bfishn

+2 for Ozark dam, especially for the next month! Put in right at Ozark dam. North side, just east of town.

Exactly that ^^^ I haven't looked inside a bass in years (), but I've cleaned scores of Bella Vista channel cat with huge stores of gut fat in the cavity. More from one 15lber than you could hold in both hands. (Best bait for crawdad traps ever!) The muscle on their backs was marbled with translucent fat too. Had to trim it or you'd gag... Big fish in winter? I just accept that's how it's s'posed to be... ;-)

The paper linked below offers some insight. If you get a popup preview window, note especially the second page; http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4612-0547-0_8# ...would like to read the whole thing... Al, there's no doubt that temperature is the primary driver of fish metabolism, but biological factors play a part too, particularly egg/gonad development. My simplified take is that fish in a particular environment that gets cold enough in winter to cause relative dormancy for that species will 'strap on the feedbag' for a brief period prior to the cold. For smallies, that would be in the northern states and Canada, where the bite just before iceover can be spectacular. I think this has been so often repeated that we tend to expect a "fall frenzy" throughout the range. As you noted, that quite often leaves us Ozark anglers disenchanted and doubting. Added I've been a sucker for the fall frenzy stories as often as anyone, but (except for flatheads) I've given it up. The pain is short now, and easily forgotten in December and January. When it gets so cold my guides freeze and I have to dunk my reel just to bring in a hog 'eye or striper, I just think about those poor yanks with their tipups and chuckle.

My first visit was just a couple weeks ago, but I'll definitely be back. That and Undercliffs up at Tipton are topping my current 'where to eat' list. I like sourdough bread, but never had any that would rank it way above the other good breads. On the other hand, sourdough pancakes are miles above any other 'cakes. +++

Ah, I gotcha now. I'll bet they'd cook it if you could get your old buddy to send you some.

Catfish sure do.

Next time you're in Neosho, try Sam's Cellar on the NW corner of the square. Really good wood fired pizza.

Flatheads are the only Ozark fish I've personally experienced in a "fall frenzy". I just attribute it to the fact they become relatively dormant thru winter, and have to bulk up a bit to maintain. Smallies in the northern range may do the same (the yanks sure claim they do), but the abundance of springs and more moderate temps around here allow them to feed year 'round.

Rob a little starter to get a batch of pancake batter going. Man oh man, mighty good stuff.

I grew up on a N Mo farm, 2 of our 5 ponds were scourged with bullheads to the exclusion of everything else. Most folks I knew had the same, but I don't remember anyone liking it. There were times in late summer when nothing in the bass ponds would bite, but you could still have some fun in the bullhead ponds if you were too young to "know better". :-)

They just announced it Friday at the annual Beaver watershed symposium. Just a short bit in Saturday's paper. Online copy is subscriber only (not me).

Saw a little blurb in today's paper, the Beaver Lake Master Plan (COE) is up for revision. Last updated in '75, the original plan focused on land use of COE property. It appears the COE is now open to input on recreational use this time, specifically the option to declare certain areas "no wake" boating zones. Public bull sessions are expected. If you want a voice in the matter, the time is approaching.

A pretty good summary of Arkansas' stance; "... in Arkansas this concept was expanded in the 1980 case of Arkansas v. McIlroy 30 involving the Mulberry River. The evidence introduced in the case showed that the Mulberry had been used by the public for recreational purposes for many years. This included fishing, swimming, and canoeing. The court evaluated the standard definition of navigability but adopted what might be called the “pleasure boat” definition of navigability. For this purpose, the court suggested that it is not necessary that the stream be floatable at all times, but it can be deemed navigable based on its capability during part of the year for use by flat-bottomed boats for fishing or canoes for floating or both. The court acknowledged the traditional definition of navigability, which focused on the usefulness of the stream for transporting articles of commerce, but indicated that navigability may be influenced by recreational as well as commercial use of a stream. In the end, the court joined several other states that had ruled that a stream which supported recreational boating on a consistent basis was navigable. Thus, the riparian landowner was enjoined from interfering with the passage of recreational boaters on the Mulberry. The Arkansas court joined courts in California,31 Idaho,32 and Missouri,33 among others,34 in applying a state test of navigability for recreational purposes that is less restrictive than the traditional federal test..." *an excerpt from; http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCUQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnationalaglawcenter.org%2Fpublication%2Flooney-how-the-concept-of-navigability-may-determine-the-rights-of-landowners-along-streams-national-aglaw-center-publications-2002%2Fwppa_open%2F&ei=UKAkVP_RFsXroATJi4FQ&usg=AFQjCNEwMn0q6giVrAa9Hio5eQl4ncYGlA&bvm=bv.76247554,d.cGU And it is possible for an Arkansas stream to be deemed navigable in one county and not another. To be deemed navigable means that someone had to officially determine it. That was done for most of the major streams in Arkansas over a hundred years ago. Not so for many of the obscure little streams. Perhaps the best action would simply be to have the section in question "deemed" in court. Until it has been, one can assume that a landowner has just as fair a claim in court as a recreational user. Didn't they rent paddle boats on it below Lake Fayetteville? That could be evidence of commercial navigation.

