Al Agnew

One thing that really bugs me is the difference between Missouri and Montana when it comes to litter along the rivers. The Yellowstone along where our house is out there gets as much use as many Ozark streams, but the amount of litter along it is a tiny fraction of what it is on Missouri rivers. I love Missouri and the Ozarks, but sometimes I really don't like a very large portion of the people here who use the streams.

Used to catch the occasional mudpuppy while fishing big live minnows for walleye in the winter. Often got a lot of bites from them. You could tell it was a mudpuppy when you reeled in your minnow and it had an obvious set of jaw marks across its abdomen. Mudpuppies just love to bite a live minnow in the belly and chew on it, and of course that wasn't where the hook was, so you almost never hooked them.

It sure would be nice if at some point everybody would get together and come up with a comprehensive plan for water management. Looks to me like, if this decision is allowed to stand, the first thing that loses out will be wildlife and endangered species. The farmers along the Missouri River care only about their own concerns, and let's be honest here, most of them are corporate farms or very large landowners who are already getting plenty of farm subsidies from the federal government, AND are expecting perfect flood control IN FLOODPLAINS by the Corps of Engineers, who are having to try to balance all the competing interests. The river shipping people scream bloody murder if there isn't enough water in the river to run loaded barges, the people around the upstream reservoirs scream if the lake levels jump up and down too much or at the wrong times, there are irrigation farmers in Montana and the Dakotas who scream if they can't get all the water they want, the cities along the river scream if the water comes up into their expensive new developments, and finally the people who care about wildlife and endangered species scream if the river isn't managed to help the critters. Personally, I'd always opt for "natural" as much as possible. Flood plains are supposed to flood periodically. If you farm flood plains, the loss of a crop now and then is the price to pay for the river continually replenishing the soil on your farm. Oneshot's sand problems wouldn't happen if the flood plains were still in a natural state--the sand gets moved when the river, constrained between high levees and made far more swift and powerful in floods--strong enough to carry a lot of sand--gets through a breach in a levee and dumps that sand on the flood plain beyond. The cities simply shouldn't be developing more and more flood plain land, period, and should be removing existing development. Manage the reservoirs to make floods less common, build low levees to protect low-lying farmland from minor floods every year, and then let the major floods happen when they happen.

You're killing me! I had to get surgery on my eyelids last Friday, and they told me I'd be healing up pretty well by about tomorrow, but so far I can't see well enough to fish!

It's really hard being a Mizzou fan. So they get MPJ back in the lineup just in time for the tournament, looks like they are a lock for making the tournament, and then Barnett gets picked up for driving while intoxicated. So he's almost certainly out for the tournament, at least the opening weekend. And since they are projected as an 8-9 seed, they don't have a big chance of getting through the second game even with Barnett, and unless MPJ suddenly looks like he was expected to look like at the beginning of the year, they have zero chance of it without Barnett.

I've done that float a bunch of times. Always in the summer because it's a daylight to dark float and you need all the daylight you can get. It has two wicked rapids if there is plenty of water, and a lot of places where you have to get out and drag if it's normal summer level. I'd do it again, but I'm always a glutton for punishment when it comes to little-floated water.

Sexton had no business making that shot...took off on the wrong foot, body all twisted, going full speed. He or anybody else misses that shot 4 times out of 5. But this time it went in. Meanwhile, Robertson gets an open three pointer that he'd make at least half the time to win it for Mizzou, and clanks it off the back rim. There's always some luck involved.

Guys, while carp fishing isn't for me (for me there is a lot more to fishing than catching big fish, and a lot more to fish than growing big and getting smart), I do admire MoCarp's passion for the sport. I agree with him that it takes special tactics and expertise to catch really big carp, assuming there are really big ones in the waters you're fishing. If the pursuit of big freshwater fish that have the smarts to make them very tough to catch, and the speed and strength to take tackle away from you and tear it up, interests you, the carp fishing is well worth it. I've had them take rods away from me (fortunately, all but one time it was on upper Big River and all I had to do was wade out and catch up to the rod). The one time a carp permanently took a rod was funny...I was a kid, on vacation with a friend's family, and we were fishing below the dam at Wappapello, when I accidentally hooked something, and reeled in one of those old Zebco Snoopy rods. I cleaned it up as best I could, and got it to where i could cast out about 30 feet with the thing. Later in the week we relocated to upper Clearwatrer Lake, and we were fishing off the bank at the last bluff below the river. I baited the little Snoopy pole with a couple kernels of corn and tossed it out its regulation 30 feet, and propped it on a stick. About five minutes later, I glanced at it just in time to see it simply LEAP off that stick and fly 10 feet out into the lake before it even hit the water,. And by the way, MoCarp, I HAVE caught a grass carp on a 4 weight fly rod that probably weighed 30 pounds or more, though I didn't weigh it. It was 44 inches long, though.

