ColdWaterFshr

28 lb carp off of the Main Street Boat Dock in Branson about 1980. I was about 11. Fishing with corn and 8 lb line. Thought I had a world record rainbow. Had to jump in a rental boat and it pulled me in the boat all the way up to the old bridge. Netted it after a 30-40 minute battle and it broke this guys net. I remember my Dad writing the guy a check to pay for his broken net.

I would like to think there are wild stream-born fish there too, but if anyone knows, I would say its the biologist in charge of the river. Someone oughta give him a call and ask. Whether you want to disagree with him or not seems like folly, but I would think he is armed with a lot more facts than us yay-hoo fisherman who claim we seen the foreplay, the conception, the nests, the egg laying and even the actual hatching. I forget his name, but I imagine he would be easy to track down through MDC. Why isn't there wild fish on Taneycomo for that matter? Plenty of water, cold enough year round, plenty of food, etc.

Yeah, they're always going to go through the motions, I just don't think they have much, if any success. I've seen a number of browns doing the same thing.

I've caught quite a few very small and wild looking rainbows down there too. And I remember exchanging e-mails with the biologist a few years back and he swore that there is no wild/stream-born activity going on. So I got a couple theories. 1) Montauk floods occasionally and the raceways lose some of their fry or smaller fish that aren't stocker sized yet. These fish grow up in the river and quickly become wild and wild looking. Stream born? No, not really, but close. 2) Stocking of rainbows upstream of Akers - is it possible some smaller fish are intermixed with the bigger fish when stocking is done? I don't know, but I could see that happening.

I agree, but you know, this place probably had it coming for a while now. I never personally witnessed the Schwagstock, but I've heard that it was pretty out of control. I'm sure locals like convenience store owners loved the business. The sales of the munchies probably went through the roof . . . but the average Shannon, Carter, Dent County folk? no, I'm sure they knew what was going on and didn't like it one little bit. To them, it might as well been a satan worshipping rally. These type of festivals aren't going away anytime soon. There will be a new one that pops up somewhere and they will get busted too once they become so big and get a reputation. I have no doubt that the landowner in this case knew what was going on. The real question is, does the punishment fit the crime? Unless you're a member of the Nazi party, the answer is no.

We don't have all the facts, but just reading from the article, it does seem a bit heavy handed. Why not just get warrants and raid the place during one of the festivals and bust the offenders. Property seizure and draining the guys bank accounts seems a bit much.

Got into a serious debate about this very thing with a co-worker who lives in KC. She's an outdoorsy chick. Seems bona fide about most her stuff. Until one day, we were talking about biking and she said she goes mtn biking all the time as some big park on the outskirts of KC. She said she has had several "encounters" with mountain lions that are known to be quite common in this park, several close-up and eyewitness accounts --this according to her and her husbands friends who bike it all the time. I'm thinking they must have some good blotter acid or gonja. Well, me being me, I threw out my BS flag onto the field and asked for a review of the play. It took several calls but for "proof" from an unbiased source on the matter and we finally got to a department deep within the bowels of MDC and also Kansas Conservation Dept, whoever they are, I forget. Long story short --- they get a LOT of this, and in almost all cases, guess what it turns out to be? a yellow lab. and in rare instances, a bobcat.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Excellent. Thank you!

Saw Big Smith last Saturday night at the Old Rock House. Great and very talented band, excellent songwriting. I don't have "fishing music" per se. But always playing something. Neil Young does go well with driving through the country. I think its the harmonica, and the songs in general with that high-pitch voice. I can only take about 5 or 6 songs of it and then I have to mix it up. Dylan and Cash are the same way. Stuff in my car: Tom Waits, Nick Lowe, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Graham Parker, John Hiatt, Townes Van Zandt, Charlie Haden, the new Mellencamp is surprisingly good, Ray Lamontagne, Costello, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters, Dylan, Bruce, John Lee Hooker (hows that for fishing?), Robert Cray, Clapton, Jolie Holland, bunch of other stuff. Not allowed in the car: Kenny Chesney or anything remotely similar. Dave Matthews Band I can't stomach. There is a lot of crap out there that people lap up.

