Wayne SW/MO

This brings up a another good point. XL gets along very well with spinning reels, XT doesn't. A bait caster does best with a line with some memory. The memory tends to make the line lift off the spool during the cast reducing friction and adding to distance. Spinning reels do better with a limp, less memory, line. Spinning reels don't propel the line off, they remain stationary, it's pulled off in loops. The large guide on a spinning rod should be a hint that the line isn't going to leave without loops. The best line I've found for both reels is P-Line Original and I'm sure there are a few others. Its simply finding them among the many different formulas. co-polymers seem to be the best candidates.

The Nelly concert got shot down.

The original Fireline is fused, rather than braided. It is also a little larger in diameter. The stiffer the line the more memory. Spinning reels by there mechanical design will twist mono's and their cousins. One way to reduce twist significantly is to close the bail manually. I know this sounds too good to be true, but it does work and once you practice it a short time it will become natural. As someone said, reeling against the drag is a guaranteed way to twist the line. Learn to backreel, its much more dependable than a drag, and close the bail manually on a good line and you shouldn't need a swivel.

You want to be careful that you don't confuse King snakes and Copperheads, King snakes eat copperheads. They are very similar in color and appearance.

The Penobscot doesn't have they greatest initial stability which can make some uneasy. Its a great canoe, fast and has lots of secondary stability. You can stand in the Disco and the big Guide, if you're not too clumsy. Considering cost and the new little one, the Guide would be my choice to start with. Its as solid as the Disco 169.

Yes you can on the northwest side of the bridge. Just don't go to far upstream, to avoid a hassle. you can generally go downstream, or could, because the shoals are shallow enough to wade back up and the holes slow enough to paddle up. You can judge by the hole at the bridge.

What Cricket said, plus you can day fish for a small fee at Fort Niangua and Riverfront campground, use to be $3. Depending on the water level, there's some wading at Prosperine. Southeast of Lebanon not far is the lower Osage Fork and all the MDC accesses are wadable. The fishing can be very good at times.

You shouldn't have any problems as long as you have water. They do draft a lot with a load. Wind is there worst enemy, they catch it worst then anything I've had.

Cottonmouths aren't very common in Missouri and they spend most of there time on the bank. I've never personally seen one on a lake, but I've seen a few, very few, on creeks and rivers. I'm sure I passed many without ever seeing them. Copperheads are much more common, but seemingly not widespread. If you see one there are probably others. They tend to stay hidden, so don't get to close to wood or rocks that they can hide in. I've only seen one rattlesnake in Missouri, in Dallas Co., and was close to 4' long and 3" across. He had been run over and killed, but would have pack a punch when he was alive. We had a small pond well back in the woods that had a moccasin in it. I was always cautious when I went fishing there to make sure it was where i was fishing. One day I was sitting on the back fishing for cats and herad my Husky making a racket in the leaves about ten feet behind me. Suddenly here came the moccasin heading for the water, and I was in the way. I still laugh because before I could make my planned escape, running, he went by me about 2' away and into the water. In retrospect, I imagine he never saw me standing there frozen in fear.

There's a lot of misinformation about braid cutting guides. You have to look at how this can occur. Braid has two properties that can cause this, the ability to hold grit and the ability to put unrealistic pressure, for the diameter, on the guides. I don't throw my rods down where they might get abused, or pick up dirt and grit. i also don't use the real small braid. 20/6 works well and if you don't put pressure on it like the 20# rating allows, it won't cut even cheaper guides. If you get hung up, use a piece of wood, or something round to hold the braid when exerting full pressure, don't use the rod guides. I've used braid almost from the time it hit the market, the new braids, and never had a problem, but I'm aware that its small diameter combined with all the pressure that it can bear can cause problems. I might add that while it may seem troublesome to some, a braid with a fluorocarbon leader is hard to beat. By using a leader of fluorocarbon you can adjust for conditions. You can use the best FC, in the most appropriate diameter, and allow the braid to last years. I recently turned two braids around hat were 4 years old and very close to their original length. If I get 8 years out of them, that's a bargain line.

