tjm

When Heck was a pup wasn't old, he was just a pup.

Not even vaguely, but sons of famous people are not special anyway. See, it's the tournament problem, not the limits. Stop the fish tourneys. I have no problem with that, if anyone is allowed to kill six bass a day everyone should be allowed to, regardless sex, race or tackle.

Just make tournaments illegal or prosecute every tournament sponsor for wanton waste. Set limits at any level you want there would be no enforcement, just as there is no enforcement with game fish limits. One of my "5 counties" doesn't even have a warden/Agent now and as much time as I spend on the creeks I rarely ever see an Agent, there aren't enough of them to go around. Creation of unenforceable laws is just BS and a waste of time and money. The images don't look like they fit the story though, they look staged.

I'd never know these things even happened if y'all didn't talk about them. Do you follow them on the internet or are the contests televised?

That's why I asked. I thought it unlikely that they DNA test every fish that gets weighed and at first glance I'd not have thought hybrid, so there must be a marker that caused them to go to that trouble. The Texas small mouth record is 7lbs14.88oz, so why would the think "got a record fish" ? again there must be a marker. But I know nothing about keeping records and maybe they all require DNA testing. As to it not happening, all sunfish hybridize when planted in strange waters where spawning conditions are marginal or limited. Texas almost destroyed their endemic bass by stocking small mouth on top of them. Hybridization doesn't happen normally though or there would not be separate species or subspecies. In natural conditions the spawning fish would be using different locations, water depths, temps etc. that would make hybridization unlikely. Hybridization in black bass seems to be an undesirable devolution based on the experimentation done back in the '60s. We need to stop messing with introducing stocked fish and keep the waters as close as possible to the way they were found or we will cause the loss of many native species as they hybridize or get overcome by the introduced invasives. If I want to catch a Florida bass, I should get my butt off the sofa and go to Florida, not request the state bring the fish to my home waters.

How do you identify a small/large hybrid, without a DNA analysis?

I would try Flat Creek as being the closest, I haven't fished it yet but it has two MDC accesses and it looks fishy, and wadeable. https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/lower-flat-creek-access https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/stubblefield-access Or about hour west are several places Shoal Creek, Indian Creek, Elk River and Big Sugar Creek.

taste like dead fish don't they?

What would you the next week?

It was best about 15 years ago and gets worse with each improvement, but you know all those techs working in Jeff City would be on welfare if they left good enough alone. Soon as they get the new one debugged it will be time to upgrade again. A good part of the info they put out is either wrong or obsolete anyhow, if you want to know about a CA you best drive there. When you called did you get to yell at talk to a Robot?

Tanagers are fairly common in and around Bella Vista, Quill, both summer and (less so ) scarlet, I saw several pairs each summer when I was building and trimming houses there, and I usually have a pair nest in my yard. One year long ago there were a pair of each nested in the same walnut tree. My guess is they aren't real sociable or need bigger territories than some birds because they seem to stay a mile or so apart in nesting.

I used to think so, until I saw one change color from flat black to brilliant blue in mid air. The younger males are brown as are the ladies. In full shade the older males appear black. I would like to see a picture of that dead bird taken in shade without a flash, see how a camera reacts to the lighting effects.

Three punctures reminds me of a gig, but I watched a Great Blue Heron kill and eat a small mouth bass about that size. Any guess is just a guess. Back when sheep ranchers out west were claiming eagles carried off lambs, I recall reading that they could fly with 4-5 pounds. And an eagle dropped a nest building stick that was weighed art 12#. Ospreys have some very large sticks in their old nests, I think that fish wouldn't be too big for them to carry.

DNR would be sampling for sewage or contamination, Ag or mining waste etc. wouldn't they? Anything to do with fish would be MDC or AGFC, I would think.

Aren't them 100 year old buffalo full of toxic stuff they picked up over all that time?

I remember fog at sea, even being on a vessel almost 800' long and displacing 19,000 tons, it wasn't comfortable with half the Atlantic Ocean in front of us. . And on two occasions we saw a lone kayaker 15-20 miles out from land. No flag, no lights and no concerns. I've seen pretty good sized vessels that didn't show up on radar too. Reason I asked about brakes is remembering the Man-overboard maneuvers, with fully reversible screws it took something like 7 miles and long long time to slow and turn and retrace the course. In the North Atlantic the man would have died of hypothermia three times before being rescued. I know baby boats slow and stop much faster because of less inertia, but you're talking three to five times faster at the stop now flag.

out of curiosity what's average travel speed for bass type boats on the lakes? Do any of them have brakes? Or reverse thrust?

I haven't looked lately, but I suspect the environmental footprint for the batteries in those electric things is larger than that of the fuel used in the life of a gasoline powered one ton. Then add in the loss of energy at every step of the generating and distribution of the electricity, the environmental cost just keeps escalating. Most of the "green" stuff is worse than whatever it is meant to replace. But I have another birthday tomorrow and I'm too old now to worry much about it. Gas will go down when we change leaders I reckon, if we live that long.

I think it a good idea for anyone using a hunting area to wear some orange, a light weight vest or cap could save someone from jail time for shooting another someone. When I work on my own property during the major deer seasons I've always worn orange, it's surprising how many fences people can climb over or crawl under and not realize they are on private land. I've always wondered that they require/advise the shooters to wear orange in hunting situations so that they won't get shot, but never mention that treehuggers, bird watchers, hikers, hunter-harassers, farm workers and others using the same areas in the same times should also try not to get shot by dressing in HiVis clothing. It's almost like a conspiracy theory to get half-fast hunters to shoot enough non-hunters that hunting will be banned.

I don't think they are allowed to shoot anyone. I don't think anyone wants to shoot anyone. But, it is stupid for the authorities to encourage that conflict probability. As you said when you answered your own question, it ruins someone's hunt and can endanger both parties. Don't put hiking trails in hunting areas anymore than DNR allows hunting in hiking areas. Don't put biking lanes on Interstates either. Or route interstate trucks through residential areas.

Hikers and horsebackers never stay on the trail. When you open the area to them you have closed it for hunting. State parks are for hiking and riding and they don't allow any hunting or trapping on parks land. Keep the hikers there.

Wildlife areas, Conservation Areas, State Forests were in the past often bought with hunting generated monies, such as the Pittman-Robinson Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 and more or less required to be set aside for hunting, that's why I said I'm always surprised when they allow hiking/biking/bird watching/roller skating/whatever to interfere with legal hunting in these areas. But the nationwide trend has been that as the old guard of wildlife and forest employees retire or die off that they are replaced by non-hunting or anti-hunting young folks and management policies are tending toward non-consumptive use.

Governments can always afford to do it again, and you can pay the lawsuit off in taxes.

It's kinda unusual today but years ago turkey hunters shot several people every season. Blue or red seem to be bad colors to wear. I'm always surprised that they allow hiking on CAs.

X2 But I'm still wondering, is that more like asparagus, broccoli or alfalfa?