Fox Statler

Thanks for the compliments guys. This fly has paid the rent a lot of times at my house. It has always been a great producer for me and my clients in the past. Glad to share the pattern. Its All Flyfishing, Fox

How To Tie Fox's Arkansas Scud A Guide's Fly Although Fox Statler is called "Mr. Sowbug". He really uses a scud almost all the time. The reason he says is a matter of "preference". Not his own preference but the preference of the trout in the White River System in Arkansas and Missouri and any other river, stream, spring creek or lake where it is present. To explain this he tells one of his many stories. Several years ago, in the early '70's, I moved to the Mountain Home which is in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. I was a math teacher and then as still now, Arkansas teachers weren't paid very much. I made $9,100 that year. I had four children, a wife that worked, a college degree, and we qualified for food stamps. I was too proud to take the food stamps so I supplemented our groceries by hunting and flyfishing. I spent every day I wasn't teaching with a gun or a fly rod in my hand. In those days, I practiced "catch and feed the kids", not C&R. This was true of most everyone on the river back then, most of whom were bait guides. In fact, when I started to guide the rivers, John Gulley was the only real full time flyfishing guide I knew of. Some said they were, but I never saw any of them with a fly rod in their hand. John and most everyone else that came to the rivers were woolly bugger fisherman and I hated woolly buggers. To me, woolly buggers were, and still are, a poor imitation of a lot of things and a good imitation of nothing. I had already developed the Arkansas Dead-Drift and sowbugs were about all the flies I carried except for a couple scuds. You see, the sowbugs were so thick back then, that if you stood still for two minutes you couldn't find the toes of your boots. And that's not an exaggeration. One day, I decided to dig up one square yard of gravel near Bull Shoals Dam and collect every aquatic insect in it. Being a math teacher, numbers were and still are pure logic in the raw to me. I found that there were about 7,000 sowbugs, 500 scuds, 100 planarian, 3 mayflies, and 1 caddis per square yard of gravel. Well to me this represented the ratio of bites that I could expect using any of these bugs. While the ratio of bites of sowbugs to planaria, to mayflies, to caddis was true. The ratio of sowbugs to scuds wasn't. You see there were 14 sowbugs to every scud, but in the fish's stomach the ratio was 5 sowbugs to 1 scud, or 4 to 1, and sometimes 3 to 1. I wanted to find the reason why this was happening. I thought I new the answer but I wanted proof from a reliable source before I started spouting off. I searched for the answer to my paradox for almost a year. Near the end of the school year, the junior high science teachers organized a field trip to Blanchard Springs Caverns. I drove a bus so I had to go. Before each group of students went down into the caverns, they had to attend a short 30 minute movie and lecture. As my group was leaving, I noticed two large sketchings on the wall, one of a sowbug and the other of a scud. They caught my attention because both drawings were about a foot long with infinite detail. As I was admiring someone's else artistic abilities, which I lacked, the young Speleologist that gave the lecture ask me if I knew what I was looking at. I told her I sure did and probably played with them more than anyone she had ever met. She proceeded to tell me a whole lot about them anyway. A lot I already knew but some I didn't. Then I told her about my ratio problem. She smiled at me and said that was simple. She said that the first thing you do when exploring a cave is to figure the bio-mass, then you would kind of have an idea of what to expect. Then she threw me the bomb. She said that scuds have five times more protein than sowbugs, and the fish's instincts tell them to eat the best food available at all times. To me that meant that a trout would pass up 9 sowbugs to eat one scud. The answer was what I had expected, and, from the day I had dug up that one square yard of gravel, I had been fishing scuds with great success. But thanks to 5 foot blonde genius, I knew for sure why I was succeeding. She don't know how close I came to giving her a big old hug and kiss that day. But...I decided to not show her how jubilant I felt... because I wanted to see the caverns and not the insides of a jail. How To Tie Fox's Arkansas Scud A scud can come in several colors, even within the same river, because of the life-cycle stage it is in and what it eats. A scud may molt from one to several times a year depending upon the water temperature and how fast it is growing. A young-of-the-year scud may molt several times in the summer while an adult may molt only once. Just before a scud molts, it turns very dark in color and moves to fine gravel to bury itself. This may be a dark chocolate, dark olive, or dark gray (almost black). During the molt, it looses its outside skeleton or shell and grows another. The coloring of its new shell is pale yellow to a pale yellow-green. About the time it leaves its hiding spot, it may be a copper, light olive, or pale gray. As the new shell ages and hardens, its coloring will darken to almost the colors of the river bottom. It is suggested by Fox to use a shade darker than a molting scud or a molting scud color. Rarely does he use the dark phase. Why, because Fox thinks the fish prefer the more easily digestible lighter phase over the darker phase. So even though these are very good colors to start with, he suggests that you "tune" your scud pattern to the water you are fishing. The Hook Your choice of hook can make a lot of difference in the amount of success you experience when fishing a scud. A straight-eyed, fine wire, quality dry fly hook has proven to be the best. Circle hooks and rounded shank hooks imitate resting scuds, while straight shank hooks imitate swimming scuds. A straight-eyed, straight shank hook offers the largest hook gape for that size of hook and will have the best hook set. A fine wire hook will penetrate the flesh and bone of a fish's mouth with less effort than a heavy nymph wire hook. This is especially helpful when using tippets of 6x and smaller. The Lead The size of lead used in this scud pattern is related to the size of hook to be used. On a #12 hook use .025" lead wire, #14 hook use .020", #16 hook use .015", and on a #18 hook use .010". For scuds smaller than #18, try the Worm Scud Pattern, another article on this site. Always wrap enough lead wire to fill half of the hook-shank, usually this is about 8 to 10 wraps depending upon your choice of hook. The Thread The thread of your pattern (#8/0) can help you catch more fish by highlighting the scud the right way in the right conditions. For an early morning (dawn) and late evening (dusk) scuds use fluorescent orange or fluorescent red thread. For high-noon (bright days) scuds use light blue thread. For day scuds use the thread that best matches the coloring of the segment edges of the scud's body in the water you are fishing. This could be pink, yellow, or cinnamon on molting scuds, camel, insect green, or iron gray for adult scuds. Take your thread and capture the lead at the bend of the hook to the middle of the shank. Build up the thread at the front of the lead to make a smoother transition from the hook shank diameter to the lead diameter. End this step with the thread on the lead. The Straw Swiss straw is too wide as it is sold. Cut a piece about 4 to 8 inches long and then split it with a sharp knife or razor blade into 1/4 inch to 3/16 inch strips. The wider strips work well for #12 and #14 scuds and the smaller for #16 and #18 scuds. Place the swiss straw over the lead and wrap it down. End with the thread at the hook-eye. The reason for tying the straw in before the dubbing is to make the pattern more durable. Most bugs come undone at the rear end, this is true of scuds also. By tying the straw in now, the straw will have to wear-in-two and not come untied. The Dubbing The dubbing of a scud is so important. Your dubbing needs to be the correct leg length when it sticks to the waxed thread, the right color, and it doesn't hurt for the mixture to have some light reflecting abilities. Adding some Zelon to any mixture is helpful, but using a mixture of antron and zelon has proven to be the best over the years. Make sure you chop your mixture to about 1/8 inch long before blending it. Then when you "touch dub" (dabbing the dubbing to the waxed thread) it will put a uniform layer of dubbing on your thread. Dub the scud from the hook-eye to the hook-bend placing an even layer of dubbing on the entire pattern. Flatten Now This step is hard to show with a photograph, but the scud below has been flattened vertically with a pair of flat-nosed pliers. Now is the time to flatten the scud before the back is tied down. If you flatten the scud after the back is on, it will often split the back ruining the pattern. Don't flatten the scud with a lot of force. Excessive force will cause the lead wire to be cut by the hook-shank and the scud will fall apart. The flattening of the lead gives the pattern a little curve to the body by making the fly fatter at the hook-bend than at the hook-eye. The Back Giving the back a smooth appearance involves more than just winding the thread over it. First the straw should be opened as wide as possible and then pulled toward the hook-eye as it is wrapped down. With a little practice, this step becomes quite easy. Whip finish with just three wraps. Trim the straw just in front of the hook-eye leaving a short tail. The Gluing The glue used for coating the back of the fly is a mixture of one part glue (head cement or "Sally Henson's Hard-As-Nails") and two parts thinner. Why do you want to use a diluted mixture of glue? Because you don't want the glue to build up on the straw but penetrate the straw and dubbing to the lead wire. This will make the straw and the entire scud very durable. To save time when making scuds, you can hook them on a piece of Styrofoam or foam tape and glue several at once. The Finished Scud Fox's Arkansas Scud is a two minute fly. Actually he ties it in about 1 minute and 40 seconds while he babbles away about some monster brown that was caught in the past. He calls it a "guide's fly" because it is easy to tie but extremely effective. This pattern has been fished in most trout rivers of the United States and several international rivers in Argentina and New Zealand with much success. The Variations As mentioned earlier, the variations to this pattern are countless. Below in the upper left hand corner is a copper molting scud, then a dark gray in the upper right, a Brookville or tan scud in the center, lower left is a dark olive, and lower right is a medium red brown. Remember to "tune" your fly to the match the scuds in the water your are fishing. With a little experience it won't take long to make an educated guess about the color of scuds in a particular river just by looking at a picture of the river bottom. This year, 2008, this pattern is being commercially tied by Targus in several color combinations and sizes. We are thankful for Targus's interest in Fox's Arkansas Scud, a tested standard of nymph anglers.

