fishinwrench

I'd expect it to be a pretty darn good paying job, better than most of us here live on, with excellent benefits for the whole family to boot....and definatly "cush" (state car, gas card,reasonable hours, generous vacation pay, no sore back or busted knuckles at the end of the day, ever). If that ain't a cushy job what is?

Do I sense some Redbeard style exagerration there? My whole point is that the tales of horrendous acts and felonious activities is what's gonna hurt us fishermen the most in our struggle to maintain the right to peacefully float and fish in the long run. Most of these tales are exagerrated and more than you probably think are total fabrications based on things a person thinks COULD happen....so it's believable enough to just say it did in order to get someones attention. I'm in no position to call BS on anyone unless they say they saw 4 cobras and 9 alligators during a Niangua float, but I've floated enough miles and mingled with enough hoosiers that if all these outlandish acts of predatory pedophilia and assault were truly that common then I think I would have witnessed some at least once. But I haven't. Instead I just 'hear about it' all the time from folks that only floated the river ONCE. What are the freakin' odds!

I have no doubts that a person can get bad sick from any kind of insect bite. Where my doubts lie is whether doctors can identify and cure it. You either get over it, or you don't. I suspect that 90% of prescriptions filled across this country, for all varietys of ailments, are unneeded and unhelpful.....maybe even harmful to a degree. I just don't have faith that the majority of folks in the healthcare field truly know WTF they are doing. I guess I salute them for trying but I'm not comfortable being one of their guinea pigs.

GNS, if you're turning a 27 @ 6000 you should be 72mph+ That's the fastest 150 crossflow/Ranger combo that I'm aware of. I'd like to meet the guy that rigged it and pick his brain over a beer.

I almost laughed at that,.... then I realized it wasn't funny

Thanks. So I take it that once a doctor diagnoses a fella with THAT then he can't be expected to help you....but he still gets paid. Got it.

Do you understand the mechanics (science) of it? The principal is exactly the same as "flippin' with casting gear. Are you trying to DH with too short of a line outside the guides, maybe? You have to have about as much line in the air as you can handle before executing a DH. Try to DH your backcast first (shooting line on the backcast), then switch to doing it on the forward stroke. You ARE using a WF line, right? DT lines don't double haul for crap. That's all I got.

Good post !

I have a buddy that's the most annoying one-upper ever..... Everytime I fart, he s#its his pants.

It's not the same group of wildasses all the time creating havoc on the river though, and in all fairness everyone should be allowed ONE rowdy river party in their life. And it would suck to get busted during your one wild river party just because the last group that got a little wild on their ONE allotted river bash "bothered someone". There's also a matter of how "partying" is perceived. Can you imagine the story that a "senior couple" might still be telling if they had been floating past Sunburst during the making of the Harlem shake video? "Keep your eyes straight ahead, Mildred, there's a bunch of crackheads up there.....if they come toward us you just keep a paddlin' and I'll reach for the Ruger". "Crazy asses! The rivers around here have gone to hell". "Did you see the guy humping that chicken? Yeah, and he's the OWNER of the place!" "My God, there were even children there". See how that works?

Saw a hoot owl givin'it to a chicken once, but I figured that was just "nature".

My daughter and her group of misfits floated the Elk a couple weeks ago and from what I gather via her accounting of THAT river the Niangua is pretty PG-rated by comparison.

Yikes! What is MRSA? and what are its symptoms? If general laziness and just wanting to lay around are a symptom then I've had that since I was about 12 years old. Hell, you seem to get out and do more than I ever feel like doing

What effect do you think lightning/thunder has on fish location?

The 90° crossflow was/still is a BEAST! I absolutely love them so I'm not gonna split hairs with ya, but I suspect your tach might be off a tad or you are slightly underpropped They are extremely forgiving as far as fuel and your 1983 should have the brown crankshaft seals that will not die an early death from.alcohol exposure. Most go down from overheat or plugged carb jets caused by the OIL turning to sludge in the carb bowl.....totally not a fuel formula issue. NO work at all? Please replace the water pump this year and replace the primer valve. There is also a service bulletin advising that the "pee hose" be re- routed up and over the starboard cylinder head so that the water chamber fills completely at idle....otherwise you are running with one dry thermostat. Just FYI. (Ever notice that you have to rev it up before it 'pee's" ?)

