Johnsfolly

That's a great looking hybrid. Congrats on getting a bunch!

I want more time on the water or in the woods with family and friends. Sure I won't turn down a bunch of F9 of F11 Rapalas or 20 to 40 zig jigs or Daves ned heads that happen to show up in my stocking. I hope that each of you have a safe and very Merry Christmas!

Sounds like a couple of good trips. Nice bass! Congrats. I just don't fish for winter bass. Always felt that most of the fish are too deep to have a chance from the bank. But even from reading a lot of this winter's threads from the guys in boats the bite can be tough. So those were some nice fish.

Eric82 - I plan on contacting you when I really get looking at the calendar and see when I think I would be able to get down that way. That's the only way I can steal your observe your fishing techniques and favorite spots . Oh and I guess we could ask that JestersHK guy if he's available as well. I seem to recall that he would be willing to caddy our fishing rods.

Looking forward to making a trip to the upper LP in the next several weeks. I have been a bit hesitant in parking below the bridge. So I will likely park at Lane Springs lot.

Those cuts look great. Got my mouth watering just looking at those slices on the pan. Great job.

Love seeing kids photos. That is a great smile! Congrats on a great trip with your fishing buddy. Happy Holidays!

Jerry The MDC has a write up on the economics of hunting in MO in Protecting Missouri's Whitetail Deer. If you want a more objective article look at the one put together by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in 2011. It's titled Hunting in America: An Economic Force for Conservation. I couldn't provide the link here, but it's easy to find.

I have wade fished the 11 pt and it has really limited access. I wade a lot for trout and can give you some thoughts. Send me a PM.

Jerry Then focus on the economics. Deer hunting in Missouri is reported as having a billion dollar impact on the local economies. That in itself would be why state folks are interested in supporting research on a disease that causes such high mortalities in your state. Then there is the potential that cattle may get affected from affected deer. Pretty sure that you may have heard of mad cow disease. That is the cattle form of CWD.

The main problem with CWD is that the prion proteins are much more persistent in the environment than a virus or bacterial infectious agent. Which means that if there is a bunch of deer in an area that have the disease then they will potentially infect that area for a long time. So you need as much information on how many deer may carry the disease and where they are located to understand the scale of the infection. The last ten years with the unlimited doe permits throughout most state counties was done to drop the overall deer population. That was fairly successful and they started reducing the number of doe tags allowed in counties where deer mumbers were closer ti their targets. Then the outbreaks of bluetongue and EHD forced the MDC to cut back even more on the numbers of doe permits purchased to prevent potential overharvest. What is happening around here is that deer on public lands are being controlled but around the suburbs and outskirt areas where there is limited or no hunting the deer are abundant. In Columbia the city park hunting program is not that effective due to a mindset on trophy hunting and not animal control. So too few deer and does in particular are actually being harvested to control the population.

I can't say that I like this statement because it creeps me out. We had a cook that resembled this description at my Fraternity house. Still gives me some nightmares.

There is also a couple more photos in the article. Never states that he released the fish. I would assume that she is no longer alive and maybe in a freezer somewhere.

More like duffers!

Vernon - I have been doing that same thing for years and I'm a firm believer that it helps. QB - that will work as well as long as you don't get the warmer wet. Once it gets wet it can't get the O2 that is needed to continue the chemical reaction going on within the warmer. So bringing plenty of back-up warmers would help.

We saw this guy standing within one of the fencerows along the property at my work. He was obviously not well since he showed little fear to us standing within 30 yards of him. He kept licking his lips and shaking his tail. I had my wife bring over my bow (my business owns 56 acres and is surrounded by a several hundred acre farm to the north and east). I was hung up in meetings until after 5:30 and could not due to the darkness go out and try to hit him with a mercy arrow. At the time we thought he was either shot (bow or gun) or hit by a car since we are within a stone's throw of I-70. Got out the next morning and found him dead within 25 feet of where we saw him the afternoon before. No blood was seen anywhere around him. We tagged him and I was planning on trying to salvage what meat I could. His chest cavity had blood in it and one of his lungs had lacerations and one lobe was almost in half. So I'm thinking about bullet fragments or an arrow. Did not see and entrance or exit wound with his skin on. Took him home and skinned him. There was no evidence of a man made injury anywhere on this deer. His ribs were all intact and there was no bruising to indicate a car collision or a deadly buck fight (this was during the peak of the rut in Nov). We took the head over to MDC to sample and put the rest in our municipal trash. Even though there is little evidence of infection of humans with either CWD or EHD, we did not chance it. We have not heard back from the MDC on this deer. My suspicion is EHD based upon the lacerations or hemorrhaging of the lungs. We'll see. I am getting a European mount of the head.

I frequently hit in the 60's then its onto the back nine!

I really Ballast point Grunion India pale ale. Makes you wonder what's on the inside when they have fish porn on the label. MOguy - I agree about the Dark Star. Bur Oak is 2.5 miles from my house. Even then we can't keep up with their new brews.

Marty that looks like it will ship well Go get some more geese and we can test that theory.

We had a holiday dinner with our management on Thursday and I had Schafly's Christmas ale. I was looking to buy it for our get together on Saturday. I couldn't find it locally. So I picked up a couple of different seasonal brews. This Goose Island Winter ale. This had the spices and flavors of a seasonal ale, but was not too heavy or bitter. A nice smooth drink. The other brew was this Shiner holiday cheer ale. Again had the seasonal spices, but was a bit sweeter than the winter ale. So I didn't like this one as much. This red wine was a favorite of one of our guests. I have not tried it. Yes it is called peanut butter and jelly. My wife picked this out as a novelty wine. Apparently does taste like PB&J. Scares me a little.

Marty that looks really good! That looks like a keeper recipe. Get back out and shoot some more fatties.

That's a great hand full of crappie photo! Great job on those slabs.

We had friend's over for a holiday get together last night. The weather and crappie road conditions dissuaded a couple of folks. So of course, we had too much food. I found a teriyaki meatball recipe in Hank's book, Buck Buck Moose that I wanted to try. We actually found 5 lbs of venison chunks from Sue's button buck from 2014 that was destined for burger. So I ground the venison. Since I wanted a little fat in the mix, I added 1 lb of ground beef with 3 lbs of the venison. I added minced ginger, green onion, soy sauce, Panko bread crumbs, and four eggs. Mixed the ingredients and made meatballs. They took about 20 minutes at 400 deg. I mixed sake, mirin, soy sauce, a little sugar, and corn starch to make the sauce. I heated the sauce to boiling and added the meatballs to coat. These were easy to make and a great hit with everyone.

Definitely jealous of that set up. Even without having the outdoor area to cook, I would love to cook with a wok. Having an electric range sucks for that type of cooking. The burners just don't get hot enough. Olivia wanted me to post our Friday dinner. It was her idea. Shrimp alfredo with garlic bread. The alfredo sauce was from a jar, but Olivia made the garlic bread from a loaf of Italian bread. She got a little heavy handed on the garlic. If you had a significant other, you both wanted to eat the bread if you planned on being intimate afterward.

Chief Great to hear about your trip and see the photos. Would have loved to have made it down to this event. Have to keep it in mind for next year. Glad to see your friend's daughter catch her first trout. Her great smile says that although the weather wasn't great she had a great time!