tjm

days later ...

I've seen a lot of what I thought were hybrids and I've also seen a lot of color variance in the same species in the same stretch of stream. And I've caught some species that I was pretty sure of my ID, but that aren't supposed to be here. Sunfish are sunfish. Google eye are google eye, etc.

Chris Boyd 417-546-0833 Quenten Fronterhouse 417-294-5543

I just don't think the stripes are unusual or particularly aberrant, what I see as unusual is the pale "background" color; it would be hard to think of that fish as a "black perch", or really even as "green". But, I'm not much of a species ID guy and often call them all "fish". And for me to have said definitely what the fish pictured is, I would have wanted to see the fins. And most likely an ID chart. So, my post above was as much a query as not.

When I do a web search for "green sunfish" it seems to me that most of the images found include those vertical bars or stripes, although often fainter- USGS- Wikipedia- Texas Parks- Don't several of the "sunfish" species exhibit this vertical marking? bluegill? red ear? etc?

A little more looking turned up an older thread on this subject, and the good stuff from it-

I wonder why the manufacturer recommends regular if that is harmful? perhaps because it's not? I also wonder what other alcohol/ether/solvent they use instead of ethanol to concoct something that meets clean air standards and octane ratings?

Well, no. Half hitches have to be formed one at a time, although a series of half hitches will secure the thread to an extent if glued. A whip requires no glue as the binding of several overlays hold the tag securely. A good source of information on various knots- https://www.amazon.com/Ashley-Book-Knots-Clifford-W/dp/0385040253

makes it easier to see what is happening. The knot is simply tucking the end under several wraps of itself, no crossings or twists. It is the same "knot that we call a "nail knot" and the same that we use to wrap guides onto rods, also called the common whipping knot for keeping ropes ends from unraveling. We are just forming it in different ways for different uses.

Have you guys fished for them on the darkest moonless nights? Joe wasn't the only proponent of nocturnal fishing for big browns. I think that all the "mousing" articles I've read over the years were about night fishing. Does it make difference whether fishing in lake or stream? I've read about Loch fishing at night for browns and those old time wet fly fishers of the famous British rivers seem to have been diurnal.

I consider that a negative, given the limited access we have and the unlimited masses. The one positive that can be claimed is the profits become part of our economy and I'm not at all sure that it is actually a positive given all that is entailed.

What "good" has come or will come from competitive fishing in any form?

It'll be grass again. In 1800 much/most of the Ozarks was savanna and when Schoolcraft made his expedition across the area, he had to carry a pack-horse load of wood with him to ensure that they would have camp cooking wood, I think he mentioned three days of travel between wood sources as he traveled the Ozarks. Timber grew when settlers stopped the wildfires.

Locals were feeding chicken litter to beef cattle back in the '70s and I suppose that's still happening wherever both are raised. But what in the world would make you think the forests would become mostly pine? Scruby oaks are much easier to establish. And yes enough acorns do affect the taste of meat. And other than grouse, what game would feed mostly on pine? I usually find pine groves pretty barren of game.

So the firefighters must be a threat to our government that y'all need to watch and the hospital also?

USFS? USDA?

Did you think of getting more sandwiches on the other days? Do "they" normally bring "regular food trucks" into western wilderness areas to service firefighters there? I'm thinking that it would be just as easy to bring the guys and gals to a sit down restaurant as to a food truck, I can't imagine that a food truck is going to be in the midst of the fire area. Bag lunch can be delivered to the scene and eaten while standing.

Simply applying an oil to the ankles and shins goes a long way towards keeping small crawlies off. hey can't wade in oil very well and it seems to suffocate them too. Baby oil, mineral oil, banana oil etc. have all worked for me. It requires cleaning off afterwards, but I'm usually ready for a bath/shower after exposure to those environments anyway. Not sure that I've ever had 'oak mites', so can't speak for them, but I haven't had chiggers nor seed ticks when well oiled.

Yep, but it was my first time to attend such a gathering ... I sat through most of Wotton's presentation too, given with no microphone. Oh well, now I can say that I've been there. But my point is that gurus sell what they are paid to, they don't go off on the trail of better for less, or even mention "it's better than my brand".

So let's look at that- "won't see me using $ 3.39 fly line for big game." I see no mention of any size flies?

Isn't a flyfishing guru someone who is paid to hype one brand or another? I went to a ''stream bass fly fishing'' seminar while down at the sowbug last spring and the guy showed some video of him or someone catching a few fish but his entire presentation was about using a single brand of gear, then he passed out caps with that logo on them. I'll never get that hour back. I gave my cap to some kid. You Tube is full of easy to recognize (guru?) names demonstrating that "this brand" is the key to casting better and to catching more fish.

The second sentence cancels the first- again you have brought it back to the fish size versus line cost. But, that is fine. Lot's of stuff going on in the world that I don't understand and if the price tag somehow changes the physics involved in casting, I probably couldn't follow the reasoning. Two similar lines having equal mass with similar distribution of mass over a given length of line and with equal acceleration should carry any fly pretty much the same. Regardless of line color. But I can't say that I've ever needed 8" steamers, so I'll take your word on it that they are price sensitive.

The China fly lines that I bought as an experiment were quite surprising and so far show no more wear after a couple years than expected. I did buy the $6.50 line rather than the $3.39 version, so maybe I have the "premium" China lines. However, mine cast as well as I do, have less stretch than the USA lines I own, and seem to have just as high breaking strength. My only objection to these lines after using them is political. And politics is a big objection and I think a valid one, but as long as we trade with communists as a nation, my views mean nothing. I do want to one day watch as a flyline (or any line) gets stretched while hooked to nothing but water. 26% wow Do those big game fish break fly lines as a rule? is that why only premium lines are used?

Yep, the innovators; Cortland put plastic around the braid in 1953 and not long after Leon Martuch of SA figured out how to build the taper into the plastic instead of the braid. And everyone else is knocking that off. The last real innovation in fly line was probably when someone married the shooting line to the shooting taper ("shooting head" was copyrighted to Sunset Line and Twine) to create what is now called a weight forward. A smaller innovation came with building lubricants into the plastic coating. Sometime in the 1970s? The particular plastic formulas with the secret sauce lubricants is about the only thing that any of the line manufacturers claim as being unique to their companies. It's probably a bigger and more useful innovation to produce any product at 10%-15% of what others are doing. It's kinda like saying that shoes are copied, at this point in history all the innovations are old and well known by all the shoemakers.