bfishn

They do, or at least they used to. Around $20 in the '90s. 11x17" slab of the entire watershed in 10' intervals.

News from the AP; STEELVILLE, Mo. (AP) — An eastern Missouri man is charged with second-degree murder after allegedly shooting another man following an argument along the Meramec River. The shooting happened Saturday afternoon. Crawford County Sheriff Randy Martin says 48-year-old Paul Dart Jr. of Franklin County and 59-year-old James Crocker of Steelville became involved in a dispute over whether Dart was on public or private property near Steelville. Dart was shot in the head and killed. Martin says Crocker then went to a neighboring home and asked a woman to call 911 because he had just shot someone on the river. Crocker is jailed on $650,000 cash-only bond. He does not yet have a listed attorney

From the Sullivan Journal; STEELVILLE – A Saturday afternoon float trip on the Meramec River has left one man dead and another in custody after a dispute led to a fatal shooting west of the Highway 19 Bridge south of Cuba. The shooting took place near Meramec Estate Lane, which is in a remote area off Highway T between Steelville and Cuba. Crawford County Sheriff Randy Martin said the victim was apparently floating on the river when he became involved in an altercation with the suspect. Radio traffic indicated that the dispute might have involved someone throwing rocks – that has not been confirmed by the Sullivan Journal. “All I can tell you right now is apparently there was some sort of dispute on the river and now we have a guy that is deceased,” said Martin Saturday afternoon from Hutson Funeral Home in Steelville, where the body of the victim was transferred. Martin said the victim died from a gunshot wound. The suspect remained on the scene after the shooting and was taken into custody by sheriff deputies. Martin said that a handgun was used in the shooting, but that he did not know the caliber or make/model. “All I can say is that it was a handgun and it has been recovered,” Martin said. “But I haven’t seen it yet.” Initial radio-traffic reports indicated that the victim was shot in the head sometime around 2 p.m. Martin said that he believes the victim is not local, but that the suspect may live in the area where the shooting took place. “I don’t believe the shooter belonged to the home that initially called,” Martin said. The sheriff stated that names, ages, and addresses would be released after relatives of the deceased are notified and more information is collected. Martin said the initial 911 call came from a home on Meramec Estates, which is an area consisting of several homes along the river. The homes are near the end of Highway T, which dead-ends near the river about four miles northwest of Steelville. The area is very remote and difficult to access, but is part of a popular floating route. The river remained packed with canoes, rafts, and tubes late Saturday afternoon. At about 3:30 p.m., a white Crawford County Sheriff’s Department van pulled into the Hutson Funeral Home parking lot. About a half-dozen witnesses to the shooting clad in swimwear and beach attire exited, only to be met by several law enforcement officers – including the Missouri State Highway Patrol, county deputies, and Steelville Police Dept. officers. About 10 minutes later, they were transported to an undisclosed location to give statements. “We will be interviewing witnesses this evening,” Martin said. “Hopefully we will have something to release (to the media) Sunday.”

That alone made the trip worthwhile. At least it did for me... :-)

Given that LM prevail in the Arkansas portions of Little Sugar, there's no doubt some have washed out of the Bella Vista lakes. I've seen some nice ones in the holes in Tanyard Creek and Thief Hollow Branch between the lakes and LS after a flood. I doubt the 12lb channel I caught in the creek was hatched there either. That said, they're probably way safer in the creek than they were in the lake... :-)

There were several double spots whenever this was snapped (this year). Predictions for your TOA are unavailable at the moment...

I can't remember what lake it was (not Beaver), but I read a radio-tracking study years ago that had the stripers at the dam at dawn, 30 (river) miles uplake by early PM, and back at the dam by sunset. That was a daily occurence all summer.

A Johnny Ray quick-release swivel mount and an extra base will let you swap locations easily. A transducer extension cable and an extra power cable will get you hooked up. Unplug at the back and connect the extension and you're ready to move. You can temporarily test for a thru-hull shot by making a ~6" "pond" out of Mortite rope caulk at the spot. Weight the xdcr in it and fill it with water to eliminate air between the face and the hull. If you like it, break out the epoxy, if not, no loss.

