Wayne SW/MO

I don't think the Fort has ever been that successful, but Rogers has been.

It sure does! They ran a sting on the Niangua several years ago and cleaned up on boats and fines. I've never caught big smallies in the Prosperine area, but there is always a good population, at least until the gigging season opens and I know that's not a coincidence. It happened every fall without fail. It has nothing to do with jet boats, they're just one type of boat. Any boat you can hang stadium lights on and put a 5000watt generator in will work.

Anybody know who bought it? Wasn't Jim was it?

Oops, meant ask if anyone has checked the water temperature below the dam?

Perfectly? I agree, at least I haven't seen one. It has been my experience however that the Rogue needs more than most. I'm not sure about the "wobble", the Pointer and the X-Rap have what I call a rocking motion with the Pointer's being the most pronounced. An X-Rap is not a Pointer, but for the cost I think its close enough more often than not. I'll admit 50 degrees is about the bottom limit of what I fish, but I do fish a lot in that range. I've had lots of opportunities to fish the Rogue and the X-rap side by side in the Pothole and for me its action goes to the X-Rap and colors to the Rogue. As far as effectiveness on Jack Salmon (sorry I'm old and didn't grow up with Walleyes) in my hands, they're about even in ineffectiveness.

They're not accidents, they see better than you or I do in sunlight. There is no limitations on gigging, not trout, not equipment, none and its not the sport that's protected, but the harvest. They have literally "overgigged" and in order to feed the crowd that always follows the traditional, they take 8" Hog Molly's and any smallmouth they think they can get away with. They've pretty well wiped out the big Redhorses. I don't think the problem lies in the sport, but in the equipment and the "new" members it draws. Its about as close to shooting fish in a barrel as one can get, with metal halide lighting, gas motors, light weight gigs, and cell phones, there's little resemblance to wooden shaft gigs, paddles and pine bolls. The new gigger can go deeper and spear a fish frozen in a blinding light, and then use the phone to insure its safe to bring illegal fish to the pot. I suspect that if a real effort was made to limit gigging to something that resembled the old sport it would be successful if done right. A picture is worth a thousand words and in this case could probably acquire thousands of allies.

I wondered if they might. Shuttles are hard to come by on the Niangua for some reason. I know that during the season everyone is busy, but off season many have a lot of time on their hands. I wouldn't leave a burned out junker at Moon Valley very long, but the other accesses, especially the private ones, seem alright. If you have your own shuttle, Riverside to Barclay is a good float. I don't know if Sand Springs and Riverside are still affiliated, anyone know?

Cajunangler its probably not as far off topic as one would think, both Stripers and Bow's show up in the Pothole.

I like it here, but i might be prejudiced. If I were to take a long trip, it would be back to the John Day river in Oregon, one of the best smallmouth rivers.

They're nice people and they carried on the Weaver's tradition well.

My daughter uses the services of a naturalist, but I'm still something of a skeptic. I'm in remission from five cancers, 3 serious, so I can't fault modern medical science either.

Who shuttles you when you float the Niangua in the winter? You're right that the trout travel upstream in the winter, they've been caught above Ft Niangua. There are also areas where the smallies are active also.

Did they separate the violations between hunting and fishing by chance? It would be interesting to know if any were fishing violations and what would bring on this kind of punishment.

SMJoe you might look at some rivers that are a little closer to civilization. This time of the year you can still get the solitude, but be closer to help in an emergency. When it comes to firewood, its hard to beat a Gerber folding saw. You can buy extra blades and the unit folded takes up little room. I've done some floating on some very remote rivers in the west, and I'm not a fan of anything that can become an accident,, chain saws and axes fit that description for me.

That's great news Oneshot.

Just a thought, but I wonder if they could interest some university programs? Maybe MSU's wildlife oriented program?

A metal coffee can with a roll of toilet paper in it (remove the core and pack it in tight) saturated with alcohol will keep you reasonably warm and although it burns O2, it doesn't produce any other harmful fumes. You can get the alcohol at Lowes or HD in the paint dept. You extinguish by putting the plastic lid back on. No matter what you have to camp with you have to be able to survive a spill, and that can be hard if you're not prepared. A pair of cheap neoprene's and a belt will not only give you flotation but keep you reasonably dry. The are some heap dry tops on the market that should work fine on Ozark streams. Wool is a another good choice for shirts and pants because it will provide warmth when wet. I have two of the original ones and there's nothing tougher. You can reduce them a lot better with a pump than by hand, but you don't need a pump to inflate them. Thet also provide some flotation, if they are secured, in case of a spill.

I think I would disagree.

I do think the questions have to be carefully worded to get the best accuracy.

There area lot of ifs, but if there is enough interest towards the west, and we can use the facilities, we could possibly alternate sites.

Welcome. I was a laclede county resident for a time.

I think that's very good advice. Matt I'll contact the Center and see if its possible and when.

Eric i haven't known, or talked to many biologist, but everyone I have seems to have a narrow interest. One of the most memorable was when I expressed some displeasure in there being no limit on a burgeoning largemouth population in a high altitude reservoir. The lake above it had been illegally stocked with LM and had become well known, not to mention an economic asset, because of the LM. Early predictions that they would decimate the Rainbows didn't pan out, and it was then being manage with the LM, but each lake had its own Biologist. The fish naturally wandered down stream and became an even better fishery in the lake below. His response was that they were not native and therefore it didn't matter whether they were an asset or not. The problem I had with this was, the lake was formed by a dam and the most popular species, besides the LM, were Kokanee and Browns, one not native to the watershed and the other not native to the continent!!! When I pointed this out he abruptly realized he was very busy.

Shallow water getting colder???

I don't think its letter that lacks support, but a consensus on regulations. For the MDC to consider something it has to be friendly to a perceived maximum use of the resource without degrading it. While I would have no problem with some of the more restrictive regulations, I think the MDC would. We have to keep in mind that we don't know the background and interest of many of these biologist. I suspect that's a bigger problem than we realize.