Like this? Don't dismiss detachment so easily. I've spent exactly 0 hours and 0 minutes of my life worried about defending myself from attacks in my home, or anywhere else for that matter. Spending one's whole life worried about death just seems like such a waste.

Washing your worm, sexing your shad, there's only so much you can do with live bait... ...and that, as Martha would say, is a good thing.

Crawlers in ice water swell up and toughen up. Go easy on the chlorine.

Some of the resorts on Indian and Jaques Creek will let you fish from their docks for a minimal fee. Fishing where the fish are can easily be worth a 5-10 spot in those cases. For the dates you mention, try to find a spot 1/2 to 2/3 of the way back in the creek arms.

Not to worry, us real hillbillys may not own many slick rigs, but we don't mind being seen in one. :-) Too bad your recent taste of Beaver 'eyes wasn't up to par, on most days it's a far better bet for a good mess of fish than TR these days. Probably not as good a bet for a 10+, but those days are on the horizon.

To clarify what I meant; if we kick the dog (see US covert actions in the Soviet/Afghani war), we might get bit (see 9/11). Did they attack Brazil, Norway, or any other nation that historically minds its' own business? Don't mistake my thoughts for sympathy for the 9/11 perps in any way. There is none to be had for that despicable act. But it was hardly unprovoked, and as such, it should have been expected. That's the lesson we should pass on.

Lucy's final episode aired nearly a decade before the moon landing...

It's interesting that Websters online offers one definition of patriotism for 'English readers', and another for 'kids'. My personal experience with patriotism is centered around the one really big, good thing we've done as a nation in my lifetime, the one that I experienced. We, as a nation, sent some of our guys to the freakin' moon! I'm still so proud of that I could bust. Since then, we've done a lot of stuff I'm less proud of. Stuff that takes the shine off what we can and have accomplished as a nation. If we want our kids to learn from 9/11, it shouldn't be "you hurt me, I'll kill you", but rather "if you kick the dog, it might bite you". 200 years ago tonight, we battled the British at Fort McHenry till dawn. Francis Scott Key penned the national anthem the next morning. We kicked some butt that night. Sometimes, on the deck at night, it occurs to me that patriotism is ultimately divisive. As long as it exists we will be at war with (equally patriotic) fellow humans. What's the point in that? Peace and Love.

He drove his old car into a town. He scoured the farms for work. Where can we sleep the night? Well, there’s a Hooverville on the edge of the river. He drove his old car to Hooverville. He never asked again, for there was a Hooverville on the edge of every town. The rag town lay close to water; and the houses were tents, and weed-thatched enclosures, paper houses, a great junk pile. The man put up his own tent as near to water as he could get; or if he had no tent, he went to the city dump and brought back cartons and built a house of corrugated paper. And when the rains came the house melted and washed away. He settled in Hooverville and he scoured the countryside for work, and the little money he had went for gasoline to look for work. In the evening the men gathered and talked of the land they had seen… …Then, with time, the squatters were no longer squatters, but owners; and their children grew up and had children on the land. And the hunger was gone from them, the feral hunger, the gnawing, tearing hunger for land, for water and earth and the good sky over it, for the green thrusting grass, for the swelling roots. They had these things so completely that they did not know about them any more. They had no more the stomach-tearing lust for a rich acre and a shining blade to plow it, for seed and a windmill beating its wings in the air. They arose in the dark no more to hear the sleepy birds’ first chittering, and the morning wind around the house while they waited for the first light to go out to the dear acres. These things were lost… …And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of the dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on. John Steinbeck, from The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

Real nice fish!

Funny you brought that one up, that d thing still haunts me. These wackos had a fixture made into the center of a dining table that held a live monkey by the skull. The "patrons" had little clubs and hammers they beat the screaming little monkey with, then the maitre de sawed off the skull cap to serve the meal..., now I'm gonna dream about it again. :-(

It was called "Faces of Death", but it was on VHS, not broadcast TV. You had to want to watch it. Given the broadcast options at the time (The Love Boat, Three's Company, etc) it fit the bill for 'something different'.