HPU Brite-Eyed Shiner Tying Instructions The materials used to tie the HPU Brite-Eyed Shiner can vary widely from the name-brand and size of hook to the eye inserts. Only your imagination limits the number of different minnows that can be created. There are a few things that I do recommend. The streamer is called a "Brite-Eyed Shiner" because of the eye inserts that I use. While testing materials with my light filters to find out how visible they were underwater, I discovered that every insert that I tested turned out to be just another black dot. The standard eye inserts, either stick-on metallic tape or 3-D molded epoxy, added nothing to the fly. So the search for a better eye insert was on. Swarovski Rhinestone Crystals turned out to be the best and less expensive. In fact, rhinestones cost less than 3-D epoxy eyes at the fly shop. Rhinestones come in several sizes and a rainbow of colors. The best colors that I have found are: Clear, Citrine, Peridot, Aqua, Sun, and White Opal. There are lots more colors that are quite visible but they are just a shade or two different. These suggested colors are varied enough to afford good choices to match or contrast with the rest of the shiner's materials. I suggest the following name-brands of offset worm hooks: Gamakatsu 071## and Eagle Claw L095JL. Both of these brands come in a #2 hook size. The Gamakatsu is the more expensive of the two brands, but it is also sharper and made from stronger wire. If you want an offset worm hook smaller than a size #2, I suggest bending your own out of Eagle Claw Aberdeen #214 bronze or #202 gold hooks. These are both light wire hooks that are stronger after you bend them than the original hook. The size of the brass eyes that you use on the hook is entirely up to you. I like a 5/32 inch brass hourglass eye on a #2 hook. This creates a fly light enough to be casted by a 2 or 3 weight rod. However, the shiners that I tied for the Chum Salmon trip in British Columbia, had 1/4 inch eyes on #2 and #1 hooks. Remember that this hook rides hook-point-up without any weight on it, so eyes smaller than 5/32 inch or of a lighter material could be used. I tie the belly of the shiner in below the hook-shank. It could be tied in on top of the hook-shank just as well or above and below the hook-shank. I often tie it in in both positions when I am making large shiners imitations. I am using olive Fluoro Fibre by Spirit River here. Always cut your material twice the length of the part of the shiner you are tying in. This way you can tie the material down with a couple of thread wraps, adjust it for length, double it back, then finish wrapping it in. This technique of doubling back the material on each step makes the shiner more durable. I trim the belly material in a bevel from the middle of the material to the tail. I usually tie the flash down above the hook-shank and tie down the other half of this strip of material down just above the hourglass eyes. My favorite flash is Holographic Mylar Motion 1/64 inch by Spirit River or Liqui Flash by Targus because they are so tuff and are one of the best reflecting materials on the market. Sometimes I don't use flash but tie in a fluorescent material in this position or a white material like Polar Aire by Spirit River to make a gut sack behind the hourglass eye. The back (Dorsum) of this warm water shiner is black Fluoro Fibre. I tied it down, doubled it back, finished wrapping it down, whip finished, then glued the head threads. I trimmed it in a bevel from the middle of the material to the tail. Trimming both the belly and back in this fashion gives the shiner a nice taper. Finally glue in the rhinestone eye inserts with a good rubber cement or jewelry glue. I find that super-glue will not hold the inserts in the hourglass eyes as well as rubber cement. I think it is because the brass hourglass eyes shrink more in cold water than the crystal rhinestones, thus popping the insert loose. Rhinestones can be bought with a plain back or a "Hot Fix" back. I would suggest buying the plain back because they are less expensive and the Hot Fix does not hold the insert into the eye as well as rubber cement. If you choose, you can paint on fins or speckles or blotches with a permanent marker pen to enhance the shiner. I often do this to anatomically correctly imitate a specific species of minnow that lives in my streams. Gizzard Shad's purple shoulder spot and pale gray fins are easily added with this technique along with the particular colorations of other species of baitfish. This color combination of gold-black-medium green is my best producing combination on cloudy days when the water is in the comfort temperature range of the fish. On my Chum Salmon fishing trip to BC this shiner caught more fresh salmon than any of my other color combinations. Several of the Chum caught with this shiner were so fresh that they were covered in Sea Lice. However this is gravel on this male.

