LostMyWife

I have resigned myself to the fact tht I am not getting to Taney once a month, so I am looking for a small fishing boat and I am seeking the feedback from the HUGE knowledge base that exists here. Here is what I seek: 14 to 16 foot tiller bot, no motor. This lake is electric trolling only. I have the motor It needs to be stable and have pedestal style seats, no benches or bench mounted seats I like the Lund WC, but they seems a bot pricey There is no ramp on this lake. The boat has to be light enough for me to launch. I can wench it out with the jeep. I will include a pic of a boat that was perfect, but I missed the deadline on the auction. Let' see if I can do this

Seems to me that the best way to solve the problem is through education and enforcement. Education has to start with the property owners so that they realize what they really own. I've been there and that was a hard one to swallow. We still have members that are in denial about that one. This is also where I feel TU has an obligation. They need to educate the public about the proper "use" of public waterways and how to use them. The property owners get bent out of shape when their property is damaged by the pulic using the waterways. If TU focused it's energy on theeduation side and not the fight side, it could be a win for both sides. The enforcement part is the side that won't get done. The local prosecutors don't want to mess with something that is this expensive to enforce and has little upside for them. What would you want on the front page around election time. "Prosecutor Smith gets guilty verdict for local murder or for prosecuting a farmer for trying to protect his land. Catch 22 LMW

AMEN....Great thread. One like this got me hooked on 4 knots, that seemed to do everything. But, having practiced my knots for hours and hours when I was coming to Taney, I did find that when you don't use it, you lose it. I tried to tie a simple double surgeons last weekend to add some 4 lb line to my spinning reel. Yes I was to lazy to strip the whole thing and change it properly, and could not remmber how to tie the knot. I could not believe it. LMW

Everyone needs a landfill but no one wants to live next door to one. The same can be said for prisons, pig farms and chicken farms. Everyone wants the meat and they want it as cheap as possible. They don't want to know what goes into producing it, and they don't want to see it. It's like the military's version of don't ask don't tell. We blame the politicians. They need to get elected. That takes a lot of money. Big business has that money. Unless you're good ole Rod in IL it takes big business to get into office. People want jobs, and that means infrastructure and factories. It also means going away from areas that have the infrastructure because it is to expensive to build there. We have thousands of acres of abandoned factory space in the St Louis area, but these guys are going into rural areas because they can make more money and take advantage of the lack of regulation. It's all about ROI. It's not a huge conspiracy, it's called capitalism. If you really want to do something, make the local health officials do their job. When we open a restaurant, it's not the city or the building inspectors that cause us problems, it's the health department. They have more power and answer to no one, or at least it seems that way. Don't get the wrong idea about this post. I am not an advocate for Tyson or Pilgims Pride or anyone else. We all have to protect the environment and they can be forced to follow the laws, we all just have to be willing to pay for it because it is not free and it is not cheap.

We got the condo. Will see you then.

Great article russ. I never really thought about access in this light before. I live on a "private" lake. After sitting on the Board of Directors for 7 years I discovered that we own the land under the water, and all around the water, but not the water. If someone can gain access to the lake without tresspassing, they have every right to use it according to IDOC. This was a major blow to a lot of people, as we can't stop anyone from using the lake. We can fine members, but have no real recourse. If they use our ramp they can be arrested for tresspassing when they pull the boat out, but not for using the water. I can see where this may be a problem for someone that owns the land on both sides of a river. Can you see someone putting a fence accross the Mississippi River and charging barges for access or denying it to boaters. The only difference is the size of the river. That may be a ridiculous exagerration of the facts, but is it really any different than someone closing off some of the small rivers in MO? I am not sure what I think about TU pulling out of the debate. I guess I don't know enough to understand why they made that decision. LMW

I watched it last night. Now I see why Leonard fishes at night. Here I thought he was a vampire or something. Now I see it's so he can catch all the ones everyone else breaks off during the day. I was surprised to hear they use that heavy of a line, but I guess if you re looking for 20 pound fish, you have to. Great Show

Ate a mess of crappie instead. Man were they good.

Great Day! Hangover was not as much fun

Hey Ducky. I'm not dead yet. My boss locks me in a cage from January thru Easter and only lets me out a couple of times. BUT, we did open a new restuarant, and it's Lent, so things have been a bit brisk. We are planning the trip now. See ya all then LMW

Yo Phil I can't make it down this weekend, but if you need someone to eat crappie, freeze it and ship it to me. Crappie should never go to waste

Rob and I will be there as well. I will get caught up on the thread and come up with something to bring. Maybe we need a keg instead of a 2cases of beer. You don't think Terry will drink from the tap and drain the keg as well do ya?

