Wayne SW/MO

The best thing that ever happened to canoes was the ability to take them from mind to form, cheap.

I understand that there is a revival in commercial fishing in Illinois for this very reason. A commercial market wouldn't hurt anything thats for sure. And with no regulations except to protect native species, I would think it could be profitable.

I would imagine Teddy Roosevelt could tell you. They walked, but the Red river slowed them down quite a bit. They started crossing it in the 70's, and now here they are.

Made that for years, but we do it slightly different. We line the Dutch with AL foil, pour 2 regular cans of fruit or pie filling in, put one regular sized cake mix on top of it, place pats of butter or margarine on top of the mix, and sprinkle a little sugar on it. We generally cook ours 40-45 minutes. We like Spice cake over peaches with sugar, cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg on top. Its hard to beat a dutch for camp cooking versatility.

I believe the LM bass is native, but was probably in much fewer numbers than the Smallmouth because clean, still water was scarce. The northern part of the state may heve been an exception, or not?

Its been a while, but I don't remember them having any large amount of red meat, certainly no more than say, a Wiper or a Spoonbill? You can take any bony fish, Carp, Buffalo, Drum, Sucker,and the infamous Trout! Cut it into chunks, put it in a smoker or the cold side of a grill and give it a shot of wood smoke. can it according to direction and you will have a hard time telling it from Salmon.

Dog works, but the regular sized cans of Wal Mart Cat food works better, it looser and oily. Just punch several holes in both ends with a juice can punch.

So what day is it? KFF, you don't have far to go.

I don't think Missouri has enough of them to plan on a fish fry. It would be interesting to catch one though. There are 2 species I believe, Chain and Grass.

Watch the area over toward Buffalo back south to I-44, that area to Windyville has a lot to do with the river level, more so than rain in the west laclede county area.

riverat can probably confirm or deny, but with the water levels I would imagine that stretch is popular with power boaters now.

There are a lot of variables to take in to account when discussing whats native and whats not in 2007, so many that its difficult to arrive at a realistic conclusion. We have 3 different groups, those that have been here before man affected them, or so we think. Those that were deliberately introduced, and those that were accidental introduced. Beyond the former is the group of species that have been expanded by man, have found friendly environments created by man, and species that have been introduced inadvertently. Eventually our descendent's will wonder what the problem is, after all the lakes have been here forever.

I agree with Wrench, given the age and the fact its been revised, I would lean toward the Paddlers Guide. You might consider the float from Gasconade Hills to Hazel Green, the Hills might shuttle you on that.

gavin why did you list the Largemouth as non-native?

My grandma use to bake them, her standard was 12#. She'd skin them and remove any colored meat and then bake. The bones were all large enough to not pose any danger.

Many do GF, and as far as a sport fish, whats that? If its "Fun" then any fish that can be caught on flyrod, casting or spinning should qualify, right?

Well there are areas in the state where crawdads have been hauled over the hill from one watershed to another, where they promptly put some of the native species on their way out.

Well they haven't for Smallies. Smallies have been fighting low water, which makes them vulnerable in so many ways, the invasion of the Kentucky/Spotted bass to some of their waters, and no change has come. There are some streams that should have been closed to fishing for Smallie, but they weren't. So if you think a state wide limit would be put in force in the face of some threat, it wouldn't The commission is more into making people happy than secure, something that has change from the 50's and 60's. If you read their minutes you'll find that there is often reluctance to enforce regulations in force.

Its an unfortunate sign of the times, they wouldn't close 76 for a few hours in June, but they'll shutdown Taney. There was a time when Branson would have come unglued at the thought of interrupting the fishing of visitors.

Well you had to bring up crawdads, truth is some of them have been moved where they're not wanted and are upsetting the apple cart.

Absolutely, Branson has gone from an entertainment mecca to an overgrown shopping mall. The entertainment industry has taken a back seat to investment real estate and retail marketing something fast approaching the same thing available at home for many tourist. The shows, SDC, and Taney, all of which are unique, are taking a back seat. I don't think Taney even gets any consideration from Branson anymore, but you have to ask "Where was the MDC, but more important, where was the DNR?"

Leonard, have you cleaned many of them?

Smallmouth are probably a good example of adaption, even though many may not think so. Lakes are not an environment that Smallies seek out, while Largemouth will seek out waters in a stream that mimic a lake or pond, Smallies normally don't get far from a current flow. Smallies have adapted well to lakes like BS and TR, buts its an environment in which they could be considered non-native, in a sense, even though the chanell is their historic home. The same can be said for the Goggle Eye and Kentuckies in TR.

The camouflaged suckers that are small but plentiful in most southern streams are Northern Hog Suckers, but the common name is Hog Molly in many areas.

I couldn't resist looking up the name of the biggest Missouri Crawdad, its the Longpincer, and its native to the White, which I knew. I don't know how big they get, but I've seen them with bodies close to 5". If you're worried about losing your traps, drop them right off shore from a landmark in water that is 3' deep according to a pole. Put a large treble, with the points cut off for safety, on the end of the pole. If you put a length of small diameter rope about 5' long, with a weight on the end, and place the trap in an area that you can get in on tight, you can snag it or the rope with your depth pole. Funnel crawdad traps have a 1 1/2" opening. The ramp type works better though.