Nah, they SHOULD get into the Big Dance. I was hoping for at least one win in the SEC tournament to remove all doubt, but everybody says they are solidly in. So they get something like 10 days to get MPJ a little more ready to play. Problem is that everybody has them as an 8 or 9 seed, so they would have a fairly tough first game, and then if they win they'll face a top seed.

It's going to be interesting, for sure. It could go in a lot of different ways, both good and bad. We might see MPJ as a point guard, since Geist is recovering from the flu. Reading between the lines of Cuonzo's press conference, I don't think they practiced much even in the last few days with the idea that MPJ would be in the lineup. So they haven't practiced for him to fit in. What it sounds like to me is that it's pretty much up to MPJ what he does when he's in...whether he wants to try to score a lot or facilitate the other guys. You wonder if Cuonzo has any idea what to do...this is uncharted territory. Ideally, he goes in and puts up points and passes to the others to get points when he starts getting double-teamed, and sees 20-25 minutes. Or he comes in, nothing is working, and Cuonzo takes him back out. But there's going to be pressure to play him now no matter what. And the other big question is whether he can be effective defensively. The other players have all bought into Cuonzo's defensive intensity--will MPJ hold up his end? Can't wait...this is going to be about the most scrutinized second round SEC tournament game ever, probably.

Yeah, otters and elk were native. The blunder with otters turned out to be that the habitat they were being RE-introduced to was considerably different from the habitat they evolved in. Small streams with degraded habitat, leaving fish with less space to move around in to escape otters. Farm ponds that furnished a smorgasbord of stupid fish even after the otters decimated the creek fish nearby. No natural predators left. In hindsight it wasn't a good idea, but it had been done in other places without the problems we have had here in the Ozarks. Elk were also introduced into fragmented habitat. So yeah, they probably were pretty costly to stock and manage. Kind of a novelty species at this point. As I understand it, the feral hog problem stems from hogs with the Russian genetics being purposely or accidentally allowed to escape into the wild. Not hog farm escapees, either. JD, to get an idea of the impact of trout on the smallmouth population, all you have to do is look at the places that are heavily influenced by big springs but DON'T have trout. Current River from Akers to Pulltite is a decent example, but the Jacks Fork between Alley Spring and Eminence is the best one. Good smallmouth habitat EXCEPT the water is cold in the summer, and as it turns out, the smallie population in both those stretches is far from terrific. So I don't think that the trout in other stretches are affecting smallmouth that much because the habitat never favored smallies. Smallmouth just don't occupy quite the same ecological niche as trout. Sure, they eat some of the same foods and use some of the same river pools, but smallmouth are pretty tough fish as long as the habitat is okay for them. A lot of people don't realize how many non-native and invasive species there are, especially plants. About half the wildflowers you see along the roadsides are not native but came from (usually) Europe.

Morality isn't always black and white, but the "moral" thing is, MPJ accepted a scholarship to play at the University of Missouri, and if he's able to play he should play. And at the same time, the university gave him that scholarship and should allow him to play. At least that's my opinion. But there is also the fact that he's on the Mizzou basketball team, and everybody concerned should do what's best for the team. Which means that if Cuonzo decides the team would suffer if he plays, don't play him. Or if the team would benefit if he plays, play him. And then there is the moral question of doing what's best for the young man, which is probably to not play him. On the other other hand, if he's been cleared for all basketball activities, then presumably that means that his chances of re-injuring the back playing basketball are no greater than the average player's. So why not play? And if I was an NBA guy, I think I'd want to see him play before committing big bucks. No easy answers for anybody here.

I would argue that trout are non-native but not really invasive. Their habitat requirements are narrow enough that they aren't likely to spread out of the places where they've been stocked and still survive. We'll never know what, if any, native species suffered or went extinct due to the introduction of trout, because it was done so long ago that we didn't have any scientific data on species composition in the spring branches and short stretches of streams heavily influenced by spring flows. We also probably will never know how stocking trout in the big spring branches (as well as altering the channels in these spring branches to give the trout more pools to hang out in) affected the wintering of bass and other native game fish. But in the overall scheme of things it probably wasn't very significant. But history is replete with huge blunders made in purposely or carelessly introducing non-native species. Which is why biologists usually advise against it these days.

