tjm

A real test of their skill and manliness would put them out there with oars and a map of the shore line, .. Have a tournament at every access and all would be close enough that anglers in the next boat could judge.

So, your take on it is bass should preserved for the tournaments? I wonder what makes tournament anglers more important than hungry anglers? but I know they are because they and they alone are allowed to relocate fish and only they are allowed to sort possessed fish. I have to by law either keep it or release unharmed and immediately: this dictates that if I believe the fish is harmed at all, I can not release it period? Or is that unclear? what if I catch a undersized fish and it is clearly hurt, I can't keep it and I can't release it? Trout sure don't like much cooking . Salt, pepper and cut lemon are all they really need.

Easy as can be, take out your favorite piece and get where the game is then creep and stalk til you get less than 20 yards from the game if deer or turkey or 5-6 yards if squirrel, bring your piece up and get the sights just so; then shout "release!!" and go do it again. You can hunt this way all through the regular season and then practice every day til next season by getting intimate and then pointing your hiking staff as you shout. I've been close enough to rabbits and grey squirrels to touch them if I wanted. Been about twenty feet from several deer at different times. ~12' from a coyote and 15-16' from a grey fox. I guess if you carry a rifle, maybe it's shooting rather than hunting? I have tossed a fly into a few beds and watched the fish move it out of his territory on streams a few times, but, it was in clear water 2' deep; I'd guess a bit different than dragging him to surface from 16' down and handling him. I could have taken every bedding fish that day and because I could see beds in the deeper water also, I quit fishing that creek and did something else for a few days. it would not have mattered if I used a stick or a round rock with a hook on it, those fish would have moved it they did move stones that I flipped in the right place.

I've never chased spawning bass (or other fish) in the lakes, so, out of ignorance and curiosity; do any or many of the fish taken off the beds return to the bed and keep it up after being caught there?

That's what I was thinking about the cost of upgrading. Not sure about a hitch on small car though.

I have old Yakima and to re-fit it to current car will run ~$300, I never thought it had anything to do with the boat coming off and hitting another car, don't believe it does, but it did make it easier to haul and raised it above the windshield so I had better vision. I'm near to buying components off ebay for the cost savings. I was hoping some one else was competing with Yakima.

Lot's more than 2 hours from St L, but Southtowns FB if you want to contact them. Southtown

Best bang for buck suggestions?

Thanks, wrench. That is the way i remember my biology. As kids we would carefully remove the swim bladders and make floats from them. So if every single fish that is released dies two, three, four days after release (as some studies contend they can) there still would not be thousands of floating fish. I don't think mortality is huge, but I'd not be surprised if it ran as high as 20% of all hauled and handled fish. If I fish barbless flies and use in the water release as brought to hand, I'd still expect some to become infected. (I don't keep my hooks sterile) One of the big reasons I quit using Rapala type lures is seeing fish die, apparently from contact with two treble hooks.

If a fish is down, say, 17' and dies will it float to the top? i know that in streams I have seen dead fish on the bottom being eaten by craw dads more often than I have floating fish. What if the release boat sees some questionable fish and slits them open as stated in another thread do those fish float? The upside to killing (whether to cook or to measure) all those bass is improved habitat for carp and by the time the bass are fully extirpated Euro Carping will be running contests where you adrenaline boasters can catch truly large fish.

what's the class all about? cooking? boat repair? geometry? ?? I've been to Joplin, it's a lot like going to town, but more traffic.

Back in my day, Truman was all rivers and creeks and yep the fishing was good. Ever wonder if impoundment alone doesn't have a negative impact on rivrerine genetics? The first 10-20 years after the dam building the existing stock would be in place but then the fish would adapt to changed environment?

People have always been nuts.

in your profile settings>account settings>other settings>some notification options = I think may be what you want?

Saw this and thought it interesting and that it applied to this discussion; https://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/magazine/2015/october/boat-wake-damage-liability.asp and this; https://www.boatus.com/magazine/2011/august/seaworthy.asp The more I read on the subject, the more I wonder how many boat drivers are even aware that boats make wakes.

Not a golfer so I wouldn't know, but, with everybody having a lot of balls and carrying clubs, I would expect a degree of courtesy.

It looks nice. I think it might be beyond my ability to cast, that's a lot of fly.

Even if they are amateur anglers, the problem was with boating safety/etiquette. It really indicates a need for revocable boat operator permits more than anything else. The fishing tournaments did not create the idiot operators nor turn them into rude behinds; the tournaments do give those people an excuse to be there and a seeming 'open pass' to be on their worst behavior. Have you considered that most automobile accidents leading to death are caused by amateur drivers? Highly regulated and permitted, but, amateurs still.

Trappers looks will fool you, some of the best are a lawyer and a Dr. in the off season. Like picking out the anglers in a crowded office complex. A couple well known trappers are so fat that you would think they never leave the couch and one I know of is one legged. For the most part cats feet support their weight so well that they don't leave many tracks, often in snow a big cat's track will look kinda like it was made with a lady's powder puff, no real distinguishing characteristics. A better indicator of species is often the print placement pattern if a trail is visible. Is the trail wandering, staggered, straight line, are prints overlapping, overprinting etc. and so on. A red fox trail in snow is distinguishable from a domestic dog's trail at a distance or in a drive by; but a single print might be hard to tell.

Well it is a protected species and all, but he already got his picture taken and published so anonymity is already compromised.

You (all who want to designate the lake as a tourney play ground) should buy him ( and all others who protest despicable behavior) out and locate him (them) a place on another Ozark lake where outsiders don't have bass tournaments.

Just think how a flotilla of those guys could affect a tourney if they organized.

The OP's 2nd post describing preferred boat operation is a direct quote of a Department of Safety pamphlet.

I think the OP realizes that, the idea is that the tourneys and other tourney anglers self police and discourage the bad behavior and/or ban the "bad apples" based on tourney Standards of Courtesy. Bad behavior on the part of tourney participants can be imposed in several ways; the "good" anglers could set standards and self police or nasty regulations could be incorporated or a battalion of "innocent" pleasure boaters could casually disrupt every tournament to the point tournaments go else where to muck up some other lake. With enough upset non-tourney water users involved and a bit of organization a nation wide movement could grow to the point that every tournament day would find any lake crowded with skiers or cruisers or kayakers to the point that idle speeds become standard and every cove is full of pleasure boats. People simply do not have to accept that tournaments are contests between Gods and mortals keep out.

Biggest I could find recorded was 53". A couple 4'6". I'd bet it's a state record.