Dave, I still have a new trailer for $400. Fox Statler

The only part of Threadfin Shad or any other shad that is red is their gills. Threadfin have a yellow tail fin and a hint of yellow in all other fins except the dorsal fin which is clear. Their backs or dorsum is blue green grading to silvery white on the sides and pearl white on the belly. The shoulder spot of the threadfin shad is black ( a gizzard shad's shoulder is deep purple).

Dave, Here is a link to my website, on this page and the two links on this page named "More Pictures" there are some pic's of my motorized canoes on the same model of trailer. I have two of these for sale. I can take a picture of one of the trailers without a boat on it but I don't think I can post in on this BB. Here is the link and my email address if you want me to send you a picture of the trailer. Trailer email: sowbugstatler@centurytel.net

I have a Bear Galvanized LE-40 16' trailer, brand new for $400.

Phil, Here is a link to the Threadfin Shad New Concept Minnow Recipe and a picture of the shad completed. Here is a link to the New Concept Minnow Article on why and how they were developed and fished. I will have to take a picture of a Black Thread Blow-Fly.

To answer some questions. The Shad actually die at temperatures of 41 degrees and below. That is why they are not found in northern waters like Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and so on. The only fish in our waters that has the ability to go from 280 feet of water in the lake to 10 feet of water in the river in a couple of seconds is a striper bass. All other species die of the bends. This is what going through the generators is like a tremendous change in pressure. Understand something as the temperature of the water nears 41 degrees the shad become lethargic and swim very little. They are then carried toward the dam by the current that is created in the lake by the generators. This current in the lake has as much power as the water in the river on the other side of the dam. So whether the shad are dead already or lethargic because of the low temperatures they come through the dam. My favorite patterns are the Black Thread Blow-Fly (a real easy pattern that even a child can tie) with or without a shot and the Threadfin Shad New Concept Minnow. I developed the New Concept Minnows to imitate topminnows and dead minnows. The New Concept Minnow use round ball styrofoam indicators for eyes. By using small eyes with a large hook ( 1/4 inch eyes with a #1 or #2 Mustad #33909 hook) the pattern slowly descends through the water column. In eight generators they rarely get to the bottom. If you want the pattern to stay on top use a 3/8 inch eyes with a #2 hook. The New Concept Minnows generate the most devastating strike, it is not uncommon to have a 3x tippet broken on the strike. I tie lots of different minnow patterns in the New Concept style. The dead minnows (belly-up ones) will catch smallmouth on the surface even in December. I also tie floating live minnows (belly-down ones) to use for topwater fishing on the surface or with a sinking line over structure like a submerged beaver dam or weed bed or large boulders. The New Concept Minnows were the pattern that I used at the Memphis Bass Pro Store Grand Opening that generated almost fifty stike in one twenty minute demonstration. Incidently, no other fisherman got a strike that day and I am talking about Pro Bass Anglers. The second day, no one would fish the tank because I smoked them so bad, I got thirty-five strikes that day in the twenty minute demonstration. I had a three pound crappie jump out of the tank trying to get the minnow as I was raising it from the tank.

