks) in the same region. When I get a reply I'll post it. Wrench

I know exactly how they "evaluated" Gravois cr.... They pulled over at the TT bridge (which isn't even part of the creek, it is still backwater from the lake at that point), looked over the side, and made their decision. Had they taken a 2 mile trip on McCaslin rd. they would have looked over THAT bridge and saw Smallmouth, because they are always there in the bridge pool...among the boulders, logs, gravel and broken bedrock (ya know, smallie habitat). Further upstream from MsCaslin at the low-water bridge they would have seen more smallies, and more "habitat" in all directions. There isn't a single place to access the creek where you don't always see fish (including smallmouth) and plenty of habitat and deep pools. They simply did not evaluate properly, that's all there is to it. But yet just over the hill, Buffalo cr. which is nothing more than a gravel lined ditch gets protected from gravel dredgers, atv's, and pollution. This is just a crock, screw it ! I don't even know why I waste my time trying to make this point, it's a done deal. Somebody pull Dablemont in to this...He'll make some noise.

They appear to be making up the rules as they go. I know all of the Lake Ozark tribs very well, and I can't see any consistency or actual thought being displayed in that White Paper. Big Buffalo was made a SMA a long time ago. But Gravois cr. and Cole Camp cr. do not exceed the required criteria ? C'mon ! These streams needed a designation such as that to help protect them and to make folks aware of their importance. Both Gravois and Cole Camp are excellent little smallie factorys ....Big Buffalo on the other hand is too small, except in a few isolated pools, to support more than a few fish over 10-12 inches. But nevertheless they have closed the book on it, and the odds of it being re-opened and re-evaluated is not in our favor.

LOL Absolutely. I'd even buy him dinner on the way home if his efforts actually paid off. Spoken by a guy that stayed up all nite nursing a Beta fish back to health in a cereal bowl after he was discovered half dead and dried out on the living room floor.

I just read through that again (with a fine toothed comb) and that is totally absurd. Did they even get out of their truck during these "studys" ? It doesn't look like it. Would anyone care to take a short hike with me so I can show you what they consider a "habitat rating" of 1 (the lowest rating given) Are these people really trained in fisheries biology ? They never got out of their truck. Period. That is the only explanation for that rating, that I can fathom.