tjm

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.

I can imagine that some things could live in the wet parts of a bird for a time. Hard to imagine that any thing could survive a fowls digestive system. Humans are much more likely means of transport, via boat, bait bucket or wet gear. I have heard of guys toting a bucket of fish quite a walk to "stock" a pond, whatever was in the water the fish came from is also stocked, but simply carrying in bait such as wild crayfish or shiners and dumping the leftovers is enough.

MoC, Chinese ringnecks are invasive indeed and I place them with carp as a species that should be regulated as see and kill, no season/no limit, like carp they don't actually seem to do real well in the Ozarks. I have personally never seen a feral pheasant in Mo. German trout are not invasive in Mo. our coldest springs are too warm at their spawning times, we could say that Pacific trout are somewhat invasive, they do reproduce in a few streams. They are limited to those few streams though, they have been introduced in nearly all Ozark streams at some time in the past and have never succeeded. It could likely be argued that whitetail deer are invasive in parts of the Ozarks, as savanna would not have been the ideal habitat for them. Problem with you bringing other invasives to the argument is that they have no bearing on carp. Justifying a bad thing by saying there are other bad things is just a an evasion. Because Jesse James became a hero to some by stealing from others, do you advocate raising all our children to rob strangers? Stick to the carp. All carp, not just the German carp, because Germans are just as good or bad as Chinese or Japanese carp; they are all equal in being foreign. They are here now, we can't extirpate them from all our waters at this point. But because 20 people or 1000 people have fun catching the same fish twice and naming it is no reason to keep 10,000 or a million people from having fun killing that same fish on sight. If you want advocate for protection of carp, you need to establish that they are endangered and that the loss of carp would adversely impact our environment in general. Don't attempt to put the burden of that proof of the public, you stated that the big Carpguy has lots of money and wants to share, so let him/them pay. I would even donate some for restoration, if they can show that American carp exist and are in danger. Need to do the relaunch right, change the name to "The Eurocarp Society of America", more impact with truth in advertising. Give out a hundred bucks worth of Carp tackle with every membership. $500 in Carp tackle with lifetime commitment.

Chief, it has been my impression for many years that most "conservation" organizations are either in it for the money or are anti-consumptive use/animal rights people telling me the hunting will be better if I don't hunt and the fishing will be better if I don't fish. Doesn't make large difference which coast they come from. Some are even home grown. I even donated to some of those groups back in my youth. Yes, I saw where they were doing best fishing of your life trips in groups of 40, imho, 40 anglers on any stretch of stream is way less than a best fishing day.

nah, after a bit of guess and search I think he meant this bunch: http://www.missourismallmouthalliance.org/home.html So, there is no "relaunch" just hype for the youngins on social media to generate more funds ? Launch indicates getting it afloat to begin with and relaunch indicates it either ran aground or was careened. When I asked the question above I thought you'd have a story to tell about how they fell on hard times or something, now it sounds like just a bid for attention. It was sorta asked above "how many lawn chairs" , but I'll come out with it, at this moment how many paying members in the American Carp Society? And just for sake of curiosity, how many of those are American? It seems that every thing about carp is referenced to EUROPE Europe this Europeans that European countries involved in the big contest in NY way back Europe etc. Truth be told there ain't any such animal as an American carp, we got invasive carp from two or three different places one of which is Europe. Biggest claim I found on your website was the 202 people from 17 countries competed for 1 million Dollar purse for breaking the NY State record as well as $50,000 in cash and prizes of 2 Chevrolet Colorado trucks. For a million bucks we could easily get more people than that involved in a bullhead contest or even a carp shooting contest. Americans too, I bet. 2005 was 12 years ago.

Rwren, beautiful fish. Well done.

I will fish bait on a fly rod, the long rod is about all I ever use, but bait is a catch and keep tactic, imo, for any fish. One of the things I disagree with in our fisheries management.