ColdWaterFshr

We live in an age where if you got the bucks, you can drive away from the courtroom on your 17th DWI. Or if you're on death-row, for your 2nd time, you still very likely won't be executed. So to put it in perspective, I don't really care. If some insignificant weasel decides to roll the dice with the game warden, and go to all the trouble of fishing with a semi-soft, semi-plastic, semi-scented whatever, beneath a dam in a semi-real fishery, and gets all semi-proud of his semi-results, and uh, if it doesn't sit well with your semi-jealousy of him getting away with it, then what I want to know is who is the bigger weasel?

Great post, Al. Taking your Dad out and having a day like that, how could you ask for more? Man, I just hope when I'm 80 I can still get out on the river. Catchin ANYTHING would just be a bonus. My pops is in his final glide pattern with advanced Alzheimers, so I know what you're going through KB. The solution to the jetboats is simple. We need to get with MODOT and the Farm Bureau to lobby for the construction of MORE slab-bridges.

Yes! Calling all WFT, Calling all WFT, time to assemble. Fishing is white hot on upper-current. Must get there before the guide. Alert! Alert!

Guides and their wussy clients. humpf. hope you get shut out. BLACK STREAMERS EVERYONE. BLACK STREAMERS!!! Lets all go to the upper Current! They just stocked it!!!

We've had one of these Pure Digital videocameras for about 6 months now and LOVE it. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=s...asin=B000FD8MJS Its about the size of a deck of cards, runs on AA batteries, its idiot proof, and for $80 you can't lose! Its the perfect fish video camera. Just wish it was waterproof like my optio digital. Downside - the zooom isn't real great, but for normal shooting the quality of the video and the sound is amazingly good. Also, memory allows it to only record for 30 minutes at a time - but how often do you need more than that. Its perfect for taking 1-2 minute clips of neat things, like fishing or home videos. Dump it onto a laptop and burn a half-hour DVD in just a few minutes, erase it and go again. Its not professional quality, but I like the simpleness of it. I'm of the opinion thats there is far too many features in most electronic gadgets that you never use! With this thing - just turn it on, point it and go. Fits in a shirt pocket. If you drop it, its not a major tragedy.

I like hte Trackr boats, and with Johnny Moriss' blessings, jes wish , someday I could 'ford one. And, perhaps, I would win a lot of tournaments as opposed to fishin out of rental boats thtat leak far warse and severe.

jackfish in the mornin? jack salmon or Jacks Fork?

Brian Sloss makes some good points about the 6 beer limit and the lack of enforcement in general as being the real problem. I read Poe's plan on the link Gavin provided and the 6 beer limit reads as a recommendation, not a rule. I just think all they need more presence with agents on the rivers. And the purchase of audio decibel meters seems a little strange. Don't know what those cost, but seems a little frivolous and wasteful. And did the part about any alcohol mixture containing gelatin? Yeah right, the jello is the problem, keeping that off the rivers will solve a lot. It shouldn't be that difficult -- JUST GO AFTER THE ROWDIES - they aren't too hard to find. And they don't necessarily have kegs, bongs, or trays of jello shots. Most the time, the don't have any of those. And they need to broaden enforcement to all the well-known hotspots: Niangua, Huzzah, Courtouis, Meramec, Elk, Jacks, 11 point, etc.

Well hellsbells WD, why didn't you come right out and tell that agent you had a Champion?????? I'm sure that woulda changed the tenor of things.

(in tough guy, Dirty Harry voice) Well do ya, punk? Do you have any warrants? Fishing 3 feet above the cable. Hahahaha I think thats great, and yes, you deserve the ticket. Lake is only 20 miles long and you just had to get up there a little closer to the dam, didn't ya punk? What a weasel.

Paul Dallas - yup thats him. My drunken father. Though we've had our differences, and he has attempted to kill me a time or two, it makes me smile to know he's still out there, down by a river somewhere, delivered there by way of a Burlington Northern boxcar, or his hitchikers thumb, living the hobos dream, constantly on the lamb, sleeping in cemeteries, winning prestigious tournaments but then having to forfeit for some extracurricular activity that usually involves sponsors wives. Always a half-step behind greatness, and a half-step in front of self-destruction. All the great ones were this way: Vincent Van Gogh, Jimi Hendrix, Bill Clinton, Mike Tyson, Jim Baker, Paris Hilton. Out there suffering for their art.

