tjm

yep, I knew. Micheal's & Joann are also sources for fishing stuff. Hobby Lobby is where I get "Bonnie" polyolefin macrame cord which combs out to long thin fibers that I like in streamers and also "satin" embroidery floss for bodies. At one of those stores I got a skein of metallic piping that would probably tie a zillion minnow bodies for about the cost of a yard or two from the fly shop. What could you use "Iridescent Mylar tissue" wrap for? I haven't used it but stumbled across an ad that made me think shell backs. "Aleene's Flexible Stretchable" is pretty good for a few uses. It's kinda funny that I've spent ten times more fishing money at these stores than at Cabela's or BPS.

I haven't really seen any Mo. waters where tight line nymphing would be my choice of methods. To my mind it's a method better suited to wading relatively fast boulder strewn freestone streams than to our spring creeks and tailwaters. It's why I haven't used nymphs much since the late "80s, when I moved back to the Ozarks, using instead the more active soft hackles or dry/emerger type flies. I never learned to fish under a bobber, but observation tells me it's better suited to most of our water than the tight line methods are. I think the nymph should be bouncing on the bottom, and either the current must be swift enough to keep the weighted fly moving and bouncing or it must be suspended at just the right so that the bobber lets it make occasional contact yet the surface current pulls it up again. Of course I've only been on a few trout streams in Mo, and there must be some that are suited to euronymphing.

What's that Director's name again? The entire agency is being made over and reorganized. As far as I can tell, not for the better either. I think the aim is to screw the Department up so badly that we will let the politicians take control of it for their profit.

The adrenaline itself can be a killer, usually stroke or heart attack though. I think maybe this type person doesn't take care of themselves much at all, any risk is a rush. Live for the rush and take every risk, so the sun risk is just another way to kick up the hormone.

For euronymphing you really don't need a fly line at all, a 25'-35' leader will likely be more than enough distance and the mono won't weigh the rod down as you try to keep it off the water. I went through my nymphing stage about 1980 doing essentially the same things the euros do with a 9' fiberglass rod and Joe Humphreys' flat mono "Cobra" as line. Some guys in California Ted Fay and Ted Towendolly influenced my fishing just about the time Humphreys wrote his book "Trout Tactics" with a lot of emphasis on his version of nymphing and for a year or two I was tight lining for trout a few times every week. https://gbflycasters.org/Library_articles/Eric Palmer/Towendolly-Oct-2017.pdf You can probably not keep more than 1 1/2 rod lengths of line in the air with no sag as you make the drift, so a longer rod is helpful, but, the longer rods are a lever working against your hand and wrist, so personally 10' would be my limit, or more likely a 9'6" and wade a little closer. I won't make any rod recommendations because I'm still using 40-50 year old rods and methods. Here is a site that has most of the answers to most of your questions, if you are interested in mono rigging and tight lining- https://troutbitten.com/the-mono-rig/ and a link o another of his articles (follow the in text links to more of his articles, it's a bunch of reading) - https://troutbitten.com/2020/06/07/tight-line-and-euro-nymphing-leading-vs-tracking-vs-guiding/ @fishinwrench Big reel and a 1000yards of backing.

It's quite possible, if the other stuff is mineral based; Mama used to coat my pale face with that zinc oxide stuff and that didn't bother me, but who wants a white painted face and arms? I just learned long time ago to wear long shirts and pants. Tight weave and dark colors work best as UV blockers, I think.

I have to use clothing, the SPF is allergic to me and takes my skin off in blisters. But, having worked in the sun in construction for about fifty years, I found covering up leaves the body cooler than going bare. Human skin is designed to absorb sunlight and turn it into heat. Denim shirts and pants are as effective as any high fashion "tech" clothing with a logo on it. Any tightly woven unbleached or dark colored cotton is a natural sun block, as is wool. And while I like the fast drying quality of synthetics such as nylon, I actually stay cooler in light weight wool clothing.

At the very least any stocked fish competes with the natives for space and forage. If the native population is in stress from tournament fishing or just over harvest, stocking a more vigorous non-native species or strain could be catastrophic to the natives, and the anglers catching them probably won't notice when the natives are extirpated, as long as the stocking is kept up to a maximum carrying capacity. Who goes to the trout parks expecting to catch SMB? If the fishery can't support tournaments, stop or cut back on the number of tournaments. Let the fish recover. In the case of the tailwaters, the drastic change of discharge temperatures killed off most native fish and the trout were the politicians' "mitigation" tactic. Not much can be done to rectify that until we decide to take out the dams.

