tjm

I don't know much about bass, but it is my belief that in a stream less than ~8'-10' deep, most of the time it doesn't matter if the bait is creeping across the bottom or floundering on the surface, the noise and motion will attract some of the fish, often SMB, and they will take either, if in a taking mood. I often let the light conditions influence my choice between jig and gurgler. Other times I just go by my mood, and it's been rare that I've gotten skunked even when my choice of fly was pure whim. I would like to know how you all get those linesides in the deep holes to hit? are they strictly nocturnal?

Lot's of people not trained as mechanics are smart enough to open the hatch and take deep breath or two before lighting up the boat. And I'd bet a doughnut hole that a bunch of technicians are dumb enough not to. Venting should be built in though, but if it's not $100 would go a long way towards a duct and a blower.

Crazy reporting first says the boy is 14 and the girl 18, then says girl is 14 and the 18 year old was injured. Five sentences and can't keep it straight. Makes one wonder if any of it is correct, the boat is Colbat, not Colbalt? I bet they could design in forced ventilation that would be required prior to startup. Isn't I/O the same principle that is used on whaleboats, yachts and ships? An electric blower isn't very noisy, they run them in bathrooms and kitchens of most houses. Ships and yachts have vented engine rooms. Forced fresh air would likely give better engine aspiration too? I don't know boats, but this kind of accident does seem kinda like premeditated stupidity.

I've been to the Sedalia show twice, both a long time ago, about 50 years since the last time. Saw a pair of mules drag a huge tractor backwards on a bet, a fantastic machine for picking rocks out of a field, a hog weighing about a ton and heard Little Jimmy Dickens perform "Cold Tater" among other stuff like the bearded lady etc. The time as a high school kid and the time years later with wife and small children kinda run together. Every year, I think "we'll go this year" then August rolls around and other stuff is happening. With 4 hours travel, we need to plan accommodation and all that. Everyone should go at least once in their life.

Early on, when I was still using 12'-16' leaders, I learned that bringing the leader around the reel frame and back up to a guide would keep the kink out of the leader that they develop when folded over the tiptop, and often keep the leader-line connection out of the tiptop as well. I have never hooked a fly into the cork (don't understand those that do) and I don't think that I've used a keeper ring since about '76 or so. With those Mason Hard Nylon leaders a tiptop kink was almost a permanent kink. The fly line tip doesn't seem to hold a kink that bad and with knotted leaders it's just handy to have them all outside the guides. I've walked a lot of miles with the leader snugged over the reel that way. I've seen fellers bring the leader around the reel foot and back up, but the foot is almost as sharp cornered as the tiptop, coming around the pillars or case gives a nice radius. I think I prefer rods with a little bit of weight to them, 2.5-4.5 oz. have never bothered me and most of my lines add an ounce to the reel's 3-4oz, as long as it all adds up to less than a cup of coffee, I'll manage. I like the cork seat spacer better than the fancy woods that many rods get, but then I'm happy with a plain aluminum reel seat too.

Only 5/8 oz. without the reel and line then? I looked all over the web once trying to find a published weight on Orvis' new rods, all blanks that I found. But if memory serves the early F&F was 2 5/8oz., my old All 'Rounder #7 is only 3oz. I always seem to like lighter lines that Orvis recommends on their rods, so that's my 6wt. I use lots of two piece rods and feel like the fewer pieces there are the fewer pieces I can lose. I'd look for one piece rods if my car was bigger, because with most casts being some form of roll or oval, the rod joints tend to work apart. It took a few rods breaking for me to learn to keep checking that single joint, and if i had two more joints to keep watch on, I'm afraid that it'd be a full time job. I suppose that means that I'll have to fish "vintage" rods from now on, because the short sections have taken over the industry. I suppose shorter the piece is the cheaper to manufacture and or replace.

So, is poaching an extradition crime or did these geniuses go back to a country where they were wanted? We know that they are all geniuses from the video posting of a crime in progress, but the crime went down in March and the investigation didn't even begin until August, which should have been enough time for the poachers to escape back to the USA.

Do you test each purchase to be sure it's ethanol free?

I don't think that's true any more, all common engines have been designed around ethanol at least since 2007 and most carb kits are too. It's also apparent that whatever they put in the non-ethanol gas (it ain't Tetraethyllead) separates/deteriorates just as fast as the ethanol does. The key is use all your gas every month, month old gas is starting to rot. All unleaded gas sucks in carbs and engines built for leaded gas, but that's been being phased out since the mid '80s and engines/carburetors have been designed for unleaded gas since the '90s. Yes there was a time when two-cycle oil (16/1 mix of Phillips 66 Unique) didn't work well with ethanol, but I haven't had that problem in over a decade, we get better oil now and use less of it.