There is nothing special about the XRI that would demand higher octane fuel than what you burn in your truck, as a matter of fact I believe that system is equipped with a detonation sensor so even if you ran sub-standard fuel the ECM would sort it all out. Again, do you guys realize that you're paying BIG BUCKS for high tech SMART ENGINES and then worrying yourself sick about how delicate and stupid they are ? If you don't have faith in your "colors", and the R&D designers of them then I'm at a loss. They are all good motors, even the ones I don't personally like are way better than I give them credit for. No production engine designer is going to mass produce (and hope to sell) a series of outboards that their owners have to get a Phd in fuel formulas in order to operate and enjoy them.....its just the opposite. Sure, someday it's gonna break (Thank Dog!) but it won't be your fault for not being on top of the quality of fuel you are able to buy near your home. If you wanna sweat something then worry about that cranking battery, because I see more high dollar ignition/charging system failures due to failing batterys or dirty & loose terminal connections than I do "poor fuel" caused issues, X10.

I suspect that over the years I have been periodically under the influence of a bad tick bite because I can remember feeling real lethargic/puny for a period of time (as much as a month or a little more) with muscle and joint aches similar to what I hear described by folks diagnosed with Lymes or whatever that other one is you hear about all the time. I'm one of these guys that never goes to the doctor though unless I break a bone or need stitches so all I know is that whatever I had I got over it on my own....or at least I feel like I did. What are the alleged risks of just letting the crap run its course and allowing your body fight it on its own? I just really have little faith in the medical field, which is kinda odd since both my parents were in it. Just seems that if you take two guys with the same problem...One goes to the doctor and gets prescribed something, and the other just tuffs it out.....They both are completely over the illness at the same time. I have a cousin that goes to the doctor everytime he sneezes, he's been "diagnosed" with just about every illness under the sun and has taken more meds in his life than I even wanna think about. Ain't nothin' ever been wrong with that boy, but if one doctor says he can't find anything wrong with him he'll keep changing doctors until someone gives his "illness" a name and prescribes him something. I guess I'm just curious to see if I outlive the ol' hypochondriac.

Heading into Fall is the best fishing period by far IMO, the fish aren't "moved" by any thing other than feeding opportunities. No spawning urges, ect. The only thing that complicates the act of getting fish to bite, I think, is the abundance of bite sized prey fish in impoundments during that period. But in ponds that do not have shad most of the forage has grown to a size that challenges all but the real Hawgs, so the average sized gamefish are usually an easy sell. Instability in the weather always presents a challenge for an angler, but on any given day on ANY body of water SOMEONE will always figure out a way to load the boat. So if you're fishing hard and haven't had a bite in 20 minutes take a short break and change your MO

Not always bro, if I knew I could easily avoid them they wouldn't make my butt pucker just looking at one when there's a current seam between where I am and where I wanna be. I'm always a bit nervous on a float that hasn't been scouted in awhile. Just 2 weeks ago I was practicing the fine art of "poling" a jon boat and got surprised twice.

I have a few flys in my box that I don't think will ever "get it". At first I blamed it on the eztaz, but I'm not so sure now.

I don't know how much longer it's gonna take for folks to get over the whole 87 octane/E10-15 - outboard scare propaganda.....but whenever you do I just want to be on record (for the last 2+years) of telling you that it's BS. Yes yes I've seen the split open primer bulbs sitting on marina counters all over the country,.... but here's the deal ; Go buy some 87% fuel that you wouldn't dare burn in your outboard because of what you've read, been told, or been shown by others in the industry, then go buy the cheapest primer bulb on the market (like a Tempo from Wal-mart) or even one that's been in your garage trash can for three months and go soak that rascal in that "poison fuel" and see if you can make it look like that one you saw displayed wherever you get your boat worked on, using nothing but that fuel. After you fail to see that rubber turn to mushy goo try again, but this time add some Stabil, Seafoam, Carbon guard, 24C, or one of those other "recommended" additives that you hear everyone praise so highly, and see if you have better success melting rubber.

True that, Joe. I'd rather die from a bullet to the head than to be sucked into a strainer. That's some scary business and many of us flirt with it repeatedly.

Having 5ft. of fiberglass pole vertically fore and aft would hinder my sidearm casting and sidesweep hooksets. I'd invariably bust a rod on it.

Al, If it were to make a difference and actually result in a noticeably cleaner world I'd be all for it. But it wouldn't. It'd be just like the Lake Ozark Watershed Alliance. Many pockets are getting lined with cash yet the sour water output of any septic system whether commercial or residential has not changed for the better one little bit. That's all I know. Take it for what it's worth. Oh, and none of that cash or funds is going towards cleaning anything up, it's just feeding lawyers.

Can you link us to the last murder that happened there?