tjm

Take shot guns and call it a duck hunt.

Trespass would probably fall to the county sheriff unless the whole thing took place within the city limits, I think?

What makes it legal to float it? Or illegal?

I have known of a few instances where a spring branch was dammed and the resulting "lake" "bucket stocked" with fish caught in different drainages, both Shoal Creek drainage and Illinois River drainage fish moved into Elk River drainage. Probably some from the White drainage as well. I've seen these ponds wash out in later floods too. How a hundred or so mature fish would change the down stream DNA reservoir is beyond my knowledge. Couldn't guess how many times this might have happened, I've only seen it a few times.

Absolutely. In trying to find out what I caught over the years I've seen pictures of what looked like the same fish identified by different names. I have seen rock bass called warmouth in articles and I have seen them listed as different species in other articles. Once had a warden tell me the fish I had in Elk drainage was a Kentucky bass, but he did not count the scales or examine the teeth. I never bothered to find out what exactly made a Kentucky bass different. Catch what look like hybrid google eye X blue gill some times too, deep very thick very black red eyed monsters. I did read once that rock bass could change color to match their environment, I don't know about that but have caught some that looked quite different from the ones just up stream a hundred yards and at the time did not know there was more than one species. How would Elk and Spring rivers not be a part of the Arkansas River system? And drainage is not far separated, some place a spilled bucket of water could run half into White and half into Elk; another some place half could run into White River and half into Illinois River; some other place half would drain into Elk and half into Illinois; and there is place where half would run into Spring River and half would run into Elk River. Not sure there is disagreement ; when I searched Ambloplites species I got; southern rock bass (Ambloplites ariommus) (= shadow bass??) Ozark rock bass (Ambloplites constellatus) northern rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris) shadow bass (Ambloplites ariommus) It was easier way back then, call them all either 'little ol perch' or 'just some black perch'..

I'm sorry I missed this, meant to be there but have my dates mixed up. Some how thought it was this week end, would liked to have met you all. Might go up tomorrow any way. Looks like a fine time.

Well, if you want exclusive use of a honey hole, buy it and post it; keep low lifes like me from accidentally stumbling on to it. Near as I can tell Cricket was sharing his (public)(state owned) honey hole. Maybe like me he gets lonesome out there, some times it's nice to see another fisher. We have enough problem finding stream access in Mo. that every single place you can get to is known by all who are interested. Which by the don't seem be very many any more. I don't know any one who fishes often, at all, no one. Look around this forum and count how many of you there are, look at how spread out you are and calculate how much damage all of you put together could do. I can't see the protection of resource at all, this comes across as fear that "some one else will get there before I do". Greed plays a part in it but dog in the manger stands out more. Reckon we should fence the State Parks all in and keep them closed to all fishing but OAF members? How many other anglers do you see on an average winters day? I saw one yesterday and another one today, and that was in a city park fishing a white ribbon trout stream that was brim full of 12"-16"ers. I am afraid to say where now though, might be some body's special city park and he/she would get all up.

I have always thought that all the sunfish hybridize with all the others, I know I've caught a lot that didn't match any of the pictures published as typical of this or that. Locally I think they would all be "perch", only recall three kinds of fish when I was kid; suckers, perch and flatheads. If there were any other fish in these streams no one would admit to catching them.

wow

Lived in a small village while in the Navy and every nice evening my bride and I would walk the quarter mile of street to the old bridge and back, usually see 20+ skunks on that walk. Skunks are better mousers than cats, imo, and eat piles of insects that I don't miss. I think distemper took most of the skunks hereabouts some years ago; I consider them rare and only see a few road kill per year now. The babies are cute, we had a den in a corner of the yard for many years. fwiw, tomato juice won't have any effect on the skunk smell on you or the dogs, here is a recipe that is said to work though; Mix all ingredients together in a plastic bucket; 1 quart hydrogen peroxide 1/4 cup baking soda 1 teaspoon liquid dishsoap Use a sponge or cloth to wipe the animal, can do the inside of the mouth but KEEP OUT OF THE EYES! Mix as needed, doesn't store well after mixing. Said to have been developed by a chemist, its been used by a lot of trappers. If you forget the formula and do need it sometime search the net for 'best homemade skunk wash' or similar. I've seen it on dozens of sites over several years.

When I fished southern New England I had a small number of streams that still held brookies, places where the state people said there where none, 9-10" was a trophy 7" was bigger than most. Beautiful fish though, for the top half of my fly rod. Much of the fabled water of old has had the native char completely displaced by stocking of trout, and the marginal waters have been landscaped to death. When I last visited that area several years ago two of those special brooks were under concrete for a large part of their length and another cleared of brush with reduced flow. The state back then did what the sports wanted and stocked heavily with "put and take" as the guide. I saw seven houses change the entire character of about three miles of trout brook. As a child in Idaho, I recall fishermen complaining about the cutthroats and bull trout and wanting the game department to rid streams of them to make better rainbow fishing. If I recall correctly I was told only bull trout/Dolly Varden were native in Id.

About critters staying hidden, a few years ago another forum; a person posted a picture she had taken of a bald eagle perched in a big tree; thing was below the eagle and to one side was a grey fox resting on a large limb that she never saw until she was working with the photo much later. Cats lay out on limbs like that too, and folks don't often look up the way they look down or around.

Whippoorwills look a lot like dead leaves and nest right on the ground on a single dead leaf. Sorta like the killdeers nest on gravel. I've had the privilege of finding three whippoorwill nests in my life time and saw the eggs and later the chicks. Likely the same pair in different years, as the nests were within five yards of one another. The hen did the hurt wing flutter to draw me away from the eggs but I didn't play. I was about one step away when she flushed straight at me then fluttered off crying. My guess is that they could wait two-three years and trap that many more off that Peck Ranch area, nature moves to refill any sort of void and that is very good habitat.

