tjm

Our game laws sure don't carry enough penalty to be deterrent. Suspension of privilege/permits doesn't have any affect at all on people that don't have the permits in the first place. I wonder if confiscation of vehicles, boats etc. would have any effect, whatever vehicle was used in getting to the water regardless if it's the poacher's or a buddy's or a spectators. But you know I feel just about as upset with the culling and transport of tourney fish and I can't report them, so it is a quandary. I start to wonder if the game laws that support competitive use of wildlife by the wealthy and at the same time prohibit consumption by the poor are really laws that I want to support. If netting of fish is happening, they might be feeding themselves and their families, although I can't see bass as that good of eating. When a family is hungry, it might be that anything can be food. I remember about 1975, the newly arrived Asian refugees seining along the beach and putting anything that moved into the pot to cook later. That was eventually stopped but I think it was more of a health issue than adherence to our laws, given the state of the bay at the time.

Those are invasive species there and here, so should be under a "no limit, any method, kill all you can eat" rule, as should carp. No fish should be discarded though. But there should be enormous fines for any misidentification that leads to killing of non-invasives. One of the problems with our current regs is that even MDC doesn't want to learn to identify most species beyond the umbrella of "rough fish". At a guess from streamside conversations over a lifetime 90% of anglers can't tell the difference between a chub, a redhorse, a buffalo and a carp. Just as they class all "sunfish" as "bluegill", they tend to class all "rough fish" as carp and therefore "trash fish".

Apparently we are allowed to kill 20 per day, except on the Mississippi River which has a daily and possession limit of 100. https://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/species/buffalo Not in local waters here, but I can imagine that most people would consider them as "just carp" and toss on the bank after shooting them. That thought reminds me of the dumpster pictures that @MoCarp used to post.

Is that because fish and game departments allow it or because friends and neighbors encourage it? https://mdc.mo.gov/about-us/about-regulations/operation-game-thief Is stealing fish any better than armed robbery or burglary or other theft? a thief is a thief by any other name?

can't be more than 60 each, 'cause more than that someone would have turned them in as poachers, right? “Those caught and released immediately had 1.3% mortality, bass caught, held and culled had 14.9% mortality, and fish brought to weigh-in had 39.1% mortality. The researcher in charge stated that bass mortality due to tournaments can be much higher than many fishermen believe.” https://usangler.com/bass-mortality-post-tournament/

Next door neighbor reports 7" and I didn't even bother to check, nursing a head cold and don't really care- 2" or 10" are about the same. And, with a couple 40F days upcoming, I see no reason to look for a shovel or to start the tractor. I hate to see snow but it's better than drought or flood. It does give me an excuse to stay at home.

I'm certainly not in favor of tournament fishing, won't knowingly by any tackle from brands that sponsor or support such. I'm particularly opposed to culling, and transport away from the immediate catch area; but, since I don't buy much tackle the sponsors won't miss my business and since I don't watch TV the shows won't know that I'm not watching. I do think that public opinion in the matter is more likely to guide the fisheries regulations than dollar impacts do, but the same public that buys "Pro" tackle and boats, would be up in arms if the "pro-tournaments" were banned, so to some extent the money and the public opinion come from the same sources. And following the guidance of one is also following the guidance of the other. And it may well be that the monetary input is the only reason that the public has access to these waters. Certainly the proponents of wade fishing only and of free flowing streams aren't very vocal, and as always the squeaky parts get the most attention. We might get a regulation limiting the maximum size of fish used in tournaments? say, no bass over two pounds or XX inches can be counted at weigh in.

Think it will have much impact on streams? Do you think it might be effective enough eventually to end the bass tournaments, due to lack of fish?

Simply getting line mass into short casts requires a short rod, or a short to very short leader; stream width of ~20' minus 9' of rod and 9' of leader means only a couple of feet of line out the tip will reach across the whole stream. 5' of #5 line tip will weigh less than business card, not much mass to help in turning over a leader; so it should be no surprise that longer rods make casting short distances difficult. Either rod or leader (or both) need be shortened if line mass is to be introduced. On rivers in excess of 40' this isn't a problem. Putting mass into those short casts is also why I prefer 6-7 wts. over lighter lines, although in the front taper there isn't much difference in mass between a #5 and a #9, even a few grains help. If the water will allow 30'-50', putting some line mass into the equation, then I can happily use #5 line, and if using that lighter line, I will need the longer rod to get a satisfactory mend, again relating to less mass involved. I guess it's a coincidence that narrow streams seem to also have more canopy.

I wondered about that so did quick search. I knew that skids in one form or another dated back to ancient Egypt, more or less and were used with cranes to load and unload ships and wagons etc. But, my search of the web shows "lift truck" (no forks) invention in 1917, with Yale inventing the "electric truck" with forks and mast in 1923, and Clark's 1924 design was very similar to modern forklifts. So depending on when and where maybe they did have them. The modern skid was patented in 1925 as “lift truck platform” by Howard T. Hallowell followed in 1939 by George G. Raymond's patent for a “two-face pallet” design. This made skids stackable.

A skid is like a "pallet" with only a top deck. Mostly intended for single use, because without the bottom deck they fall apart fairly easily. Skids were used before pallets, I think, and are still used when the expense of making them is less than the expense of return, refurbishing and reuse of more substantial pallets. In materials handling and construction the words are somewhat interchangeable. Random illustrative images from the 'net "a skid of bricks" (note no bottom deck and thin top deck= disposable) vs a "a pallet of bricks" Those large heavy "return or pay $ for" pallets of the lower image are a pita on a large construction site where many must be collected stacked and stored until pickup and are often burned in the fire barrel on smaller sites where return is not really likely.

