mcp633

I've done it too. I was fishing a out of the way access on one of the small rivers in in central MO. I left my dual rod/reel case and a tackle bag on top of my car. I drove about 7 miles of gravel road back to 50 highway and got back up to highway speed and saw the bag flying off in the rear view. Open none the less! Stopped, salvaged what I could, and back tracked for the rod case. I found it in the middle of the gravel road about 6 miles back. Rods were okay. Can't say that about the reels. They were pretty busted up. None the less, I feel your pain!

I've done Jefferson City to St. Louis in a 25 foot pontoon boat several years back. It was a flippin' blast. Four buddies with coolers stocked with beer and meat, a grill, sleeping bags, extra gas and nowhere to be for three days. Good times! Would I do it in a canoe or raft? No way! I don't even like being on the MO in my Crestliner 18 foot deep V!

As far as I know, it's always been that way. It's how my pop found out that ignorance of the law is no defense! There is frequently an agent in the area, and with the size of some of the fish I saw (I think there were more than a few that wouldn't fit sideways in the back of my F-150), the agent would be watching for sure. It's too tempting for the violators! I'm talking huge man, HUGE!!! fish. And not just to Tiny Elvis!

Yo Brownie, When I was down, there were boats out there. However, it would be illegal to throw up past the line to get to the fish! Ask my dad, he'll tell you all about the fine!

Seth, they're all above the line. if you sit up at the observation area the area above the line is packed with HUGE fish. I took my kids down the other day, just to look at it. really kind of cool.

I just made up my mind! I'm going this weekend come hell or high water! Been bluffing for too long so I'm going to pull the trigger. Anybody else???

Congrats on the beautiful blessing for your family! Won't be long before you're pumping her full of sugar and sending her home to mom and dad!

Big 10-4 on all of that CC and Phil. The really good cops who manage to have long careers (they are few when you consider the number of us out there), are those that can learn to leave their bad days at home, realize that they're not only there to take bad guys to the hoosegow, but the heart of their jobs is truly to serve and protect, and don't have to be a cop 24/7. I believe this "checkpoint" falls in the category of protect. I know the vast majority of you guys support your law enforcement professionals, but I acknowledge that we can do a better job of weeding out the 'Super Trooper' types.

I'm a little outnumbered here being the pig, but I'm not scared of a bunch of fishing bums ! It's true that just about every floatable stream on this board has a post about enforcement on the rivers, but when it happens, someone gets outraged. Lord forbid! As for over-zealous cops, yep they're out there. There's usually some in every department with a mile long blue flame shooting out of their butt! Most however, most are honest hard working folks (like me ) who want to do their jobs and go home after their shift alive. Don't let a bad apple that you've dealt with ruin the whole bunch. Yes, we should probably do a better job of "policing" our own personnel. We try! I will apologize for my misbehaving brothers and sisters in blue, or whatever color uni they happen to be wearing. They are just out there doing what they're told to do. I applaud the effort on the Niangua. Good job! By the number of violations, I'd say that it was the right thing to do. It would be different if they ran this detail and found nothing. Sounds like they're in the right place! Maybe next weekend, they'll be in the "next" right place!

I do agree that IF I pulled up a human hand on my anchor line, I'd drop the thing like a hot potato also. You should see how this river is running though. Knowing that area like the "back of my hand" like I do, (they started it!) there's not that much in that stretch to get hung on. I'm down there about every weekend and there's not that much bottom debris to get hung on. Possible? Yes. Probable? I don't think so. They usually drown one or two in that area about every summer and they are usually found within a day or two. There is a lot of recreational boat traffic in this area! If this is part of the body of the missing gal, certainly something else would have appeared by now, or the rest is already washed into the MO on its way to St. Louis. Just two cents worth.

I managed to get my hand on the link from the local paper the Jefferson City News Immune, uh I mean Tribune. Sorry! http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2007/0...local01hand.txt I think this is another dude starved for attention! With Bagnall Dam running eleven flood gates wide open for a couple of weeks now, someone would have to put one heck of a cinder block on a body to keep it down in the water there. The Osage has been bank full and fast for two weeks or better. IMO there's no way!

I'm not a big car guy, but I've had one "pop" out of park and take a solo drive on me as well . I was told the mechanism on an auto tranny that holds the vehicle in park is nothing more than a pin that engages a hole in the park "gear". That's why you always get that little extra roll on a hill when you put it in park. Sometimes the pin doesn't always engage the hole fully. I imagine that's probably what happened there. I've seen a few trucks and trailers "back" themselves into lakes. Always tough to see. I'm glad the feller didn't get hurt worse.

Uh, Since I can't use symbols, I'm at a loss here! Getting called out on the OA forum! Golly!

Third on Rich's

Generous?!? If I took my ex-wife fishing, one of us probably wouldn't come back!!!!!

Wow! Great stuff!

10-4! Let me know when.