Classic video and loved the "rivers being what they are, like fickle women" comment. And what was the dude doing on top of the boat as they were backing up the truck?

That'd be fun. Telling Bobby Knight that he was missing strike after strike, and that he was just a hair late on his hook-set. Did he give you that, "I'm going to throw a folding chair at you" look?

It goes through cycles. In fifteen years of fishing it, I'd say the lousy fishing days outnumbered the good fishing days 3 to 1. I know there are some big browns in there, but they ain't easy.

MDC ownership is the best and only real hope for the place, at least as far as we're concerned.

Chief actually wins this one. Score is: 35 - Chief 0 - Ozark Trout Fisher

I'll second what Gavin said. I could probably show you the exact hole where they were snagging. I've seen them there a few times, and its probably even the same folks. There is what, 8 miles of blue ribbon trout water on the upper current? Get over it dudes. That stretch is overly infested with rough fish anyway, so I wish them luck.

Thanks for bringing up horrifying memories of my college statistics classes, Terry. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell you that you got this whole teacher-student thing backwards with Mr. Ness, especially as it relates to mathematics or statistical analysis.

MDC? . . . believe me folks, they got info on you people. And its more than just DOB and what caliber of fisherman you are. If you got a card in the mail, it isn't by accident, and it isn't part of some random sample. I've been deep in the bowels of the MDC HQ in Jeff City. They are high-tech. Each of you has a substantial file. They store your files on microscopic little mylar sheets and they can view it with this device called micro-fish. And they have a whole dimly lit warehouse of micro-fish files and it has information on you and how you fish, where you fish, what time you last fished, who you fished with, how many you ate, how many times you got snagged, how many beers you had and so forth. And over in the corner is a team of former and retired field agents, studying your micro-fish files, laboriously late into the night. They mostly work late at night, which is why so little is known about what they are doing.

the new bank, the FDIC, or whoever the proverbial "we" is I mean

'twould be cool if MDC makes a lowball offer and the bank takes it.

Alright, thats a 20 point deduction for full-frontal snobbery.

No, skill level has nothing to do with it. Appeasement to types of anglers, yeah, I guess so. I read a white paper on what MDC was planning to do just before they made the changes. The main idea of it really is to give something for everyone within reason of what the habitat of each area is capable of supporting. Obviously, a self-sustaining trout stream like Crane for instance, isn't going to do well with fishermen coming out of there with 5 fish stringers all the time, so it has Blue Ribbon regs. But to say that a powerbait fisherman couldn't do well there -- thats not true at all and would be missing the point. Its also not really most folks idea of "trophy" water, but thats subjective isn't it? Sections of the Niangua and lower Little Piney warm up considerably in the summer, so it has the White Ribbon regulations for put and take. The Red Ribbon areas are somewhere in between. Its all very much based on habitat. I like the regulations the way they are. Color coding it also keeps it real simple for the average Missourah idjit. The slot works on Taney, but it is so much different than any of the other trout areas.

I was down last weekend and the water level seemed fine to me. Used 3x and 4x and never had any problems with picky fish. Heavy stones, midge droppers and mohairs worked well. Did notice the BWO hatch in the mornings and saw a couple risers. Turned over some rocks and the kids got to see all kinds of critters: caddis pupa were everywhere, but also caught a lot of scuplins, crawdads. Fall colors should be just about perfect and not too many leaves trashing up the water yet.

I got the score at Chief - 7, plus or minus a couple, mostly minus because his evidence is weak and he seems a bit inflexible. Outside Bend - 14, but could knock off a few if he becomes too verbose. Ozark Trout Fisher - 3 ( could be 9 if he had changed his avatar) Al Agnew - a spotless 100, the man has records and spreadsheets people, i'm not crappin you. DrewMc - 3 (could be 5 but he is holding a goggleye) Anyone else keeping score?