ColdWaterFshr

Drove over Bourbeuse yesterday on i-44 at Union. The field on the south side is almost completely flooded.

That ford at Parker is probably deemed a legal crossing point, along with several others. My problem with stream crossings is when it becomes a joyriding activity, but the yocals scream and holler defending that it is for agricultural or functional transportation purposes. But there is no functional or logistical reason to cross at Parker that I can determine, other than for pure 4-wheeling redneck satisfaction. And I'm sure its great fun, but were I to witness a serious injury or the sinking destruction of a prized motorized possession by some yahoo at 2 a.m. . . . don't pass me any tissues, I would shed no tear. Hoosiers behaving badly? I actually have much deeper regard for the watercress.

Ozark TF - where was all this late night ATV river crossing happening? At Parker? Or up near Derry Berry hole? Did you report it to the park rangers? Spotlighting your tent goes a little above and beyond the usual midnight ATV jackasses. It almost sounds like some locals giving retribution for the whole ONSR bickering thats been going on.

Nice story riverrat

When I was in sophomore in college, I had the EXACT same situation come up. I had 3 room-mates and they were all flaky, lazy as he11, perpetually cash-poor, and absolute masters of theft. Ramen noodles, girlfriends, and beer were commonly stolen with empty promises of re-payment and with ZERO conscience or regard for personal property. Cornered with more than circumstantial evidence on many occasions, my accusations and outrage at such acts of thievery were often responded to with far less than a formal apology, and more usually met with laughter. And no one, I mean no one ever did the f'n dishes or cleaned the toilet. Yes, Hoffmeyer, I'm talking to you if you are out there reading this post right now. You will learn these lessons in due time, but I tend to agree with the others. But despite a high degree of mistrust and loathing for one another, my college chums and I all shared in our love of fishing and competing on the BASS tournament circuit and the dream of having our own boat was very real. We came up with a plan and stuck to it. By the fall semester of our senior year, we had saved enough aluminum cans from beer drinking, convinced as we were that we could rid the world of the scourge of alcohol by drinking ALL of it, we had saved something like 700 lbs of aluminum. Enough to buy some plywood and a working 3-hp outboard. Over the course of a weekend we built the SS Natalie Lite. Here is a picture of us on our maiden voyage on Lake Springfield:

Thinking of you, Mitch. Lost both of my parents as well. Not an easy time you're going through right now, but as Ness said, it gets a little easier.

Well done!

Wasn't sure at first, until the cut away shot came . . . . yes, that really was a camera mounted on the net. Genius!

supercool

The band is Deep Fried Squirrel, or that's what your BBQ'ing?

Nice clip. Been a while since I've watched that one, might have to revisit. I got a theory to match your theory. Most of my big fish have come in the early spring, and yes, it seems like they were sunny days, though not all of them. I think the sun is a good thing when it is warming cold water, which we all know a degree or two or three increase this time of year can trigger a feeding spree, particularly from the bigger fish. In the same way, a warm rain can raise the water temps, which would contradict the sunny theory. I think temperature increase is the common denominator to your theory, and not just the fact that it may be sunny.

I can't get too upset by it either. I think shuffling could really only appeal to the most novice of trout fisherman, particularly one who has been frustrated or stood-up too many times and so now this new fool-proof technique is his way of paying back to salmonid nation for all the grief he's got! Or it certainly appeals to the meat-fisher, who's going to get his limit and be gone soon enough anyway. Either way, standing in those hatchery chutes to fish to the congregated fish there --- really seems depressing to me. Those are the areas they need to cordon off and make off-limits to fishing, IMO.

Gasconade, Meramec. I'd stick with either the 11 Pt or Current though.

Thats what the darn kids these days are missing. Hell, I played on the railroad tracks from the time I was 3. Flattening pennies, throwing rocks at the conductors window. By the time I was 8, I took the Burlington Northern to Rolla from Springfield and jumped the train back and was home before it got dark out.

Enjoyed the video, LittleRed. Where is the Southfork? Looks like my kind of creek.

My mistake, I figured out that the parasol umbrella accessory was not part of the Coosa, but actually belongs to a large tropical cocktail sitting on the picnic table in the background. Still would like to know answers to first 2 questions though.

Question: why are you selling your prized Jackson Coosa, Jackson? Follow-up question to above question: good god man, you are on your 3rd Coosa, please tell me you are not selling this so you can be on your 4th Coosa. What are you doing to the Coosa's? eating them? or outfitting a small navy of coosa-fishers? or do you have them in different colors to match your particular mood? Finally - how much for the parasol umbrella accessory shown in picture # 2

Shiot. Loyalty is Royalty brother Steve, I know you will give me the GPS coordinates. P. Dallas

Sure doesn't look like a world record to me. Nice fish for sure, but world record??

Had a white-water run in a canoe down Marble Creek (trib of St. Francis) about 15 years ago in December, 40 degree weather and spitting snow. Creek was at flood stage. Not sure what we were thinking. Hit the first set of rapids and wiped out bad. Pulled my buddy up who was holding onto a log for dear life. His head kept going underwater and coming up for breath and quickly losing his strength. Its really amazing how quickly he lost all his strength in that cold water. Anyway, got him out on dry land, change of clothes from the dry bag and he recovered pretty quickly by a fire. Then we had to float a little further to catch up to one of our dry bags that had our wallet and car keys in it. Luckily it was floating/swirling in an eddy. By that time, we had enough adventure, so we decided to drag canoe upstream, overland through a field that had an angry bull that was ready to charge us at any moment. Totally exhausted and happy to be alive.

very nice fish for this time of year. Good work, Steve!

Nice looking boat. FYI- Alpine Shop is having a paddling sale here pretty soon. Saw a flyer on it in the mail. All of their in-stock Wenonahs are 20% off. Not sure if they have that one in stock though. Might be worth a call.

Osage Fork is a gem - just wish it was closer. I like the upper end and around Hwy B.

You nailed it, Ness. STL is definitely a cesspool . . . a lovable cesspool, but still a cesspool. Drank me a big tall glass of your flushings this morning and let out a hearty burp. Lets expound on KC for a little bit -- the Chiefs are perpetual chokers, seriously how many great regular seasons have they had, only to lose the first game of the playoffs? -- how is a giant badminton shuttlecock a work of art? and when will that exhibit be over already? -- I swear if I hear someone say, The country club "Plawza" ever again, I will throw up on them. -- Johnson County, KS residents carry on like they are uppercrust elite living in the Hamptons. You live in Kansas people! -- okay, you got some pretty good BBQ -- wow, what an impressive skyline with that one skyscraper. -- almost forgot the Royals! but thats an easy to one forget! -- more fountains than Rome and more boulevards than anywhere -- as a tourist pitch, seems like some really desperate claims. -- last time I was at the Kansas City zoo, one of your orangatuans was chewing bubble-gum and blowing giant bubbles; no-joke and true story. -- Jayhawk fans and rock-chalk

Brother Wayne. If you got a stance on the ONSR GMP proposals, preach it, if you don't . . . then you're no better than that tree. I prefer my Activism medium-well a whole lot better than room temperature apathy, or undercooked indifference.