Went on Friday the 13th with my pop. Interesting story in the Montauk thread. He tore them up on some homemade doughbait. Cat food ground up with some other stuff. Appearently a secret to even me. He told me that he caught a couple of dozen within a hour. I was flyfishing as usual. I had success on a olive scud dropped under a stimulator. No strikes on the stimulator, but they were after the scud pretty hard. Had to twitch the scud right before the strike or they wouldn't take it. Also had several takes on an olive wooly, but they would just bump it no real hook ups. Short strikes all day. Also caught a couple on a red san juan and broke a couple off on cracklebacks stripped. Like I said before, the fish were very picky even with 7x tippet. I had to switch flies often because the fish would lose interest. Kept four good ones probably caught 10-12 in all. Impressed with the size of the fish in the stream!

That's funny you guys mentioned that. Story......Last Friday, I was getting ready for work. All I had left to do was put on my 14 pound Batman utility belt. My phone rang and it was my dad on the other end. He asked if I wanted to go trout fishing with him at Meramec Springs. Needless to say, I played hookey from work. I wouldn't miss that for the world. The work place runs in spite of my absence (who knew! ). Now my dad hasn't been trout fishing in years and has been telling me for quite some time that he's going to get back into it now that he's retired, so we went. Him with his St. Croix ultralight loaded with a treble hook and a bag full of something ground into doughbait. Cat food of some sort I believe. When my brother and I were kids, this domestic animal concoction would have his five fish on the stringer in a matter of minutes, and my brother and I dumbfounded as to how he did it. We were using the same stuff and were getting skunked! He would patiently put his fish in the cooler and come back to the stream and coach our five onto our stringers no matter how long it took, or how hot or cold he may have been. Back to the present. We arrived at Meramec right about noon. My dad can make a one and a half hour drive in to something that takes nearly double the time! Good thing we didn't go to Montauk. I would just now be getting home! I set out with my fly rod and he went to his usual hole that he fished many years ago right at the bottom of the ramp from the upper parking lot near the little spring. Less than an hour later, he was standing behind me with a Bud Select in his hand telling me about the dozens of fish that he caught on his still-effective dough bait. He looked down at my stringer with two fish on it and said "is that it!" I tried to explain the short strikes I was getting and how many fish I had broken off with the 7x tippet. He rolled his eyes and plopped down in his bag chair with his beer to watch just like he did 20 some years ago and offer advice. Only this time, no advice came! The old man was asleep in the shade under the tree in less than five minutes! I got my final two trout on the stringer, woke him from his slumber and we started walking towards the truck. I told him that it was probably the longest time in quite a while for me to get a limit of trout in a park. He looked at my stringer and said, "that's not even a limit!" I said, "what do you mean that's not a limit?" He replied, "you're one short, can't you count?" At that point I realized my old man was living in the past. I said, "don't tell me you have five on your stringer in the cooler!" He said, "of course I do." I got to teach my dad the lesson that day on the changes in the regulations in the trout parks! I said, "why do you think there's only four hooks on the stringer you bought today at the store?" He replied, "I wondered why they would do that!" All and all, despite my poaching father, it was good to go with him! We go fishing quite a bit and he is an acommplished angler, but he knows I would rather go trout fishing with my fly rod than do about anything else. Hopefully we'll be back at it soon. He asked yesterday what I'm doing next Monday. I think we decided on Montauk this time. Not looking forward to the four hour drive! Maybe I'll spring for the gas this time.

I too have been checked at both the cardiac and suicide parking areas by a MDC agent. I've been checked at Montauk inside the park. I've fished within eyeshot of a guy in the blue ribbon area on the Current to find out as I was leaving he wasn't an angler, but an agent in disguise as I exited the river and he stopped me. I've seen covert surveillance vehicles parked at accesses that to the casual observer you wouldn't realize that you are being watched and recorded. I know these vehicles well as I have spent many nights in them myself. Quite impressive capabilities to say the least! I've been checked by an agent on the Maries river at an access five miles down a gravel road where there's rarely anybody anyway. Can't count the number of times I've been stopped at LOZ, or the winter trout lake here in J-Town. Maybe I just look shady, but I don't think so! They are out there, just not enough of them. Their emphasis may not always be in the right places, but I'm sure they're doing what they can with the resources they have. It's like any other L.E. agency, publically funded = a lack of adequate resources on the ground. Determined by someone who hasn't ever done the job, or has been behind a desk so long they've forgotten how. We are all forced to do the best we can with what we've got.

We could all use a lot less pencil pushers! Way too many chiefs, and not enough indians in most areas of work! That's coming from me, a supervisor just below the rank that requires a labotomy, spine, and testicle(if applicable)removal procedure! That would be a Lieutenant for those not familiar.

Let me just say this one thing. Enforcement people, such as myself, don't have a problem with ticketing people just because they don't know what they did was illegal. Ignorance of the law has never been a defense against any crime or statute violation. Therefore, just because you don't know what you did was illegal, doesn't mean you're going to walk on it. It's academy 101! MDC agents DO a outstanding job! There's just not enough of them!

I'm going somewhere tomorrow! Not sure where yet, but I'm wetting a line somewhere!

Amen to that! Happy Independence Day to all, and happy birthday to the greatest country in the world. Everyone be safe and enjoy! I know I will!

I've always liked the CV2 line myself. As long as it's clean. I think it casts as well as my Orvis Wonderline G3.