tjm

The cockroach is natural, where the rainbow trout is said to be entirely synthetic. I am surprised that so many states have stocked them though, I would have guessed 35-40 states at most.

Probably. But they won't enforce it any more than they do the current limits.

or canned mackerel or salmon, whole wheat pita bread dipped/spread with olive oil, cottage cheese or yogurt, fresh grapes I had an assigned nutritionist for a while with the VA, all kinds of easy to do healthy food according to her. Low salt canned veggies may not be pretty but they are nutritional and quick. She did say to limit dried fruits like raisins though because apparently they have heaps more sugar than fresh fruit or it's more concentrated. On the sardines, I prefer canned in Poland or Norway since they stopped canning them in the USA.

Can of sardines, jar of olives, whole wheat saltines. raisins for desert.

https://www.troutresource.com/2023/06/11/state-best-trout-fishing/

I thought Neosho bass also inhabit the Illinois and some other Ok. streams? It is true that stocking has and will slur the distinction between any similar "breeds". The stocking of Tennessee ‘lake strain’ SMB in Tenkiller would have impacted the native bass in the Illinois. I read years ago that the Centerton Hatchery had at on time inadvertently mixed two or three "species" of rock bass and I've caught Ozark Bass lookalikes as well as a couple of Shadow Bass lookalikes in an Elk trib that would have been stocked by that hatchery back then. But, I guess all the rock bass in this region were imported at some point.

I just think our expectations of animal intelligence has had too much influence by Disney Creatures, to the point that we often set up "proofs" founded on "expectations".

That doesn't surprise me the stuff is toxic with N-propyl disulfide and other sulfur compounds. Worse in it's powder form than raw.

How positive can we be that the learned responses in gamefish are not simply reinforcements of instinctual behavior? I haven't checked lately, but do we have any proven knowledge of how instincts even work? or how they are formed? can a future generation of bass be hatched with the instinct to flee trolling sounds?

Isn't it anthropomorphism to assume that fish brains control their actions? They respond to stimuli primarily on instinct in the same way a newly hatched spider can build a perfect web.

It's strange to think that in half a century of bass fishing that I've never once caught a small mouth bass. I thought I had, many times. I've probably released a couple World Record NB. Just shows that we don't know what we don't know. I'll probably continue to refer to NB as SMB.

Does that mean anglers will have to access DNA testing before submitting a catch?

that intrigues me, makes me wonder if sun exposure is a factor (e-w sections should be warmer) and I wonder if the fish stay in those exact sections throughout the year?

The key factor may be in temperature, if much of the stream gets to or stays above low 70sF SMB wouldn't be comfortable there and catfish like it up to mid 80s, I think. I don't always carry a thermometer anymore but back when I did I learned that 3-4 degrees could determine if a stretch held fish or not.

What kind of crayfish are in that stream?

Oh I could leave if I wanted to, but it wouldn't be because someone brushed the chip off and made me pout. I hope not to ever indulge schoolgirl drama on a forum with adults in the audience. When I haven't posted for a while, I doubt anyone will notice. I don't think anyone gets to take that blame/credit, Bill is a grown up, sets his own course.

Hurt feelings are always self inflected, only I can make me get emotional over the words of another. It doesn't matter how much I blame someone else, it's always up to me. If I pout up and leave don't any of you try to take credit for it.

Not exactly the point of whether the fish care, my point is that the delicacy is in the user not in the fly fishing. Probably half or more of my current fly fishing is not for trout and with a 12-15# tippet. But still 3X/8# is good for down to at least #16 and I rarely need to go smaller than that for trout. I've also caught thousands of trout with #8 & #9 rods and lines. And thousands more on 6-7 weights. Fly fishing for trout is only as delicate as the user wants it to be. ( I did get pretty delicate with the 9wt in still water, using #24 flies on 8X tippets 16' leaders a lot, but if fishing streamers an 8-12# tippet would be better.) As to trout caring about line size, a long time (50 years?) ago before I started fly fishing, I ran experiments using bait and nylon mono varying from 20# test to 1# test in very clear water about 5' deep but where I could easily watch the fish approach and take the baits. I found that line size and visibility did not affect the trout taking the baits, if all baits were on similar line sizes, but if the line size was greatly different the fish would take on the bait with the smallest line first. On very bright days the shadows from even the finest lines seemed to put the fish off. The only reason I found for ever using smaller tippets is to allow more freedom of movement to the fly in a dead drift, for less drag. With spinning gear the smaller lines make casting easier. 6-8# worked fine for me back then, yet I see many folks using much lighter more delicate lines. I think it is creating the romance of trout fishing and that they are somehow special.

Mayfly hatches in the billions of insects can show up on weather radar looking like a major storm. But, a study of them between 2012-2019 in the Upper Mississippi River and Western Lake Erie Basin suggest that the number of mayflies in the Mississippi River region has declined by 52 percent since 2012 and in the Lake Erie area populations have gone down by 84 percent.

There are fly fishers that never go smaller than 3X for trout and my 5X at 5# test isn't as delicate as most spin fishers using 3# test for trout. Although trout aren't my favorite fly rod fish.

Determinate/bush tomatoes do that just get so tall and fruit all at once, indeterminate/vine tomatoes grow until frost and fruit all season. I just don't recall that I ever planted bush types. Probably because I use varieties that "we have always used"; and that is because I have an idea what to expect from them. I also prefer staggered fruiting.

As I said, I always make mine run horizontal at an easy pick height, don't like to bend over, nor to use a ladder; don't know why but my vines are always 12'-15'. But if you do cut, you can make every cut piece into a new plant. I've rooted a single leaf and grew it to harvest, fruit same as the parent plant. Come to think of it though a ladder would make a good trellis if supported at a convenient height.

Did you fix it yourself like everyone else that has a picture?

Well, I thought it was the same one, unusually large small stream small mouth at ~19" and from under the same under the same large rock, 4-5 times per week all summer, three summers in a row. Markings always the same, but a bit larger as time passed. Often at the same time of the evening. And in a tiny eastern trout brook, small enough and clear enough that you could count the fish, took the only rainbow in one pool three times one day and again a couple days later. I think the only way to avoid re-catching the same fish is to eat them all, and I'm not much of fish eater, so, I'll just have to take the chance that every fish might be one I've caught before.

The "O" in the blue circle? That stands for "Oneshot 1" ; like an initial, my posts have a "T" beside them. Silly isn't it? It's really a place to put an avatar picture and we didn't use it for a picture so the software uses a picture of our initial.