RSBreth

I'm with you one this one. I know there are good guys that gig and stay legal, but I've seen this far too often for it to be the "one or two bad apples" type thing. I have a relative (thankfully not blood but by marriage, actually two marriages ) who is a poacher and gigger of game fish, and early in our relationship he was stunned that I said if he told me where and when any of these activities took place, I'd "drop a dime" on him in a second. But I know the type. And I know how you feel, and the need to vent.

How much cash for the Marlin w/out a trade-in?

That's my go or no-go decision maker too - line freezing in my guides. Cannot stand it, and especially bad on fly line. I paddled around the other day for a couple of hours mostly to get out of the house, but the water temps were right around 40, and that's some pretty slow fishing for Bass. If the water temps was 37 and then jumped up to 40 after a couple of warmer and sunny days, maybe. But not sitting at 40 for a week, or worse, dropping. I love cold weather Bass fishing, paddling around in the chill with no one else in sight, or fishing from the big boat where there may be another rig parked at the ramp, but you don't see them all day, either. Suspending jerkbaits, of lightly weighted Clousers worked the same way as you would a jerkbait. I can't wait for a little warm up.

I moved here specifically because of the diversity of the fishing. Well, it wasn't the only reason, but it was the top one. I do like some more Rocky Mountain flyfishing, but on my to-do list is Great Lakes area Steelhead and King Salmon, plus Lake Erie Smallmouths. Maybe some fly-in Pike fishing in "The Great White North". Someday.

One of these years I'll make it down. I barely have time to fish, let alone hang around talking about fishing. Glad everyone had fun.

Almost every lure maker is offering some kind of color scheme close to that these days, some are even calling it Table Rock something or other. "Table Rock Shad" It's strange, I almost always do better on the Blue Back/Orange Belly/ Silver Side color than the Chartreuse/Purple thing.

They may be 10X harder to catch, but they aren't the same fish as even a hatchery-raised Rainbow - they were being "farmed" for food and broke out of their enclosures. They're also sterile, so you won't see further generations of them, so I'm saying no. Wipers are the sterile cross between Stripers and Whites, and they have their own catagory, I see this as a different, but similar thing.

I've seen the Crickets, and I think that it would be O.K. but outgrown soon then worthless. An air rifle is another option for beginners, and even cheaper to shoot that a rimfire. Another option, although expensive at first is this:Gunbroker More expensive up front, but in the end cheaper than buying a separate rifle, shotgun, and rimfire rifle.

I'm sorry if it seems like this is a retort but even XRaps need "tuning" in cold water - none of them I've ever used (40+) have ever suspended perfectly, that is not rising at all, or sinking even a tiny bit. The best value for dollar spent I've ever used for suspenders is the XCaliber XS4, suspends beautifully with minimal tinkering. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpageXCALRIP-XCSB.html#pImage' Has the weight transfer system for long casts, but still has the Rogue "wobble" that XRap don't have in cold, cold water. There's a lot of fine tuning in jerkbaits.

http://www.lurenet.c...il.aspx?id=7493 Available at "Wally World" for about 6 bucks. You may need to add some weight to it to get it suspending just right, but still - not a bad deal.

If you do try jerkbaits in that stretch, try really bright colors - the water clarity never really gets "clear" in that section of the James in Winter - at least I've never seen it as clear as it is above the Lake or further downstream..

Yeah, pretty hard take care of everything, let alone let people know what's happening every minute you are taking care of everything...

I still stand by the idea of tags for big Smallmouth like you get for Deer. So you get your choice of a couple of fish to keep each year, and that's it. Of course, it's a radical view, so not likely to get anywhere. I will compromise with the just slightly more restrictive limit ideas put forth here, I guess, if nothing else as a first step towards my goal.

Largemouth Bass: Just over 10 lbs. according to a buddies "De-liar" scale. My own Deer-Hair Bass Bug, unnamed Kansas pond. I have a grainy and poor-looking Polaroid of the event. Fish looks blurry and huge, I look mildly drunk. Rainy and stormy August day, in 5-feet or water, right by a blown down cottonwood tree where the creek flowed in the pond. I still am trying to break the 6-pound Smallie line, haven''t done that, but come close every year. So 5+ on Smallies, mostly on everything you could name. Biggest (weighed) Spot was at BFL event at Table Rock: 4lbs, 10 ounces. Football on a custom Rogue, 10-foot deep over about 25-feet of water, right by a giant cedar.

I was (am) doing a hair jig swap over at RiverSmallies or I would have got in on this one. I was going to tie something really outrageous, too. Next time.

Yeah, you got to be careful in cold weather. I've never dunked bad fishing, but I did go 100% in duck hunting once. Not fun.

Kayak or wading?

Sometimes "hateful rhetoric" is defined by whether you agree or not on the premise the statement is based on. Kind of like how pointing out mistakes a President makes was "Free Speech", and "Patriotic" a couple of years ago, but now is "Racist" to the same people. Perspective. Back to the original question - I'd probably like a SW Mo chapter, may even attend, if I had 30-hours in my days.

What is it about that ramp eating vans?

The main input for Smallmouth in Taney is Bull Creek. Tiny, over-fished, one of my favorite little walk-and-wade summer fisheries. If they don't pull off a good spawn up there, you don't see them down in the big lake.

Here's a class offered by the MDC out at Bios D'arc. http://mdc.mo.gov/cgi-bin/mdcdevpub/apps/e...i?record=249124 I'm thinking of taking one just to report on how the class is done.

Yeah, just a glance at one of my reloading manual shows the .303 being a rimmed cartridge, wouldn't be the easiest thing to do by rechambering to the '06. Probably have to change the bolt face, too. Besides that, modern '06 ammo is probably loaded to a higher pressure spec. than older .303. Anyway, for the final straw on that, the cost of a gunsmith doing that you could have a lifetime supply of .303 ordered via the Internent, if all you did was Deer hunt and shoot it a couple of dozen times a year. Don't get us gun geeks started...

Awesome, glad someone got out there. Funny how no matter what they were eating the crank got the biggest fish.

I've tried to get some free time to come down there and now I can't. Bob Saget!!

Just a couple of months ago I stated in an article that I thought a worn out Delorme Atlas of your state was a sign of a serious outdoorsman, and received some email on that. "I hunt some land close to home." "I know the way to Stockton." Etc. Whatever. If you only do a couple of things, you probably don't need an atlas, but anyone more curious than that will. River rats absolutely will. I've used all of the maps you could get from the USGS to commercial atlases, and all have their place. Google Earth is one of my favorite things these days, but it still doesn't take the place of a good road map right in front of you when you're out driving in circles on back roads.