bfishn

Yep, still at it. Currently OK is trying to adopt reasonable new TDSLs, while the chickens are trying to kick the can another decade down the road. Maybe some extra public interest in the headwaters will finally draw it to a close. Maybe not, those chickens have some 'spensive lawyers. :-)

Ha! Sort of actually, they sure sucked the life right out of my fishin' with their spotlights and their motor-dyin', rock-bangin', prop-grindin', 'whar-dem-walleye-at' hollerin'...

It's way mo' better then for sure, but I've even had a couple rude encounters in February... at night. All it takes is for some fool to sqwawk to the Morning News about the jack salmon.

Some will laugh, Some will cry, Some will pause and wonder why. http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=441282 "There's going to be engineered rapids, there's also going to be a climbing wall, area for picnicking, kind of a low beach area for small kids to hang out on, it's just going to be a beautiful area." The kayak park will cost about 1.7 million dollars, but is fully funded by the Walton Family Foundation. I wonder how/if this will play in the ChickiePoo War...?

Romp Hole Access was created to put boats in. Launch away!

Mighty fine!

I've seen that happen at least half a dozen times at that spot. Closest call was when one was running in while another was coming out and I was sitting just out of their paths at the end of the bluff. I just knew either they were kissing head on, or one would dodge towards me... the bass boat headed in cut a hard left just before the shallows, and the pontoon barged right on thru the middle without a care in the world. That's one of my favorite spots, but I don't tarry there long anymore.

There are always "issues" with a river system. The downstreamers are always either the victims or the beneficiaries of the actions of the upstreamers. The recent dissent between MDC and AGFC over stocking stripers in Bull might have had different results had a third, fourth, and fifth party been in the room. Or maybe the same result, but with all parties on board. We've got two agencies managing fish and game, another with the mandate of flood control, multiples drawing water for public use, and a host of others with interests in ecology, tourism, etc., etc, Doesn't it make sense for them to occasionally get together to see what the other players have to say about a planned action before they take that action?

If the commitee was chaired by new members, as an additional oversight body with legislative powers, you'd have a good point. In this case, it will be chaired by the very people that are already in the oversight business of the White River basin, allowing a shortcut to the de facto method of doing business. A perfect example of the de facto method's inefficiency is the decades' old fight between Arkansas and Oklahoma over water quality in the Illinois River watershed. A recent article describes the current status of that stalemate; http://muskogeephoenix.com/local/x1999354920/SUNDAY-EXTRA-Ark-groups-tried-to-get-delay-in-river-standard That battle has raged for years, given rise to (very expensive) interstate lawsuits, and stirred hate and discontent among families and neighbors on different sides of the state line. It didn't/doesn't have to be that way. Perhaps if all the players were represented by such a commitee and resources that the Blueway designation offers, and had to debate face to face instead of hiding behind their lawyers, this matter could have been resolved long ago. Perhaps not. My vote would be to give it a try though.

The "potential for additional regulations" has always existed and will continue to exist with or without the designation. Where was all the fear and paranoia the last 50 years? More after work.

Was that one of those "Have Your Brother for Brunch" doin's I keep hearing about?

From experience chasing flatheads on jugs at night, any use of a trolling motor can spook them at 40 feet, and sudden changes in direction can be as bad as instant on. Same for thrownetting visible gizzard shad in the shallows, but you can get much closer to them before they spook. Conversely, I've caught scattered, lone winter walleye that I marked only 5-6 feet below the TM transducer. The TM was on tracking mode, so it was continuously turning and ramping up and down, but the lure was trolled behind the boat. As long as I manuvered to put the lure exactly where the mark was, the fish was still there after the TM recently buzzing just a few feet overhead. For my activities, a TM is crucial to the presentation, I just do everything I can to make it as unobtrusive as possible. I honestly don't believe that a bass relating to cover in an aggressive ambush position will care unless you give him a crewcut with the prop. :-) Added The examples above where I know the TM spooked fish were all on slick water. I've not yet seen any evidence of the same when there was any significant wave action. I experimented a bit once with an underwater microphone, and can attest that even a little wind makes a lot of noise.

All clear now, thanks.

?????? the mean heck what that does ??????