Phil, Good article. I don't spin fish with shad imitations but I still have some tips on shad kills and fishing them since I was the first fly fisherman to ever successfully catch shad from a boat during highwater. The best indicator of a good shad kill at any time of the year are the Sea Gulls. The Sea Gulls show up weeks before the kill is seen comming through the generators. If you have a few Sea Gulls, you will have a few shad killed. If you have alot of Sea Gulls, you will have alot of shad killed. Sea Gulls also come for the small summer kills also. The best type of shad kill fishing is what I call the "dribbling shad kills". These are always better than the "gushing shad kills". Why? Because during a "gushing shad kill" the fish are full in the first three hours of a generation cycle and then don't eat for three or four days. In a "dribbling shad kill" the fish never get completely full so they eat shad at every opportunity. Shad die when ever the water they are in reaches below 41 degrees. That is why shad kills are seldom seen in the lakes in southern Arkansas and Mississippi and rarely if ever in Louisania and Alabama. This is also the reason the Threadfin shad are not found above Missouri and Kentucky. In these states the winter are too cold and the shad completely die out and there are none left to reproduce the next year. If threadfin did not experience this phenomenon they would replace the Gizszard Shad as the most dominant species of fish in North America. When shad die they do not settle to the bottom of the lake quickly. Instead they are almost neutral buoyant and remain suspended for several days, weeks and even months. Because of this we have shad coming through the dams for weeks and months. So as the water moves through the lakes to the dam so do the shad. Some live shad are sucked through during generation but the vast majority are already dead. I have personally dip-netted catfish that have come through the dams. They are easy to recognize these fish because their stomachs are blown out of their mouth like a six inch pink balloon. I have also seen six foot gar come through and thousands of Lake Trout. I don't know about the rest of the dams, but at Bull Shoals and Norfork the blades of the generators are spaced far enough apart that a six foot man could come through the generators without being cut up. When I was a teacher, I took student field trips to the dam every year and that question is always asked by a student. The using of Sink Tip and Full Sink lines were found to be unpractical during the shad kill in the White River but okay in the dam pool of the Norfork. The problem is the large rocks on the bottom. If the line is cast out to the side of the boat - when it gets to the bottom it will wrap around a rock. If the driver of the boat is not alerted to this, you might loose your whole fly line. I have seen it happen more than once. A large floating fly line (8 to 10 weight) with a heavy leader (10 pound test plus) is best for bottom bouncing. A moderate floating fly line (4 to 7 weight) with moderate leader (6 to 10 pound test) is best for the top water and indicator with a small jig (1/80th oz.) or small Blow-fly and shot. If you really want to test your skills try a 2 weight with 6x tippet and an unweighted Blow-fly. With this rig every fish is a monster. The most important part of shad kill fishing is not the fly or the rig but matching the speed of the boat to the drift of the method of choice. So every fisherman in the boat fishes the same method. You can't mix bottom bouncing with surface fishing. Slow the boat until it is traveling downstream the same speed as the floating line. Don't out run it or slow the boat so much that the line-indicator-fly or line-fly is downstream of the boat. If you don't have a trolling motor, oars work great - I used them for years. I found golf balls through the White River, even just above the confluence with the North Fork. When Shad come through some are carried to the confluence on the first eight generator cycle. Lets face it, most trout don't eat the shad at first because they don't recognize them as a food source at first. They have been eating eggs, sculpins, sowbugs, and scuds. They are frightened by the shad. It like this you have been eating baby food all your life and someone puts a sixteen ounce sirloin on your plate. You cry because it scares the hell out of you. If you are a spin fisherman and you are fishing big chrome-dome jigs that aren't producing, tie a dropper Blow-fly about three foot behind your jig if you are allowed more than one hook. I taught this to some great spin fishing guides and they still say it is their best producer. Best patterns for fly fisherman. When it was legal below Bull Shoals Dam to use more than one hook, a hook about two inches below a solid white styrofoam indicator about one inch long caught the most exciting fish. Small 1/80th oz. jigs below a styrofoam indicator work well. Black thread Blow-flies with a shot below a styrofoam indicator are also very good producer. New Concept Minnows either floating or slow-descending are my favorite. The strikes are awesome.