Good Morning Taney After what seemed like a very long dry spell, I finally managed to hit the lake and fish again. No, I was not able to get to Taney. Instead, we settled for a small fishing pond in our community all Su Twan. This little lake have more full size trees than rocks, and more Christmas trees, (strategically located of course), than the North Pole on New Years day. Three of us hit the lake on Sunday. Armed with a case of beer and 8 dozen minnows, we pushed off from the shore in a 14 foot john boat. Some 5 feet from the shore we discovered that the battery terminals on the trolling motor battery were bad. No problem, 15 minutes of proding and scraping and she kicked in. Now you have to imagine what it looked like for three guys, two my size, to push off in a 14 foot john boat rated at 380 pounds. We missed the wieght limit by about 400 pounds, not counting beer and gear. We anchored at the first of many "secret spots" and started to fish. I asked about the secret spot thing. See, this was the first time I had been allowed to venture out on the lake to the well placed crappie beds. "How do you keep the spots a secret when the lake is this small and there are houses all around the lake?" What I found out was they move from spot to spot, some hot, some not, and try to confuse the weary onlooker. Personally i think they just get drunk and lose track of were they are. Anyway, we hit the first spot, and on the first cast, no lie, the first cast, the guy up front hits a monster crappie. He yelled so loud that it scared every other crappie in the hole out. We netted the 15 1/2 inch crappie. That was the last fish we would see for about an hour. So we drank beer. No downside there. On the third "honey hole" we finally found a few fish. We traded off catching small keepers, until I hooked into another of the big females that this lake holds. She went 14 inches. We got excited over a few monster crappie that turned out to be pan sized bass. By the time the day was done, we caught about 15 keepers and disposed of 2 cases of beer. (Had to make a beer run}, but it sure beat workin.

Plus he would have saved money because he did not have to by a nipple ring after it was peirced. It would make wearing a shirt a little difficult though

Phil Have not gotten the hats yet. Did you get the email I sent with the credit card information?

Great. Gives me more to read, since I am not fishing. On the road again. I will be off the forum until Thursday. Fish well, or just fish, its all the same in the end

Bill Your 35mm will do everything you need. I suggest you use 100 speed film inside the lodge and 400 speed outside.If you are going to photograph the lodge, use a wide angle lens. Your pictures will look better because of the size of the field that you can get. I looked at the shots on your website. A wide angle lens would have increased the depth of field of the inside shots and given the pictures a more panoramic view. The same could be said for the shots off the deck, as well as the views from the front of the lodge. Also, pick a time when the shadows do not fall across the pictures outside. Take a lot of pictures, with both speeds of film. Use various levels of flash, but try and direct the flash up rather than forward or use a diffuser so the flash does not bleed out the details inside the lodge. BTW, your lodge looks FANTASTIC. LMW Have the pictures put on disk when you have them developed. Then take them to someone that is good with Adobe Photoshop or some other similar software package. It will be well worth the money for the time it will save you and the results that you get.

Check the sticker inside the drivers side door jam. It should tell you the towing capacity. My experience says that ou are not going to tow much with that truck. It is not just the twing you have to think about. You have to think about what it takes to get it out of the water, and the terrain that you are pulling it though.

Phil Send us 2 white and a burnt orange. Any chance you still have my credit card number? LMW ans WBF

Phil I am not sure what help I could be, but whatever I can do, I will. I am all for more to read as well. It's been a little dry for the past few days. I guess everyone is fishing LMW

Shack nasties for at least 8 more weeks I think. I gotta get out of here.

Hi Dan Good fishing, no hurricanes. Now we do have have ice, snow, tornados, but the fishing makes up for that. Enjoy LMW

And St Louie to Taney in 10 minutes in a G5? You need to take that thing in... Time for a tune up... Of course, I suppose I could lend you my transporter room... As long as you donate a supply of dilithium crystals... Think about it Terry, If I had had any dilithium crystals I would have used my OWN transpoter.

Re-read the post, I updated it just for you

What a morning. I woke up in St Louis at 4am. I decided that I had to fish so I geared up and headed for Taney. My G5 landed a mere 10 minutes later. The pilot set us down on the Hatchery road, so I lost no time getting to chute #1. They were running 7 generators when I arrived. Luckily I had brought my extenders. I strapped the 10 foot stilts to my waders and made my way down to do some fishing. I tied on the special Y2K that Tim had tied for me. Expecting the conditions I had him tie one up on a 00 Yamagatsu hook with a 2 pound lead head. It was perfect. I thought about using one of Leonard's Minks, but that fly cost me almost $2K. Man those minks are expensive! The weight held in the fast water and took it right to the bottom. Om my very first cast I got a strike. I set the hook. The fish ran right for the dam. It was into my backing in 5 seconds. I was struggling to get the fish turned. As it approached the dam, the huge fish flew from the water. It was the biggest brookIE I had every seen. It had to be a twenty pounder minimium. I could not lose this one. It had to be a record. I yelled to Robbie and told her to get the net. Quickly she stretched it from bank to bank. We always keep a comercial net in the G5 just for cases like this. I played the fish for three hours, (luckily the D.O. was up to 112, so the fish had the strength to fight). After several misses, Rob finally got the fish in the net. Thinking, "What would duckydoty do?", I had Rob snap a picture and released the monster back into the water. I guess I should have measured it, but I left my 100' craftsman tape at home! We continued to fish for about 5 more hours. We must have caught 2 or 3 thousand fish. What a day! We got back in the G5 and flew home. I can't wait to get back LMW and WBF