I get bass on the pipe, heck, they hit monkey wrenches too... durn hungry monkeys don't stand a chance. Now I'm wondering... does 5 DD22s on an A-rig do 110 feet? (sorry, I shouldn't look at this at work) :-)

I read that article too, but I'd use "paranoia" in place of "apprehension" regarding the pol poll, the latter being somewhat justifiable, the former, not so much. Blueway designation adds no new regulations or protective status. The intended goal is to link input and resources from all the stakeholders (Fed & State agencies, landownwers, municipalities, commercial enterprises etc) for their mutual benefit. One would think with all the hubbub about government inefficiency, this would be a no-brainer, but as usual, some seem bent on creating conspiracy theories. http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=298557 As Al noted, the designation was jointly supported and sponsored by the MDC, the AGFC, Ducks Unlimited, and many others. http://www.agfc.com/resources/enewsletters1/2013_AWM_mar_blueway.pdf It seems to me that cooperation between MDC, AGFC, USACE, and private stakeholders prior to making policy decisions would be an improvement over what we've had. The Feds already have the authority to do "dam" near anything they want in this regard, so there's no new danger, and the designation allows more local public input into their actions.

Salute dgames! Well done!

Like jdmidwest, I get my news from the web, (Google News is my home page). I agree that Rueters is one of the best, as in just the facts, sans personal opinion and spin. What I like best about Google News is the ease of which you can read so many versions of the same event. Doing this repeatedly exposes the sources that regularly skew a story to suit their politics. It's also enlightening to occasionally see how the rest of the world pans an event via the major outlets in China NZ, the middle east, etc. It's hard (if not impossible) to reach informed conclusions from a single source. And there's plenty of left-bashing, right-bashing, and bash-bashing sources for those so inclined. :-)

Cool! That brings back some memories (not all fond). I had a '71 that was literally a tank... olive drab paint, drove like a tank, rode like a tank, and sucked fuel like a tank (~8mpg). There's a story of when my girlfriend at the time got hold of it at an outdoor party once, but I can't tell it here. :-)

A shadnado is an inverted cone-shaped mass of small shad swimming in a circle under the light, gleefully gobbling up zooplankton the light attracts. Left to grow under the light, the mass can number in the thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of individual shad by dawn, with the ones directly under the boat bumping into it with machine-gun-like staccato. This is the goal of light fishing. If it doesn't happen, you're in the wrong place. A couple times I've untethered the boat and drifted very slowly in the breeze, bringing the shad along with me, catching suspended fish that hadn't been close enough to notice the buffet. Sometimes a school of fish will rage on the shadnado and disperse it for a bit, but mostly they just hang out near the edges picking off stragglers. Just outside the shad (and just under) is where you want to be fishing. I like to use slip bobbers with tiny cyalume sticks zip-tied to the upper stem. When everything goes right it's a real hoot, and the sun will be coming up before you're ready. The best light fishing is in the darkest place you can find (with shad, of course) in the dark of the moon.

I sincerely feel sorry for some of you, the grass is pretty green on my side of the fence... I don't own a home or land, my personal property taxes were like $90 last year. My income's pretty modest, glad I don't make enough to have to sweat that tax burden. No bothersome investments to be taxed on. I eat most of the fish I catch (I throw all the bass back for those less fortunate). The tax on the single sack of store-bought vittles I buy each week isn't that bad. My family's all dead but one, no estate tax in my future. If everyone complaining about their taxes only had it as good as I do...

2007

Hmmm.... I'm still trying to get my head around the multigenerational family thing... what other kind is there? Click. Guess they prob'ly mean alive. :-) A local acquaintance recently had a similar request for a redneck squirrel/misc critter killin' show. Interest waned after his interview, he blames it on having too many teeth and a weak tag line (Aarrrrggghh).

Shaddox is good for both crappie and cats, with a ramp right there handy for late night loadout. (Might want to scout the ramp given the lake level). There's some really nice flatheads in there, but your lines won't likely be the only ones there now. That said, light fishing will be diminished if you're in a spot the early full moon shines on. Up next to a tall, west-facing bluff will keep you shaded from the moonlight long enough to get a good bait swarm going. Once they're there, they'll stay.

Member rps posted his solution not too far back, IIRC he used a snap in place of the split rings.