I have to agree with Crippled Caddis. Walleye were native in the White River system before the dams, this included the Black River system as well. I just found it. In Larry Dablemont's book, "Rivers to Run", on page 97, a chapter intitled "Current River Country" when reviewing the fishing records of a hunting and fishing club named the "Carter County Club", here is what's said. "Diggins and Horton reported 36 Jack Salmon (Walleye), 10 bass, 5 eels, 1 goggle-eye and 1 dogfish in April of 1896. So there is written proof of the fact that Walleye were in the White River system before the dams. Now how plentiful they were in the northwestern portion of Arkansas is another matter.

Lilley, I read your article on the White River Walleye. It is outstanding, I loved it. But I have a question. If the walleye were stocked in the White River System during the 1940's, were they also stocked in the Black River system at the same time?? I meet an old man once in Hardy that said he caught walleye in the Spring River when he was a boy. The old man is dead now but he would be well over a hundred years old if he were alive today. My grandfather and my great uncles also spoke of "Jack Salmon" and "River Jacks" when I was a young boy also. My grandfather would be over a hundred if he were alive as well. My grandfather moved for the Hardy area at the age of 20. All the mountainous tributaries of the Black River have walleye in them. I caught a walleye out of the South Fork of the Spring River about 34 years ago where I live now. I live one mile downstream from Salem, Arkansas, this is approximately 70 river mile from the confluence with the Spring River at Hardy. Accorrding to my fish books, "Fishes of Arkansas", "Fishes of Missouri", and "Fishes of Tennessee" and others there are two strains of walleye, a northern strain and a southern strain. The southern strains range is a far south as the Gulf Coast in Mobile Bay and the Pearl River. Walleye are also known to wander great distances. They were and are known to be throughtout the Mississippi, Ohio, and the Missouri Rivers. Especially before the damming of the upper Missouri River because the water of the Missouri was so cold that trout were often caught at it's confluence with the Mississippi. Granted, walleye have been introduced for the Pacific to the Atlantic and in every state of the United States and were stocked heavily in the White River Systems after the dams were built.

Dano & Tippet, Anyone can sue for better water standards and cleanup monies under the Clean Water Act. You cannot sue for personal gain like monies because your business failed. Their are lawyers that might take a case like this "pro bono". Lets face it, if they win anything at all, the advertisement from this would be worth more than gold. When I started out I was contacted by the Waterkeeper Alliance. They have about 129 group and they have 129 success stories. Everything from the Hudson River to small no-name streams. Lakes, bay, any kind of water they are involved with. The two basic requirements are: one, you have to buy the right to use the their name (about $250)and two, you must employ a full time waterkeeper. In our area because of all of the retired people, getting a waterkeeper may cost no more than his monthly gas. Don't expect any department of the State of Arkansas to come to our aid or to solve any of these problems. They are in someone's pocket. They are owned by the polluters of this state. They are the ones that financed Minimum Flow and the White River Siphon. As far as getting our politicians involved - forget it - until it becomes popular and advantageous to them to join us they won't be there. Marty Davenport is one such example. His "Chicken dung Exemption Law' for Crooked Creek is killing that stream quickly. His law is polluting the water supply for every community in that is in it's drainaage and it won't be long that these communities will turn into another Praire Grove, Arkansas. But Marty Davenport is in the pocket of the chicken producers and likes it. I am sure they pay him well. Maybe it is time to see if the resort owner association, chamber of commerce, and others are concerned yet.