Was 111F in shade on my porch that day and near that yesterday. The good news is we haven't had any rain in about 6-8 weeks.

I don't guess that I even know of any Federal Refuges that I could fish in, so I can't see this having any effect on my tackle. But, since USFW is a politically controlled agency of the President, the rules can change at any time or with any election.

plus one on that calf harness, boots without them is worthless. And be sure to try them on and walk a bit before buying, rubber does stretch or "break in".

the politically run ODFW won't care as long as the politicians' buddies make money off the tourneys. They'd stock the lake with sharks if there was any chance of profit in it.

Any fish stocked in Grand Lake has unimpeded access to Elk River, Buffalo Creek, Spring River and all their tributaries, some of which contain species that exist no where else in the world. ODFW is endangering all these species and subspecies, and what ever they do in that lake has an impact on every stream in the entire basin. I wouldn't mind if they stocked it with trout or any hybrid of trout because they aren't likely to invade the feeder creeks and destroy native species. But any warm water species ODFW introduces should be infertile. IF ODFW had any Biologists working for them they would know that.

So another invasive species to compete with and displace our native fish. Way to go ODFW, wow.

water the roots not the leaves; whatever you use will stay on longer.

Since the first national hatchery was the Baird Hatchery on the McCloud River and they shipped trout all over the world, it seems likely that all hatchery rainbow trout from Here to Australia to Japan to Germany are descendants of McCloud River trout. But I read someplace that trout can change their "genetic expression" within a generation or two and that (if I understood it) once in a hatchery for a few generations that the trout could reproduce in the wild and the offspring would still have the genetics of hatchery trout. So while the study is interesting, I'm not sure that it can be conclusive about the origins of the wild Mo. trout.

In the '80s a drive to town would see half dozen fresh road kill snakes or more, average one a mile. In the past four summers I've only seen about a half dozen road kill total. All have been rat snakes where the majority were copperheads back then. Used to see one to five timber rattlers a year and it's been ten years since I saw the last one. I think the wood rats and cotton rats have disappeared causing snakes to starve, I haven't seen a rats nest in a few years either and brush hogging doesn't have a herd of cotton rats fleeing here and there.

That is the main factor, imo. It's not natives of the county that support those liveries.

Who sells those little tanks?

This place is social media, but social media is not responsible for the population growth. We The People did that.

I dug into the fly boxes and made a picture of the #20 & #22 that I still have, think all were tied about '80-'84 so they show some wear from the box. As near as I can tell the ones to the left of the #14 dry hooks are #20 and the ones to the right are #22 These were all meant to be fished in the film

Wait, it's not still Covid shutdown? Last two Wednesdays and Thursdays in RR looked like the weekends did ten years ago, I just assumed all those were still Covid people like they have been the past two summers. If the shutdown is over where do all these unemployed folks come from?

There are about 163% more people in the USA than there were back then too, so the % of the population that fishes or guides could be way less and there would still be more of them.

It has been said that you should never go back to where you had great day, because the changes there will make you sick. I've seen native brookie streams paved over and built into a housing complex twice, so I believe that. Change is inevitable and I have never seen changes improve a good fishing spot.

In the '70s-80s back east, and in still water for trout I used a lot of #20, #22 & #24. Tippet then was 8X- 1/2# test and 7X-3/4# test as I recall. That's why I only used those tiny flies in still water. In fact I still have some of those old flies in a box that I show the guys that tell me #14s are small. I still tie one or two #20 on occasion, but I rarely use anything smaller than #16 these days and my tippet is usually 5X= 5# test for trout and 8# test Trilene for anything else. The real problem with tying smaller than #20 (or #18) is in getting materials that fit right. The problem with fishing them is the smallest tippet still pushes the fly around. In the winter at RRSP I've seen quite a few #18 dry flies tied on #22 hooks. "what are you using?" "#22 blue healer" "oh, wow, I've never seen one just like that, work good?" "yeah, I caught umpteen on it in just a few minutes" But you are right I used to tie a lot of smaller wet flies on bigger hooks and the trout didn't care Using a wide gape hook is almost the same thing and easier to float.