Mayfly duns also called Subimago, spinners called Imago, Mayflies are also called "shadflies" or "fishflies" in some locations/literature. Mayfly nymphs are the larval stage, mayflies skip the pupal stage, and nymphs are sometimes called naiads in literature on mayflies because in Greek mythology naiads were nymphs associated with fresh water. You may see the stages of an insect's life called "instars". The transformation between instars/stages, "molting", is a time vulnerability when fish find it easy to catch the bugs. Small Griffith's Gnat does not represent a single midge, in the way that Zebra Midge or Rootbeer Midge does, but, rather a cluster of adult midges with each fiber of the hackle being a single midge. Clustering is a common midge behavior as the new adults adjust to a new form. It's why I can use a size 18 rather than size 24 or smaller hook. But in larger sizes #14 might better be used as a caddis, #12 as a spent mayfly. The most common caddis larvae that I see are the tiny cased worms in their sand built houses on bottoms of rocks and I've never tried to imitate them, imo, the caddis pupa as it rises is the most vulnerable stage and the one I imitate most often, with sparsely tied spider/flymph/soft hackle flies. A couple of sites that at a glance I suspect are AI generated but seem to have good pics and cover most of the entomology that an angler needs to be familiar with https://flyfishcircle.com/entomology (Images are links to more details) https://minturnanglers.com/basic-fly-fishing-entomology-bugs-flies/

Just because you didn't see them doesn't mean you weren't close to them a few times. Their camouflage is near perfect and they are so fearless that you can be within feet of them and they won't flush like most critters do. I've seen a few, skint a couple and walked within ~25' of one standing in my backyard, without seeing it until I had passed it and then it just walked away unhurried. Had hounds tree several when we hunted at night and those were the only ones that acted fearful, often jumping from the tree and running again. Coon hounds were not encouraged to run the cats.

I always fished those spinners wrong and no one ever told me. I was under the impression that they were meant to bounce off the stream bottom and sweep under the logs. Thought that's why they were so heavy. I guess it's a good thing that I discovered deceivers and zonkers. Probably saved me embarrassment being seen misusing the spinners. I'm not sure that I've deliberately fished the middle of the water column, I reckoned that if the fish weren't looking up that they'd be looking down. Reason for floats vs sinkers. Still learning and not sure that I'll ever figure it out. Thanks for the heads up. Top water just seems like gurgler territory.

Sounds like a place to use a Black Nose Dace or a Mickey Finn. I have often found that the best hatch match is something entirely different. But the Yellowstone is one of those places that I fished and never saw even a minor hatch. Also one I'll likely never see again.

Mayfly - https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/mayfly-larvae Most of the nymphs we fish are larvae stage mayflies. Stonefly- https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/stonefly-larvae Larvae stage stonfly patterns almost always have the word 'ston' or 'stonefly' in the name to distingush them from the mayfly nymphs. Caddisfly -https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/caddisflies The larvae stage of cadis isn't usually fished that I'm aware of, too tiny I think, we have many caddis pupa iitations and a few adult imitations. Many soft hackle flies are considered cadiis pupa.

Dragonfly nymphs aren't as hard to tie as stoneflies. The bulging eyes are the most distinguishing part to me, otherwise just a #8-#12 generic grub. Bead chain or melt mono for the eyes. They do need to be fished right on the bottom in pools rather than fast water and moved in short jerks, 3"-6" like the bug moves. There are many patterns out there but Barr’s Dragonfly Nymph is a good example. MDC Gallery