I would like to clear up some misconceptions about some things said on this forum on the fate of the White River system. First the Corp of Engineers and the Southwest Power Commission are not really the enemy. They did not create the problems with our water quality, and Minimum Flow will not solve the problem either. MF just puts more bad water into a good river. The more water that is run carries the pollution downstream further into the areas that are least affected by pollution now. We can improve our rivers by passing better water standards and inforcing them. The COE and SWPC won't care at all if we do this because it will not affect them. The AG&FC can't solve the water quality either. You can urinate in the river while they are checking your license and they can't arrest you. If they won't arrest you because they would have to arrest Forrest L. Wood for letting his cows dung in our rivers. The ADEQ would like to solve our water quality problems, but every law that they suggest to be passed on upgrading our water standards must be approved by the Evironmental Pollution Control Commission. The EPCC is 13 people that are appointed by our governor and don't know a rat's butt about fisheries, biology, or water quality. All they care about is the dollar bill. Just think how many land developers are helping hold up anything being done on Overlook Estates. Your greatest enemy is the cattle grows, chicken producing companies, land developers, construction companies, and the realator association. Minimum Flow was financed by these people and companies. It is called "Pollution Dilution" instead of Minimun Flow. Several of my articles on the pollution problem were pulled because the paper would have all of their "full page ads". Guess who buys those?? The River can totally die. First there will be cyclic die-offs (like we are having now), then there will be steady die-offs (more and more fish dying every day) which we are seeing a little of now, then finally we will see repeated crashes of the ecosystem and massive die-offs. What are the tattle-tail signs of the total demise of our rivers. The largest fish of all species will die first except for the meat eaters like the browns. Because there are more suckers in the river than trout, large suckers will be the first to die. Suckers do not, I repeat, do not eat weeds and scum. Suckers eat the same things that trout do, nymphs, snails, worms, small fish and so on. Our large suckers will be the first species to have massive die-offs because of the lack of food and the poor water quality. Then our trout are next. If you think that we will always have fish in these river I suggest you visit the Illinois River Drainage downstream from Washington County, Arkansas. Some areas are so decimated that nothing, not even leeches or worms, live in the stream. How bad are the rivers. Dano's nose told us, they stink. They stink of sulfur and ammonia. When the rocks are dry they are white for all the phosphate. When you wade wet you get a rash on your skin. Our midges are getting smaller and smaller. An acidic environment kills midges and ours are dying. Our right-opening snails are all dead. Every bug we have are disappearing. This is more evident because of the negative and extremely low growth rates or our trout. Sure we are going to have some big brown because they don't live on bugs. They are carnivors and eat other fish. But small browns don't eat all meat, they need bugs to survive. So our population of browns will become very high ended with large fish and no small fish. This will last until the big ones are killed and caught out. Every month I get a letter or a call from an organization that wants to help guide us with making our water better. They will lead us in our fight. But lets get it straight right now, we will have to sue the state of Arkansas, maybe Missouri and several cities to force them to raise their fertilizer, chemical hazard, and effluent standards. We should be joining Oklahoma right now in there lawsuit against the chickem produces, the phamacutical and chemical producers. I am sure that I have just put half of you back into denial because of this paragraph. I am sure you are not willing to sue, but it is the only way to save the lakes that will save our rivers. We have to save the lakes then the rivers will come back to what they once were. We can't save the rivers unless we improve the source water and that is our lakes. Fox Statler

You know this conversation comes around about three times a year. http://www.willowford.net/WF%20Signature%2...20Sakaanas.html This is a link to the best fishing canoe-kayak I have ever used. I developed this Hybrid Canoe-Kayak with a front-mount remote control trolling motor for hands free fishing. It is stable enought to standup in and you can use the motor to help you land the fish. It is 12 1/2 foot long and 34 inches wide. It has a suction-cup bottom and weighs less than 150 pounds motor, battery and all. In four minutes you can convert it to a 65 pound paddler. I fish in it for 5 to 8 hours every Monday. I can go up the Eleven Points from Hwy 62 Access up to the Whitten Access before my battery dies. I troll for walleye, trout and smallmouth when I am traveling up the rivers and drift fish for shadow bass, smallmouth, trout and everything else on the way back down. I am thinking about adding a 16 pound 1 1/2 gas outboard for longer trips upstrem. The manuverability of this rig is unparallelled.