"Horses for courses", you don't chose a Percheron for steeplechase, nor an Arab for plow work, and rods are similar. Long rods have a place but so do short ones. I can fish about three times as long with 7'6" #7 as I can with 9' #5 before the shoulder pain takes the fun out of it. I would opt for longer rods with lighter lines, maybe. But I fished 9' rods for forty years before discovering the joy of the short sticks, and wish I hadn't. The longer rods do have advantage when on big open water, or when mending, or roll casting 50', but they suck in tight places under canopy or bridge and they put more stress on my body. 7 1/2' is my choice on streams less than 50' wide and 8 1/2'-9' on bigger water or if nymphing, two things that I rarely do. I 'll also mention that I use 7 wt. lines more often than 5 wt. because the the extra bit of mass in the line makes casting easier at short distances and even at moderate distances. I'm lazy and eliminating any false or speed building casts is one less motion; line weight can offset rod length, or vise versa in the line-speed equation. I've never seen a short graphite rod that I really liked though, so that means that I fish fiberglass most of time. I would say though that if I were were buying a new graphite #5, it would likely be 8 1/2' or longer, just to get some flex into it and would quite possibly be a Maxcatch if wanting cheap, or maybe Echo or Taylor or Stickman or Epic if spending more money; there are just so many options that I'd want to try. In #4 or less I might be shopping 9 1/2'-10'. And, I left an almost local rod maker of the list, RDP rods might be my choice in the light/ultralight area, certainly if looking for a zero weight RDP would be high on the list. And that doesn't even touch on custom builders like McFarland, Barclay, Graywolf, TMR, James Green, and dozens more, maybe even Thomas& Thomas or Edge or Loomis. Hundreds of options and I'd bet not one of them a terrible choice. Rod technology hasn't made in great leaps over the last 30-40 years so the differences between the top of the heap rods the box store brands is less and less as time go by and the low end manufactures copy the the high end designs.

What Gavin says about trying before buying. There are too many variations in what people like and in how we perceive a rod's action. Same thing is true of lines. Your choice of lines and mine aren't the same, so most likely you wouldn't like my choice of rods. Personally, if I had a rod that I liked a lot that wanted a guide, I'd just put a guide on it, or given the age; whole set of guides. I'm not sure there are a lot of choices in #5 less than 8' though. I fish mostly 'glass rods made in the '60s for 6'6"-8', found on eBay.

They may think that, MDC thinks otherwise. Need a Trout Permit everywhere in Mo. year round to keep/possess trout, except in the Parks where you need a daily tag to even fish, except in winter C & R when the Trout Permit works and you need a Trout permit any time to fish upper Lake Taneycomo regardless if you keep the fish or not, and you must also have a fishing permit or qualify for an exemption. Age 15 and younger, age 65 and older, disabled vets, former POW and a couple other things can mean that you don't need the Fishing Permit, but those things don't exempt one from needing a Trout Permit where required. MDC has most of the regs on their site but for the real thing the Wildlife Code on the SOS site is the place to look.

Like losing a landmark, but I've only been in there a handful of times, outside my 5 county area and all. Didn't I just read on another forum that someone was/has opening a new fly shop down there "Diamond State Fly Co."?

If you say so, although, I thought P&G were soap sellers.

I have the notion that almost any cooking oil would work. I often use old cooking oil, and have used the cheapest vegetable oil from Walmart, to start the fire in my shop (maybe the best use for canola/rapeseed oil). I've known a couple of people than ran diesel trucks on waste oil from restaurants. Ancient civilizations used olive, castor and grapeseed oil as fuel for lamp fuel. Camphene was a lamp fuel derived from turpentine. Olive oil burns with less odor, but even lard or bacon grease will work up a wick if the room is warm enough to keep it fluid.

That nice chart only shows what was sold brand new. The pertinent facts would be what sector and how many tons will be in landfills 50 years for now. Actual count, not a fairy tale estimate. Facts that describe the harm done by any one of our endeavors does not yet exist. Facts are always past tense. And even then they can be rewritten if it suits the story teller.

Oh, I will when the elite start selling whale oil lamps instead of electricity.

I don't attack "green energy"; there isn't any such thing except in propaganda. All power production is more or less equal in that all are somewhat destructive, and we don't know and can't predict to what extent. It comes down to the devil you want to embrace.

Yes same problem, smaller scale. Different problem though, like bringing up oranges in a discussion of wheat harvest. You can't be "green" and still have electricity. Every means of producing it is environmentally destructive and we can't even guess to what long term extent in advance. We could all reduce our impact by using less of it, but we won't, it's easier to shift the blame to the fuel/method of electrical production or to automobile emissions or to simply ignore the problems. I do think that when the fresh water shortage becomes enough of a problem that we have to invent desalinization that we might develop electricity as a byproduct and that even though it would be destructive to those portions of the sea shore where they are located, we could blame the water plant rather than our choice to have AC.

Funny thing to me is that I wouldn't consider a two hour round trip to be nearby. Is there really only one tackle shop in the Table Rock area?

is this the bridge? https://www.modot.org/missouri-route-64-bridge-replacement-dallas-0

Nuke plants have the same problem that wind mills do; there simply is no good way to dispose of or recycle the waste.

Does that include the mining of materials, manufacture of all the components, transportation of raw materials and finished components to the location and the eventual dismantlement and disposal? Since there is no known way of satisfactory of all the fiberglass and carbon fiber components, how can they even guess what that cost is?