The Disco has some rocker, but I can't tell you how much, I can tell you it isn't enough to make any difference. No one mentioned the 160 Guide, its very stable and cheaper. Its a tank like the others mentioned, heavy and hard to paddle with a big load, but any canoe with a wide beam is hard to paddle, period.

It appears that a lot of people are misinformed. The landing isn't on a flood control lake and in fact Taneycomo has very little room for high water. Bull Shoals has the highest capacity of the three flood control lakes on the White and Beaver the least. They have very little capacity to work with on Beaver so the bulk of the storage is on TR and BS, but all of the upper watershed in Mo and AR has to come through TR and it doesn't have the capacity of BS. There have been times when even the three lakes haven't been enough and the White floods. There wouldn't be lakes if not for flood control, and no amount of complaining is going to change was is physically impossible. If there was no longer a need for flood control the dam busters would insist they be removed, and then what? Could they justify their reason to exist on power produced alone? I don't like it, Forsyth community center and Shadow Rock Park flood quite often also, but the no amount of complaining is going to change what is, short of building another lake below BS and Norfolk on the White. Imagine the howl that would bring.

Back when we lived farther away and had kids with us, the thing we looked at most often was the time cost ratio. As long as everyone could enjoy them selves then the amount of time spent compared to cost was important. Miniature golf was always high on the list. Silver Dollar city is a good example, or was, when for $25 a head you could spend a day and a half there.

Campers point is a low point, below the high water line, on the west side of James river arm. You can drive to it and its fairly popular. It generally stays pretty clean so I have little doubt that the trash was the work of one bunch.

You should try the area on Bull Shoals around Forsyth and Beaver Creek. Large boats, PWC's and skiers are pretty much non-existent.

These little streams are subject to the whims of high water, so its hard to get up to date info. Caution seems to be the key, that and the ability to read the current to avoid being pulled in to someplace you don't want to be. I haven't been on the creek in a couple of years, but I assume to log blocking it above EE is still there.

Our streams, unlike our lakes, offer access to most of the fish population with no equipment or investment of any size. The result is you see a much more diverse group of people, many of whom are there for fish to take home. These people don't pay a lot of attention to rules and regulations unless they are reminded streamside. If they don't understand a slot limit, or know the difference between a largemouth and a smallmouth, or carry a ruler, then the regulation most likely only affect C&R fisherman and be ignored by those who bank fish or wade for fillets. If regulations aren't simple, clear, and easy they'll be ignored.

The problem I see with separation is identification. I'm not convinced that all that many people can tell the difference. A point would be the Goggle Eye and the Ozark bass. A lot of fisherman don't realize they are two different species.

I don't think its unreasonable to expect stream smallmouths in Missouri to get as much attention and regulating as trout do.

That could depend on where you've been and what you've observed.

Or Lead Mine has a ramp. Like Cricket said, Mt Creek is a good option, its the next driveway pass Prosperine.

That's not true everywhere. The poultry industry in this area does a good job of supplying them. I don't think they are all illegal either, either way they bring the bad habits of their country to ours. I don't know if their fishing habits are are as bad as their habit of trashing places. The areas I run into that they fish often are full of trash, they don't carry anything out.

I fished a western river for 12 years that was prime smallmouth waters and virtually C&R due to its isolation. This river was much like ours here in the fact that the levels fluctuated considerably and included some drought levels. While there was the occasional super spawn and the gut of small fish that followed, overall it remained about like the larger rivers here in terms of quality. If you could find them they were there. My buddy and I had some days of 50 fish or more, 98% of them under 12"s. We also had days when we put 25 or more in the boat that were 14" and over. I netted a 21" for my buddy and the 16-18" fish came occasionally. My point is that I believe nature will take care of the balance if you get man out of the equation as much as possible. If they spent half as much time worrying about smallies as they do trout, a non native renewable sport fish, our smallie fishing would improve. The 800 pound gorilla is in the $$$, trout pay for themselves, at least they are supposed to, and Smallies are on the low end of the economic gain in Missouri. The only thing left, short of more money is more voices to insure that they realize its important to a lot more fishermen than meets the eye.

Huh?