Looks like evolution in progress, if no one interferes.

I have no problem really with how you take game as long as you eat all you take. I think gigging and netting are more efficient means of harvest overall. Sportsmen have made regulations that benefit only their pursuit and are always happy to take others methods away.Very likely because historically only the nobility and the very wealthy could afford to become sportsmen, club membership required. Some day there will be people that say catch and release should be banned as it is sadistic and unnecessary abuse of animals. Trophy regulations are a step in that direction. Any restriction is a restriction and is only an incremental step towards banning. Wait, are you suggesting large mouth bass are edible? Don't think I've ever known anyone that ate them, remember back when I was a kid people always said they were full of worms. I assumed that was why catch and throw back was accepted.

Where is this "view new posts" button? I've been looking for one and along the way find myself reading old old stuff, interesting sometimes but old.

Nice fish, if I were you, I'd keep quiet and enjoy the very liberal carp regulations that exist. If all the fish were trophy size it'd be no challenge to catch one that big. Half the challenge is finding that special location.

Mocarp, you don't want to encourage others to fish for carp or to enjoy eating them, at least your posts aren't geared towards that, what you are advocating is getting more regulations and in particular regulations preventing two three user groups from any further practice of their methods. You would prohibit bow fishing. You would prohibit gigging. You would restrict or prohibit carp consumption. You would do this universally, not just in pay to fish ponds that you reference so often in europe/greatbritain. You come across as anti fishing, as do most groups that would restrict my pleasure/sport to possibly increase theirs. Once you have achieved your goals of regulating the carp to one fish a week over 39# as a creel limit where will these hordes of bank fisher-people sit to watch the alarms? 99.44% of the Ozarks seems to be posted private or boating access only. Regulations will eventually end fishing for all but the wealthy elite, just as in your europe the fishing has been since the middle ages. In briton there traditionally are two kinds of fisher-people; lords and poachers. Pay to fish is a relative new thing there, fish still are controlled by the wealthy. And I expect the real fishermen are still poachers. Your ancestors probably fled from that region and that mentality. Considering that in order to make the pay to fish work there needs to be no public fishing allowed, it is not surprising that europeans want to prohibit our pubic fishing for carp so they can build and rent pond fishing. You might gain more converts by describing how good carp taste and how to properly dress a carp. Pictures of heaping platters of delicious fillets being consumed by happy people. I've been encouraging carp consumption for fifty years and have gained a few converts. Set up a Carp fry and invite all OAF, MDC, and any other players for a Carp feast. Need to work on getting lots of stream bank access where we can sit to bait fish too.

See one or three a year in or within a hundred yards of my yard. would see more or more often if I paid better attention they hide pretty well. I have walked to within a few feet (20-30?) of them before seeing them. Have had dogs that would tree a lot of bobcats while coon hunting, they are not as rare as fox. 2207 were harvested in Mo in the 2015-16 furbearer season, CITES tags are mandatory so there are good records. For information on where they are in Mo see this pdf pages 13-18 https://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/2016Furbearers.pdf

NRA backed the gun control laws we have now didn't they? I read some where (several some wheres) that they did. President of NRA spoke to US Congress on the need for National Firearms Act of 1934, in the '20s they wrote the draft of the Uniform Firearms Act (model legislation for states to adopt), I remember the NRA had endorsed the Gun Control Act of 1968 and just recently saw that they want to ban bump stocks . NRA is no friend to firearms freedom.

Good summation, and I fully agree. Might. As to whether it is worth more $$ in research, I wouldn't guess that all the birds in the world contribute much to the invasives being introduced into a flyway, redistribution within a flyway is quite possible even if it is not proven. Yet one boat can move many times more of them intact propagules than a whole flock of geese, and it isn't just a theory that boats do move invasives far beyond any regional borders such as migration routes. And as mentioned above, the ability of birds to poop live zebras can't be controlled , but man's contribution can be. Sure I'd like to know if eagles could stock mountain lakes with German trout as a future feeding area for their unhatched youngins, but there may be research of higher priority to fund first. I am a bit surprised that the percentage of viable propagules appears to be that high, although I have heard that a goose will pass raw bacon intact. But then I'm not sure anything stays inside a goose long enough for transport more than a few yards.

Can't see how anyone could not believe wakes help erosion, any wave action against an unprotected bank is erosion. But who cares, eh? Wind, rain, floods, asteroids could all cause that kind erosion in time.

Guy asks a question, bunch folks said "I don't know", same guy supplies a "translation" of a paper by an unknown student and some people said "oh, yeah, maybe, I think it's possible" ; is this the link or did my computer screw up? If they had any kind of study going on all those university people from all over the world couldn't find it, and the supposed translation alluded to two or three previous such studies that again no one else is aware of? Thanks, but I was expecting something more real.

I drove by there a while back and according to the sign the park has been pay to use (honor system) for several years, there is a parking area across the road that looks as though the landowner (Bob?) has provided for fishermen to park and hike down from. And of course the MDC has the parking lot at the lower bridge. Creek looks a lot different than when I used to fish it regularly, 10-15? years ago. (before the new bridge was built) I took a little hike and looked a bit, not far though. Wouldn't take much for MDC to provide access at a couple spots, I have the notion that area is meant to be about birds though.

Ollie, same deal; pick a day and you can show me Capps. I've not really fished that since the park started charging for use.