I wouldn't do it. I think it is posted as no camping, but that hasn't stopped people (hoosiers). Go up the road 1/8th of a mile (towards Montauk) and camp at Eagles Nest.

Mid-May? Check when area college finals week is. Go the weekend before, and you'll have the river to yourself. I'd vote for the upper Jacks Fork.

Got the same thing a few days ago. Its not entirely accurate. Go to snopes.com

I didn't make it to the WFT this year. Scheduling and hall pass conflict with another trip that I took just a couple weeks ago down to the Jacks. Here's a picture from inside Jam-Up Cave. Squint real small you can my brother standing on the rock in the center of the picture

Liar

Had a nice float on Thursday on the Jacks from the Prongs to Hwy 17, then Friday from Blue Springs down to Rhymers. Several had to back out due to illness and concerns about the weather, so it ended up being only 4 of us the first day and 3 the second day. Bad weather never did materialize, only had light rain at camp on Friday night. Had the river all to ourselves both days. Water was up and fairly sporty from the Prongs down to 17. Fishing was lousy of course. I didn't string up the fly rod at all. Just worked the deeper holes slowly with tube and hair jigs on the spinning rod - with nary a bite, I didn't even see any fish other than a few hogmollies. Saw at least 5 eagles on the upper stretch, and another 3 or 4 on the 2nd portion. The hillsides were completely bare and the woods were eerily quiet. We all commented how strange it was that we hadn't seen any deer or turkey. While we were staring up in the sky at an eagle high above, something caught my eye on the shore about 50 ft away. At first I thought it was a bowhunters target - you know, one of those phony bighorn sheep made out of sytrofoam, it just didn't look real at first glance. Then I saw that it was real, and there were TWO of them. Definitely not bighorns, but what are they? We all looked at each other in disbelief. I managed to snap off a few pictures before they ran off. I will try to get them posted. Let me know your theories. Exotic livestock turned loose, or is it possible these things exist in Missouri? I don't know, but these things were WAY too big to be escapee's from the goat farm. They were the size of small horses. Anyway -- it was a fun trip. Let me see if I can attach a couple photos.

I can't hardly watch football anymore. Seems like the ads are getting longer and more frequent, constantly interrupting the game. I think the coaches challenge/play-under-review was nothing more than a clever trick to sneak in more ad time.

Before you start typing what a tragedy it would be to leave 25 million people high and dry, consider this . . . Where would our country be today if it wasn't allowed to have its civil war, bloody as it was? In Iraq, we are little more than referee's in a game without rules. The "front line to the war on terror", should be scouring the mountains in search of Osama, and pinpoint assasinations of radical clerics and leaders (EVERYwhere) who wish us harm.

I'll be the first to say it. I think we need to get out, and get out now. OR Call up the draft and quadruple our troop #'s there and get the job done right. This would never happen though. If we can't do the job right, we have no business trying to do it in half-measures. Our servicemen have all my gratitude and support. But this has been a mismanaged war for far too long now.

Take it from a fool who knows. I've put a canoe in at Cardiac, and also taken out at Cardiac and can't remember which sucked worse. Probably the uphill. Carrying a canoe UP Suicide -- would be suicide. Down might not be bad, just have good rope and be careful. Hwy 8 bridge to Scotts is long float if you plan to fish hard on just a day float. Terrapin is right. Waders are the most practical in that area. Consider backpacking in at Cardiac and camp and fish - I've done that and it was kinda fun. Depends on how much time you have. Got a weekend? Sure put the canoe in at Hwy 8, paddle through the upper part like Al said and take out at Scotts, but I would forget any notion of using Cardiac or Suicide as a put-in or take out with a canoe. Too painful! Its a fairly easy hike from Suicide up to Dry Fork, unless the river is up. Watch the river levels this time of year, Meramec at Steelville gauge - once it gets around 400-500 cfs its tricky wading. And whatever you do - do NOT camp on the gravel bars when rain is forecast in this area!! She comes up QUICK.

Yep, Terry . . . our fish are what comes out when you floss one of Leonards fish' teeth.

Didn't quite make it to my backing, but close . . .

I agree Gavin. 3,000 horses is bit ridiculous. Catman, its hard to compare the James River with the Jacks Fork, one flows from an urban area and the other is a National Scenic Waterway. We need greater protection on the Jacks Fork. The James needs protection too, but you can't pin its pollution problems as directly to one source as you can with the lower Jacks.