Smallieguy87

I mostly wade more then anything and have a small pack for lures and other things. I'll have to look at the olympus and see if it would be something that could be worn around the neck fairly comfortably. I try to get my wife to understand all my St.Croix rods and you buy different types of fishing lines for different techniques and how the same applies to the fishing rods themselves...she either is not convinced or doesn't care lol

Awesome! thanks a lot for the advice. Like i said i've tried the go pro but didn't care much for the snap on LCD and housing. I've used an Iphone a bit but id rather not get that wet and i don't think the water proof cases for those are up to snuff or rugged enough.

I don't think I ever truly appreciated photography on this kind of level until i joined OAF. Great shots! What would you recommend as a decent water proof camera for fishing? i'd used a go pro but really didn't enjoy the bulky housing and smaller screen size. I was looking at spending somewhere around $300-400 and had the olympus TG model in mind but don't really know a great deal about them. Upon looking a bit more the Panasonic Lumix looks good for the money. It will mostly just be used to taking quick shots of the fish usually underwater and maybe filmed swimming off.

Welcome to the forums!

I dig it! We should re name it the OAF how to guide to catch and release lol Great write Al thanks!

There's a bit more to it then just having nerve endings equals feeling pain though. There has to be a certain level of physiological awareness for pain to be felt. There's debate over whether or not fish have the conscious awareness and physiological awareness to process pain the way a human would. I guess no one knows unless they some how become the fish. In the end ill continue to treat them with the utmost care upon catching and releasing them as should anyone here who values catch and release. There's been a good bit of interesting opinions and contributions here. It went way beyond what i thought it would and while i don't agree with some of the posts here i'd most definitely throw out a line with all of you.

Home made pizza baked in the ol cast iron. There's Havarti, Mozzarella, and cheddar with sweet peppers, tomato, and some onion.

Agreed 100%! Don't some of the circuits fine the anglers for dead fish?

Speaking of proper catch and release...there's several people on this forum who can give a lot of good tips on this as far as how to hold the fish(if you have to) different methods of removing hooks, proven live well treatments etc.....I encourage anyone who doesn't want to keep what they catch to take the time and look up all the good info floating around places like OAF.

I don't feel that C/R is disrespectful . You take steps to limit the amount of trauma a fish endures (or at least i do) They're never out of the water long, if possible a picture is taken while they're in the water, my hooks are barbless and i rarely use the nickle plated hooks due to the fact that they don't rust away anywhere near as quickly(should there be one that i cant retrieve). Fishing is like my moment of Zen. I DO care about the bass in the water. SOME may only care about catching the bass on the river or lake.....I Care about being there. There's a saying that goes "i've spent countless thousands of hours out on the water and i've never once felt over worked or underpaid" That's just how it is for me. As for hunting.... I don't participate. I don't kill unless I have too. I have no problem with people hunting at all and really enjoy venison. On the flip side....is it humane to take a picture of the big buck you just killed and gutted and is now hanging in your garage or a tree in the front yard? I guess it goes both ways there. Thanks for the input though because i couldn't understand why the guy said what he did at all. You put it into a better perspective and i really genuinely mean that.

I hear the Bernie Sanders voters would redistribute the fish caught by the more successful fishermen. I do agree that there's a portion of the conservative crowd that would like to completely do away with fishing license, hunting license, creel limits etc. I see this a good bit when MDC posts something on social media regarding poaching or any sort of regulations. A lot of people are inherently wasteful and if given the chance most of what they pursued would go the way of the buffalo. A side note: today while i was at work ( i work in a lab at a critical access hospital) i was making small talk with a patient and brought up fishing on how i prefer to catch and release most of what i catch. He proceeded to tell me he thought that was sick and inhuman as well as torture and did not believe in recreational hunting or fishing. I guess in the end you can't please em all.

Speaking of interesting things on the river! About 12 years ago a friend of mine owned some land in Tiff, MO that had direct access to big river. We were down on a gravel bar adjacent to the property where there was an old broken up low water bridge and part of it formed a current break. We both looked down and spotted 2 Hellbenders. We tried to take a few pictures but the cameras on phones in those days were barely a megapixel and certainly weren't water proof lol It was kind of a once in a life time thing to see two of them there like that considering how endangered they are.

very cool! thanks siusaluki! always learning something new here.

i've heard theres lampreys in the Meramec as well but have yet to catch a fish with one attached to it. I know they're a problem on some of the great lakes.

Very cool read Brian. The only eel i've ever caught was out of the Meramac river. Made for an interesting day of fishing!

Very informative! Thanks a bunch Mitch.

So when you guys are using hair jigs in the summer are you using different hair? I've thought about making my own sometime so i figured id ask.

Am i allowed to the double date? but instead of being the 5th wheel could i take JoeD?

HAH! good point! I'm thinking some born and raised corn fed boys.....maybe southern democrats lol

I'm more of a believer in actually going out and meeting the individual before any sort of judgement online. Who knows...maybe a day out on the water with a guy like smalliebigs, flysmallie, and heck even you chief would do everyone some good.

Maybe both? Sometime's that goes hand in hand.

That's the point Chief. I was trying to say that not everyone has the same tact when it comes to these sorts of arguments or discussions and simply trying to explain some people tend to be a little more....how do i put it....emotional when it comes to the topic. 10 pages of discussion here and not a single person has said they support poaching. I didn't think i'd have to explain that part.

I'd say you're being equally as appropriate as he has.

Smalliebigs is just passionate about the sport he participates in and wants to see it properly preserved for all to enjoy. Some are born without tact....others like Smalliebigs would rather just be straight about it rules or no. Smalliebigs is the proverbial fist fight to the catty slap fest that sometimes occur in all forums. I've spoke with him a few times and like most people i deal with on here he seems like a pretty good guy. Can he be Douche? you betcha as most all of you can. I do appreciate the dynamic he adds to any conversation and i'm sure glad to see some one take a strong stance to preserve the game fish we love to chase.....even if he is the porcupine of the bunch.

Awesome pictures! That smallmouth is a beast! I got to do two floats on big last summer and has some excellent bass both times even though the weather wasn't the most cooperative! Nice to see some good reports coming from the big.