I spent a lot of hours in the City Library back in the '70s and memorized a lot bug names and then some grad student did a research paper and changed all the names and even changed the families the bugs belonged to, and I'm pretty sure that's happened again since then, point being that entomology as such isn't going to be constant. Every crop of grad students can and will rewrite it all. I believe that I've finely managed to forget most of those bug names. One book that was small enough to carry on the water and covered most of the mayflies was Art Flick's "Streamside Guide to Naturals and Their Imitations" which has since been revised as "new" and may be available from your local library. For simple insect study that may interest you try Troutnut https://www.troutnut.com/hatches he has about the best website as far as trout related bugs go. You can learn about mayflies, caddis, and stoneflies with good images of most. the terms like 'sulfur ' "March Brown" "Blue wing Olive" are kinda vague terms for the patterns we use to imitate some types of insects and are also used to roughly designate the insects being imitated. I say vague because the terms often apply to more than one species of insect or more than one type of imitation. Sulfur generally means "yellow colored" and Blue Wing Olives/BWO can have gray wings and gray bodies to my eye although the name suggests pale blue wings and olive body. "Crackleback" is the name of a St. Louis fly pattern that is based the old Palmer style flies sometimes called "woolly worms". It is confused on whether it wants to be a dry fly that is fished underwater or a wet fly that is fished as a dry. A web search of each term with 'fly fishing' included in the search bar should find lots of explanations. You can take a handful of rather generic Catskill or parachute dry flies, to represent the adult mayflies or "Duns" and something like an Elk Hair Caddis/EHC to represent all the "sedges" or caddis flies and basic nymphs like the Pheasant Tail, sparse woolly bugger and the Hare's Ear/GRHE to represent most larvae, along with a marabou leech or two and catch fish just about anywhere and even if the imitation isn't a hatch match, if it is the right size and delivered to the right spot it will often catch a "selective" trout. So intimate knowledge of the insects isn't necessary for fly fishing. As to hatches, they are a lot more important in places that I have never fished than they are in places that I have fished. I've read many a tale about needing perfect matches, of millions of insects and hatches that lasted hours, but my experience runs more like a couple hundred insects sporadically hatching over a hour and the fish paying only mild attention to them. I guess that in my ~50 years of fly rod fishing I've just been very lucky to never have encountered a single large hatch, although I've seen hundreds of smallish hatches. I don't recall a time when my fly actually matched the hatch either but I always managed to find a stupid fish or two.

Why not fly fishing friendly? I've never been there that I recall.

Firefox extension "uBlock Origin" eliminates all that stuff. I added it just because Firefox recommended it and only after having it a long time discovered that was what some websites kept telling me was an "ad-blocker".

Quillback's post referenced a USACE document and if they did that at Table Rock, it would make sense that they have similar commercial zone regulations on all Corp reservoirs. I'm not sure who would have that authority on the Lake Ozarks or Taneycomo? Who licenses commercial docks on those ponds?

My use of your quote was only about ownership. Most Mo. riparian landowners do own the stream bottoms. I wasn't addressing anything that you said about camping, or passing through, just the whole notion that because some may have used the property prior to private ownership that it should mean that it can always be used by others. Just floating through is very much like just walking through. So if it makes shortcut to the store for Bob to walk through Bill's yard he should? I think that in UK many private lands are open to hiking through, based on historical foot paths in a similar manner to the case law allowing commercial use of streams was applied in the 19th century USA, my thought is that we have 20th century case law based on simple possibility rather than actual historical use and that we have extended that right of commercial use to apply to recreational use. Because semi-trucks use highways for commerce kids should be allowed to use them for skateboarding? I do believe that if we can legally camp on a gravel bar on a larger stream then that also allows us to camp on a gravel bar on any stream that we are allowed to float through. According to most, I think that means any stream that can float a tube during high water. I think it's remarkable that we don't have many more floater-owner conflicts than we do.

So do most in MO. Stream bottoms are taxed at the same rate as cropland in Mo. It's just a difference in laws as to how much control owners have over their property. Although I enjoy using other's stream bottoms as we are allowed to here, it's the same as the state allowing me to camp out in other people's yards just because it may have been the site of a trapper's camp or that of a native. It's obvious that historically everyone's yard was open to travel and camping by all who wanted to. And no doubt some yards did have walking paths cross them and no doubt some were the site of camps, so if the presumption of prior use that we apply to streams were applied to other real estate, every yard would need open gates. And there would be no gated communities either, because you can be sure that those areas had traffic of some sort way back in history. I have wondered if the Elder v Delcour were taken to a higher court if it would have stood up or if it had been tried at any other time period if it would have had a different outcome. It seems almost to have been scripted from beginning to end as though all involved collaborated. Declaring that a commercial thoroughfare is open to recreation use by floaters and fishers is kinda like saying that we are entitled to ride bicycles and roller-skates on the interstates. Not really a logical jump.

I don't think that I've read about trappers exploring the Ozarks in canoes, I'd always thought it was miners that opened this area up, but I never really studied local history either.

Kinda surprised at this. I used to want one of those Brunsell/Global dorbeRfly rods but there seemed to no way to order one, spent quite a bit of time off and on for years searching the web for a contact or catalog. If asked I would have guessed them to have closed up several years ago. I've forgotten now what got me interested, some article describing one of the rods, but can't recall what was special.

Federal definitions of navigable waters all seem to hinge of commerce, and lack of commerce would likely make any water arising on private land non-navigable until it exits the private land and passes a public access where it would become available for possible commercial use.

It probably takes death (or several) directly attributed to the dam or it's management to cause any change in operation. I would agree that horns should extend several miles down river and I also think that the horns could be wired so that a time delay between horn blast and any release of water is automatic. No horn, the mechanisms controlling gates, generation etc won't work., But I don't expect such to ever happen.