gonefishin

If they aren't willing to clean up their act (they have proved they aren't) we should just exclude China from our list of approved import countries. Especially for food, medicine and structural items. Anything that can possibly endanger American lives.

Why qwould anyone want to smoke a fish. I imagine finding a rolling paper big enough, unless you catch the same size fish I do, would be difficult and how in the world would you ever get it lit???? I tried to tell those guys on another thread that it was all coke. They didn't believe me. Heh heh

Oh what a thrill catchin' 1 lb bluegill

I don't know how to build a canoe or a dog house but, I have built a few of these. A friend playing one I built.

So thats why the dillos are showing up here. I always did wonder what they ate. That explains why they dig them holes too. Getting rid of the evidence. Smart lil buggers aint they?

Welcome Rob. You should be able to find all the info you want here on the forum. Good luck.

HMmmm. I am not totally against the MDC. I would not want to make things worse. I just wonder if things could be a lot better for the amount of money they take in. I am not anti-MDC I just wonder if they are really doing that good of a job. No doubt Missourians have it good because of MDC, the flip side of that is that MDC has it really good because of Missourians. The question I keep coming up with is do we really have it that good for what it is costing us? I am not asking where every last cent went. I would be happy if it was broke down in $100,000 increments or even $250,000 increments. 70 Mil in wages and bennies .... for how many people? I don't think the agents are making all that good of money so administration must be taking home some really nice pay checks. Still spending 30 to 40 mil per year on land purchases? Lets look at that for a minute. We don't want to get things 'down to the last penny' so lets give the benefit of the doubt and just say the have averaged the same 30 to 40 mil every year for the last 30 years. We know they have spent way more than this but I dont want to be accused of worrying about every penny. $35million*30years=$ 1,050,000,000 Lets just round that down to and even 1 Billion. How many acres does 1 Billion dollars buy? Has MDC purchased that much land for the public? I am willing to accept any answers if they stand up to some scrutiny. So far the answers I have gotten don't add up. That being said I am going to quit posting in this topic because we can't get a decent discussion of the issues going here.

There is bank access if you are willing to pay for it. Just go to about any of the parks.

Lets have a poker game, only catch is I get to start with a lot more money than everybody else. Not real hard to be the best under those circumstances. This is a quote from one of their publications, I posted it earlier. "The amount of sales tax generated from the forest products industry and fish and wildlife recreation is well over the amount of sales tax received by the Missouri Department of Conservation from the Conservation Sales Tax; in other words, conservation pays its way in Missouri." Doesn't 70 mil in payroll and bennies seem just a bit excessive? From your figures the total income is 150 mil and of this 150 mil they can only come up with 25 mil to actually spend on conservation. Again that seems a tad excessive to me. Seems like there is a lot of pork in the program to me but, I am just a dumb plow boy from MO so what do I know.

I agree with Slider. If you want to drown a minner the place to do it is from the crappie docks.

How many seen the report on the news about the man attacked by his pet cougars in Arkansas? I only have one question. What the %(*)&# is he doing with pet Cougars? Dangerous animals as pets in a sub-division with kids running around??? I don't think his mill was grinding his corn all that fine. He had decided to get rid of them so he called an animal service org to come get them for him. What if he had just decided to turn them loose, no one the wiser?

Creek Wader you may be right but, then you may be wrong. We may not be getting much bang for the buck at all. How does anyone know. How much has really been done with all of the billions taken in by the MDC. There appears to be no accountability as to how the funds are used. Their statements can be looked at but they make no sense. It takes them 3 to 4 years to put out a statement. So I ask, how do you really know we are getting a good bang for our bucks?

Personally I think in the long run it helps the fishing. It brings a lot of highly oxygenated water, a lot of food and helps flush buildup out of the rivers.

Sure it includes me. I thought I had made it clear. I want to know what is happening to the money. Everyone says most of the land was purchased in the first 10 years of the 1/8th cent tax. What has happened to the money for the last ohhh, I don't know, lets say 15 years. I have heard some say they have put in access points and it costs maybe 200,000 to put in an access point. OK lets use that figure. That is 5 points for every million or 500 access points per year X the 15 years we are talking about. There aren't that many access points. I know they wouldn't spend all the money on access points so lets say they put in 50 per year thats 650 or 10 mil per year so where was the rest of the 90 plus mil per year spent? I just don't see much going on for the kind of money they are taking in. What I think I see is license fees and grants paying for everything and the 1/8th cent sales tax being (?) going where. Another thing I would like to see is handicapped people be able to actually use the little handicap access there is. Most days the handicapped access is used by non-handicapped persons. I would like to see a little support by the MDC for people with handicaps. Do you ever go to BS? The main handicap access there is the whistle bridge. A handicap person cant get on that bridge. Not to mention that it seems a tad strange to make a bridge, with traffic on it, a handicap access. Since the inception of the 1/8th cent sales tax the MDC has taken in somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 billion dollars on the 1/8th cent sales tax alone. Do you think there has really been that kind of improvements? This doesn't take in the amount of money taken in for permits or donations or federal grants and donations or day use fees, camping fees or anything else. We are talking of the special sales tax only.

Al: I want to thank you for the info you have posted on here. You at least attempt to answer some questions. Affiliated with them or not doesn't matter to me. It takes two sides to have a productive discussion. So for my part I wnat to say thank you for your input.

When I cross the stream I usually roe when I take the boat otherwise I wade.

I cant think of his name but there is a guy up near Sedalia who makes jigs. I am sure he would make them for you. Maybe someone on here knows his name and number.

I have a fly tying book I bought several years ago. It has some really elaborate bluegill patterns in it. Over the years I tied (actually tried to tie) several of them but I found for bluegill generally the simple patterns are better for me.

You got that right jOrOb

Sounds to me like you are on the game plan. Evening and mornings are best this time of year. Popping bugs work but don't forget something that will sink too. Small woolly worms and buggers work well. Black, yellow, red, chartreuse. I have never tried one or jOrObs streamers but I am betting they would be real bluegill killers.

The bad thing is Target is just as bad. Best bet is to support mom and pop anytime you can. I do. I know sometimes it costs me a few more bucks but it is worth it in the long run because I generally get better product, better service and I am supporting my own community.

That is a problem with most of the handicapped access docks and such that I have been to. They are not really handicap access as they are open to all and a handicapped person can't usually get near them.

How many hundreds of millions did the items on this list cost? Somebody on here said there were literally hundreds if not thousands of MDC areas. According to your list there are 68 that have some sort of disability access. I notice most of these are restrooms. As far as I know all public restrooms built in the last several years are designated DA. They are really going out of their way to help out huh?

Hey, as long as you guys are happy with everything they have done...good. For myself I think they could do a better job. From what I have read the fishing and hunting public still put most of the money into the MDC but we are way down on the list of priorities.

Sam: Yes, there is a handicapped dock there. It doesn't run out into the current. It does sit above the normal high water line so it is up above the water. I wouldn't advise depending on being able to use it unless you are a pretty big and rough ol boy. It has been my experience that it is generally full to capacity with non-handicapped people and they are willing to fight to stay on it, no matter if you are handicapped or not.