John Smoot

I think it just makes them easier targets...

Excellent work, Phil! Harold Ensley would be proud.

Phil, thanks for sharing. As usual, great pics and videos!

Leonard, I hear they like to be scratched behind their ears.

Phil, So good to hear from you! There are many of us that think about what you're going through...and are praying that things improve quickly. I wish I was close enough to help. I'm not surprised that you have many friends that can and will...Hang in there!!

"Guess when I set the hook on the bass bite the carp must have been close and got stuck." That's a good one. Next time I snag a big old carp, I'm using it...

Phil, Really good setup with that camera. I thought the images were very clear for a wide angle lens. I have to say...I got cold just watching it!

Made it!

Dang nice fish! Even if the lucky guy was drifting a Power Bait and it somehow simply floated into the fish's mouth for a hookup...who cares? I have no doubt that we all started (no matter how "accomplished" you think you are) fishing about the same way...That would be using crude, newbie methods and hoping for a fish like that. Come on. Unless dynamite was in your first tackle box...

Congratulations Lamar! Looks like you've got a couple things on your side already....a great location at Branson and a great friend in Phil. Good job!!

Whoa, that'd been a good picture....except for the guys getting tossed around. I'm guessing a big whirlwind. I've seen some as big as houses across the base out in New Mexico. That is quite a sight. Around here, I saw one once in a snow covered field that was about 40 foot at the base and went about 100 feet high. Looked like snow tornado...on a cold, sunny, clear, day. A water spout it actually a tornado over water. I've never seen one of those....yet. Shoot, I've lived my whole life in "Tornado Alley", and never have seen a tornado.

Phil, That sounds like the ultimate shopping excursion. I'll have to remember that trick.

Just had to pass this on.... My fishing buddy was down Wednesday (11/21) with a couple of friends. They were doing the drift thing with Power Bait and were catching plenty of stocker size rainbows. Anyhow, just upstream of the 65 bridge, by buddy was bringing in a 10 incher, when out of the depths a HUGE brown...he thought about 25-30 lbs, ran on the bow and stopped short. It came right to the surface. He told the other 2 guys in the boat, and 1 of the guys had a small rainbow on. He dropped in back in he water and the brown did another run on that bow, just stopping short...basically on his nose. This time they all saw it. Needless to say, they thought they may have been looking at a state record brown. Babler, why don't you try one of the Castaic Rainbow (10") lures on that guy? Kinda sad, ain't it? I'm posting 2nd hand fishing stories...

Daady C, can't say I disagree with much of what you said. I wish that more people, including the so-called justice system, could really put themselves in the spot where what if that child were theirs. I think there'd be less of this crap going on in just a few years....because punishment would be swift, severe, and for all to witness. I think that would be a deterrent. It sure seems that the status quo isn't much of one. People preying on children is at epidemic levels it seems. If it would happen to one of mine, God forbid, I don't think I could stay out of prison...

No lynx in the KC area. Check some resources. Lynx are native to areas north...much further north than KC. Like Canada. Maybe Minnesota. Bobcat. They have tufts on their ears, also.