(Gasp!) I agree with Chief. While I think we could do a lot more to produce more big fish, I don't care to artificially produce them through genetic manipulation. I'd like the fish I try to catch to be as natural as possible...either native species or species that are at least wild fish spawned in the waters where they are caught.

I agree MPJ probably won't play, and I don't blame him. But I wish he'd just announce it and stop stringing all the fans along if that's the case.

He didn't start out the season being a one and done, but the last part of the season he's been looking good enough the scouts are starting to take notice. The NBA people still say it would be best if he had another year at Mizzou, but some are projecting him to be a late first round or early second round pick if he declares this year. Mizzou faithful are keeping their fingers crossed.

You can find non-inflatables that are comfortable to wear, just expect to pay some bucks for them. Personally, I won't use inflatables anymore. If I need a life jacket, I want one that works as intended without having to worry about technology. Look for those designed for whitewater kayaking if you want a non-inflatable. They are designed to have lots of freedom of motion while being bombproof.

You won't get much fishing done trying to cover that much water. I'm assuming you're talking about the area around Blue Spring for your put-in, and it's still several miles from there to Jam-up Cave. Sweet spot to camp, though. As is Chalk Bluff, gorgeous camping spot. I have no trouble floating that stretch and fishing it hard in two and a half days during the summer, but the length of daylight is a lot longer and I don't stop to camp until near dark. In late March, you'll have three or four hours less daylight and to catch anything you'll probably still need to slow down a lot from how I do it in the summer. I've yet to have a vehicle bothered at any of the accesses on the Jacks Fork, and I've had them left overnight a few times. But it's always a crap shoot. If the rotten SOBs can drive to it, sooner or later one or more of them will drive to it while your vehicle is there, but that's any public access, not just Jacks Fork. Late March is before a lot of the canoe rental people are in full business mode, but you should probably do some calling around and try to find somebody that will do the shuttle for you the day you put in, leave the vehicle at their place, and park it the morning you're taking out. If you can't find a canoe rental person to do it you might try calling motels in Eminence to see if they can steer you toward somebody willing to do it. Expect to pay good money for it, though.

Easy public access always means lots of people. But it doesn't mean there aren't fish there. I've caught a lot of nice fish right around public accesses on the rivers I fish. Even when there are people swimming and splashing around, the fish that live there are kinda used to the commotion. But it's a whole lot more pleasant to go there when the splash and giggle crowd isn't, like early morning and late evening times, or on a rainy day during the week.

All the pundits say both are fairly safely in. Mizzou needed to win this last game against Arkie, and took care of business. That should be enough to put them in, and Ark. was supposedly a lock before this game. But Mizzou is now down to 7 scholarship players. VanLeer tore his ACL yesterday. If Porter Jr. doesn't play in the tournament, he ain't playing at all, because they really need him now.

Anybody got any recommendation for somebody that can repair an ancient Benjamin .22 caliber air rifle? I've had the thing ever since I was a kid. It still shoots but only about one pump of air at a time...enough to kill a starling if you are close and hit it well, but that's about it. I bought a new one of the supposedly same model last year; shoots pretty good. But it isn't nearly as solid a rifle as that old one. I've killed a bunch of squirrels off the bird feeder with it, though.

Yep, New Zealand (especially the South Island) is absolutely spectacular, one of the the most beautiful places on Earth. The trout fishing can be tough, but you don't really care because you're spending more time gaping at the scenery. Pretty cool that there are streams you can hike up from the ocean, through a rain forest, and end up at a glacier in just a few hours.

I did a short canoe float on upper Big River today. Water still high but 2.5 feet visibility, caught 8 or 9, nothing big. The upper river is always tough in the winter and I didn't expect to catch much.

Okay, drew a little diagram... 1. This is how your tag end of your wrap should look just before you pull the loop of line you're using under the wrap. 2. So you pull the loop just SLIGHTLY under the wrap, not all the way. It should be just enough that it's holding the tag end under the edge of the wrap. Then you clip off the tag end as shown. In other words, you have just a little of the tag end under the wrap at this point, not a long enough tag end to reach all the way to where your loop will come out. 3. Pull the loop all the way out. It will pull the rest of the tag end under the wrap, but it "loses" the end of the tag end before it comes out. No nub. Hope this helps.

Yeah, I know that there are plenty of really cool saltwater fish. But the other big thing I dislike about saltwater is the setting. Fishing for me is more the setting than the fish. I simply love everything about rivers, and find saltwater boring as far as scenery. Not that I can't have any fun there...I've done enough to know that it's fun. (Except for halibut fishing, which was ridiculously boring.) Heck, I can have fun fishing for anything. But given a choice, I'll always opt for fishing a nice river for bass or trout.