Yep. Good deals on tools too; http://www.atozwarehouse.com/sporting-goods.html

Like Dad used to say; "Don't quit milkin' till she's dry". :-)

Just as well, since F&F's formula is only valid in a theoretical, 2-dimensional, static plane. The horizontal, right-to-left scale displays time. No more, no less. Every time the unit pulses, one or more new vertical rows of pixels appears on the right while vanishing from the left as history. As long as a target is reflecting a signal, it will be displayed horizontally in the time scale. The length of that mark is determined by; boat speed chart speed depth to target target movement relative to xdcr target position in pulse coverage area The first 3 are fairly intuitive, but the last 2 deserve a closer look. Active fish are seldom motionless in the water column, particularly with a boat passing right overhead. 1-2mph (trolling/idling speeds) are pretty common for short natural movements, spooked or feeding fish move even faster. So while the length of a mark may theoretically yeild a close idea of fish size for an immobile fish, it's far less relavent in a world where fish don't sit still. If a fish is moving the same direction as the boat, it could be on the screen a long time. Going the opposite way may leave just a blip. Side-to-side's another story yet, and one that's off to the side of the boat, just getting clipped by the edge of the pulse beam will mark way shorter than the same fish sitting in the center at the same depth and being sampled for a longer time.

Good stuff, thank you. Last time I was there, they weren't.

Absolutely. All other things equal (screen resolution & light sensitivity) B&W will view as good at depths as color. Once you get below 5-10 feet, it's all pretty much contrast anyway, with color being green & white instead of black & white.

At the risk of repetition,

Two or three places by Houseman access, Charlies Cabins is the only one I remember the name of.

It's what's in the water at different temps. Not much in the way of plankton to reflect a signal in the winter (compared to summer).

+1 Unless you can catch the fish you mark to verify what it is, or see them on a camera, consistently determining the species and size is a crapshoot. You can draw some general conclusions that are often correct, but almost as many times you'll be wrong. Spend a lot of time with a camera down and the graph on, and you'll see what I mean. It's a very enlightening and often humbling experience that can show you what you thought you knew was wrong. I spent a lot of time with a camera, and when you're looking, you're not fishing, but for me it was time well spent. YMMV.

Evolution of the human genus has peaked. De-evolution is real. Scratch-n-Sniff Honey Boo Boo; http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20710196,00.html

Welcome Bill & Heather! I lived just outside Gravette for a stint back in the '80s, there's some mighty fine folks there. Finding new freinds there into BBQ & fishing should be easy, just strike up a chat with driver of the the occasional fishing rig you see at the C store. Camping or floating may be harder, most I knew felt those were tourist activities. When you get your first invitation, forego the bottle of wine for a 12-pak of Milwaukee's Best. Trust me. As for public access... you're 'in a tight spot' to quote "O Brother...". There's the Elk you know of course, but it's a fair drive to much anything else. Yakking in Spavinaw Creek might get you arrested or worse. Crystal Lake at Decatur is fairly fishy and yak-freindly. At times Little Sugar is floatable thru Bella Vista, and it gets almost no pressure (there's fish there too), but limit your land activities strictly to the highway bridges to avoid problems there. On the OK side, there's Eucha (Oochie) and a bit of Spavinaw above it. Good fishing there. And if you run across a grizzled old guy named Roy sleeping one off in a road ditch, don't be afraid to give him a lift home, he's harmless. He also knows all the best morel mushroom spots. :-)

Cool! There's some good summer cattin' in Coose, but it's way to the back. When you run out of 25' water, you're starting to get there. In particular, there are 3 what I call gravel washes, 2 on the east bank, one west, where the visible bank shows a cut, but the gravel/soil that used to be in the cut is washed out in a fan-shaped flat pile underwater. Sometimes they're up on top in 3-5', but more often they're up against the break where the wash drops to the bottom (from about 8 to 16'. (Those breaks pile up nightime November stripers too). Daytime finds the kitties moving out to the barely noticeable creek channel, or the first two hard creek bends (short visible bluffs on the bank), with the snaggy break on the second being the best (drops from 15 to 30'). Fresh cut shad is the ticket.

It was an honor, a recognition of an outstanding resource, and a suggestion on how to keep it that way. After we spit on it and threw it back, it won't likely be offered again.

I think it's kinda silly too, but if I were a fisherwoman I might be pokin' my chest out a little more proudly of late. I, for one, enjoy women's chests. ;-) That said, I have to chuckle when I see some of you fellas conveniently lay your 'states rights' flags on the ground when an opportunity for gub'mint bashing arises. Reminder; It's not our gub'mint, it's Washington state's. And it's their right.

It's especially amazing at a time when they claim to trust no one... 'cept maybe grammy and the preacher... and a handful of wack-job bloggers and chain email spammers... and maybe that guy at the end of the bar with the tin foil hat. And then there's that.

The Kentucky Colonels, Old and In the Way Nobody smokes a fiddle like Vassar.

Welcome!